Spreadsheet Assignment

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http://library.thinkquest.org/J0110054/
(found through http://www.suelebeau.com/spreadsheets.htm)

First of all, I couldn't look at this website for very long because of the super bright yellow background... It seemed like they had considered several different subjects for excel. There are three options for English: create a spelling test that the computer will mark; create a vocab assignment with vocab words on one side and definitions in the other; and a book-list checkout sheet. With the exception of the online spelling test, these activities seem way too simple, and it seems like Excel wouldn't really be necessary here. It also looked like most of these activities were for elementary students.
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http://www.microsoft.com/education/lessonplans.mspx#Arts/Design

I couldn't find much in here for Excel, and when I found Excel activities they were almost all for math/science types of lessons. The only one that was remotely close to an English lesson suggested that we should create a timeline for Barrack Obama's life. You could easily adapt this to be an author or a poet, but I think it's a shame that they are all geared towards the more science-based classes. There were no art lesson plans either. Big fail!
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http://www.internet4classrooms.com/technology_tutorials/graphic_organizer_files_excel_topics_technology_tutorials.htm

Finally! A website that shows some useful activities for English classes (still working on art...). The site suggested using Excel for making a story web:

The website also suggests using Excel for things like Venn Diagrams, which can be useful for things like novel studies. Again, it also suggests using excel for timelines.

We have a winner!
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According to the interwebs, there is currently no place for Excel in the art classroom, and very few reason why it would be in the English classroom, too.

I think if I were trying to find some way to use Excel in art, I would try to implement it into a critique. Using a rubric created on Excel, students could go in and give feedback (even grades) to their peers.

For English, I like the idea of doing a story web, as well as the Venn diagram, and I'm curious to learn more about the self-grading spelling quiz. Excel could also be very useful in an ESL classroom for certain matching vocab activities. In addition to these, I would consider using Excel for lit. circles if students were interested in tracking their, and their groupmates, pages numbers, etc. It could be a useful way of keeping everyone on the same page (pardon the pun...). The last idea I can think of for English would be to create a class graph of which works of literature they liked best: basically a survey. They could give books/authors/poems a grade, and then the results can be made into a graph to learn about what students are enjoying in the class or not. This way it could also be anonymous.

Excel in the Art/English classroom! Who knew?!