Creative Writing in a World Classroom on the Internet

Through the use of telecommunications, students explore and compare their town and themselves with students from other cities, countries and cultures.

Subject Area: Language Arts
Grade Level: 7-12
Length of Project: 3x's (4-6 weeks)

I. INTRODUCTION

Purpose:

To develop multi-cultural awareness and an appreciation and tolerance for differences between people and places.
To deepen student's sense of self in relation to others.
To promote and stimulate written and oral language in the classroom.
To foster student-to-student interaction on-line and in the classroom.
Engage and empower students via direct access to relevant activities.
To validate original student writing as appropriate reading material in our classes.
To implement the writing strands as outlined the California Language Arts framework

II. STUDENT OUTCOMES

SHARE information about themselves and their town, describing things so that readers experience the information with as many senses as possible.
RESPOND to and analyze the writing of other authors.
LEARN about life and people in other places and cultures.
EXAMINE self in relation to others.
WORK COOPERATIVELY to generate discussion and responses to what is read.
USE TECHNOLOGY and the INTERNET to communicate, cooperate and write with students in other places.
PARTICIPATE in wide variety of writing activities and IMPROVE writing skills

III. ACTIVITIES

Beginning

Teacher establishes connection with WorldClassroom at:

World Classroom
Global Learning Corp.
P.O. Box 201361
Arlington, TX 76006
(800)866-4452

Teacher accesses WorldClassroom (telnet: global1.glc.dallas.tx.us) and joins one of three interrelated conferences:
1. wcr440_first_place
  Students describe the first place they'd take a foreign visitor and tell what makes that place important to them personally.
2. wcr441_city
  Students describe their own town or city.
3. wcr442_life
  Students describe a day in their own life.
Each participating student will submit one original piece of writing, composed off-line. A print version will be kept displayed in the classroom.
Writing exchanges ("First Place", "City", and/or "Life") from schools in other parts of the country or world will be printed and read and discussed in class.
Students will submit a minimum of one response to a piece s/he reads from the WorldClassroom.
Students compose their work off-line
Teachers keep a print version current in the classroom.
Teachers create a display board for student work and a map that identifies participating WorldClassrooms.

Classroom Sessions:
Classroom time line: 6 week period
week one: introduction to project/read samples of "First Place" students actively look for place in their town to describe
week two: compose off-line and post writing on WorldClassroom
week three: read, discuss & respond to posted writing
week four: discuss responses received & compose responses.
week five: student authors close discussions with their "last word"
week six: written student evaluation of exchange WorldClassroom Time line (First Conference):
10/4--10/15: Writing groups form for first session.
10/18--11/5: Writing groups compose first pieces and post writing to wcr440
11/1: Responses to writing begin
11/8: Author's final words begin

Writing
"First Place" asks students to consider the first place they'd take a visitor and what makes the place important to them. Rather than ask, "What do I want my visitor to feel?" or "How can I describe this place?" students are encouraged to consider and describe their own feelings when they are there and to notice and tell which details affect their feelings. Students are encouraged to be specific and concrete, not general and abstract. Fuchsias are better than flowers. Chicken tacos supreme are better than fast food. Metaphors and similes are encouraged to express emotion rather than simply saying, "I feel good, bad, or indifferent." As students write their own descriptions and then read descriptions of foreign places, they will develop a better sense of what is needed to really convey place, or individuality. With each unit in the trilogy, their descriptions will improve. In "Author's Final Words" students have an opportunity to improve their descriptions.

Reading
Students will read, in small groups of four, "First Place" descriptions from students in other parts of the country and the world. They will discuss the descriptions within small group and then report to the class, reading particularly evocative passages aloud.

Discussion
Discussion about content and form will take place within small groups and the whole classroom.

Presentation
At the end of each conference unit, each small group will create a presentation about what was learned from the exchange with students in other places. Presentation may be oral (skit), written, or visual (art, poster, or video).

IV. ASSESSMENT

Each of the three related conference units follows the sequence established for the first. At the end of the three units ("First Place", "My City", and "A Day In My Life") final assessment for the class is the completion of a portfolio composed of the following items:

one piece of descriptive writing (in final draft) from each unit.

one response to descriptive writing (in final draft) from each unit.

one student evaluation of the exchange for each unit