How I Will Use Word Processing in my Classroom

I think students should be taught the skills that go along with word processing at a very young age. Children are far more advanced in technology than they have ever been before. I think it's so smart to teach them while they're young, so they will be able to use it often and early on. Kids these days just have a knack for technology and they understand how to use it, and use it well. Right now, I would like to teach 2nd grade, and I would definitely have my second graders use word processing. I don't think I'd introduce it right at the beginning of the year, because one thing I do worry about with them using it would be that they could be lazy with their grammar and spelling. Kids need to learn how to spell and how to speak correctly, because they can't rely on a computer to do it for them all of the time.

I think it would be really cool to introduce collaborative writing to students. Students at the second grade level need a lot of practice reading and writing, so this would be a great activity to get a lot of practice in! I think they would have a blast doing this! Kids love to make up stories and talk about adventures they have had. This would be a great way to show kids how to work together, and come up with a story with their friends. I think I would have them do it in small groups, with maybe only 4 or 5 students in the computer lab at a time, or at least only 4 or 5 doing collaborative writing at a time. Kids at this age are still pretty egocentric, so this would be a fabulous way to kind of "force them" to work together. This would give them a chance to see how fun it is to work with other people and what can be accomplished when they do work together. They'll come up with so many different ideas than they would have, had they tried to write a story on their own. I really, really think kids would enjoy this so much, and it'd help them so much with their writing skills. I love doing activities with children when they have so much fun doing it, and don't even realize how much they are learning and gaining from the activity.