CHALK TALK: Reading and Writing in a Paperless Classroom

Editor's note: The Hour's Chalk Talk column runs the first Sunday of every month and is written by former Norwalk educator Roz McCarthy. For the full collection of stories visit

NORWALK -- In Ashley Bonora's 8th grade classroom at Ponus Ridge Middle School, the dog can no longer eat the kids' homework.

The printer can no longer run out of ink.

In fact, there are few valid excuses for missing homework.

This year, Ms. Bonora instituted a paperless classroom. Classroom management has become "a breeze," she said. Student classwork is online so she doesn't have to lug home 80 essays, and she grades them online too. No class time is lost handing out tests since kids take their tests online. Students do not spend 10 minutes searching through chaotic backpacks looking for last night's homework. It's submitted online, and she knows who has not completed homework before the class begins.

Her students love it too. In a quick in-class survey, kids said they work faster on the computer. One boy said, "You don't have messy erasing; you just hit delete." They said it keeps them more organized. Everything is in the Google Classroom: homework, classwork, assignments, documents, even their textbook. They don't worry about leaving their work in their locker or misplacing the assignment.

On a typical day in December, the students copy their homework into their agenda books and open their Chromebooks, small laptops that use Cloud-based programs. From then on, no pen or paper is used in this English class.

The students locate the day's assignment online and get to work. They must complete a two-column chart about the movie "Freedom Writers." One column has the names of the characters; in the other column, students type the major truth for that character. When a few students cannot remember a particular character, one student holds up his Chromebook. He had Googled the film and found pictures of all the characters. Reminded of the characters, the kids go back to work.

Ms. Bonora said this is common in her classroom. She said kids love having the world at their fingertips, especially students who may have less background knowledge than others. If something is unfamiliar, they look it up. The playing field is more level: they too are knowledgeable and they participate more in discussion and activities.

When everyone finishes the chart, they discuss their answers. Ms. Bonora, walking around with her laptop, types onto the chart that is projected onto the whiteboard. Students can add information to their own charts. At the end of this lesson, students click SUBMIT. Later, Ms. Bonora will check their work and she'll know instantly if anyone had problems with the assignment. During this 45 minute period, close to every minute was spent on English instruction. Only three minutes were spent getting organized.

In the next class, students are asked to write (type) how certain relationships change during the movie. Then, they must read someone else's writing and respond to it. Do you agree with that person's ideas? Why or why not? The class is quiet and highly engaged, especially when they start reading the ideas of their peers.

The previous week, students took a test on the Chromebooks. As students were settling down, Ms. Bonora asked who had studied the previous night using the online study guide. "Oh, I saw a bunch of people online going over the documents," said one boy. Others chimed in, "Yeah, I saw you!"

Norwalk Public Schools has invested heavily in Google Classroom and Chromebooks, and more than 5000 Chromebooks are in the schools, according to Ralph Valenzisi, Chief of Technology, Innovation and Partnerships. Google Classroom can be used by any Norwalk teacher and accessed from any device. School-based Tech Coaches help teachers learn to use Google Classroom.

Many of the students said they use their phones to do their homework for Ms. Bonora. It's really handy because they can do their work anywhere they don't have to be on their home computer to complete homework.

Best of all, Ms. Bonora sends them texts as reminders. One girl said, "When I get the text notification, I get excited about opening it." Another girl said she often completes all her paper assignments, and then she gets the text reminding her she still has work to do. But the best text was the one from Ms. Bonora on Thanksgiving morning saying, "Happy Holidays!"