Online Writing Instructional Program Supports Whole School Writing Initiative

An increasing number of students and teachers are embracing opportunities to utilise web-based instructional programs and automated marking systems for iterative writing instruction.

The Islamic College of South Australia (ICOSA) has a comprehensive three year strategic plan to improve writing student abilities. ICOSA has incorporated MY Access!, an online writing instructional program developed by Vantage Learning, into this plan.

Writing skills are a critical component of academic and post-academic success. Communicating effectively in writing is more important than ever before and therefore educators are constantly searching for effective and innovative ways to improve student writing skills. After undertaking a six month trial of MY Access!, ICOSA has adopted the MY Access! program into its' curriculum for students in Grades 9, 10 and 11. As a result students are writing more often to a structured plan, clearly addressing individual aspects of their written skills which need the most attention.

This presentation will address the nature of the ICOSA strategic plan as well as the specific features of MY Access!® which made the program an appropriate choice for ICOSA. ICOSA’s plan is bold and as such needed to be mindful of students’ need to keep up with the program whilst learning at their own pace and not leaving some students behind.

Part of the ICOSA plan is to encourage students to write more frequently using a structured writing process without significantly increasing the staff’s workload. MY Access! is built on the writing process and as such provides students with a plethora of pre-writing tools, coaching on how to build their essay, advice on mechanics and conventions, instant graphic and textual feedback once an essay is submitted, writers models and revision tools to help take them to the next level.

One aspect of ICOSA’s plan is that it is important to be able to closely monitor student progress and make changes to lesson plans on the fly to adapt to student learning needs. The detailed reporting feature which provides data at an individual, class and school level help the educators to do this easily. In addition, the fact that the system is real time and web-based means that teachers can oversee students work, regardless of their location.

As ICOSA has a contingent of students for who English is not their first language, the presentation will also briefly address the practical application of this technology for students from a non-English speaking background.

All delegates attending this session must bring and ensure:

Because of limited time, this presentation will not require attendees to log on or follow online. However, if they wish to review the program independently, they can request a demo login by emailing either mtodd@vantage.com or chrisrasch01@gmail.com.