Friday, October 3, 2008

MY Access!

After examining the MY Access! Web site, watching a video that demonstrated students', teachers' and administrators' use of the product, as well as reading the MY Access! Efficacy Report, it is quite clear that this web-based instructional writing tool is truly amazing. Since writing is such a vital aspect of education in all subject areas, I am definitely a supporter of implementing cross-curricular writing opportunities for students whenever possible. As research has shown, students' writing ability is immensely strengthened with repetition and immediate feedback, and the MY Access! product provides those key features. All of the MY Access! program's impressive features undoubtedly serve to motivate students to want to write and want to learn how to write successfully. Just as Douglas Reeves, founder of The Leadership and Learning Center, states, "kids respond to feedback from electronic games because it is immediate, accurate and incremental, " I can see how students would want to submit a revised version of their writing as quickly as possible when they receive a low score using MY Access!. I can also see how students using this program will start to view the process of writing and learning to write fun. The instant feedback and gratification provided by MY Access! is definitely a great motivational tool for students at all levels.

As a true believer in having a dictionary and thesaurus near me at all times when working on any type of writing assignment, I was really excited to learn that MY Access! contains these important features and encourages their use, while helping students work to strengthen their spelling and vocabulary and improve their writing scores and overall writing performance. Since writing is such an important part of all school subjects and all careers, the MY Access! instructional tool is a great way to teach children at an early age to love and appreciate writing. I can't wait to use this program in my classroom when I become a Language Arts teacher.

2 comments:

Dr. Luongo said...

I would love for you to be able to see this program "at work". With our schedule, I do not know if I will be able to demonstrate it in class, but contact me if you are interested in seeing it. I will be demo-ing it in Dr. Finetti's Monday night classes on October 20th if you are interested in seeing it.

Thanks for your comments!!

John L said...

I agree that the MY Access! program can be a great tool for students. I also thought it was really good that the students receive such rapid feedback from the program. I am sure this program will be a huge help when you get your own classroom. Good luck!