New Platform Helps Teachers With Group Writing Assignments
A new digital platform is designed to allow K-12 teachers to
conduct
nonfiction group-writing projects that can focus on specific content
areas and
skills.
BoomWriter
Media just introduced ProjectWriter, which can be
used in a number of ways in an effort to improve skills that are aligned with the Common
Core State Standards. Teachers can go online to assign writing
projects to their
classes based on the subject areas being covered at the moment, like
history,
science or literature.
ProjectWriter allows the teacher to then break the subject
down into even smaller units and give writing assignments based on the
content
covered in class with specific deadlines and word counts. The teacher
can also
give the students lists of vocabulary words that they must then
incorporate
into their writing assignments. Once the assignments are complete — and
the
teacher has the capacity to change the assignment during the process —
students
can share them via the platform with their classmates in order to
comment on
each other's work anonymously and to vote on which piece of writing may
have
most accurately described the content covered.
BoomWriter Founder and COO Ken Haynes said the
immersive,
personalized learning process provided by ProjectWriter gives students a
deeper
understanding of subject content and teachers a tool to assess the level
of
students' understanding.
"Today, students are not simply being asked to
regurgitate
facts and figures," Haynes said. "Rather, they are expected to be able
to
clearly convey in writing their understanding of the concepts and terms
being
taught."
BoomWriter is a Web site that helps students and
teachers
collaborate with each other to develop reading, writing and
vocabulary
skills.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.