My students enjoy sharing their stories (fiction and non-fiction) in class. There is laughter and words of encouragement when stories are shared. This is a great entryway into writing. My students understand that writing is also a form of communication. My students will be future digital writers.
I teach at a rural School District.
Some of the students are from the neighborhood but most of them travel from afar to this school. This leads to a wonderful diversity of student population. Our students accept each others differences and appreciate the wonderful cultures that we are exposed to at school.
We also have a very loving and supportive staff and administrator. The parents at our school enjoy helping out in the classroom as well. We have a garden where the students can do their school work on nice weather days. This garden flourishes with the help of parents. Once a week, a parent volunteer from each classroom teaches the students about various gardening skills and how the plants can be used for art, science, food, etc.
My Project
My students understand how a book has an author/writer, editor, and publisher because of what I guide them to read in the books we read in class or on their book reports. With technology/iPad, my students can do this themselves. They can create, design, circulate and promote using the ipads/technology.
This project fosters creativity and an increased amount of collaboration for my students. I want my students to share their work with each other and with students from a different school and/or country. Their stories will be guided with purpose and written for an audience. The creative aspect is fostered by having more modes and resources, like images, sound, and video.
Utilizing writing apps, my students would brainstorm on paper, take a picture with an iPad, bring it into a word processing app like Pages for completion. They can outline by hand with Penultimate, import the picture into Evernote to complete their story. This is redefining the writing process and I embrace the future.
I will be teaching my students a life skill.
They will be good writers, creative writers, and maybe even novelists. Most importantly, I want my students to thrive in their future.
Writing is a "threshold skill" for hiring and promotion among professional employees. Those who cannot write and communicate clearly, will have difficulty. I want to challenge my students and motivate them. If there are barriers to writing, I want to break those down for my students because they are our future.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Dorighi and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.