Incoming 5th grade students

Hi,

I think you’ll  find this interesting – especially you 6^th grade LA teachers. Intrigued are you? Well read on…

 

So what is this all about?

What follows in this email discusses the 5^th grade students that are part of a pilot project called: “Powered Up Writing”. The project is being held in five LPS schools: Whitman, Hopkins, East, Field, and Moody. From that pilot we know of approximately 120 students that will be attending our school next year – that’s half of the incoming 6^th grade students next year!

 

I encourage you to read some of the responses from these 5^th grade students. Parents and staff  have chimed in too. As of this email there were 75 responses mostly from the kids! Click this to read Dan’s post. (From the time I started writing this email, the number of comments went from 64 up to 75 responses! Yikes.)

 

Background: Last week I commented on a blog posting written by Dan Maas – LPS’s CIO. His blog post included some questions about the “Powered up Writing” pilot project.  It seems that we’ve created a minor stir amongst these students in 5^th grade. The students (particularly East Elem.) have responded to my and Dan’s questions and given passionate responses. Their comments are well-written, cohesive and LONG. Who knew a young 5^th grade student could write so much and with such passion?

 

So where is all this going?

• In a few weeks I’ll be visiting these students at East Elementary. I’ll be going with Dan and a few LPS board members to meet the students and get a feel for the classroom environment. I also have a meeting to see the pilot classrooms at Hopkins too. I’ll get a first-hand glimpse of how they are learning with their laptops in Language Arts classes. (They use them every day – that’s part of the project). I’ve already visited Newton and saw how they are using eee’s there, but this is different. These 5^th grade students use their laptops nearly every day of the week and they use them for their other subjects too – science, math, social studies, and beyond. (They take spelling tests on them too - which speeds grading!)

 

• Perhaps you’ll want to take your PLC over to visit one of these classrooms too. After all, next year you’ll have these students in your classes. Judging from their writing, they will be hungry to continue writing – especially on a laptop or PC. I think that’s a great formula for success.

 

• Next fall would it be possible to conduct your daily LA classes using laptops too? How do you think this would facilitate learning? What would you need to be successful? (Go ahead and dream!)

 

• Do you think our future students will come to expect this level of technology? They seem to really love writing!

 

• Keep reading Dan’s blog. It will keep you up to date with the direction our district is headed with regard to technology and he’s a pretty good writer too!