Tip-type students

OAKLAND — For Oakland Elementary School, being called “exceptional” wasn’t enough.

The school was rated “exceptional” on its 2005-06 state report card for the fourth straight year.

“It’s extremely unusual for anyone to be exceptional two years in a row,” said Oregon Department of Education spokesman Gene Evans.

For the last two years, nearly all of Oakland’s third-graders have met the state standards in math and reading.

The fourth-grade writing scores, however, bothered Principal Julie Carson.

“Our writing scores weren’t very good,” Carson said. “They weren’t in alignment with our reading.”

During the 2004-05 school year, just 30 percent of the students met the writing standard. The state average wasn’t much better, at 32 percent.

Carson asked the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe of Indians for a grant to buy AlphaSmarts, small wireless laptop word processors that allow students to write and learn to keyboard, but don’t connect to the Internet.

The tribe responded with a grant of $9,000 to buy 30 AlphaSmarts.

In addition to changes in instruction, Carson thinks the word processors have helped. Last school year, 53 percent of Oakland’s fourth-graders met the state writing standards, 11 percent more than the state average. Carson expects to see more improvement this year.

Every third- and fourth-grader spends a half hour each day using the word processors. The third-graders work mostly on keyboarding, and the fourth-graders compose writing assignments.

Teacher Kara Powell has used the AlphaSmarts extensively in her classroom.

“One of the main things ... is their excitement for writing,” she said. “One thing is it’s new for them. The other thing is when they see adults writing, they’re typing.”

Powell said her students know they need to learn to use computers.

“It’s easier for them to see their mistakes, too,” Powell said.

Children are used to reading words in print, and they recognize misspelled words better when they are printed, she said. The AlphaSmarts can spell check documents, but the teacher can turn that function off so students have to correct their own work.

“I think they really take ownership of what they write,” Powell said.

Students can “beam” their work to the teacher’s computer electronically, and the teacher can use a projector to show the whole class what the student has done. The teacher can also make changes to the document.

The fourth-graders seem to like using the AlphaSmarts.

“I like them because you kind of challenge yourself to get better and better,” Patrick Byrd said.

“The AlphaSmart goes faster than writing,” Shantina Rust added, referring to handwriting.

Patrick said he doesn’t like having to erase on paper, and he likes writing stories on the keyboard.

“I like that they’re more compact than normal computers,” said Austin Miller, who was working on a piece of writing about football. “You don’t have to get up and sharpen your pencil if it breaks. You can just keep writing. Teachers can read it better if you have bad handwriting, like I do.”

Xenya Fernandez was writing a story about a horse and a unicorn.

“It’s easier to type than pick up your pencil because it hurts between your fingers,” she said. “And it’s faster.”

Carson said because students are keyboarding in elementary school, in middle school they are ahead and can spend more time learning to use the computer instead of typing.

“With the direction that we’re moving in technology, it’s necessary to learn and be exposed to it at an earlier age,” Powell said.



• You can reach reporter Teresa Williams at 957-4230 or via e-mail at twilliams@newsreview.info.