I am having a hard time zeroing in on my project also. I was going to use technology to measure if using spell checker in writing assignments helps improve spelling in my students. My major question is how do I know if the technology is helping or is teaching the writing process helping their spelling. I have given my students the first 100 spelling word list and have told them to make sure that they spell these words correctly when they are rough drafting. My other question is, do I have my student do their rough drafts on the computer, also, or do I have them hand write them go through the editing process and then publish on the computer? Won't the editing process fix their spelling errors and I won't get true data. I know I want to use the technology and work on spelling, but just not sure how to go about it. Any suggestions would help.
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Maybe you could have two groups of students. One could use spell check on the computer during editing the other couldn't. You could tell them they have to show you their work before fixing anything. There are also ways to turn off the spell check feature if you wanted. Then after you check, you could turn it back on.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if that really is what you are looking for! Your project sounds cool and I am sorry I am not more help!
Kris,
ReplyDeleteI have a few thoughts: first, have you looked for some on-line sources that speak to computer spell checks impacting spelling improvement? You might get some ideas from that. Also, what do your students know about using the spell check as a tool to help them learn words, not just a passive device that fixes stuff up for them, but a tool to help them analyze what they've spelled incorrectly, to get in their mind what they need to do differently to spell correctly... does that make sense? You could survey the students, I bet they all use spell check as a passive tool. You could study the impact of mini lessons for using spell check as an active tool and see how that helps them become better spellers. Hope this helps!
Holly
My question for you is this. Do you want to know more about strategies that may help spelling or best practices for writing rough drafts and publishing?
ReplyDeleteAre you planning on focusing on the spelling or on the writing process, as Tina mentioned? I think that you are focusing more on spelling, or that is the impression that I had since the last time we talked about your project.
ReplyDeleteAn additional thought... maybe you want to focus in on the writing process and look a how having students write on the computer instead of by hand (for the first draft) affects student movtivation to write? Hopefully I have not made things more confusing. Liz
Oooh, what Tina said about spelling strategies is good. What if you focused on spelling strategies used during the writing process. Spell check could just be one of those strategies OR in addition to those strategies.
ReplyDeleteKristina,
ReplyDeleteI believe there is a way to make the computer show spelling errors without automatically correcting them. What if you were to have them type up their work and use word to point out to them what their spelling errors are, but then have them write down each misspelled word and use a different resource other thatn spellcheck to correct the errors. For example: Online or traditional dictionaries, classroom wordwalls, and so on. This way students would be able to see their errors but wouldn't be allowed to use the spellcheck to automattically correct them, thus making use of the tool less passive.
I am horrible at spelling, so anything you learn please share with me.
ReplyDelete