guest written by Kimberly Joki of Grammarly

When it comes to web tools for teaching writing, many educators are wary of writing editors and automatic checks that don’t so much “teach” as “tell.”  How does a student learn to write if a program does all the editing and revising for him? This article is meant to explain how Grammarly, the world’s most accurate automatic grammar check, and its family of services utilize a learning approach based on Bloom’s Taxonomy to help students perfect their writing themselves.

Before we begin, it’s important to be somewhat familiar with the services and features that Grammarly.com provides.  The primary service is a subscription-based writing and grammar check, the Grammarly Editor, that reviews texts for over 150 grammar, punctuation, usage, spelling, and citation errors.  There are also two free services: Grammarly Answers, a Q&A forum for the discussion of English grammar and writing, as well as Grammarly Handbook, an online reference tool that explains elements of grammar and writing using practical examples.  All of these services, when used together, create a great environment for learning and perfecting writing, but how do they actually use Bloom’s Taxonomy to accomplish this?

Knowledge and Comprehension

Both of these categories of the taxonomy are used throughout the Grammarly experience.  After students run a review in the Grammarly Editor, notes for revision are listed for their review.  As students read through the notes, they are guided back through their texts to correct errors or make edits.  Each note highlights an error or makes a suggestion that is named and briefly explained.  This forces students to recall information from class and facilitates knowing.  Additionally, the short and long explanations that accompany each note require students to understand the concept before being able to identify it in the highlighted sentence and make the correction.

Above: An example of a long explanation for “Wordiness caused by determiners and modifiers.” Note the options for a short explanation and to ‘Ask the community.’

Additionally, when students participate at Grammarly Answers, which is integrated into the Editor, they can ask and answer questions related to their writing.  At Answers, the dialogue that they can have about their writing promotes both knowledge and comprehension, particularly because they have a great opportunity to explain what they know and have learned to others.

Above: Grammarly Answers integration into the Editor.

Finally, the Grammarly Handbook aims to provide explanations of different writing elements to encourage recall of classroom lessons as well as to improve understanding so that knowledge can be practically applied.

Application

Application of new understandings of grammar and writing elements generally occurs right in the Editor as students review the correction notes, learn, and correct their writing.  They may, however, also find opportunities to use their understanding of a particular writing concept on the Answers forum.

Analysis

When using Grammarly, particularly Answers because it is a public forum, students will need to be able to distinguish between facts and opinion.  Also, the Grammarly Editor makes a number of suggestions regarding style and diction, which do not necessarily require a change to the student’s text.  In these situations, students will need to learn to asses how certain edits will impact and change the meaning of their writing.

Synthesis

During the writing process, and while using Grammarly, students will need use information from all sources — classroom, Grammarly’s services, and others — to complete and improve their writing composition.  Students can create (and re-create) their work right in the Grammarly Editor, then save the Editor’s notes as a PDF.

Evaluation

As students continue through the cyclical process of writing, they will have to judge and select those suggestions and improvements that are most helpful for their composition. Because the Editor does not simply make corrections for the students, they will be continually forced to evaluate the relevance of a given suggestion to their writing.  Likewise, students using Answers will need to choose, from a various contributions, which advice or information from the forum is most accurate.

Additional Thoughts

Looking at Grammarly’s services through the lens of Bloom’s Taxonomy helps to see how this can be a helpful tool for the improvement of student writing.  However, there are additional benefits to using this web tool alongside traditional classwork.

First, it takes a lot of anxiety out of editing.  Students, particularly those who are only becoming comfortable with writing, are not completely responsible for identifying potential errors and fixing them.  The guided approach of the Editor, along with the ability to get feedback from others via Answers, make the proofreading and editing process more relaxed.

Second, the ability to check and review some writing issues before entering into peer-editing or writing conferences with a teacher or professor can give students more confidence to address the problems that they have as well as to suggest corrections or enhancements to other’s writing during conferencing.

Third, with regular reports from the Grammarly Editor, students can begin to see patterns in their writing.  Knowing these patterns helps students see where they have had progress and where they can continue to improve.

Finally, teachers can similarly benefit from the feedback from the Grammarly Editor.  Each time a text is reviewed in the Editor, a list of errors and suggestions for that writing is generated.  This report can be printed and reviewed by the teacher as a way to confirm comprehension and application of in-class lessons.  This information can inform coursework.  For example, if an educator were to see that many students had frequent errors with modifiers, he could develop a lesson to address this lack of knowledge, then test for comprehension by using the Grammarly Editor or by posting a relevant text on Grammarly Answers and having students explain the error or correct it.

Conclusion

Grammarly.com has great services for helping students and teachers perfect student writing  In addition to being a useful writing tool, the service is convenient.  All of the Grammarly tools are completely based online, which means users can easily set up an account, can access the service from any place with an internet connection, and have no updates to download.  Finally, Grammarly is easy to try out.  All new individual accounts receive a 7-day free trial and new bulk or institutional licenses may also be eligible.

