AJC.com > Blogs > Get Schooled > Archives > 2006 > May > 22 > Entry
Using E-Mail to Teach Writing
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This Cherokee teacher is using e-mail to get her kids interested in improving their writing. Here’s Kristina Torres’ story.
The story says: “Literacy instruction and written instruction tend to be quite old-fashioned; we’re still working from a 1950s model,” said Jennifer Stone, a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. “Most workplaces include some form of e-mail. Most financial things, most personal things, often include online literacies that schools are not preparing kids to do.”
Ramsey is naturally curious about how the world relates to her classroom. That curiosity brought her to the idea of using e-mail to teach her students writing, and it can be summed up by an article she saw in The New York Times more than a year ago that offered this staggering assessment: Businesses are spending as much as $3.1 billion annually to teach white-collar professionals how to write clear, concise e-mails, reports and other texts. Ramsey thought those kinds of basics should start way earlier — in places like her classroom.
What is associated with e-mail? Plain old letter-writing,” Ramsey said. She starts her students on the road to good writing by focusing on electronic letters before building up to reports, essays, biographies and poems, all of which have some sort of electronic component.”
A good idea?
Comments
By Elsie
May 22, 2006 12:29 PM | Link to this
As described in the article, I think it’s a great idea. As they approach the workplace, we need to let students know that there is a difference between emails to friends and professional communications. In terms of what they will need to know, the students will be much better prepared by learning appropriate email writing and protocol than learning traditional letter writing. We certainly don’t want to send them into the workplace thinking that they should use those ridiculous instant-messaging abbreviations!
By V for Vendetta
May 22, 2006 12:32 PM | Link to this
I think it’s great. Bravo!
Nice to hear something positive and worth applauding every now and then isn’t it? Good for her.