Day 10

Writing Task Analysis

Reading task analysis, blowing your nose task analysis and now the writing task analysis. Today in class Barb had us do some writing with a pencil and paper. It was an indication of how times are changing when there were quite a few people who didn't have any paper. We really do rely solely on our computers and other mobile devices.

This writing activity was the start of the writing task analysis, which I must mention is much more complicated than the reading task analysis that we completed earlier. The writing process depends on the reading process. In order to be a good writer, you have to be able to read well. Reading is decoding (deconstructing words) text and writing is encoding (putting words back together) text. These are two huge processes that students are expected to complete each and every day at school.

Below is the writing task analysis that Barb provided for us. It is quite the map. Last week I felt very overwhelmed when faced with this task. Today I was feeling much more comfortable when we are having this class discussion.

This process may seems like a lot to wrap your head around. However, before we can assist our students, we need to understand this writing process. Before we can recommend assistive technology to support students, we need to know exactly where they may be experiencing difficulty.

There are so many assistive technology programs that exist and I had absolutely no experience with any of them. I feel a little embarrassed admitting that since I have been teaching for seven years. However, I have never had any students who required assistive technology supports.

One of the software programs we looked at today was Co:Writer 6. Co:Writer is a program that offers word predictions when words are spelled incorrectly. It can be used in MS Word documents, Blogs, Email and online. From what I understand, it allows you to create your own word lists to de used when writing. This program seems like it would be a fabulous resource for students who experience difficulty getting their thoughts down because of their spelling.

Co:Writer 6 Product Demonstration

I am excited to explore some of the assistive technology that supports writing! We will be doing this as a part of our next assignment and putting it together in a new blog. Maureen, Lara, Wade and I will be working on this tomorrow and Thursday. I'm really looking forward to finding some apps to support students with writing difficulties. The link for our new blog is http://writingtaskanalysis.blogspot.ca/