Good communication skills are essential in today's information culture. Learning to listen, read, represent and write effectively will prepare students for success in both the classroom and the outside world. Being able to express yourself well in writing can be a great source of power. WritingDEN aims to supply this power by making it fun to learn to write.
Students' abilities to communicate in English vary greatly. Some students are brand new to the English language while others have been exposed to English since infancy. For this reason, WritingDEN has been designed to meet the needs of individual students throughout the Grade 4 to 12 range.
WritingDEN has seven basic aims. They are:
WritingDEN provides instruction at three levels of difficulty.
WritingDEN also features other learning tools.
In-Brief provides a key visual summary of basic points raised in the topic. The most important information of the topic is presented in a form that shows students another way to conceptualize information they have seen in text and pictures.
Tips-O-Matic helps students to write better documents, providing grammar rules, helper words, and other writing tips.
Word of the Day provides students with more detailed definitions of terms used in WritingDEN topics. If students choose to sign up for Word of the Day, they will receive one new term and its definition by e-mail each day.
Speak Out is a discussion group for students and teachers who want to share their questions and views on learning and teaching English. You may wish to discuss: using WritingDEN in your classroom, your experiences with learning to write, the oddities of the English language, suggestions for future WritingDEN topics -- or anything else you wish to Speak Out about. It's very easy to post and read Speak Out messages and if you need any help getting started, we have included a help file that should answer all your questions.
RealAudio is a new type of computer software that allows you to hear recorded sound from websites. It was created by a Seattle-based company called Progressive Networks and released to the public in April, 1996. Recorded sound can be saved in several different types of computer files, but RealAudio files are currently the best available for use on the Internet. This is because RealAudio files are small enough to download relatively quickly.
In order to hear these sound files, you need to download the RealAudio Player. You can do this by clicking on the RealAudio link on the top page of WritingDEN -- or you can download it now. This link will take you to the RealAudio download site, which provides you with clear instructions. Then, once your download is complete, you will be ready to hear the sounds of WritingDEN.
The 
button appears beside most of the text in Words and Sentences -- and when you click on it, you will hear a recorded narration. When you first click on this button, you will see the RealAudio Player box appear on your screen.
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To stop this RealAudio Player box from blocking your view of WritingDEN's pictures and text, just click on its minimize button  . This way, when you play our sound files, you will only see this box for a couple of seconds while the file is loading. |
WritingDEN provides students the opportunity to select, modify and organize information while improving their writing skills and enhancing their familiarity with the tools of information technology. A good knowledge and understanding of these tools will arm students with the technical skills they will need in order to compete in the high tech job market of the future. By experimenting with WritingDEN, students will gain confidence in their ablility to be creative and technical at the same time.
For your reference, you can link to the B.C. Ministry of Education to view:
Information Technology K-7 Integrated Resource Package 1996
Grade 8 to 10 IRP
Grade 11 to 12 IRP
Each week, WritingDEN features one topic on its homepage. This topic is presented at three different levels of English language difficulty (as explained above). All topics are saved in an archive, so you can scan through them to see which are most appropriate for your class or individual students. We will continue to add new topics -- so you will eventually have a lot to choose from. We are always open to suggestions for new topics, so please let us know if you have anything you would be particularly interested to see in WritingDEN.
From the WritingDEN homepage you can go to the following pages:
- Feature topic, where you will see this week's feature topic
- More topics, where you will find our topic archive
- Tips-O-Matic, where you will see our special writing tips machine
- Word of the Day, where you can sign up to receive the Word of the Day by e-mail
- Speak Out, where you can read and post to WritingDEN's discussion group
- Teacher's Guide, which is this very page -- designed to help you to use WritingDEN in your classroom
- About, where you will see a brief description of WritingDEN
- DEN Home, where you can check out the Digital Education Network Homepage
Navigating within a topic
Each topic has its own opening page. From each topic's opening page, you can go to the following pages:
- Words, takes you to the Words section
- Sentences, takes you to the Sentences section
- Quiz, takes you to the Words or Sentences quiz
- Paragraphs, takes you to the Paragraphs section
- Notes, takes you to the Paragraph's note-organization quiz
- Proof, takes you to the Paragraph's proofreading quiz
- In-Brief, takes you to the topic overview -- a.k.a. the key visual
- Photo credits, takes you to a page that will tell you the source of all pictures used in the topic
- Home, takes you back to the WritingDEN homepage
The following are some suggestions for using WritingDEN in your classroom:
- Students create their own topics in Words and Sentences format
- Note set creation
- Role-playing, creative writing, essay project
- Role-playing interview performance
- The Lone Brainstormer
- Spelling game with frequently confused words
- Supplement for individual education programs
Aim: students will improve their writing, communication and researching skills while developing their visual literacy.
