One-to-one instruction with students with special needs is undoubtedly priceless. However, with the onset of digital technologies such as iPads we see that there are other avenues through which we can create engaging and effective learning environments for our special learners.

USA Today recently reported the results of a study conducted in the United States to determine whether automated essay-scoring computer software can accurately grade student essays.  After using the software to analyze 17,500 papers, the results concluded that the software is in fact capable of doing this.  A small number of teachers already use computer-aided scoring, and as the technology becomes increasingly feasible and available, there is every chance that its use will become widespread across the United States and Canada.  The question we are faced with is: Is this a good thing?

For teachers, essay grading takes time, and as a result of this, students can only receive so much writing feedback from their teachers per year.  With this in mind, it seems that a major advantage to implementing essay-grading software is that students will be able to receive much quicker feedback for their written assignments.  The period of time it takes a teacher to properly grade a written assignment can place limitations on the amount of writing experience that students can attain in school.  Essay-grading software can remove some of these limitations.  And even though the software can only grade students on technical writing skills, its existence could mean that students may spend more time actually writing—and we all know that the best way to master a skill is to practice.  The technology will also potentially take some work off of the teachers’ plates, giving them more time to focus on helping students develop their ideas.

However, while essay-grading software can remove certain educational limitations, it must be remembered that the technology does create its own limitations as well.  A computer can judge an essay on its technical merits, but it can’t really determine whether or not the essay has a unique writing style, or whether it presents sophisticated ideas.  This kind of feedback is critical for students who wish to become truly great writers and at this point, such feedback can only be delivered when the essay is read by a human audience.

Perhaps the best approach here is ultimately to combine the human approach with the computer approach.   In such a combined approach, a computer could grade the technical aspects of a paper, so that teachers could spend their time focusing on the writing style, and the ideas that are presented in that paper.  In this way, the new technology will not replace the human element, but could assist it.

Do you think that computer graded essays are a good thing?

This post uses information from:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2012-04-23/essay-scoring-computer-software/54493662/1

Recently, more and more stories have been coming to light regarding students being punished for their actions on social media.  In the Philippines, a student was recently banned from her Catholic high school graduation ceremony because of a picture of her that was posted on her Facebook page; in the UK, a university student was suspended and sentenced to jail for 56 days because of derogatory remarks he made on Twitter; in Brooklyn N.Y., a Jewish high school is threatening all students who use Facebook—even on their own time, with expulsion unless they delete their accounts and pay the school a $100 fine. 

Amidst these controversies, we are faced with the growing question of exactly what rights students have and ought to have in the context of social media.  Schools of course have a right to demand that students adhere to certain rules within school hours and upon school grounds; but when students are on their own time do they not have a right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression? And if we are to tell them that they cannot freely express themselves on social media, that they must censor themselves all day, every day; how can we justify that and still claim that we allow students the right to freedom of speech?

As the influence of social media grows, cases similar to the aforementioned examples noted above are only going to increase, and students from kindergarten to university may be forced to choose between two conflicting sets of rights: the right to education and the right to free expression.  With this in mind, the time has come to have a serious discussion about students and their social media rights.  As we move forward, it is important that we work towards both protecting student rights, and setting clear boundaries for what is and is not ok to ensure that students do not inadvertently get themselves expelled, fined, or even sent to jail.

What do you think? And what criteria would you use to determine the amount of influence that schools may have over their students’ online behavior? 

It’s time for students to have an official social media bill of rights. 

This post uses information from:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/philippines-student-banned-from-graduation-ceremony-over-facebook-bikini-photo/article2383819/

http://mashable.com/2012/03/28/racist-twitter-user-jailed/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/27/brooklyn-high-school-fines-students-for-using-facebook_n_1382964.html

Essay Writing is an essential skill for primary and high school students; but we know that writing can often be a long and challenging process.  With that in mind, we wanted to offer some quick essay-writing tips to help you get going:

1)      Start ahead of time: Great ideas develop over time.  Your ideas may be brilliant, but you need to give yourself the time to develop and mature those ideas in order for your work to reach its full potential.  

