Brief Description

The Internet can be a useful tool for motivating reluctant writers. Even students who find it difficult to get their thoughts down on paper are compelled to write when they know their audience is all of cyberspace.
Using the Kids-Space website, students will publish original rebus style stories on the Internet. When completed and published, they then will be able to email the URL for those stories to friends and relatives around the country.
The computer can also be a powerful tool for revising original work. The painful processes of erasing and rewriting can be eliminated. Students will learn how to use the computer to edit their stories using criteria based on the Six Traits of writing.

Standards and Frameworks

Technology Standards

• 1T-E1. Communicate about technology using developmentally appropriate and accurate terminology
• 1T-E2. Demonstrate increasingly sophisticated operation of technology components
• 2T-E1. Discuss basic issues related to responsible use of technology and information and describe personal consequences of inappropriate use
• 3T-E1. Use formatting capabilities of technology tools for communicating and      illustratin
• 4T-E2. Use technology tools for individual and collaborative writing, communication and publishing activities to create curricular related products for audiences inside and outside the classroom

• W-E2.Write a personal experience narrative or creative story that includes a plot and shows the reader what happens through well-developed characters, setting, dialog, and themes and uses figurative language, descriptive words and phrases
• W-E1.Use correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar and usage, along with varied sentence structure and paragraph organization, to complete effectively a variety of writing tasks

Academic

• In the school computer lab, using the Kids-Space website, students will write a creative story in rebus style which meets the criteria of the attached Six Traits rubric.

• In the school computer lab, students will access a student-publishing site and demonstrate basic word processing skills, such as spell check and cut and paste, to edit and publish a story on the Internet.

• Students will need appropriate permission to access and publish on the Internet.
• Students will need to know how to access the Internet.
• Students will need to be able to type, edit, and save work to a disk or server.

A computer with Internet capability
A six traits of writing rubric to evaluate their writing
A dictionary and/or thesaurus (optional)

Accommodations for Special Needs
 

• Students can work in teams.
• Sheltered English Immersion students can write in their home language or work with a partner.
• Since this is an open-ended format, gifted writers are free to write longer, more involved stories. They may also choose a format without icons to write creative stories based on their own themes.
• Students can save their stories to disk or server and work on them in the classroom as time permits.

1. Verify that all students have permission to access and publish on the Internet based on district guidelines
2. Three to five days before the lesson go to www.kids-space.org/guide/storyH.html and submit the Class Story Entry Form. You will receive a password under which you will submit your stories. You will also receive helpful information about how to submit stories for publication.
3. Before going to the computer lab, instruct students in Internet safety. Advise students Not to give out their own email addresses but to use a school or the teacher’s email account.
4. Have students access the Internet.
5. Have students log onto www.kids-space.org/forms/story/formSC_month.html.
6. If this can be bookmarked on the computers prior to use it will greatly simplify matters. Use the averkey or projector to show students how to bookmark a site.
7. Have students enter their class password (see step 2).
8. Students will name the icons presented in their monthly story.  They can choose any name for an icon.  Instruct the class that they will write a story based on these icons. Following the website format, students will name the icons presented.
9. Students can then write their stories. When the stories are completed and sent to be published, Kids Space will substitute the icon for the word.
10. Students should be instructed to transfer their stories to Microsoft Word using the cut and paste functions. In this program the stories can be checked with a spellchecker and it is an easier to save incomplete stories.
11. When complete, the stories are pasted back into Kids Space for publication.
12. Students fill out the rest of the publication form including a title, their first name and last initial, their age, a brief description, and their teacher’s email address.
13. Students submit their story.
14. Stories are published at http://www.kids-space.org/story/class.html in approximately 3 - 5 days.

Student stories will be assessed based on this 6 + 1 writing traits rubric.
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/view_rubric.php3?id=514419
Teachers may create a slip of paper that looks like the one below (or create a stamp):

        Six-Trait Scoring Rubric
 
     Ideas    _______           Word Choice _______

     Organization  _______   Fluency          _______

     Voice   _______             Conventions _______

Different total scores or weighting of the traits can be assigned based on the area(s)the teacher intends to emphasize.

Student technological skills will be assessed by teacher observation of their computer use.
Students will publish the stories on the Internet.
 

Teacher Name: Mitchell Miller
Site: Walker
Date Submitted: November 12, 2002