Week 4, end week reflections: revival of reading and writing

Reading and writing in different directions ignoring the possible errors that may appear on the surface. Don’t be bothered by errors or how the learners may respond to English words, but rather be worried about how they can see their own sparkling light. Let them feel proud that English nourishes their restless soul to feel more and more, to give more and more, and to write more and more, non-stop till they will invade their developing human minds and gain the freedom of creation: doing their best to read and write well chosen words with coherent sentences and paragraphs suiting their own logic and style, swimming in the same large ocean of former readers and writers with whom we are glad to share many things. Eventually, seeing things as fate, hearing many hidden voices that cannot settle down without giving them the real chance to express themselves. Let them be strange looking for distinction and achievement because writing is an attempt to express with unfamiliarity what former texts couldn’t depict prior to them.

Revival of writing through the advent of technology:

   After reading this website http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Improving_Student_Writing_Using_Technology) I have found many good methods to help our students in writing:

Spell Check and Grammar Check. These tools are found on most word processing software. They are certainly not "foolproof," but they can help point students in the right direction in their composition. Critics say that spell check and grammar check cannot replace the "complexity of the human mind," which is no surprise.
Citation Machine. Here is an Internet resource that can build citations in either MLA or APA style for a variety of resources, including books, magazines, websites and many more. Find it at http://citationmachine.net.
Read Please.( http://www.readplease.com)is award-winning text-to-speech software made for Windows. The free version comes with a couple voices to choose from and will read anything you can copy and paste into it. It's a great way to motivate your students to proofread what they've written.
Turnitin Write Cycle ( http://turnitin.com/static/index.php) , not only is an online service that automatically checks for plagiarism, thus eliminating the ease of copy/paste, but also allows the online collaboration of peer feedback which can be used to improve a student's writing ability. Although the program is not free, you can find out additional information about the program's function, research, and pricing.
These ideas may help advanced students achieve better writing products, as for young learners I would like to recommend the following collection:
1-http://kidwriting.homestead.com/Index.html: a site that deals with writing starting from the very real samples from the classroom reality; the products of real children through time. there is a nice collection under the section of "Kid Writing Samples"
2-http://www.kidsonthenet.org.uk: a big project with a huge number of resources of creative writing. it engages children to see what others can achieve while excel in different genres of literature.
3-http://www.stonesoup.com: It's a magazine written by kids and include some attractive pieces of writing that are worthwhile to be explored and adapted to be both read and reproduced fitting any teacher's context.
4-http://www.eslkidstuff.com/Articles.htm: this site proposes a huge number of helpful articles that may assist us as teacher when we deal with a difficult skill like writing...
5http://www.englishraven.com/ttools_writingworkshop.html: an accurate website that includes many writing materials with downloadable and printable worksheets for teachers of young learners.
6-http://www.ehow.com/info_8163810_writing-activities-young-learners.html: It's a helpful site for beyond school assistance. it offers parents as well as educators many ideas as a pretext to help kids in writing.
7-http://www.abcteach.com/directory/basics/writing/
a very helpful site with a huge number of interesting worksheets to teach young learners basic steps in writing as well as many ABC interactive writing activities.
Finally, I have thought of further suggestions thanks to what we have learnt in this course and other ideas that may be of great help as the pupils’ writings improved a lot after experiencing them:

1-   Internet chat: chatting software help a lot in improving communication (msn & yahoo messengers, Skype, live chat…) offer a real life opportunity to express oneself… the weak point is that the chat language may be very informal and has its special abbreviations so you can fix rules for discussion

2-   E-mailing: young learners can produce nice e-mails and I have tested them they can do it well but of course with the teacher as a guide who clarifies every step.

3-   Blogging: a good way to survey students through their reflections.

4-   Forums: register in a forum (you have to select a good one, I personally can suggest the following international forum: http://www.englishforums.com/English) because students can be involved in: first, editing their profile which helps a lot in introducing themselves. Second, react to other students’ topics hence they can express their visions and opinions. Third,  and this is the most important  thing,  the students own  contributions that may be a source to evaluate their written productions.  

5-     Connecting classroom programs: internet gives the chance to link different schools from all over the world. I have experienced this tool and gained many achievements. I recommend the British council program on the following link: http://cc.britishcouncil.org/welcome-to-the-connecting-classrooms-online-community

6-   PowerPoint, FrontPage Web design, flash web design: create something with the listed soft can help students gain nice knowledge in both technology and the English language. This is an advanced level of written creation so students need time and the teacher’s help in order to achieve good results. This kind of creation can be done in fruitful project works.

Further ideas and suggestions are welcome!

Thanks for sharing and contributing!

Khaled Hafdhi, Tunisia.