Take the Pain Out of Writing with a Palm

Presented by Cherie Skeeter

July 2006

Mid-Atlantic Handheld Conference - Salisbury University

Retrieved from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx July 2006

Retrieved from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx July 2006	Many students, especially our struggling learners, really dread assignments that require extended writing. All phases of the process, from pre-writing organization to post-writing assessment are such a struggle for some students that it can become a painful battle to complete the assignment. The purpose of this session is to share the process used in a Working-Towards-Level 5th grade class that allowed the students to ease the pain of a typical research-type writing assignment on an animal found in the wild. Through the use of several software programs on their handhelds, the students successfully completed their assignments and actually looked forward to working on this week-long assignment, as well as other writing assignments throughout the remaining school year.

In the planning stages of this project, it was decided that the students would work in groups of two and that together the students would research two animals that live in the wild from a teacher selected list of animals. Students would randomly select their animals from slips of paper that had been put in a basket. Since the students in this particular class lacked the ability to perform typical book research, it was decided that Internet resources would best meet the needs of the students for this project. Since our classroom did not have enough desktop computers for all groups to use simultaneously and our computer lab was available for only one class period of our research time, websites for the various animals were retrieved and downloaded to the student Palms by the teacher prior to the start of this project.

To launch our writing assignment the class worked together to begin an iKWL chart on wolves. Since the chart was completed together, only the teacher's Palm with iKWL was used along with the LCD projector. The chart was displayed and students took turns supplying words and phrases for the iKnow (I know) section of the chart. These were recorded by the teacher and the class discussed the list when it was completed. This was followed by students supplying phrases and questions for the iWhat (What I want to know) section. These, again, were recorded by the teacher and discussed by the class. Upon the completion of this project, the students returned to the class chart and completed the iLearned section together.
	Retrieved from http://goknow.com/Products/iKWL/ 7/2006

Once in their teams, the students used a free offline Web viewer called Plucker to view the Internet pages pertaining to their selected animals. Information from the webpages was used to complete the pre-writing organizer.
	Retrieved from http://www.plkr.org/dl 7/2006

Inspiration is an organizational program that helps students comprehend concepts and information through the creation of webs and outlines. A teacher created template was beamed to the teams prior to the start of this project. The students, working with both Palms, displayed the Internet site on one in order to collect the necessary information for completing the Inspiration template on the other.
	Retrieved from http://www.inspiration.com/palmbiz/index.cfm?CFID=5965783&CFTOKEN=48018735 7/2006

Publishing the final product is done by using either MS Word to Go by DataViz or FreeWrite by GoKnow. If there is no access to either of these programs, the standard Palm Memo Pad can also be used.
	Retrieved from http://www.dataviz.com/products/documentstogo/apps/app_wordtogo.html and http://www.goknow.com/Products/FreeWrite/ 7/2006

Here are examples of some of the directions for the project that were accessed by the students on their Palms.

Animal Research Step 1a, by Mrs. Skeeter

If your first name comes first in the alphabet:
1) open the program Plucker on your Palm
2) open the file that is the name of an animal
3) you and your partner are to read the information on this page to gather information about your animal to fill in the animal research card on your partner's Palm

Animal Research Step 1b, by Mrs. Skeeter

If your first name comes last in the alphabet:
1) open Inspiration on your Palm
2) open the file called Animal Card
3) use the information about the animal on your partner's Palm to fill in the template
4) rename your file with the name of the animal and your Palm number and partner's Palm number
example - blackbear119

Animal Research Step 2, by Mrs. Skeeter

When you and your partner have completed the Inspiration template, switch jobs.

If you used your Palm for Step 1a now use it for Step lb (Inspiration).

If you used your Palm for Step 1b now use it for Step 1a (Plucker).

Here is a copy of the iKWL chart that the class completed as a pre-writing and post-writing activity.

Wolves

iKnow

wolves are mammals
wolves live in packs
wolves lives in a den
wolves eat Fish
wolves are males and females
wolves have fangs
wolves has different types of fur

iWonder

Where does wolves live
When do they sleep
How do they sleep
When does female wolves give birth
How many members are in the packs
What does the male do all day
When do they hunt

iLearned

The female wolves give birth in the spring time
The male wolves bring the food to the female wolves to eat
The wolves stay in packs so they can get big prey
The wolves have fangs there is two
The female and the male wolves make a new den when the female wolves have there birth
The wolves are like dogs
The wolves bring food back for the other male to eat to
wolves eat meat

Word List

wolves
eat
mammal
fangs
male
female
packs
den