Homework and Practice - Chpt. 10

I hate to always take the word processing tool as one of my choices, but I do feel this is significant in terms of availability and ease of use. As our young writers begin to use word processing, we will need to reduce the level of distraction while still providing resources to aid them in writing. The Research feature fills this need. Rather than having to go to the web for a thesaurus, or to EBSCO or another source for some encyclopedic background, this feature allows the student to stay "within" the document and remain focused on the task at hand. This is helpful for the teacher, since monitoring class computer activity can be difficult, especially when trying to assist students. I also appreciated the example of checking the grade-level rating which led to improving word choice. This is the type of self-monitoring that can rarely be achieved with a red-penned WC next to a circled word. Coupled with the Summary feature, this could/should improve writing overall, if we can get the word processing skills to a level that makes this approach to writing possible.

Our web resources have been highly concentrated on practice. Some are accessible from home, so the kids can continue to practice. I have watched kids doing FastMath and wonder at its value. The strong kids appear to be breezing through, while the weaker students work and rework the same lessons. Many seem to think that speed is the key rather than accuracy. I do like the idea of Flashcard Exchange, having created many of these on my own. I also think sites (IKnowthat) with labeling games for geography can make a task that appears impossible a fun exercise. Based on Nancy's comments earlier, I would assume that Mousercise would be a valuable site visit, too. Perhaps early on, teachers could make this a standard exercise, then revisit it each year as a refresher. Actually, almost all of the free sites can be directly applied, whether projected for the class or individually visited. Perhaps one of the best ways to accommodate kids without home access to the web, would be to assign a visit to these sites, but then use them in class, too. I can certainly see the classroom application for Hurricane Strike!, Kitchen Chemistry and Lever Tutorial, all being projected and used for instruction with student input and manipulation of the computer input.