Students can work alone or in groups to create their own text and graphic presentations modelled after WritingDEN content. Allow students to choose any topic that interests them -- like: "My friends and I take a trip to the mall" or "My most exciting skateboard tricks." Use drawings or photos, cut-out pictures from magazines, computer drawing programs or anything you can think of.
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Aim: students will improve their pre-writing and critical thinking skills.
Collect some old newspapers and magazines and bring them to class. Give students 10 or 15 minutes to find a story that they find interesting. Ask students to work alone to identify the most important parts of the story and to write each point on a piece of paper. Have them hand in the original story and their newly created note sets. Evaluate how well they have identified the story's most important points.
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Aim: students will improve their communication and writing skills while using imagination and creativity
Ask students to choose a subject from a WritingDEN topic -- like a Klondiker sailing to Alaska, a female Canadian worker during World War Two or a Canada goose feeling restless and ready to fly back to Canada in spring. Ask students to take on the role of this WritingDEN subject and write a few journal entries or letters from his or her perspective. For example, a student may wish to write a Klondiker's journal entry describing conditions on the steamship ride to Alaska or a letter to a Canadian written by a Canada goose who is about to fly home for the summer.Then, ask students to take three points from their journal or letter and make it into a more traditional paragraph or short essay. Using WritingDEN's Tips-O-Matic as a reference, ask students to identify the type of essay or paragraph they have written -- i.e. a descriptive paragraph or a sequence essay.
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Aim: students will improve their communication and writing skills while using imagination and creativity
Choose a number of subjects from WritingDEN topics -- like a Plains Native, a Klondiker, a polar bear, an insect pest, etc. Write each on a piece of paper and put them into a box. Divide your students into pairs and get one from each pair to draw a paper out of the box. Then, one student from each pair will take on the role of the subject on paper and the other will be a news reporter.Allow the groups enough time to prepare an interview by reviewing the appropriate WritingDEN topic. For example, students may do their interview on how the polar bear uses its special paws or which foods an insect pest enjoys most. Have students conduct their interviews in front of the class. Any advanced role-playing (like dressing up in costume or crawling on the floor to imitate an insect pest) should be encouraged.
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Aim: students will improve their communication and writing skills while learning how to overcome writer's block.
Ask your students a general, open-ended question on a WritingDEN topic that students have already read about. Give them five minutes to write down as much as possible on the subject. For example, you could ask them to write as much as possible about changes to Canada during World War Two. Tell them not to worry about spelling, grammar or neatness; rather, they should just let loose and write as much as possible. Do not explain the purpose of the exercise; keep it a mystery.When the five minutes is up, ask students to count how many words they have written. Once everyone has given their word-count, explain that brainstorming is a method that some writers use to help them come up with ideas. Ask them if they have ever been asked to write something and felt like they couldn't think of anything? Explain that brainstorming is one special method used to overcome this problem. Facilitate a class discussion about why it is sometimes hard to decide what to write. Encourage students to share their own experiences and solutions.
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Aim: students will improve their vocabulary, spelling, listening and writing skills.
Write yourself a list of frequently confused words from WritingDEN's Tips-O-Matic. Do not show the list to your students. Divide students into groups of five and ask them to stand together forming a circle. One student per group will need a pen and paper.Read your class one word from your list. Each group must figure out how many ways the word is spelled and must write one sentence using each spelling of the word. The object of the game is to be the first group to correctly spell and use the each word. When a group is finished, everyone in the group must sit down and be silent to indicate that they are done. A team scores one point when each time it finishes first. When you are done, tally up the scores to find the winners. You may want to reward the winners with a certain amount of free time to use WritingDEN.
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To supplement individual education programs
WritingDEN can be adapted to a wide range of English-language abilities. Special needs students and students who are learning English as a new language can benefit from self-paced, individual experiences with WritingDEN. Students who need extra practice in grammar, vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, sentence construction and essay-writing can focus individually on particular sections of WritingDEN.Do you have suggestions that we can add to this guide?
