Web+2.0

Thanks to the Web 2.0 tools there are many tools teachers can use to aid in teaching. The web tools I would use need to maintain my student’s interests. The first web tool that I would use would be the Writing tool. The writing tool allows books to be created on line and embedded, as textual pdf form, as an actual page turning book, as a blog, and many other ways. This enables my students to feel like their work will be valued, and to share their work with others. Essay’s, short stories, poetry, and many other writing projects have a greater value if others read the work, other than the teacher. This means my students would value writing more because there would be a sudden importance weighed on their words, thoughts, ideas, and their writing. This would also make sure my students would pay attention to writing conventions, grammar, and writing style.

I would also use organizing, in order to help my students create visual flow charts, so they could illustrate their projects and thoughts more accurately. This will aid students in their formulating ideas and being able to organize their writing. There are different types of students, some are visual learners, and some are conceptual learners, while even others need manipulatives in order to learn anything. This tool has written flow charts, conceptual flow charts, bubbles, notes, and pictorial charts. This tool accommodates all student’s which then makes the experience of planning more enjoyable, and in this way students also learn what they need to about organizing their writing for various writing projects.

I would also use the drawing tool, which allows students to illustrate their ideas, and their written projects. Once in a while English classes have to teach about short stories and the different writing styles that are incorporated in just that genre of writing. In order to make students pay attention, and not consider this particular assignment as just another writing task, the ability to illustrate their stories makes this a fun and interesting task.

Another tool that would become particularly useful for the poetry unit, would be the music tool, which enables the students to find music lyrics. This would aid in poetry because each song has basic rhyme schemes. If the students can see this and dissect songs the same way they dissect poems, then they will value poetry as an art. Not only that but they will be able to write comparisons based on poetry and selected songs which have similar structures. Also my students would be able to use the songs as examples and write their own music lyrics and present them to the class. This would incorporate their interest, along with what they need to get done in the classroom to learn English.

The last tool I will mention, but certainly not least I would use, is the research tool, which plainly allows students to research through a variety of media. This research tool will give students the advantage to integrate writing with support from drawing, and audio clips, maybe even video clips. This use of different media via this research tool, gives students a clear advantage to noticing what world they live in, along with critically thinking about each piece of evidence they receive from sources other then writing. A very important life skill to learn, research using many media gives each student a way to work through their specific challenges in learning, allowing them to reach their maximum potential.