Creating Agentive Writers with
Technology in the Elementary
Classroom
Chase Young, Ph.D.
Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi
PPT available for download at thebestclass.org
Overview
 Conferring with an Avatar
 Students use text to speech software to
engage in self-revision.
 Promoting Peer-Revision through Blogging
 Students post their writing on classroom
blogs, and use comments from their peers
for revision.
Inspiration for Research
Some Relevant Research
 The writing process has changed due to access to digital tools
(Yancy, 2009).
 Dalton (2010) suggests that teachers can use technology in every
aspect of writer’s workshop.
 Bogard & McMackin (2012) describe the use of digital stories with
third graders.
 Morgan & Smith (2008) share how students use wikis to publish
research reports for a wider audience.
 Stover and Young (in press) examine the use of VoiceThread for
peer revision and editing.
 Olthouse (2012) suggests that students can use Web 2.0 tools during
the each aspect of writing process, including planning, drafting,
revising, and publishing.
Conferring with an Avatar
 1. Choose an avatar on Voki.com
 Type in story or paragraph
 2. Listen to it
 3. Listen again while reading along
 4. Revise
Voki.com
Blogging with Friends
 1. Set up Kidblog
 2. Students publish writing
 3. Students comment* on peer’s writing
 4. Students make changes
 5. Repeat
Kidblog.org
Teach Commenting
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Please reorder your sentences to make more sense.
Can you please add more detail about…
I want to know more about…
Can you please tell me more about…
Can you please spell _______ like _______?
Can you please capitalize ________?
Example: First Post
 “Rachels misson is to help people and kids in hadi to build
them houses and raise money to build them and do that.To
raise all the money she goes to her schools football games
and asks pepole if they want to make a donation.And i bet
she makes a lot of money to make all the houses.To help
the kods before she makes all the houses she helps the
kids by giving food and water to survive and she helps
them learn.Once she earns all the money to build the
houses but first she has to find people to help her build the
houses and once she finishes building the houses all the
children can live in them.”
Example: Comment
 “tell more about the house and how it helps the
children and what about there parents.”
Example: “Current” Version
 Rachels misson is to help people and kids in hadi to build them houses and
raise money to build them and do that.To raise all the money she goes to her
schools football games and asks pepole if they want to make a
donation.And i bet she makes a lot of money to make all the houses.To help
the kids before she makes all the houses she helps the kids by giving food
and water to survive and she helps them learn.Once she earns all the money
to build the houses but first she has to find people to help her build the
houses and once she finishes building the houses all the children can live in
them.The kids were homeless and needed homes thats why rachel built the
houses.Her parents helped her a lot to raise the money.She builds the
houses with the money she earned the people in hadi are now all happy
and have homes.She helps the kids learn by teaching them like addition
and subtraction and some stuff in science the parents are poor to so they
share the food all together with the whole family
Results
Table 1. Comparison of Students’ Pre- and Post-Writing Scores (n = 18)
Item
Writing Score
Pretest
Meana
2.56
Posttest
Meana
3.19
Zb
3.07
Asymptotic Sig.
(2 Tailed)
.002
Effect Sizec
.51
Final Dedication
References and Bibliography
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Bogard, J. M. & McMackin, M. C. (2012). Combining traditional and new literacies in a 21st-century
writing workshop. The Reading Teacher, 65(5), 313-323.
Common Core State Standards Initiative (2010). Common Core State Standards for English
Language Arts & literacy. Washington, DC: National Governors Association Center for Best Practices
and the Council of Chief State School Offices.
Dalton, B. (2012). Multimodal composition and the common core state standards. The Reading
Teacher, 66(4), 333–339
Ferris, D. (1995). Teaching Students to Self-Edit. TESOL Journal, 4(4), 18-22.
Fletcher, R. & Portalupi, J. (2001). Writing workshop: The essential guide. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann.
Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). Writing next: Effective strategies to improve writing of adolescents in
middle and high schools. Washington, DC: Alliance for excellent education.
Kindzierski, C. M. M. (2009). "I like it the way it is!": Peer-revision writing strategies for students
with emotional and behavioral disorders. Preventing School Failure, 54(1), 51-59.
Lankshear, C. and Knobel, M. (2003). New Literacies: Changing Knowledge and Classroom Practice.
Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
Laru, J., Naykki, P., & Jarvela, S. (2012). Supporting Small-Group Learning Using Multiple Web 2.0
Tools: A Case Study in the Higher Education Context. Internet And Higher Education, 15(1), 29-38.
References and Bibliography
 Morgan, B. & Smith, R. D. (2008). A wiki for classroom writing. The Reading
Teacher, 62(1), 80-82.
 National Commission on Writing. (2003,April). The neglected R: The need for a
writing revolution. Retrieved July 31, 2006, from
http://www.writingcommission.org/report.html
 Olthouse, J. (2012). Teaching Talented Writers With Web 2.0 Tools. Teaching
Exceptional Children, 45(2), 6-14.
 Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9, 5, 1-2.
 Strauss, S., & Xiang, X. (2006). The Writing Conference as a Locus of Emergent
Agency. Written Communication, 23(4), 355-396.
 Wood, D., Bruner, J. S., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving.
Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines, 17(2), 89-100.
doi:10.1111/1469-7610.ep11903728
 Yancy, K.B. (2009). Writing in the 21st century. Ohio Journal of English Language
Arts, 49(2), 70-79.