If Alegra Holt had $100, she would spend $1 on candy, buy some clothes, give some to charity and see if she had enough left to buy a Chihuahua.
If Alegra had to write a short essay on what she’d do if she had $100, she’d sign on to a program called My Access, using a computer in the basement computer lab of Carleton Elementary School, 4116 W. Silver Spring Drive.
The 10-year-old fifth-grader at Carleton would fill in blanks in a “cluster web” on her screen to begin shaping her essay. From the central idea of using $100, she would put “buy candy” in one branch of the web, with what kind of candy or what store she’d go to in sub-branches, then do the same in other branches for her other plans.
Then she’d begin to type the assignment in sentences and paragraphs.