Scriveners' Trappings
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Scriveners' Trappings
Aids and resources for creators and teachers of writing, interactive fiction, digital stories, and transmedia
Curated by Jim Lerman
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Rescooped by Jim Lerman from iPads, MakerEd and More in Education
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How Robots in English Class Can Spark Empathy and Improve Writing

How Robots in English Class Can Spark Empathy and Improve Writing | Scriveners' Trappings | Scoop.it
Mention robots to many English teachers and they’ll immediately point down the hall to the science classroom or to the makerspace, if they have one. At many schools, if there’s a robot at all, it’s located in a science or math classroom or is being built by an after-school robotics club. It’s not usually a fixture in English classrooms. But as teachers continue to work at finding new entry points to old material for their students, robots are proving to be a great interdisciplinary tool that builds collaboration and literacy skills.

“For someone like me who teaches literature by lots of dead white guys, teaching programming adds relevance to my class,” said Jessica Herring, a high school English teacher at Benton High School in Arkansas. Herring first experimented using Sphero, essentially a programmable ball, when her American literature class was studying the writing of early settlers. Herring pushed the desks back and drew a maze on the floor with tape representing the journey from Europe to the New World. Her students used class iPads and an introductory manually guided app to steer their Spheros through the maze.

Herring, like many English teachers, was skeptical about how the Sphero robot could be a useful teaching tool in her classroom. She thought that type of technology would distract students from the core skills of reading, writing and analyzing literature. But she decided to try it after hearing about the success of another English teacher across the country.

Via John Evans
Stephania Savva, Ph.D's curator insight, December 26, 2016 10:41 AM
Robotics in Education: not so far away from school routine.
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Corbett Harrison Always Write: Writing Lessons for Writing Teachers

Corbett Harrison Always Write: Writing Lessons for Writing Teachers | Scriveners' Trappings | Scoop.it
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