Procedural Writing with Technology

Stephanie Griggs' 2nd Grade students recently used the iPad app Educreations to enhance their recent work on procedural writing. Students were tasked with researching their favorite foods and writing a procedure, in their own words, for making the food. In traditional procedural writing activities, this is where the lesson might stop. Ms. Griggs 

decided to take it a step further by teaming up with Technology Integration Specialist Diane Stephanchick, and having students illustrate and verbalize their procedures using Educreations. In addition to the obvious benefit of increased engagement, this activity also makes the lesson much more relevant to the world our students are growing up in. Let's face it, in their world, most of our students will be much more likely to provide or seek out procedures in video form, with verbal, written, and illustrated instructions, than in just the traditional written form. Ms. Griggs' activity requires both, and exposes students to the very important writing skills they need, in addition to other important forms of digital communication.

Once completed these videos will be shared with email pals in Russia, Ireland, and other parts of the United States as part of a larger project the class is working on. This further adds to the engagement level of the lesson by providing students with an authentic audience to share their work with. You can check out more examples of student work from Ms. Griggs' 2nd grade classroom by going to her class Wiki here. If you would like more information about Educreations, or connecting with classrooms around the world, please contact the Instructional Technology Department. 

Scott Sisemore

Reflecting with SAMR