2)      Thinking and brainstorming: Before you do anything else, take some time to sit and think about your topic.  After that, start writing down any and all interesting ideas that you have.  Let your mind run off on interesting tangents; be creative and remember that at this stage, there is no such thing as a bad idea. 

3)      Choosing which ideas to use: Go through your ideas; pick and choose which ones make sense for you to develop towards your paper.  Remember to be mindful of the length of the paper; you may not have room to include every idea that you want to, so prioritize your points from most important to least important.  You will likely have good ideas that won’t make the cut.  When that happens, don’t throw them away; keep a note of them for possible use in your future papers.

4)      A strong thesis is crucial:  The thesis is your mission statement, the driving force of your paper.  It should appear near the end of your introduction, and it should sum up, in one sentence, exactly what your paper is going to be about, or what it is going to argue.  As you are writing, always keep your thesis in the back of your mind; everything you write should relate back to it.

5)      Spend time on your essay outline: An outline is a one page guideline summing up and listing all the important points that your paper will cover.  It should include your thesis statement, and be followed by a point form list of every main point that you will cover; you should also keep track of how much space on the page each idea will take up.  Doing this will help you ensure that your paper does not exceed or fall short of the prescribed word length.   

6)      Review, revise, rewrite: Revision can turn a good paper into a great one.  Review and revise your paper as much as you can to catch both grammatical and structural issues.  Sometimes, the rewording a sentence or the adding or subtracting of a few lines can make a world of difference. Read your paper aloud, this can help you catch grammatical mistakes that may be tricky after reading your paper to yourself multiple times. The more time you give yourself for revision, the greater chance you have of turning your paper into something special! 

7)      If you need help, get help: If you find yourself struggling with the writing process, ask for help from your teachers or parents; if the writing process is something that you find to be really difficult – you can always consult TutorBright for an expert opinion and help! 

Remember, essay writing can be a tricky task; but when given the right tools, every student has the potential to be a great writer!

The True Value of Reading

One of our philosophies at TutorBright is that we should do everything we can to keep our students completely engaged with their material.  This is because when students are not active participants, when learning is nothing more than work, the process is at risk of being reduced to a job that students perform only because they have to.  Of course students who treat their education as work can still become very good at their “jobs”, and this seems to be what has happened with child literacy in Ontario.

A recent study has shown that Ontario primary students are among the most literate in the country.  One may initially feel that this is cause to celebrate; our students clearly know how to read and how to memorize what they read.  However, there is a difference between learning how to do something and learning the value in that activity.

According to the results of the study, only 50% of Grade 3 and Grade 6 students in Ontario actually enjoy reading.  This percentage marks a downward trend from 76% in 1998-99.

Something is clearly wrong here.  If students cannot find the joy in reading, they are missing out on something fundamental.  Memorizing the content of a book can help one to do well on a test, but getting lost in a book can open one’s mind to a vast array of emotions, experiences, and life-lessons that can change one’s perspective of the world.   If students are, therefore, to find the real value of literature, they must once again become engaged in the process of reading.  So how can this be accomplished?

This is a difficult question, and there is no quick or easy solution.  One thing is clear though: simply being told what to read and then having to regurgitate that information on a test is not enough.  If there is no venue for real creativity, if students are given no control over their own literary education, reading becomes a monotonous task that children simply strive to get through. We need to bring a sense of discovery back into the world of literature.  This can be done by encouraging students to seek out books that truly interest them, by asking thoughtful questions that will lead them to find hidden themes and connections, and by implementing creative exercises which will encourage them to be insightful.

A great article on www.parentcentral.ca discusses the case of an educator in the Peel region who has her students write scripts and direct student films based on what they read.  The students are first placed into small groups to have in-depth discussions of the themes of the work, and then they translate those themes into a totally different medium.  This sort of creative environment needs to become more commonplace.  Students ought to be shown that when it comes to literary analysis, there need not always be a right or a wrong answer.  Ultimately, we must remember that the most important thing any child can discover from a work of literature is what that work means to them.

Reading must not feel like a “9-5” Job.

This post contains information from:  http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/education/article/1100401–only-half-of-pupils-like-to-read-survey-finds