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COPYRIGHT 1996 Scholastic, Inc.
Like many teachers, Bev Paeth initially was skeptical about using telecommunications to teach writing. Sure, she relied on computers for basic word processing lessons, but she was leery of adding anything else to her responsibilities as a reading teacher at Holmes Junior High School in Covington, Ky., where she worked with eighth graders served by Chapter 1, the federal program for disadvantaged students.
Yet in 1992, when the district announced a project linking five Kentucky schools to an online computer network for collaborative writing instruction, Paeth applied. It was one of the smartest decisions of her career.
For three years, the Kentucky Telecommunications Project, sponsored by Teachers and Writers Collaborative in New York, enabled Paeth and her colleagues to develop a sophisticated writing workshop including online conversations between students and published authors, book discussion groups led by teams of teachers, and a steady stream of writing shared by students in grades 4-12. Paeth's students filled ten fat binders with their writing.
Having other students model good writing inspired Paeth's students, many of whom were 15- and 16-year-old eighth graders. A 12-year-old from Lexington, Ky., using the pen name Maverick, wrote serial mystery stories online that so engrossed her students that "everyone in the class started writing like Maverick--they tried cliffhanger endings, used similes and metaphors .... Their writing improved dramatically. They finally saw a purpose for, it."
An audience, mentors, and a place to publish. Around the country, teachers report similar success with computer-assisted writing. The benefits include the chance to create new audiences for student writing, to reach out to mentors for research and support, and to publish frequently....
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