I was excited to test out apps related to the writing process this week, particularly due to the fact that the class I teach new college students is focused almost exclusively on learning to write an essay from start to finish. Because I teach older students, I focused my app tryouts on those that seemed appropriate for use by young adults in service of research writing. In addition, I avoided paid apps due to the limitations of both my budget and those I would feel safe assuming are shared by my adult students. The following is a brief overview of which I looked into and found best suited for my classroom.
Grammarly: I suggest this app often to my students, particularly those with skills poor enough to need help that my classroom is too limited to provide. Because I only meet with my students for an hour twice a week over fifteen weeks despite the laundry list of things I need to teach before winter break, the time I can allot for grammar lessons is essentially limited to one class period. Although Grammarly is no grammar teacher and therefore doesn't get to the root of a student's issues, it does help quickly fix up surface errors.
Citelighter: Citations are often the biggest stumbling block in writing an essay for students unfamiliar with the process. Although some teachers scorn citation helpers due to occasional errant commas and the necessity of teaching students the arduous process of citing things by hand, I'm not so picky. My students often feel most confident with their citations, in fact, when using apps like this.(Easybib and Citation Machine are also helpful)
Kaizena: This app for Google Docs seems like an ingenius way to streamline commenting on student work. This one is more a timesaver for me than anything!
Editminion: This is another quick and easy tool I'd recommend for my students. By checking for sentence length and frequently occurred words, this site could be extremely helpful for students who accidentally find themselves reusing phrases.
Wordrake: This tool helps to remove cloudy or overly long phrasing. I would definitely suggest this to students during revision.
Interestingly, the apps that are most useful in my classroom aren't actually the type I'd use inside of the literal classroom space because that's just not a good use of time in a college environment. The apps my students would find useful are more tools and shortcuts to better research than, say, activity starters. This means that these programs are more the type I can suggest my students use than the sort I can grade the usage of in an assignment. A citation machine, for instance, would save my students a lot of time... but that won't stop one or two from writing their citations by hand because it's more comfortable for them nonetheless.
I think it would be most useful in my classroom, then, to list these apps as potential student resources rather than necessary assignment components. Providing them as a document or spending half of a class period going over them one by one, for instance, could be extremely useful in streamlining the writing and editing process for my students.
Shelby,
ReplyDeleteI also focused on the apps that would suit older students, as I teach high school English myself. You offered an interesting perspective on tools like Grammarly in your blog that gives me something else to chew on. I tend to worry that some of those tools may border on plagiarism, and are therefore, more hurtful than helpful. However, I can see the benefits you mentioned, as well. I also believe in the power of citation machines, too! Personally, I don't see why students shouldn't use them. Lastly, I really liked Editminion, too. What a fantastic way to get students to liven up their writing.