Lauren+Philbeck+&+Kaitlin+Armstrong


 * Our question: How can we use technology to increase student engagment in writing and improve their use of descripitive language in narrative writing?**

Technology tools we will use: wordle and tux paint..

To begin our lesson students will draw a picture in Tux Paint, they will then use Wordle to write descriptive words/sentences about their picture. They will then print and examine their Wordle to see how many descriptive words they have used and what words they have overused. Students will highlight the descriptive words they have used. For example if a student used 4 descriptive words, they will be encouraged to use 3 more when they write their short story. In addition, they will recognize the larger words on their Wordle as overused words and use an online thesaurus to choose words to replace the overused words in their short story.

The lesson will continue with the students writing their short stories about the picture they drew and will then present their stories using another Web 2.0 tool. (to be decided) :)

...So we have decided that students will write an actual short story after drawing their picture in Tux Paint - instead of sentences or words. Their picture will be drawn from the writing prompt they choose from the Writing Topic List which is posted in the classroom. They will be encouraged to use descriptive words. They will then copy and paste their short story into Wordle and will continue with the lesson above in finding overused words and descriptive words.