A Lincoln-Way East teacher’s success at generating thought-provoking discussions with a web-based teaching tool has been featured in an Illinois Association of Teachers of English (IATE) newsletter.

Thomas Anstett, who teaches AP Language and Composition at East, shared his experiences with Turnitin.com in an article about technology in the English/language arts classroom.

“My students in AP Language and Composition used this vehicle several times last fall just for the discussion board, and I found it highly relevant and useful,” he wrote.

Not only did they like posting their work and seeing what others had to say about it, but viewing what others had to say about the same topic under discussion.

“Students – and teacher – can reply to certain comments that provoke discussion,” he wrote, “thus, opening eyes to elaboration methods, methods that cannot be so easily accessed through individual essays that are usually passed between student and teacher only.

“Since elaboration is always a tough nut to teach, why not help students see all the more examples of how this can be achieved?” he continued.

Anstett used the web-based tool last year to synthesize student reading and viewing by having them comment on the rhetorical strategies used by the late Senator Ted Kennedy and to supplement class discussions on such novels as Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.

In two assignments for the novel, students were asked to post answers to such questions as “How does public perception influence who we are?” and “How do the rhetorical strategies present in the chosen passage create meaning?” as they read the book.

“Students had to both post an original response and reply to one other student’s answer,” wrote Anstett.

The Lincoln-Way East teacher’s article was published in IATE’s August newsletter under the heading “Technology in the English/Language Arts Classroom.” It will be circulated among English teachers throughout Illinois.