Taking Writing in Hand Taking Writing in Hand By Jessica Hunt and Trish Watley Vol. For written assignments, students brainstorm, draft, conference, and revise, paying attention to topic development, organization, supporting arguments, sentence structure, word choice, and mechanics.
Students use word processing programs to make revising easier.
Still, we have found that even the hardiest of composers find some steps in the writing process to be laborious because of the time spent waiting to use one of five desktop computers on which they edit drafts of their work. This limited computer access slowed students and impeded their productivity. Then, in fall 1999, we gave each of our 6th grade students a handheld computer to be used in language arts classes. And since then, writing productivity and efficiency have shown a remarkable increase. A small sparrow flew across the bright orange sky.