Registration

For individual registration, visit www.grammarly.com.  For registration of a bulk or institutional license, please visit Grammarly@edu or write to Gregory Carpets at greg.carpets@grammarly.com.

(Or, How to Stop Worrying and Love the SAT)

guest written by Barbara Bellisi of the CollegeBound Network

I don’t consider myself old, but since I have taken the SAT almost half a lifetime ago (gulp!), I like to consider myself wise — at least when it comes to standardized testing. Combine that wisdom with a few years’ teaching experience and I discovered that — voila! — I was a natural SAT tutor.

During my training, I had to take a practice SAT. Wow! Either the test got easier or I got a whole lot smarter. OK, so maybe I didn’t have the stress that you college-bounders  have when I was filling out those little circles — after all, my college degree is already framed and hanging nicely on a wall — but I can still understand the pressure of a ticking clock and a dull #2 pencil.

Those algebraic equations won’t solve themselves, and someone’s got to fill in the blank with the correct vocabulary word, right? That’s why you’ve got to add a little dose of humor to your test-taking strategy. That’s right, future valedictorians and NMSQT finalists — I’m telling YOU that it’s OK to look at the PSAT, the SAT, the ACT, and any other hellish acronym directly in the face and give it a big LOL.

Need some help in finding the funny? Then put down the prep books and chew on some of these test-taking tips instead of that dirty pencil eraser:

1 – Hone your concentration skills.
There are two major problems with any standardized test: 1) It is long, and 2) It is boring. Practice concentrating at home by working on one assignment at a time instead of skipping around between subjects. Too tired? Then veg out in front of the TV for a half an hour, but no flipping around the channels. Bonus points if you can watch C-SPAN for a full 20 minutes without falling asleep.

2 – Make some noise.
Do you need complete silence when doing your homework? Break yourself out of that silly habit, because you have a better chance of getting a perfect score on the SAT than you do of getting a quiet testing room. There will always be a student who sniffles throughout the entire test, and there will always be a proctor who doesn’t know how to whisper. And, if you’re (un)lucky like I was, you might be able to hear the football team in all its grunting glory practice right outside your window. Woo hoo!

3 – Perfect your circle-filling ability.
Learn to fill in those answer circles with no more than three swipes of your #2 pencil. Any more and you’re just wasting precious time — time that is better spent erasing those circles once you’ve realized you skipped a row on your answer sheet.

4 – Don’t get too wrapped up in the reading comprehension.
Yes, every once in a while, a really interesting passage will appear on a standardized test. But this is the SAT, not a leisurely Sunday morning with the newspaper. Standardized tests are not written for your personal enjoyment; get through those reading sections, answer the questions, and be done with it.

And some tips for the day of the test:

Don’t mess with breakfast. I don’t care if butterflies are playing Marco Polo in your stomach. Scarf down a granola bar before you sit for the test. Otherwise, the audible growls coming from your stomach later will cause you to lose focus.

Layer your clothing. Some people get the chills when they get nervous. Other people have hot flashes. All bets are off for what will happen to you on the day of the test, so prepare for anything by wearing several layers. If you need to remove a piece of clothing, do so quickly and quietly — this is the SAT, not a Vegas show.

Don’t make plans for after the test. Instead, go home and crash on your bed, the couch, or in your little brother or sister’s wading pool. Stay there for a while. You’ve earned it.

About the author: Barbara Bellesi is a blogger at The CollegeBound Network. Follow CBN on Twitter @CollegeBoundNet.

guest written by Suzanne Shaffer of Parents Countdown to College Coach

It’s hard. I know. I’ve been there. You want your kids to have the BEST education available. You want them to want it as much as you do. You see them making some choices that you know they will regret. You hover over them, ready to swoop in and rescue them from their poor choices. As hard as you try, you find yourself pressuring them to make the right choice and the battle lines are drawn. They dig their heels in. You dig your heels in. And the tug of war begins.

What’s a parent to do when they feel their college-bound teens are making the wrong choices related to college? Here are my suggestions based on past parenting experience and observing other parents in these predicaments:

Your college-bound teen tells you he doesn’t want to go to the college that is hard to get into, and is opting for what you consider to be sub-par.

Don’t panic or overreact. It’s possible he is scared. Try and ascertain the reasoning behind the decision. Don’t do this by badgering him or constantly asking him why. The best way to figure out what is wrong is to LISTEN. Listen to him talk about his day, about college, about how he feels. If fear is not the reason, perhaps he feels the other college would be a better fit. If that’s the case, do yourself a favor and back off. The worst thing you can do with a teenager is force him into a decision he feels is wrong. Sometimes the best lessons we learn are the ones that come from making our own decisions (right or wrong).

