google applications to enhance writing instruction

Click to edit Master subtitle style

Silvia Rovegno

Uruguay

Agenda

� Writing in English is……

� Teaching writing today ……

� My students are good at…

� The problems my students show when writing are…….

Writing implies…Writing implies…Writing implies…Writing implies…

Generating ideasGenerating ideasGenerating ideasGenerating ideasPlanningPlanningPlanningPlanningDraftingDraftingDraftingDraftingRevision and editingRevision and editingRevision and editingRevision and editingSharing (a sense of audience)Sharing (a sense of audience)Sharing (a sense of audience)Sharing (a sense of audience)

Writing implies…Writing implies…Writing implies…Writing implies…problemsproblemsproblemsproblems

Generating ideas….Generating ideas….Generating ideas….Generating ideas….lack of real world lack of real world lack of real world lack of real world knowledge, poor reading habitsknowledge, poor reading habitsknowledge, poor reading habitsknowledge, poor reading habitsPlanning….Planning….Planning….Planning….no thinking timeno thinking timeno thinking timeno thinking timeDrafting…..Drafting…..Drafting…..Drafting…..minimal effortminimal effortminimal effortminimal effortRevision and editing…..Revision and editing…..Revision and editing…..Revision and editing…..what to edit? what to edit? what to edit? what to edit? How to go about it?How to go about it?How to go about it?How to go about it?Sharing ….Sharing ….Sharing ….Sharing ….writing for assessment, the writing for assessment, the writing for assessment, the writing for assessment, the teacher sole audienceteacher sole audienceteacher sole audienceteacher sole audience

Additional problemsAdditional problemsAdditional problemsAdditional problems

Lack of

regular

reading

� Limited exposure to

different text types

� Superficial understanding

of topics

Lack of direct

L1 instruction� No transferable L1

knowledge beyond

narrative and

descriptive genres

So can technology, specially digital technology, help us overcome these problems?

Kern (2011: 200) acknowledges that digitaltechnology has significant advantages overother media since it incorporates all of themand given that it has blended naturally intothe daily lives of individuals. Apart fromthis, it allows users to manipulate andintegrate data as never before .

Digital technology has transformed the definition of literacy itself

Hyland (2009: 58) states that literacy todayimplies not just the control over print media butalso over a range of electronic media. The impacton writing is an on-going process but he identifiesthat it has mainly impacted on the “ way we write,the genres we create, the authorial identitieswe assume, the forms of our finishedproducts and the ways we engage withreaders”

Enhances LL

Learner autonomy

Authentic Input and output

Word processors Online writing

Blogs and wikis Social networking sites

Corpora and concordancing

“the applications or other resources that exist

online and are available to multiple users via

the Internet, rather than being installed on a

particular user´s local computer or mobile

device”

What is cloud

computing?

Infrastructure as

a Service (IaaS)

Computing layer of physical hardware,

servers and networking components

Platform as a

Service (PaaS)

Provides an environment and framework

including development tools, in which

software applications can be run

Software as a

Service (SaaS)

Software services such as e-mail, word

processing, and spreadsheets

How can google drive enhance the development of writing?

� Lack of relevant ideas� Planning� Revising and editing� Lack of sense of audience� Composing process� Writer isolation

Lack of relevant ideas

How google drive may help:

�Google presentations

�Guided discovery to identify personal interest points

Planning


�Google presentations & hangouts

�Options to organize their planning

Revising and editing


�Google forms

� Two stages: revise and edit organization, style and ideas;

then revise and edit form and layout

Lack of sense of audience


�Sharing tools with peers

� Final publication and sharing via link

Composing process


�Google docs and hangouts

� Live monitoring and assistance

�Collaborative environment

�Synchronous and asynchronous work

Writer isolation


�Hangouts and google docs

�Guidance and support from teacher or peers

Overall advantages

Three great advantages:

1. It creates a collaborative environment

2. It is flexible and adaptable to the needs of the writing class,

3. It allows as no other tool I know the possibility of monitoring and intervening live in the process of writing in a simple and affordable way.

