Professional Development Artifact- WriteToLearn

Write To Learn

Faculty working in the Franklin Central Supervisory Union (FCSU) spend a sizable chunk of time editing and revising students' written work, and so the purpose of this professional development opportunity is to introduce teachers and support staff to a web-based instructional writing and automated assessment tool titled WriteToLearn.

Why?

We want our students to become better writers
We want our teachers to spend more time on writing instruction and less time grading papers
We want to better support literacy, and the Common Core State Standards require us to do it!
We want to give our students more formative "ungraded" practice opportunities to develop their writing
Students are writing about what they are reading in selected passages- so reading comprehension further strengthened.
All teachers are now responsible for teaching writing across every academic discipline. This is a tremendous time-saving device and a valuable asset for teachers who have not spent much time on writing instruction and assessment

I have created a Prezi presentation that details several compelling reasons why WriteToLearn is worth the investment

How?

Implement automated assessment software for reading comprehension and writing instruction
Students compose their written responses to a writing prompt in WriteToLearn
Students receive instant feedback that is broken down into easy-to-understand language and graphics
Automated, color-coded reporting on the mechanics (six traits) of writing aggregated through WriteToLearn's Summary Street.
You can navigate through a demonstration of how WriteToLearn's automated scoring software assesses  student work here.

What?

Digitized writing instruction and formative assessment tool called the Intelligent Essay Assessor
More flexibility of prompt selection for students
Teachers can use NECAP released items or Study Island prompts for practice (Math Dept. has a membership)
Essays are scored on the six traits of writing (synonymous with AP scoring guidelines)
This amounts to hours of time saved on grading written work. Digital text is also always legible!
KAT (Knowledge Analysis Technologies) used to assess whether or not students understand the meanings (i.e. denotation and connotation) of the passages they are reading
Teachers can find out which students need additional instructional supports and which students need to move on to challenge more skilled readers and writers

What Next?

The district needs to purchase the software licensing agreement for WriteToLearn, which is about $19.00 per student per year).
Use the one of the two faculty-initiated in-service days in the first semester to train teachers. There will be about a one-hour presentation, which could be flipped, and a one-hour workshop
Administration sets up teacher accounts
Guidance uploads student rosters
Teachers assign the learning activities and writing prompts
Students can receive immediate feedback on their writing progress and acquire suggestions about what they can do to improve without having to wait for their teacher to assess their work along with the written work of 80-100 other students.

Additional Online Resources and Praise for WriteToLearn:

My Diigo

CLE Recommendation for Google Tools as an LMS

CLE Recommendation for Google Tools as an LMS

Using a host of web tools through Google Apps collectively assists students at becoming more familiar and confident with collaborative learning environments. For example, Google Drive, Blogger and Sites easily enable students and teachers to collaborate on a variety of learning tasks and produce content on the web. Google Hangout enables students to have face-to-face discussions when class is not in session and these online dialogues can be recorded and saved for later use. Google Forms and Drive allow teachers to create assignments, chronicle students' work, progress, develop assessments, and compile evidence in support of their students reaching the desired learning targets and outcomes aligned with the Common Core State Standards, which will require students to become proficient with CLEs. Nothing ever goes unsaved and digital records of student work are effectively organized so that electronic portfolios can be compiled and shared with the students' current and future instructors, as well as their parents. The portfolios that can be created through Google Apps for each student will assist them in pursuing flexible pathways to graduation, which will become increasingly popular throughout Vermont.

Teachers also have the opportunity to use Google's Hapara to manage all of the student work that Google Apps helps to generate. This provides a streamlined way to organize student work, so in other words, Hapara is an LMS for teachers who who use Google Apps as an LMS for students. My subjective recommendation of Google Apps for Education is further supported by some statistical realities surrounding the groundswell of Google Apps' popularity in the academic arena. With secondary students gaining experience with Google's collaborative tools at school, they will be better able to make the transition into the workplace, where Google Apps for Business will likely await them.

Here are some resources bookmarked in Diigo on the subject of using Google Apps for Education as an LMS:

My Diigo