Word Processing--Important Teaching Tool

by

M. R. Moulton

While the benefit of using software correlated to specific textbooks is clear to most teachers, not everyone sees how teaching word processing helps a new reader. Aside from teaching the student a marketable skill, using word processing teaches a student how to transfer words from one medium to another (done via chalkboard to handwriting and vice versa in grade schools), can build confidence in his writing abilities if a spell-checker is part of the package, forces him to reread as well as copy his own words, and encourages revision through the ease of editing on a computer.

How word processing is used with the student affects what he will learn from it. First of all, the student must be the one seated in front of the monitor in every case. The keyboards are on long cords and can be moved for teacher use, but control should rest with the student.

Second, he needs to become familiar with the keyboard-either through practice on a keyboarding program or through lots of practice with word processing.

Third, he needs to learn how to use the spell-checker (currently available only on the IBM's) so that he can check and correct his own spelling. Most students can recognize correct spellings even if they can't spell the word themselves. By being able to use the spell-checker, students gain confidence in their writing because no matter how many other writing problems they may have, their biggest fear is of misspelling words, which is now eliminated.

Whether the student has dictated material to a teacher, taped and transcribed his own words, or written an item from scratch, it should be entered in the word processor in one of four methods depending on what needs to be worked on that lesson.

When the student reads and enters his own material, he is practicing transference to another medium as well as rereading his own material (and perhaps catching errors such as omitted or misspelled words).

When the teacher reads to the student as the student enters the material, the student is having to practice spelling all those words again.

When the student reads to the teacher as the teacher enters the material, the student is practicing reading aloud with correct pronunciation of words and inflection for punctuation.

When the teacher reads and enters the material, the student learns only afterward, but then he is able to compare his version with the teacher's, which should now show all correct spelling, punctuation, and paragraphing.

Most students think that writers have a magical ability to write things perfectly the first time. Students need to be taught how to revise their work, to develop ideas, use better words, add details, vary their sentence structure, break ideas into paragraphs, etc. It's okay to revise on paper, but it's really tedious to copy the new version onto a fresh sheet. Learning to use insert and typeover modes, block moves, and different typefaces makes the whole process easier and thus more likely to occur.

Many students have a hard time just getting started writing. Framework stories are an easy way to get them going.

The teacher writes the first and last sentence plus the first few words of each sentence in-between. For instance, if the student has said he's had a miserable (or wonderful) day, the teacher would write:

What a miserable day!
First...
Next ...
Then...
Last...
It was really awful!

Now the student just has to fill in the rest of those sentences. The teacher has already entered his part in the word processing file, so there's not as much for the student to do except learn the same writing skills taught in language experience. The student will have to close it all up to put it in a paragraph format, but then he's also learning what it means to use carriage returns vs. wrap-around entries.

Whatever has been entered can quickly be turned into a cloze exercise by the teacher. The teacher copies the complete file as a block, then, in typeover mode, uses the underline key to replace some words or parts of words with blanks for the student to fill in. These blanks may be specific words the student needs to practice either spelling or pronouncing or they may be specific letter combinations that need practice. While filling in the blanks is not self-correcting as it would be with missing links, it still teaches using context clues or targets spelling problems.

Because students are used to seeing ultra-short sentences in their textbooks, they often need help in varying sentence structure. If the teacher enters a simple sentence (The dog howled), the student can copy it as a block and add which dog howled, copy the new block and add when the dog howled, copy the new block and add why, where, and how so that the student experiences how a sentence can be built on and still be one sentence.