Word Processing

Tools for Writing:

Word Processing

Over 95% of computer time is spent with word processing and email.

We often forget the importance of teaching process writing when using a word processor. The power of the word processor is flexibility. Too often students only have time to "type" their report.

Explore topics for word processing projects.
Focus on the writing process. Explore each of the following areas and consider how you might use word processing software at each step in the process.

Prewriting
Composing
Revising
Editing
Publishing

Prewriting

Start with
- a problem, issue, question
- an audience
- alternative strategies
  - inform, debate, persuade
- alternative products
  - report, letter, memo, list

Prewriting

Brainstorming
Listing
Questioning
Freewriting
Clustering
Webbing
Outlining

Do It!

Inspiration

Download a demo copy of Inspiration. Explore the website for project ideas.

Create an Inspiration web for a book you are reading.

Create an Inspiration concept map for a topic you're teaching.
Prewriting Ideas

Large group ideas brainstorm
- lists & categories
- questions
- words & ideas
- reorganize ideas
Small groups & combine ideas

Do It!

Brainstorming

Create a word processing document.

Activity One:

Create a list of things that people throw away. Create major recycling categories. Move "throw away" words into categories. Practice copy and paste, indentation, font sizes and style.

Activity Two:

Create a list of words related to a single topic. Ask a friend to add to your list. Ask another friend to categorize the words.

Activity Three:

Play chronology.

Write the name of an event in history.

The next person adds another event under the first event.

Go back and reorder the events in the correct order.

Add information to particular events such as a description or date.
Timelines

Dinosaurs
Science
Health
Space
History
Art
Group: people, Native Americans

Composing

Single
Peer
Collaborative
Pros:
- no pencils and erasers
- easy to read and add
Cons:
- file management

Kid Pix Deluxe: Create a postcard. Add a graphic and write about your adventure.
Composing Ideas - Chain writing:

Add to a:
- short story
- descriptive paragraph
- historical event
- science experiment

Revising

Making structural changes
- Elaborating
- Polishing
- Clarifying
- Rewriting
- Arranging
Make editorial remarks
- use software tools or colors

Do It!

Commenting

Explore the remarks or comments function of your word processor.

Brainstorm other ways to mark student work such as colors for each contributor.

Revising Ideas

Large group ideas
- sentence combining
- addition of description
- exploration of tense
- discussion of persuasive words
- find the 5 Ws

Editing

Checking small, mechanical details
- Spelling
- Grammar
- Word selection
- Sentence structure

Editing Ideas

Compare the spelling & grammar checkers
Compare editing on paper & computer
Use the thesaurus

Publishing

Professional publications
- fonts: size, style
- indentation
- tables
- graphics
- color
- covers

Print Artist: Let students create covers and graphics
Publishing Ideas

Identify a real audience
Consider alternative layouts
- booklets
- reports
- fliers
- brochures
- cut out text and paste to ...

WP Troubleshooting

Remember writing is a process
Focus on writing & design
Don't try to do all the "features"
Provide formatting guidelines
Encourage peer process writing

WP Issues

Finding an audience
Age appropriateness
Keyboarding skills
Speed
Process approach to writing

Keyboarding

Mavis Beacon Teachers Typing
regular version, kid's version

Beyond Term Papers

Word processing as a tool …
Writing strength
Choose the sport that gives you the skills...

Debate

Use a table for information
Use colors for different views
Use icons for particular issues
Example: Table containing information about smoking debate: Issue, Tobacco Industry, Health Organizations

Explain

Provide
- photographs
- clip art
- line drawings
- diagrams
- charts
- a digital camera
- Example: Picture of cliff dwellings and artifacts

Imagine

What was it like to attend a play during Shakespeare's time?
Where would you be sitting in the theatre? Why?
What play would you want to attend?
Example: Picture of an Elizabethan Theatre

Pretend

Write a story set during the original event or holiday.
Use a picture as a starter
Example: Picture from a Norman Rockwell painting

Order

Sequencing
Timelines
Processes
Example: Steps in using a block and tackle

Collaborate

Divide a project into
- chunks
- steps
- issues
- alternatives

Trace

Trace or "chain" the history of
- transportation: prehistoric to modern
- an invention: buttons to velcro
- westward movement: walking, wagons
- Example: history of telescopes

Apply

How do you eat
- biting
- chewing
- swallowing
- coughing
- choking

Create

Read & write folktales & myths
- The Stinky Cheese Man
- Dark Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural
- In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World

Share

Headline
Byline
Picture
Write an article about:
- a sporting event
- a famous athlete
- a recent record

Persuade

Choose a president.
- Nominate for an award
- Write a speech
- Debate a point of view
- Example: Theodore Roosevelt and national park system

React

Read historical letters
- American Memories
- Slave Narratives & Letters

Do It!

Reacting

Go to the American Memories site at the Library of Congress. Ask students to choose a visual, audio, or document to serve as the focal point for a project.

Copy and paste the visual, audio, or document into your word processing file.

React to the document.
Write

replies
reactions
future letters

Justify

What was the biggest contribution to the written language?
What could happen without a particular aspect of the history of language?

Reflect

Read a book with a journal, short story, or diary format
- Dear Mr. Henshaw
- A Gathering of Days
- Out of the Dust
Write in the journal format

Dialogue

Write a dialogue between two characters who have already been created by the author.
Create a dialogue between to famous people: Leonardo DaVinci and John Glenn
who lived at different times.

Reach Out

Create a fax (use fax wizard):
- Local Businessman
- Experts
- Mystery network
Create a webpage (use Word):

Do It!

Reach Out

Use the Ask-An-Expert site or AskA+Locator site to locate an expert that could answer a question for your class. Write an email message that contains the following elements:

Your school, name, and grade level

Your interest in the topic

Your question

A thank you statement
Do It!

Create Web Pages

Create a web page in Microsoft Word:

Open Microsoft Word.

Enter the title of the project.

Save the document as an HTML document.

Notice how the tool options change.

Developed by Annette Lamb, 7/99.