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How-To Incorporate Technology into Your Writing Curriculum
You're here because you want to know how to incorporate technology into your writing program. Excellent. I'm here to help you discover innovative, engaging and effective ways to motivate your student writers, especially the reluctant writers who absolutely hate to write.
Click on the LESSONS link to read some of the lesson plans I put together for my writing class.
Click on the LESSONS link to read some of the lesson plans I put together for my writing class.
How-To Add Storyboardthat and Pixton to Your Writing Program
I had a tough class this past year. In the beginning, I could not get them to write more than a few fragmented sentences. My fantasy where my students would jump for joy at the opportunity to write a fully developed short story with sympathetic characters, a gorgeous setting and fast-paced dialogue that was both riveting and instrumental to the plot was never going to materialize. In my search for something that would motivate my young writers, I found not one, but two, excellent graphic novel and comic book makers. I wish you could have seen the excitement percolate around my classroom when I introduced these two fun and engaging writing platforms.
Storyboardthat.comStoryboardthat has both free and paid subscriptions. As of June 2019, the price tag starts at $7.99 a month for teachers. While it is one of the better deals on the internet, the FREE version is perfectly fine for school use.
When you land on Storyboardthat's Home Page, click on "Create a Storyboard." This immediately takes you to the FREE basic version of the storyboard. Students can easily and quickly drag and drop settings,characters, textables (speech bubbles), and other images onto their storyboard. Learning how to navigate the menu bar is painless and actually a lot of fun. For a quick peek at how I used Storyboardthat in a realistic historical fiction writing activity, please click the LESSONS button. Pixton.comThe allure of Pixton over Storyboardthat can be summed up in one word: avatar. Teacher and students create avatars of themselves from a huge gallery of physical and emotional attributes. These avatars can be cast as characters in the student-written graphic novels and comics.
This writing tool is not cheap. The $9.99 per month subscription option will literally get you nothing. I was very disappointed that I was not able to access even one character for that price. Pixton recommends spending $24.99 a month for their services. Since you probably won't be using Pixton every moth, I feel that's too pricey for teachers. Clicking on 'for educators," you won't receive a quick price quote. Pixton will ask for your name, your school district, and how many other teachers are willing to go in with the cost before they send you a quote via email. It can be a deterrent. But I found a loophole. On Pixton's Home Page, click on the "Go here for Classic Pixton." It will direct you to a 7 day free trial. I found that was plenty of time for my students to write some beautifully detailed, well-plotted stories. How-To Get Your Students to Write Amazingly Beautiful Picture Books
I highly recommend using either one of these online writing platforms to get those creative juices flowing! My students worked with both. The consensus was split down the middle. Try both. You'll be glad you did.
Storybird.comStorybird has been a perennial favorite among my writing students. What makes it so awesome?
Thousands of original artwork are literally at your students' fingertips. Young writers chose the artwork that inspires them, drag and drop them into place, and commence writing. Storybird is crafted so that writing poetry, prose, and even comics fit nicely into a picture book fromat. This is a paid subscription, but as of this date, you can sign up for a free trial. Bonus, Storybird offers more than 300 writing lessons, quizzes and writing prompts. Plus, Storybird is aligned with the Common Core Standards. To see how I used Storybird in a fictional narrative writing project, please click the LESSONS icon. Writereader.comWritereader was created in Copenhagen before spreading across the world. It is research-based and aligned to the Common Core Standards.
Writereader was developed for the youngest of writers: the 3 to 10 year old set. However, Writereader is a wonderful platform for older students as well, especially English Language Learners and reluctant writers. On Writereaders Home Page, click on "For Teachers." There you will find a collection of ready-to-go lesson plans. Before your students are able to write, you must sign up and create a class. Much like Google Classroom, you invite students to join via a class code. This is a plus because you will be able to instantly monitor your students writing and provide feedback. Students can create original picture books from a gallery of photography. My students found the text box and dialogue bubbles very easy to manipulate. Writereader is 100% FREE. A very good thing for teachers on a budget. To see how I used Writereader in a nonfiction science picture book writing project, please click on the LESSONS icon. How-to Turn Your Young Writers into Filmmakers
Adobe SparkRich, beautiful, vibrant. An effective motivator even for the most resistant student. Teach your students to write for the "big screen." With its colossal gallery of images and soundtrack collection, its very easy. After your students have written their expository essays or original narratives, teach them how to drag and drop images to create a complementary video for their writing project. Adobe Spark gives students a platform where many exciting things are happening in one activity. Students are fully engaged in writing, creating, problem solving, critiquing, making sound decisions, and public speaking. Try using Adobe Spark video maker as an extension to your writing activities. As a treat, plan a "movie day" using your students' homemade films.
Google SlidesDuring my study, I discovered a surprising reason why my students were reluctant to write. The jump from paper and pencil to Google Docs was too overwhelming for them. Yes, a part of that anxiety came from a lack of word processing skills. However, after months of teaching my kids how to use word processing features on Google Docs, I was still bombarded with a lot of griping. We're talkers in my class. We discuss everything, so my kids were not shy about telling me why they hated writing with Google Docs so vehemently. There is no end to the page...as far as they could tell. My kids felt pressured into writing until the very last line, but that last line never showed up. That's when I got the idea to use Google Slides. Like pages in a book, it is very clear where you're going to stop writing. My students were thrilled with the clear cut "pages." Plus, the potential to add colorful backgrounds, gifs, fancy fonts and images clinched the deal. I used Google Slides for all kinds of writing projects, but my favorite one was an anti-bullying campaign public service announcement my class developed for Kindness Week. After creating their Google slide decks, my students traveled to other classes sharing their messages. It was a great lesson.
ZenWriterRemember daily journals that are scheduled for the first 15 minutes of class? The ones where kids just doodle in a spiral notebook, and pray that the teacher won't grade? Dump those! This is the perfect tool for a 21st Century classroom. The name ZenWriter denotes calmness, tranquility, a connection to the self. Yup, that's what it is. Students slip on their headphones, choose one of the many lovely, soothing background tunes, and start writing. ZenWriter hides ads, menu bars and other distractions, so your students can just write. I recommend connecting to ZenWriter at the end of the day, or right after lunch. It's a very tranquil, lovely way to end your writing class.
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