Sample unit of work

TIME STAGE AIM ACTIVITY

10’ Generating ideas To activate students´

schemata on the topic of

bullying.

To generate ideas to be used

in the articles

To focus on topic-specific

vocabulary

Students brainstorm ideas by

visiting two BBC links, analyzing

3 infographics and watching a

short clip.

They do not need to cover all

these sources.

They complete a generating

ideas guideline in case they

need to.


Article: Bullying today

Generating ideas

What do you remember about our discussion of the issue of bullying? Make notes on the

ideas you remember.

Now, do you have all the necessary information to write a fully informed article?

You can use the following file to order your ideas:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VDByOaLYZiB2R-ffdUQo7Xx3S5IGydk-

SXCDtVk1gnU/edit

(Remember to make a copy in your drive, change its name when you open it)

On the next slide you will find links to explore the topic more thoroughly and complete your

notes. Remember you need to include: what bullying is, its characteristics and

consequences. Explore the links freely.

Making a good and clear article requires the use of precise vocabulary. Include the key terms

you encounter in the shared glossary below:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gHDotqbD3NbV7Zk8Efoa0QNAAPQWP2oNOu2yY3

5TizA/edit#gid=0

Check this out

Or you may want to explore

this

General issues on bullying: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/advice/bullying

Long-term of effects of bullying: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-27063715

You can also get information from these infographics:

10’ Planning To highlight the importance

of planning and different

strategies that can be used

to accomplish it.

Students revise the concept of

planning, sort out good and

not so good planning

strategies, and plan their

informative articles

accordingly.


Planning stage

What is planning?

How do you plan your writing?

What strategies can you use?

Scroll over the next slide and cross out the

strategies that are not effective in

planning

Planning strategies

Good planning

strategies

● make a list

● make a spidergram

● write ideas on sticky

notes

Poor planning

strategies

● all the others

Now, make a plan (an outline of your article) using any of the techniques highlighted above integrating the ideas you generated in the previous stage. This will help you develop your article.

30’ Drafting To draft the first version

of their informative

article

Based on their generated

ideas and plan, students

work on a google doc

shared with the teacher on

the drafting of their

informative article,

requesting assistance

when necessary.

Teacher can also guide

students and monitor their

drafting process live.

10’ First

revision

and

editing

To revise their work

focusing on ideas,

organization and style.

Students check their work

following a quiz on google

forms. They enter their

answers on it so the

teacher can get a picture of

how the whole class is

doing in the three key

areas.

20’ Re

drafting

To redraft the articles Based on the revision done,

students redraft aspects of the

articles that still need polishing.

10’ Second

revision

and

editing

To revise their work focusing

on form and layout.

Students check their work

following a quiz on google forms.

They enter their answers on it so

the teacher can get a picture of

how the whole class is doing in

the three key areas.

20’ Final version To produce the final version of

the informative articles.

Based on the revision done,

students redraft aspects of the

articles that still need polishing.

10’ Publication To publish students work on

the school´s website

Students embed a link on the

school website to their articles

Going back to thinking time task

� Do any of the ideas discussed

target the problems you’ve

defined?

� Are you planning to implement

these ideas?

� Which tools did you find most

suitable to your teaching context?

BibliographyHyland, K. (2003) Second Language Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press

Hyland, K. (2009) Teaching and Researching Writing. Second Edition.

Harlow: Pearson Education Limited

Kern, R. (2011) Technology and Language Learning in Simpson, J. (ed.)

(2011) Routledge Handbook of Applied Linguistics New York: Routledge

Motteram, G. (ed.) (2013) Innovations in learning technologies for English

language teaching London: British Council Publications

Stanley, G. (2013) Language Learning and Technology: Ideas for

integrating technology in the classroom Cambridge: CUP

Warschauer, M. (2010) New tools for Teaching Writing Language Learning

and Technology Vol. 14. No. 1, pp. 3-8