USING COMPUTERS

TO TEACH

WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

This page contains an annotated list of Web sites that may be used to teach writing across the curriculum (WAC) in the secondary school or college classroom.

ONLINE COPY OF WORKSHOP HANDOUT

• Here you will find links to sites that focus on building students' LITERACY SKILLS.
  

  These sites contain resources to help students develop spelling, vocabulary, and grammar skills necessary for clear and coherent writing.

• You will also find links to GENERAL INFORMATION that students may use in their writings on topics in mainstream disciplines like Psychology, Computer Science, Biology, and many others.
  

  This section contains links to web sites on the Internet that focus on some academic subject areas that may be studied in high school and college.

• You will find links to suggested WRITING PROJECTS in the disciplines that are appropriate for high school and college students.

  These projects have been designed to help students practice academic reading, writing, and research skills.

• You can also read EXAMPLES OF STUDENTS' WRITTEN WORK.

• TOOLS FOR ONLINE COMMUNICATION can be very useful in helping students develop strong writing skills.

  A course e-mail discussion list provides a forum for students to ask questions, make suggestions, and share resources.

  A course web page can be used as a "home base" of resources and information for students.

• You will find links to popular and useful SEARCH ENGINES and to THE CUNY LIBRARY SYSTEM.
  

  Teachers and students may use these search engines to locate and access information in the disciplines studied in the course.

• The web page COMPUTERS IN THE CURRICULUM provides links to Internet resources that you will find useful in your research and teaching.

• Here is a BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RESOURCES that will provide you with additional information on using computers to teach writing across the curriculum.

1. The CUNY WriteSite

   The CUNY WriteSite is an Online Writing Lab maintained by the City University of New York. This site contains links to information and exercises that may be used to help students build and improve their academic writing skills.

2. The Purdue Online Writing Lab

   The Purdue Online Writing Lab contains a compendium of resources that can be used to develop students' writing skills. The resources target mechanics, organization, development, and other key areas critical to building writing proficiency.

3. The Hypertext Webster Gateway at UCSD

   The Hypertext Webster Gateway at UCSD is an online dictionary and thesaurus that students may access when writing.

4. Funbrain.com Spelling

   Many students have problems spelling words in English and this often makes their writing difficult to understand. Funbrain.com Spelling provides them with spelling practice and immediate feedback on their answers.

5. English Structure for Academic Purposes

   This site authored by Ann Salzmann provides students with a variety of resources and exercises that they may use to help them improve academic grammar skills.

6. Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Resources

   This site, developed by Esther Grassian, helps to build students' critical literacy skills by teaching them how to evaluate sources found on the World Wide Web.

7. The Internet Search Activity

   I have developed this set of questions for students to use as a guideline in their evaluation of Web resources.

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This section contains links to informational resources in  some academic disciplines commonly studied in high school and college.

• Business--This link will take you to The Marketing Source, a web site which contains links to information on business and marketing, with a full section on Marketing on the Internet.

• Psychology--This link will take you to Psych Web, a web site which contains links to texts on a variety of topics that are studied in psychology courses.

• Computer Science--This link will take you to the web pages of the COG and Kismet Artificial Intelligence Research Projects at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

• Biology--This link will take you to the web page of the Human Genome Project. This site provides information on the project itself, as well as on the educational, medical, legal, and ethical issues related to the project.

• Environmental Science--This link will take you to the Environmental Protection Agency's site on Global Warming.

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This section contains links to classroom-tested writing projects in the disciplines and to examples of students' written projects.

• Writing Projects for Business, Psychology, Computer Science, and Biology

• Additional Writing Projects

• Examples of Students' Written Work.

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E-MAIL DISCUSSION LISTS may be set up through sites like egroups.com

This service is free and provides for both asynchronous and synchronous modes of online communication.

Students and teachers can post messages of interest to the entire class.

There is also an online chat forum available for synchronous communication.

I have set up the e-mail discussion list CBESL for my students' use. As part of their work in my course, they are required to post a minimum of one message per week to the list.

COURSE WEB PAGES provide a home base of information for students through:

Links to syllabi and assignments

Links to sources of information for disciplines studied in the course

Links to resources for building linguistic, academic, and computer skills

Links to student work published to the course home page

I have developed The ESL 91 Home Page as the center of information for my content-based ESL course.

Here my students can find information on:

• Course requirements and writing assignments
• Resources on disciplines studied
• Resources for building literacy skills
• Internet search engines and CUNY library resources

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AltaVista:

AltaVista is an example of a Coordinated Directory and Search Engine.
Coordinated means that the directory and search engine tools operate interactively.

Yahoo:

Yahoo is an example of a Non-coordinated Directory and Search Engine.
Non-coordinated means that the directory and search engine tools operate independently.

C4:

C4 is an example of a MultiSearch Engine.
C4 accesses a number of different search databases and searches them simultaneously.

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THE CUNY LIBRARY SYSTEM

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The Computer Committee of the English Department at Kingsborough Community College has developed a web page called COMPUTERS IN THE CURRICULUM.

This web page contains links to resources for research and teaching, as well as links to other resources of interest to English faculty.

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• Creed, Tom. Extending the Classroom Walls Electronically. 1996.

• Kasper, Loretta F. Focus Discipline Research and the Internet: Keys to Academic Literacy for At-Risk College Students. Proceedings of WebNet '98. Charlottesville, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education, 1998.

• Kasper, Loretta F. Defining Literacy in the Age of Information: Implications for the ESL Classroom. Teaching in the Community Colleges Online Conference (TCC-99). 7-9 April 1999.

• Krauss, Michael. Integrating Technology Across the Curriculum: Internet/Computer Writing Resources for a Content-Based Curriculum. Paper presented at Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages 1998 Conference. Seattle, WA. 17-21 March 1998.

• Le Loup, Jean W., and Robert Ponterio. Internet Technologies for Authentic Language Learning Experiences. ERIC Digest, December, 1997.

• Oxford, Rebecca L., Yolanda Rivera-Castillo, Carine Feyten, and Joyce Nutta. Computers and More: Creative Uses of Technology for Learning a Second or Foreign Language. INSA de LYON. 1998.

• Sully, Brenda. Malaspina University-College's Writing-Across-the-Curriculum Project. 1995.

• Tanguey, Edward. Teaching English in the Network Age. 1997.

• Warschauer, Mark. "Surveying the Terrain of Literacy." Electronic Literacies: Language, Culture, and Power in Online Education. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999. Chapter 1.

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This page was developed for the

College Now Workshop

Using Computers to Teach Writing Across the Curriculum

Kingsborough Community College/CUNY

Tuesday, November 2, 1999

Web page design by Loretta Kasper

© 1999--Loretta Kasper
All Rights Reserved

Last updated on November 3, 1999