Word Processing

When I first started reading the chapter on word processing, I assumed that I would not be reading anything that I didn’t already know. However, I was surprised at some of the new tools that I was able to learn about involving word processing. For instance, when I have created word documents in the past including different components with different formats, I have struggled with the automatic formatting. I end up having to go back and fix things a number of times. Now that I know about page and section breaks, I’m interested to start using them in my word documents. I am hoping that it will help ease some of my formatting frustrations!
I am excited to incorporate word processing in my future classroom as much as possible. As research has shown, word processing helps improve attitudes towards writing, as well as the quality of the writing. I would encourage my students to use their free time, or specified writing times for creative writing, such as stories, poems, or skits. I would also encourage journal writing on the computer as well. In the upper elementary grades, I would work with students on creating outlines to organize their information. All of the elementary grade levels could use word processing to create reports on different topics. For the lower grades, I would include more templates to help them structure their information. I also may give them sentence starters, or fill-in-the blank sentences. This can also be a useful tool for students with special needs at all of the elementary grade levels.
I am also planning on establishing a class blog and/or a wiki so that I can post questions, and students can post their responses and reactions. I would also encourage them to post their creative writing as well. I believe this would help students take pride in their writing. I will do my best to teach my students the appropriate word processing skills for their grade level and developmental level. I will also stress to them the importance of these skills in many different jobs in the future. It would be interesting to have a discussion about the types of jobs that require word processing skills. I think a great extension would also be to have some parents or other members of the community come in to talk about the importance of word processing skills in their occupations.
I loved the Voices in the Classroom piece about Amy Graham, the foreign language teacher. I liked the idea of having student groups create study packets for a book they are working on. In the upper elementary grades, students often work in literacy circles based on different chapter books. I would love to have them work on study guides like this to help them with writing summaries and analyzing characters. Overall, I am hoping to use word processing in my classroom to help my students get excited about writing!

Assignment - Create a hyperlink

Wiki