Jan Anderson, Central Texas College
We have two writing courses in our English-as-a-Second Language program. After students finish our basic grammar course where they learn to write sentences, they take Writing I which covers basic expository and process paragraph forms. Writing II covers narrative and persuasive paragraphs. In both courses, we use Writing with Confidence (Meyers) as a text. In addition to writing in class, students write two journals a week to practice the correct form, and the journal actually takes on the feel of a portfolio. Instructors grade them for mechanics, unity, etc. As the instructor examines each entry, he completes a pre-made form that resembles a Scan-tron, where he marks the types of errors the student is making. This form is handed back with the journal each week. Even though we have customized MyWritingLab for our courses, we encourage students to go to the parts of their study plan that have been noted on the Scan-tron and work on those particular skills. We generally do not give the Diagnostic test because, at this level, our students need some of every skill, and they spend too much time attempting to take the test –time that could be better used on skill development. Students spend at least one hour a week in MyWritingLab, and they have been instructed to bring any problem items to their face-to-face class for discussion. Of course, we monitor their work through the gradebook, and grade their compositions in MyWritingLab also.
Chuck Gonzalez, Central Florida Community College
My students are required to attend a computer lab once a week for fifty minutes for both of my developmental English composition courses at Central Florida Community College. In the lab, students are expected to work independently and quietly with my aid primarily to complete weekly assignments in MyWritingLab. Students have a detailed guide of topics to complete by a deadline to keep them from procrastinating. I arrange the topics in MyWritingLab to align with the chapters' progression I have chosen in our adopted textbook, The Writer's World. Working with MyWritingLab helps the students because it allows them to work at an individual pace as opposed to the pace of the class as a whole or the collaborative teams within the class time. It gives them the needed reinforcement for all writing concepts. The interface in MyWritingLab is more modern and treats the students, often adult learners, as adults, unlike the childish approach of our college's previously adopted software. MyWritingLab also gives the student more substantial and varied practices and mastery tests than the alternative lab. I find that I can focus on helping students with their composition skills better if I have more time to work on their compositions and meet with them when I am released from the time it would take to grade or check their drills and practices.
Pat Leverentz, Pima Community College
MyWritingLab has provided the perfect forum for my developmental students to integrate electronic work into their student experience. Unlike many of today's students, who are extremely savvy at navigating computers and the internet, many developmental students lack experience and confidence with computers. By incorporating MyWritingLab into the course plans from the beginning, I am able to help many students overcome obstacles related to technology and better prepare them for the technology demands of academia and the workplace.
More strategically, MyWritingLab provides all the grammar and editing practice my students need. We use the Watch feature in class as we study select areas of grammar and editing and engage in discussion to clarify with examples and verbal explanations.. Some practices are then assigned to the whole class, but much of the value of MyWritingLab is its accessibility to students for individualized grammar and editing exercises. After each final paper is graded, I assign each student a MyWritingLab topic to practice based on needs assessed from the graded paper.
When we have access to computer classrooms, we do some MyWritingLab work together as a class, in a setting where students can help each other and request assistance from me.
This in-class practice helps students become proficient at navigating through the course, and they are then confident in doing the individually assigned practices on computers outside the classroom.
Teri Maddox, Jackson State Community College
I had been looking for a computer software product that would help my students review grammar and writing vocabulary and work through exercises and practices, so I jumped at the chance to try out PH Words when it first came out. It had bugs, but I felt like it was worth sticking with. The first semester that my students used the software, even with all the problems, I polled my students and they were overwhelmingly positive about it, so I continued using it. MyWritingLab is even easier to use.
My students like MyWritingLab because it is individualized. They feel like they can progress at their own speed and don't have to stay with the teacher and the whole class if they can move faster. The multiple attempts for Recall and Apply sections are helpful because students often overestimate what they know about grammar.
Because we are in a computer lab, I don't have students use the Write feature. They use Microsoft Word and I teach them word processing techniques they need for the required essays.
