The Polliwog Journal

In this seventh iteration of CyberEnglish at Sheboygan Falls High School, it is again the students themselves who remind me why it is so important to keep insisting that we maintain our commitment to the concept of CyberEnglish itself. In addition, each year, teachers from all over the country write to me to ask me how they can start a class like ours. We’re still a novelty it seems, after all these years, and still an idea that people want to understand.

from Jessica A.

In all the classes I have ever had, we have never been able to have a great opportunity like this one. The only things we have ever created to reflect ourselves would just be posters or essays. I’m really looking forward to this class, partly because it isn’t the same English class I have every year.

There is a novelty involved when we put a computer in front of students each day in an English class, so there is, initially, excitement or expectation that the class will be fun. Ted, Pat, Nancy and I address this in our article, CyberEnglish. Even once we start really working on reading, writing, and thinking, and that fun turns into serious business, students are still more engaged in our work than they were in my traditional English classrooms.

The other thing I love about what Jessica writes is the idea that she’s able to create something that reflects who she is. In seven years of student webs (over 600 students in that time), no two were ever really alike. Each one reflected the personality of its author. We live in times where substance always trumps style and serious beats silly, hands down. And while I do want my students to be serious thinkers and writers, I also love that their websites allow them to be playful, creative, and expressive.

from Charlene W.

. . . we hardly ever write in this class. We type almost all of our assignments.

This is one of my favorite recurring comments. Several students say this every year. It proves to me that students don’t equate writing with typing. When students type, they are writing. Also, the act of typing improves the fluency of writing. I can get my thoughts down faster with a keyboard (even as slow as I am) than I can with a pencil. I still write with pen/pencil, but I can be more fluent with a keyboard. Think of how this may be even more true for someone who “grew up” with a keyboard.

Not only does the keyboard improve fluency, but it facilitates revision so well that revision becomes the natural companion of composition. With computers, we don’t compose first, revise second. We compose/revise, compose/revise, compose/revise–all at once. Just watch, without commenting, someone writing on a keyboard. There is a lot of backspacing and deleting going on just as the keys put words on the screen.

from Jeff B.

In my old English classes we worked with a lot of grammar, and spelling words. We also read stories from a literature book while using different reading strategies. But in CyberEnglish we will be writing a lot and publishing it on our own websites. In CyberEnglish we use computers pretty much all the time. It organizes our different pieces of writing rather than just writing an assignment on a sheet of paper and worrying about losing it. From my past experiences with English my classes did some group work and group discussions, but in this class it seems more like we do things individually. My other English teachers stood up in front of the room and talked and discussed points and hints. It seems to me that in CyberEnglish the teacher tells us what to do and where to find it on the CyberEnglish cite. So, it makes us have to work and find things independently for ourselves.

I am not even sure I explicitly made the point that I expected individual responsibility from students, but that is one thing I am hoping for. This student seems to intuitively know that CE = independent learning. Not that I’m not there for them, but CE is designed with so many choices and variables that the teacher cannot possibly direct every single aspect of learning. It has to be individual. Self directed learners know how to find what they need to know. My CyberEnglish site empowers students because I publish everything I can to help them learn.

from Kaitlyn L.

Never before have I had a class that specializes on writing more than grammar.

Maybe this is perception is attributable to a high school model (over a middle school model) and not simply CyberEnglish, but I like it anyway, because, I really do think we focus on writing. We write all the time: fun creative pieces on Fridays where we play with genres and perspectives, expository paragraphs, literary analysis essays, multigenre research papers, self reflective cyber journals, and more.

When we need to address conventions errors, we do. But grammar worksheets are not going to help students write better. Writing for a real audience will.

from Kelsey T

… in CyberEnglish9 we are learning new ways to use the computer by making our very own website. We even publish our work on this website. This pushes me to do better work on my assignments and really put time and effort into them, because I know my peers can see my work and what my peers think about how I write means a lot to me.

Yes! Make it Public. Changing the audience changes everything. Others have written/studied how publishing makes writing authentic, but only web publishing is really authentic. A class anthology is great, and peers do see it, but on the web anyone could see it. Now, in reality, do our students have a huge following for their school assignments? No, but more of their peers see their work than otherwise. Teachers peek in. Administrators sometimes have a look. And so do parents. The audience is vastly different when we publish on the web, and because of this, students stop writing just for the teacher and start writing for themselves.

Please visit the students’ websites and their cyberjournals and send them an email if you’re inclined to comment on their work. They’ve been told they have a global audience, but that is only real if they have contact with people who are interested in what they’re doing/saying.