Tomorrow's Innovative Teaching is Happening
in South Carolina Classrooms Today

October 2000 Meeting of the South Carolina Fellows Waccamaw High School, Pawleys Island, SC

In 2000-2001, about 500 students in the classrooms of South Carolina teachers who have attended the Bread Loaf School of English won't just complete their academic work knowing more about literature, language, culture, and writing, they will take away technological know-how as well.

South Carolina scholar-teachers who are members of the Bread Loaf Teacher Network are integrating technology into teaching in intellectually rigorous ways, collaborating with their colleagues in South Carolina and across the country in ways that require students to take responsibility for contributing ideas and information to standards-based electronic projects that are key parts of their learning. South Carolina teachers are using BreadNet to create an environment where literacy, critical thinking, and communication skills flourish:  they are pioneers in their uses of technology in English and language arts classrooms.

• Students in Bread Loaf classrooms in South Carolina and Ohio will read a young adult novel and carry out a standards-based, class-to-class exchange. Goals include developing students' ability to identify the novel's theme and other aspects to fiction, to discuss the novel with students from another state, to improve keyboarding, editing, and proofreading skills as well as the ability to write for different audiences and purposes, and to write an essay based on perspectives other than their own. Creative writing will be a part of this exchange.

• Students in South Carolina and Vermont classrooms will learn about Rudyard Kipling's life and the influence of "place" on his writing. They will reflect on Kipling's time in Vermont and on the conflict that drove him away, read Kipling's short stories and respond to each other through BreadNet discussion and writing.

• Two classrooms in South Carolina and one in Georgia (Honors, College Prep, Tech Prep) will read Beowulf and view the movie Jaws. They will write comparison and contrast papers, choosing topics such as the concept of the hero, the mead hall in modern life, the roll of the warrior, the definition of a good leader. Some creative options will be offered, but this is basically a course in analysis and interpretation.

• Two Honors English classrooms in South Carolina will develop descriptive and narrative essays to share with students in their partner classrooms. The BreadNet exchange, "Up State and Low Country: Who We Are, Where We Are," will involve research, photography and design, and writing for the public. A goal is for students to develop research and writing skills, to become effective writers for diverse audiences, and to develop an appreciation for their own communities and for South Carolina.

• A classroom in South Carolina and a classroom in a school on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona will carry out a BreadNet exchange that focuses on the collaborative writing and editing of fiction by middle school students. In addition to learning to become good at editing and revising their own and other writers' work, an important goal is for these young people to produce writing for a large audience that is engaging and original, learning in the process that writing is an arduous process.

• A classroom in South Carolina with predominately gifted and talented African American students will collaborate with an Honors English course comprised of Navajo students to read and discuss The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton and explore issues concerning identity and survival. Students will inform each other about their communities by taking pictures and creating a scrapbook about life in their region. They will use classroom newsletters and other means to involve parents and members of the community: students will share their experiences as part of this BreadNet exchange at PTA and other community and school events. In addition to developing writing and analytical skills, the goal is for students to gain a greater appreciation for cultures other than their own.

• Janet Atkins has created a Web site for one of her 8th grade classes at Northwest Middle School in Greenville County that is available to students, parents, her South Carolina colleagues, and others with whom she is collaborating electronically by means of BreadNet. Atkins's "Family Stories" web site provides those who visit it with detailed information about all aspects of the "Family Stories" project, presented in light of South Carolina standards, including assessment procedures, readings, and details about assignments and expectations. At some point, creating a web site will be an optional final project for her students, who will complete the course with powerful communication and technological skills.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COUNTS

A report prepared by researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and distributed at an October 2000 conference on "Creating the CyberSouth:  One South --- Digitally Divided" concludes that in spite of states upgrading the infrastructure required to integrate technology into public education K-12, there has not been a commitment to identifying effective strategies for providing the kind of resources and professional development opportunities that will insure that technology, instead of enhancing existing inequalities, will contribute to all children's success in school. In this sense, the work of South Carolina Bread Loaf fellows is important at the policy level as well as at the level of classroom practice. Our goal is to use technology to make the ground-breaking work of the fellows visible and available as a resource to educators throughout the state and to work with the Department and instructional leaders on ways to make the South Carolina Bread Loaf Teacher Network a resource to all teachers and students, an important tool in efforts to improve reading, writing, informational literacy, computer literacy, and critical thinking skills.

Access to computers and the Internet varies enormously among South Carolina fellows, ranging from well-maintained computers with Internet access in their classrooms to a single computer with Internet access. Outside evaluators and Bread Loaf's own research indicate that the quality of professional development and the subsequent support that teachers receive to apply what they have learned about technology to best teaching practices is what counts when it comes to integrating technology into the curriculum in innovative and effective ways.