Bev Neiderman, Kent State University
I began using PHWords (the title for MyWritingLab until Fall 2006) in Spring 2003 in a regular English I and a remedial English I composition class. I mainly used it for the sentence structure sections though students were encouraged to look into the other sections for extra guidance and direction for their writing. Since this time, I have been able to determine which students benefit from this type of online work and have found the most improvement and success using this program in one specialized course.
Presently, I use MyWritingLab in the second semester of a two-semester College Writing I Stretch course. This class is for students who do not have high enough entrance scores to be enrolled in College Writing I. Because these students are especially weak in sentence structure, they need a variety of teaching and learning methods to understand and improve these weaknesses. In the first semester of this course, I work with the students on sentence structures utilizing traditional class work and a lot of practice and emphasis on a variety of good sentence structure in all written assignments.
In the second semester, however, I use MyWritingLab exclusively to review and expand on the basic structures I covered in the previous semester. I assign certain sections and guidelines to this unit at the beginning of the semester, and the students work at their own pace to meet the deadlines assigned. (These documents are provided.) The students like working on this program for a number of reasons:
I find MyWritingLab to be a positive learning experience for my students and one which helps them to break the habit of only using simple sentences in their work.
Sharon Rinkiewicz, Broward Community College-Central
My Writing Lab and other technology Activity Sheet
My Writing Lab---Words Commonly Confused |
Recall, apply, Write |
My Writing Lab--- Subject/ verb ID |
Recall, apply |
My Writing Lab---Sentence structure |
Recall, apply, write |
My Writing Lab narrative paragraph |
Recall, apply, write |
My Writing Lab subject verb agreement |
Recall, apply, write |
My Writing Lab pronoun agreement |
Recall, apply, write |
My Writing Lab Verb tenses |
Recall, apply, write |
My Writing Lab apostrophes |
|
My Writing Lab Revising |
Recall, apply |
MyWritingLab Adjectives & adverbs |
Recall, apply |
Anna Schmidt, North Harris Montgomery Community College
I started using MyWritingLab when it was known as PHWords. I really liked the idea of the program – to provide the students with hands-on exercises and activities. My favorite features of MyWritingLab are:
There are several ways I use MWL depending in the type of course I teach. For example, for a traditional face-to-face course, I would use MWL in class for extra practice and for review before quizzes and tests. Usually I would finish my 2-hour class by sending the students to a particular module in MWL. If I teach a hybrid writing course (a.k.a. flex), I use MWL as part of the on-line class. WE meet for 2 hours as week face-to face, and the students have to work independently for 2 additional hours in MWL which I count as the second meeting time. This semester I am going to teach DL Writing II course, and I am planning to use MWL to supplement the on-line instruction.
Ona Seaney, Southern Methodist University
I have used My Writing Lab as an additional work tool, especially for the ESL Foundations for Rhetoric classes. These classes are specifically geared for those international students who enter the university with lower than average TOEFL and SAT verbal scores but score highly enough to be admitted. In order to avoid slowing the whole class down, I have found it very useful to assign elements of MWL to those students who are having particular ESL difficulties other students are not experiencing. MWL has also helped in reinforcing comments I make on students' papers. For example, if a student has been having too many difficulties with prepositions, or subject/verb agreement, or fragments, I will assign the appropriate section of MWL to reinforce my comments and what we have covered in class sessions.
Susan Taylor, North Florida Community College
Spring 2007 is my second semester working with MyWritingLab . As such I am still experimenting with the best ways to utilize this valuable resource in my classroom. However, I can say that MWL has enhanced my teaching experience because I am able to match student reading assignments to on-line activities that were designed specifically for the text I am currently using. Students can see the immediate relationship between out-of-class assignments on MWL and what we have discussed or worked on in class. Additionally, there are class days when the majority of my presentation is combined with hands-on practice in a campus computer lab. Students have commented that they feel more confident learning the skill and utilizing the technology when they listen, practice, and receive immediate instructor feedback.
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