Pedagogical practices (i.e. strategies, activities, Web 2.0 tools, etc.) for writing integration

Language arts is a dreaded subject for many students.  All that white space on a blank sheet of paper just waiting to be filled.  It can be overwhelming for some students.  The good news is that there are better ways to get students engaged and excited about writing.  If you look at a students daily life it is filled with writing.  Things like texting, Facebook and other social media outlets take up huge chunks of our students time.  Many times you  hear the complaint that kids today are not communicating face to face but on-line through - WRITING!  We as teachers need to keep this in mind when we complain that our kids hate to write.   They don't hate to write they just want to write about things they are interested in and in ways that mean something to them.   Web 2.0 tools are great ways to encourage kids to write in fun ways.  Glogster allows students to use their visual creativity while writing.  Allowing students to write a blog could be fun for them because they could imagine themselves becoming the next great blogger.  They could be right. Bookemon is amazing and they can easily give the finished products to friends and family.  These tools also allow students to place more focus on their creativity.  Writing can seem very detached from the creative process for some kids but I think if they are writing in a creative format like glogster or bookemon they may see the connection.

I allowed my son, who hates anything to do with handwriting, to do his homework on Glogster and he was so excited.   He had to do the exact same work but it was fun creating a glog.  I am sure there are many kids like him who just need an added element of excitement to make school work fun.  When school work is fun kids work harder.

I also like the idea that writing assignments don't have to be long and complicated.  Just getting kids in the habit of writing down their thoughts - big or small - is so helpful.  It takes some of the anxiety out of the writing process.

We as teachers need to find ways to reach our students where they are and engage them in the learning process.  I think including web 2.0 tools in the writing process is an excellent way to do this.

Concerns, thoughts, & perceptions about my writing

Writing, for me, has always come naturally.  I am not sure if that is because I have loved to read since I was four years old and would read Dr. Seuss books to anyone that would listen.  Maybe it is  because I come from a large family of readers.  My parents are both from the Midwest and were well educated so I have always heard standard English grammar spoken around me.  The areas I grew up in New England and Miami were upper middle class so again the English I heard spoken was exactly what an English teacher wants to see in writing.  Most bad grammar strikes my ears - it just sounds wrong to me.  I am sure that I am not perfect but I think for the  most part grammar is one of  my major strengths. 

I am also lucky to be able to gather my thoughts and organize them well.  I do have trouble with getting started but if I just force myself to write I can get the thoughts to start flowing pretty quickly.  I have a hard time letting go of my writing when I am done.  I like to edit and re-edit over and over trying to perfect things.  I have had to let go of that this summer because there were several papers due in my summer courses that I just didn't have time to hold on to for 2 or 3 extra days.  I found that it was ok to let go.

My biggest difficulty when writing is punctuation.  I am the queen of the comma splice.  It is important for me to have someone read over my papers to find these kinds of mistakes.  I also need to work on citations because it doesn't come naturally to me.  I guess it is not something that flows and I find it really tedious.  I know it is important I just wish there was a way to have all that information magically appear on my papers.  I do want to give credit; I just hate all the time it takes.  I have noticed that when pulling journal articles from the library's electronic data base I am seeing citation information along with the articles.  I think that is great, anything to make that process easier.  I know that the more I work with citations the easier it will get. 

Overall I would consider writing and Language Arts my strongest subjects.  As with any writer getting started can be difficult but once I get going I am able to clearly convey my ideas through my writing.  Language arts come naturally to me.   Math and science are a different matter!