More and more one can see how amazing it could be if all the students in a class have tablets. Imagine having just one or two minutes each day to get the students writing! This website http://oneword.com is designed for just that. All you have to do is:
You’ll see one word at the top of the following screen.
You have sixty seconds to write about it.
Click go and the page will load with the cursor in place.
Don’t think. Just write.
Advantages of daily writing practise:
This could get students into the habit of just writing and thinking out of the box.
By writing every day, the students gain fluency while getting a chance to practice important punctuation, spelling, and style skills in context
The students will soon start writing more fluently.
My Grade 3 class has been having such a lot of fun with prepare preparing for International Dot Day.which is on the 15th September 2018. What has made it an extra amount of fun is that we are part of a team blog with classes 3 other countries - Australia Canada and the United States and we are all doing fun writing and other activities together, connected related to Dot Day.
If you take a peek at our collaborative blog you will see that one of the activities is Connect the Dot stories. My Grade 3 class has done a variation of this activity and we have called it 'What happens next?'
This is how we went about the lesson.
We all listened to Peter Reynolds reading the DOT STORY (we unfortunately do not have the book yet).As we listened to the story we wrote down words that had caught our attention during the reading of the story, on a piece of paper.
After that we chose 3 or 4 of our words, plus we added 2 random words that were not in the story, and we swapped papers.
Whoever received the new set of words needed to write a story using those words. The story needed to end with 'What happens next'.
We did this lesson using a collaborative Google slides presentation. We used two slides from the Slides Carnival free template Eglamour because the template contained two lovely dot slides.
We had fun reading each other's stories. However we did not have time to write about what happens next. Can you help us? If you would like to help us just add the the name of the story in the comment ox along with another few sentences. We would love that!
Storybird is my favourite, free, story writing application
on the web www.storybird.com. I
use it with my classes all the time, and I love all its tips.. Here we are in February 2018 and Storybird has a new challenge for your class! It sounds exciting. I am adding it below as written on the Storybird blog https://goo.gl/tAfDUC.
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February challenge: Across the Universe
"Imagine you have left Earth and traveled far out into space. Maybe you live in a space station. Perhaps you have colonized another planet. You could be floating in an escape pod after your rocket ship exploded. Or you’ve been captured by aliens. There are so many possibilities!
"You have the chance to transmit a letter back home to Earth. Who would you write to? What would you say? This month’s challenge is to write that letter. Describe where you are, what you see, what it feels like, and what you’re doing. Maybe share some of the things you miss about Earth, or about the person you’re writing to. Do you have any advice to send home? A warning? A new discovery?
"Let your imagination run free and really try to put yourself into that situation. Take some time to think about what you’d write before you begin — you have until February 21st to complete the challenge. It’s fun to let your mind wander, so enjoy the ride! We can’t wait to read about your adventures.
"P.S. Keep in mind that although you are writing a letter, you should not include any personal information like your last name, your hometown, or your school. Sharing that kind of information goes against ourcommunity guidelines, which we use to keep everyone safe.
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If you would like your class to enter this challenge, please go to the challenge on the Storybird blog at https://goo.gl/tAfDUC . Storybird says, "To be eligible to be featured, your chapter must be submitted to moderation on or before February 21, 2018. Selected entries will be featured on the Storybird blog at the end of the month."
If you haven't yet signed up any of your classes to
Storybird, head over to www.storybird.com today and join. Your students will love
this application.
Storybird is my favourite, free, story writing application on the web www.storybird.com. I use it with my classes all the time, and I love all its tips. Storybird posts wonderful challenges and ideas all the time! It had a wonderful holiday writing challenge a couple of years ago https://goo.gl/ZAQ38Q. I am going to paste the ideas here so that I can encourage one or two of my classes to do this in their spare time. It was called the 'Summer Writing club: Write a novelette'.
This is what Storybird says about the July challenge:
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July Summer Writing Club Challenge
"This year Summer Writing Club will consist of two Challenges: One in July and one in August. Each Challenge will help you write a 5,000 word novel (we’re calling it a “novelette”) made up of multiple chapters. There’s no assigned theme—you can write about anything you want.
