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​(cooltext.com) SIG Proposal  Group Members: ** Kathy Breece, Marcie Wallis Fisher, Manda Brown
 * 
 * Subject Matter: ** Using Web 2.0 technologies to enhance writing in


 * Focus in Each of the 4 Common Places of Education: **

**Teacher:** The teachers will be trained how to incorporate web 2.0 technologies into their curriculum areas to improve students' writing process skills (prewriting, drafting, editing, and publishing).


 * Student:** Students will use web 2.0 technologies to practice prewriting, drafting, editing, and publishing.


 * Subject Matter:** We will address how using Web 2.0 technologies can be used in 9-12 classrooms for writing across the curriculum. We will do this by providing specific examples and/or lesson plans. 

**Context:** Students will be using these technologies in the classroom, computer lab, on the laptop carts, at home, or library.


 * Emphasis Areas: **

Kathy Breece -using web 2.0 technology to increase writing in High School Science class. Marcie Wallis Fisher - collecting web 2.0 technologies that can be incorporated in different curriculum areas; using web 2.0 to increase writing in Social Studies Manda Brown - using web 2.0 technology to increase writing in Secondary English Class.


 * Major categories and resources to be gathered: **
 * lesson plans
 * curriculum maps
 * blogs
 * activities incorporating web 2.0
 * articles about incorporating web 2.0
 * articles about increasing writing across the curriculum

Findings for Science - Kathy The findings for science were somewhat across the board. I found many sites that included lesson plans and activities that incorporated writing into the science curriculum. There were not many findings that were specific to web 2.0 technologies and science. I find that the common blog, wiki, or social networking site can be a very common ground for implementation of writing across the curriculum. We have set up a wiki for our building that has links to specific subjects. Our goal is to use this wiki to incorporate lesson plans and can be used as a resource for all students and parents. Be ready to adapt the many activities presented to most any science task. Take note of the two articles as thy address specific finding as they relate to science and web 2.0 technologies. Findings for Social Studies - Marcie When doing my search for how to increase writing in Social Studies classes, I found that many of the places one might visit online for an English class were also appropriate for integrating writing into other curriculum areas. For example, wordle.net. Just the name of it implies "english", but in reality, this site could very well be used in Social Studies. For instance, a student could take a famous speech and plug it into wordle to see what pops out as the main ideas. Or have the students make a list of words that are important for a certain time period or historical event and plug those into wordle. In this case, they would have to decide which words they want to stand out as the most important. Another great web 2.0 site for increasing writing in Social Studies is epals.com. Talk about authentic! Kids meet kids from regions or countries they are learning about and have discussions and conversations online. Who wants to look like a dunce when writing to peers from afar? If staying in-house, sites such as blogger and wikispaces are good for collaboration and discussion. These are venues where writing is the main tool for communication, so it's important to be clear and concise and grammatically correct. Assigning essays is going to be history in history. Using the sites at the link above, teachers will be able to make writing a daily occurrence in Social Studies!

Findings for English /Language Arts - Manda <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">As Marcie stated, it was amazing how many of the same resources could be manipulated to become applicable to, and fit, each individual need across the different subject areas we desired to increase writing within. It would be very easy for me to utilize the sources that Marcie and Kathy provided to find a plethora of additional information that fit my specific English Language Arts subject. This is a phenomenal discovery. Teachers should collaboratively cheer for joy, because if they use common sources to branch their own individual instruction from, then it will only provide that much more consistent structure for students to understand the information that all of their teachers are trying to deliver to them (only now in a more common and unified manner). If all teachers are familiar with such similar and common Web2.0 resources, they will better be able to use such resources to collaborate and facilitate quality instruction to their students (while also increasing the use of technology to effectively teach required curriculum). Nevertheless, I was also pleased to find a few additional resources that seemed to specifically target the concepts and curriculum revolving English Language Arts. I felt those findings will help to reflect my unique teaching style and maintain some individuality as a subject area. And they will also server to maintain the interest of students; and not simply have them following a monotonous rhythm as they progress from one class to the next throughout their school day. //(Click the following link to navigate back to Amanda Brown's MSU webpage:// [|//https://www.msu.edu/~browna47///] //)//