Writing Unplugged

Small groups are working together in class this week to publish newspapers. I've traditionally taken a low-tech approach to this project, where kids write final drafts on strips of adding machine tape that they cut into pieces, pasting columns up and down their poster paper under headlines and around pictures.

Access to computers in my school is very limited, and I prefer to sign them out when students are working on more substantial, independent pieces like memoirs or short stories. Sure, if kids worked on Macbooks, they'd create glossy and colorful publications, but I'll be cynical and say that they probably wouldn't have fewer errors and the quality of writing wouldn't be any better. It might even be worse. Kids are kids, plain and simple. They type quickly. They'd rather fool with font color and size than make revisions and edits to their writing. This newspaper project, however, requires that kids slow down a bit. They usually write more neatly than they've written all year--partly due to the novelty of the long, curly paper--mainly because they can only rely on their own devices to create something legible and correct for their readers. The turnover for writing pieces is quick, not unlike a real-life journalist. They plan, compose, re-read, revise, share, revise again, and unroll that paper for a final draft. During this time, my conferences have been more valuable than any I've had all year. Why? Because for every other writing assignment, I was too busy trouble-shooting the technology for students new to the various tools.

The newspapers they'll create will not be perfect. They're a little wrinkly from the glue, some of the handwriting slants a bit (despite my advice to put lined paper in back), and the columns are certainly not as even as they would be on Microsoft Publisher. But their leads grab the readers' attention, they distinguish between facts and opinions, they use quotes to improve the reliability of the stories, and their paragraph breaks make sense...at least a lot of them do.

I could make a strong case for more access to laptops any time, but for this project, I prefer to keep technology out of it.