Finding new ways to teach old tricks
October 2, 2008
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Kristin Rushowy
TORONTO STAR
At Monsignor Lee Separate School, students are learning to write by playing around on computers.
In an effort to boost literacy skills, the Orillia school's parent council committed $15,000 to buy 15 to 20 laptops and a mobile cart.
The Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board then matched the donations and purchased another cart. (The Ministry of Education contributed $9,500.)
Some of the money was spent on digital imaging resources, and the school will soon be getting a smartboard (an interactive whiteboard). The money will also pay for a consultant to train the school's teachers to use the technology.
The new gear has been a big hit – they've had to start a sign-on system because "everybody wants to use the carts," says teacher Shelley McCurdy, who worked on the project with colleagues Dave Marwick and Barb Crowther.
Younger children are generating pictures with onscreen "crayons" and "paint brushes," adding colour, lines and even stamps. Then they add the text.
The Monsignor Lee computer project was part of a unique new provincial program that encourages teachers to apply for funds to create their own professional development and learning initiatives for their schools.
During the past school year, the Teacher Learning and Leadership Program funded 144 projects across the province.
The teachers who initiated those projects all took part in a two-day training session with the help of the Ontario Teachers Federation.
"Basically, our project involved trying to increase competency and student achievement using technology," explains McCurdy.
The school's students were struggling with their writing skills, a problem revealed through provincial standardized testing on literacy and numeracy. "Certainly, consistently, writing has been one of our lower scores," McCurdy says.
With money from the parent council, the local board and the ministry, the teachers were able to buy the computers and other items.
"We looked at writing and technology – especially technology – to motivate students," McCurdy says.
She suspected the computers would appeal to boys, who typically are more tactile in their learning styles. "But we've seen that the girls are really engaged as well," she says.
One program lets students create a comic book storyboard: first on paper, then with 3-D models made of plasticene and Lego. The kids snap pictures of the models, import them to their storyboard and then create dialogue bubbles.
Another helps them create a slide show. "You can import pictures from the Internet," says McCurdy.
"For social studies, if you are doing a project on animals you can take pictures of the animals and put text on the slide and create a slide show.
"Basically, what we are doing is giving them another purpose for their writing, giving them an audience – and a different audience, too, because sometimes the shared work is shown as assemblies, or parents can access it."
The advantage is that students create a product, and teachers can see and help with revisions.
One teacher has created a private class blog, where he posts articles that students are required to read but can access from home.
"Parents are really supportive of the work we are doing," McCurdy says. "With the board providing us with the other cart, and teachers recognizing it as a valuable project, hopefully (it will be) another pathway into motivating the kids to create and become better, more proficient writers."
Toronto Star