Your college-bound teen tells you that he simply MUST go to Private College A, even though she knows it comes with a high price tag.

Don’t let her bully you into sending her to a college you can’t afford AND one that will require a tremendous amount of student loan debt. Sit her down and explain to her the dangers of graduating in debt. Use the college repayment calculators if you have to. If she truly wants to go to Private College A, she needs to do the work (good grades, good SAT/ACT scores, great essay) to be awarded scholarship/grant money from that college. If not, there are always other options and choices. It’s your job as a parent to help her to see those other options as viable.

Your college-bound teen is not interested in college, deadlines, studying for the SAT or any other path that leads him toward higher education.

If there is one thing I learned with both of my kids (and clients), if they aren’t invested in the college process they won’t be invested in college. Save yourself some time, money and heartache and wait until they are. If not, they can learn from the college of hard knocks — minimum wage jobs are the BEST motivator!

Your college-bound teen misses deadlines, panics and comes running to you at the last minute to fix it.

The simplest way I know to avoid missing deadlines, is to get yourself a huge wall calendar and a fat red marker. Put it in a place that they have to pass by every single day. In addition, with all the smartphones and calendar apps available today, missing a deadline should be a thing of the past. At some point (hopefully when they go to college), they will have to fix their own problems. Let them do it now, while they live at home, and it will be easier for them once they are gone. Rescuing your kids all time only makes them into dependent adults and colleges aren’t impressed with those types of students or the parents that come with them. Admissions officers can spot these students a mile away, and their applications end up in the reject pile.

Your college-bound teen suddenly announces she is not ready for college and wants to take a year off.

First of all, wait. Don’t react. Just listen. Odds are the mood will change with the wind and once all her friends are making college plans, that desire that she once had will kick back in. If not, let her know that it won’t be a “free-ride” year. She will be expected to work and save the money she makes for college. Or she will be expected to work at an internship to help her determine career goals. There are so many gap year options available now that help parents breathe easier and help students prepare for college. Most colleges are also receptive to deferring admission, allowing your student to enter college the next year with all their financial aid in place.

About the author: Suzanne Shaffer counsels parents in the college admissions process and the importance of early college preparation. Her Parents Countdown to College Coach blog offers timely college tips for parents and provides parents with the resources necessary to help their college-bound teens navigate the college maze. She is also the College Prep Expert for CollegeParenting.com, a member of the Unigo Expert Network, a College Money Insider Expert and the College Coach for Galtime.com.

Alright, I confess.  This is actually the second blog post I’ve written since I got home from ISTE 2011 — the first one appeared last Friday on The Entrepreneur’s Bible.  Yes, I am getting a lot mileage out of this, but that’s the way you have to do it.  This time around, though, I am going to focus more specifically on the ISTE experience rather than the general conference experience.

I will start off by saying that our EdTech Karaoke Tweetup was a smashing success.  If you are interested in seeing any of the pictures and videos taken at the event, I suggest you visit the Facebook fan page.  They should be slowly appearing anytime now that the holiday weekend is over.

I heard that Google threw a party the night before we did that had about 200 or so people in attendance.  Word is that it was a private affair, but technically so was ours.  And we definitely had more than 200 people there — I would say between 300 and 400 at the peak from 9 to 11 pm.  The karaoke (provided by Joey McCann), was of course a huge hit, with people dancing on tables to sometimes off-key hit music.  Hopefully we’ll see some good videos surface from that.  There’s one already…

The photo booth was a quite successful as well.  And by “quite successful” I mean that there are 528 pictures of people having a grand old time at our tweetup on the A+ Entertainment Website.  If you want to get in to see the photos, just find EdTech Karaoke @ ISTE 2011 in the list of Event Photos.  The password is “dicon.”  And don’t worry, I checked them all and the most NSFW thing you’ll see is a couple alcoholic beverages and a rubber chicken.

But there was more going on at EdTech Karaoke than pure debauchery.  There was a lot of quality networking to be done, and it seemed like the attendees knew it.  A lot of business cards got exchanged, and I caught snippets of a lot of education-related discussions going on as I made my way around the restaurant.  Tweetups in general are a great way to meet up with the most passionate individuals at a conference, and this was no exception.  In fact, this was probably the tweetup of ISTE.

I’m not going to lie.  The team is already looking forward to throwing another big bash at ISTE 2012.  There is talk or renting buses, boats, and even jets — although realistically we’ll just rent out another restaurant or bar and pack it with educators singing their hearts out, like we did this year.  Stick with what works, right?

In closing, I’d like to thank our co-hosts: Collaborize Classroom, Edutopia, SymbalooEDU, and SchoolTube.  I had a chance to learn more about each one of these organizations at ISTE, and I have to say that I recommend checking into each and every one.  See what they can do for you.