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Show A10 Wednesday, September 24, 2008 Vernal Express Teachers, students benefiting fromWeb-based writing program By Patrick Timothy Muilhot Express Editor English class ain't what it used to be. In years past, Rachelle Dur-rant, Dur-rant, who heads the English department at Vernal Junior High, would have taken pencil to paper and circled that offending "ain't." Not this year. The junior, high is one of several schools in the state that has begun using MY Access!, a Web-based program designed to help students with their writing skills. And students are not the only ones who are benefiting; English teachers are spending spend-ing less time correcting papers and more time teaching, says Durrant, anll-year-veteran of correcting and grading reams of English papers. "It reduces some of our paper load and their paper load. There's no waiting for them to hand write a draft, turn it in, spend two weeks correcting them by hand, with suggestions for improvement, improve-ment, then handing them back, saying do, it again. That usually is a two-month process to do a normal paper," she says. "I don't have to go through'so many paper drafts, trying to decipher their' handwriting," she adds with a laugh. Say goodbye to penmanship penman-ship skills and hello to instant feedback. This is, after all, the era of text-messaging where the keyboard and key pad reign supreme. . English students at Vernal Junior High now log onto MY Access!, at the school's English computer lab. The writing program prompts the student to write an essay in a narrative, narra-tive, informative, persuasive or ASIN and UINTAH ARTS COUNCILS PROUDLY PRESENT 1 y f' " p ! j fti r DIRECT FROM BRANSON, MISSOURI! Monday, September 29, 2008 7:00 pm Roosevelt Jr. H.S. 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The submitted piece is sc6red on six traits, traits that are part . of the state's writing program: idea development, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency flu-ency and conventions. MY Access! "reads" the submission and highlights misspelled mis-spelled words and grammatical errors. "It will explain what a clause error is with an example so that they can understand, "she says. It also evaluates a student's organizational skills and scores the student's work. In short, the Web program does what a teacher would do, but instantly. The teacher's red pen is replaced by a "virtual" instructor who highlights typos and errors in grammar and syntax. Real-life instructors like Durrant have full access to their students' online work and can see what revisions have been made and the number of drafts a student has submitted. Durant is quick to point that the program is just one component of her department's approach to writing. "It doesn't take us (teachers) (teach-ers) out of the picture at all. I still have to teach them what a good introduction is, what a good conclusion is, how to write a paragraph. The computer can give suggestions, but it doesn't replace us." Though it's still too early in the school year to come to any conclusion about the program, she says reports from the other five English teachers has been 5UN5UK5T Model 210 1,296 Sq Ft, $159,950 V Payments only $l,142month 6.650 'APR r positive. The program is also cost-effective, she says. The subscription-based program costs about ?f ) ... "' ' """ ' ' " "" " """" "v " " ' " - .--.. -' ' -T V - ?i Vl ' -.,-- u w"'Z', - 4 Kameron Barr and Jordan Maynard, both 13 and eighth-graders at Vernal Junior High, log on to MY Access! at the school's English computer lab. Study links oil prices to investor speculation By H. Josef Herbert Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - An independent study has concluded that speculation by large investors- and not supply and demand for oil - was a primary reason for the surge in oil prices during the first half of the year and the more recent price declines. The report by Masters Capital Capi-tal Management said investors poured $60 billion into oil futures markets during the first five months of the year as oil prices soared from $95 abarrel in January Janu-ary to $145 a barrel by July. Since then, these investors have withdrawn $39 billion from those markets as prices have retreated re-treated dramatically, the report said. Oil traded around $102 a barrel Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. "We have clear evidence the fund flow pushed prices up and the fund flow pushed prices down," said Michael Masters of Masters Capital Management, calling the amount of money moving into oil futures markets by large institutional investors in the early part of the year "way off the scale." Masters said its analysis shows investors "began a massive mas-sive stampede for the exits" on July 15 and that this caused the TCKRACC $8 per student per year, and 24 Utah school districts are using the program to date. While the program is aboon to price decline. "These large financial players have become the primary source of the dramatic and damaging volatility seen in oil prices," concluded the report. The report was released Wednesday by House and Senate sponsors of bills to put additional curbs on oil market speculation and comes in advance of a report on oil market speculation expected ex-pected possibly this week by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. The commission regulates commodity markets. Sen. Maria Cantwell, a sponsor spon-sor of an anti-speculation bill, said the Masters report challenges chal-lenges CFTC claims to date that supply and demand forces - and not excessive speculation - has driven up oil prices. "This analysis illustrates that when oil speculators poured large amounts of speculative money into oil markets, prices skyrocketed skyrock-eted just as they were hoping ... And when the speculative money got pulled out, prices tumbled," she said. Sen. Byron Dorgan said he wants to know "how oil speculators specula-tors were able to drive prices up and down while the CFTC was asleep at the switch." The Organization of Petroleum Petro-leum Exporting Countries has said that that the large, fluc Community... Model Z 823 1,820 Sq Ft..' $184,950 Pay merits only $l,2Q0month 6.651 APR helping young writers learn the basic skills, practice, she says, is key to becoming a good writer. "This (the program) will actu tuations in oil prices are tied to speculators whose money flows into oil when the U.S. dollar weakens but who abandon their investments in the commodity when the dollar gains ground on other currencies - as it recently has. An inter-agency task force, led by the CFTC, concluded in an interim report last July that "fundamental supply and demand factors" influence the oil markets and that the data "does not support the proposition proposi-tion that speculative activity has systematically driven changes in oil prices." Senate critics of the regulatory regula-tory agency charged that report was based in flawed evidence. "The CFTC has its head in the sand," said Rep. Bart Stupak, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce investigations Health groups pushing cigarette tax increase SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A pack of cigarettes would cost $1.30 more under a proposal with broad support that would raise money for health-care programs in Utah. Fifteen health organizations, including the American Cancer Society, will push the proposal at the Legislature in 2009. They said they planned to roll out the proposal this week. SMowc Dcpot Jcwefoij t&efge I - V -r- . . . II Mil III,..- K a, "'i:i, , t f j"n!i irvli , V r J -i; 1 i ally allow students to write more, and the more you write, I think the better you become." subcommittee. Stupak said the Masters report re-port shows that that oil prices soared when speculators poured money into future markets even as the federal Energy Information In-formation Administration was forecasting supply would exceed demand. Congress for months has been considering various measures aimed at curbing oil market speculation, but those efforts have been thwarted amid disputes dis-putes over other energy issues from taxing oil companies to new offshore drilling. Legislation before the Senate would put limits on the amount of oil certain traders, interested only in speculation, would be allowed to purchase in futures markets and give new authorities and staff to the CFTC to regulate oil markets. , The hike would go take the tax from 70 cents per pack to $2 per pack. That would raise another $40 million annually - money the sponsors want to spend to improve public-health services and offer more quit-smoking programs. One lawmaker says there's a chance the tax hike will get approved. Others say they don't want to raise any taxes, period. 1 .t. Com J)oi.n us fo.t 192 uM. 100 8. "' 'f ' ' i ;;r.:.,r j, ,-,(;, , 722-4214 r i AM |