"We will coach you through the novel writing process week by week, releasing tips and tutorials as we go. To pace yourself, set a goal to complete at least one chapter per week. By the end of the month, you will have a finished novelette! Here are the writing skills you’ll master in July:
"Week 1 - The Protagonist: Before you can begin, you need a clear idea of who your main character(s) will be.
Week 2 - The Antagonist: Every villain has a backstory. This week, we’ll look at how to build a better bad guy.
Week 3 - Plot: You might think that figuring out the plot should come first when you’re writing a novel. But with longer works, you often have to write the story to find out what the characters will do! This week we’ll show you how to keep everything on track and moving forward towards a spectacular finish.
"Note: Unlike last year, the weekly tutorials are not writing prompts. They will be exercises to help you better understand the novel-writing process as you go. One way to approach SWC this year is to think about July as your rough draft. Once you get the basics down, you’ll be ready for the advanced tutorials that will follow in August.
"Week 1 - The Protagonist
Great characters are the foundation for great stories. The protagonist is the hero of your story. The supporting characters are the friends, family, and/or love interests who help the hero achieve her goals. Supporting characters can be very important, even central to the story, but there is generally always a single protagonist driving the action.
"Let’s take some examples from popular books: Katniss Everdeen: Protagonist Peeta Mellark: Supporting character Hazel Grace Lancaster: Protagonist Augustus Waters: Supporting character Harry Potter: Protagonist Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger: Supporting characters
"When you are beginning a new story, your characters come first. You have to know who you’re writing about before you know what they’re going to do. Your characters are at the center of the action in your story, so you need to know them really well. What do they want? What choices would they make? How would they react in different situations? What motivates them?
"The better you understand your characters, the better your readers will be able to relate to them. So, before you begin your novelette this month, take a minute to sit down and think first about your main character. Have a heart-to-heart with your protagonist and find out everything you can about them. You can use the questions below to get started, or better yet, print out the worksheet we link to in the post and write down the answers so that you can keep them handy as you’re writing.
"One of the goals of the Summer Writing Club—and Storybird—is to help you become a better writer. (The other goals are to have fun and make friends.) Some weeks we’ll use video from past workshops to help illustrate the topics we’re writing about. Don’t worry if it looks familiar; we’re also adding new material to coach you along so that you can write the best novelette you can this summer.
"Let’s do this! Watch this video for a quick tutorial, or jump right in to the character worksheet below.
"1. The Basics
Name: (first, middle, last, and nickname) How old is he/she? What does he/she look like? Where does he/she live? 2. Background Where did your character grow up? Are her parents married or divorced? Does she have siblings? If so, is she the oldest, youngest, middle? Which family member is she closest to? Which one does she keep secrets from? 3. Self Image What is her strongest personality trait? What is she most proud of? What does she wish she could change about herself? How do other people see her, and is it different from how she sees herself? What is she most afraid of? 4. Desires What does this character want? How far would she go to get what she wants? Where would she draw the line? Do you think she’d be happy if she got her heart’s desire? 5. Summary Read back over everything you’ve written about your character and summarize in one sentence what he or she wants, and what obstacles stand in the way. Use this to guide you as you keep writing your story.
"Now repeat this exercise with other characters in your story, such as the love interest, the sidekick, or the long-lost father who abandoned the family many years ago. The deeper you explore each of your characters, the more your story will come to life.
Isn't it amazing that Storybird would give such wonderful writing opportunities and ideas for free? You have to join this site! Here is an example of a novelette from Storybird: https://storybird.com/chapters/rules-of-school/
If you haven't yet signed up any of your classes to Storybird, head over to www.storybird.com today and join. Your students will love this application.
Storybird is my favourite, free, story writing application on the web www.storybird.com. I use it with my classes all the time, and I love all its tips. I have been adding some of the Storybird challenges to this blog, Storybird to the blog. Here is the December challenge https://goo.gl/VdLzLP.
_______________________________________ December Challenge: The Do-over
"It’s hard to believe that we’ve almost reached the end of the year. And what a year it has been! We have read thousands of challenge entries and featured nearly 100 (!!!) writers here on the blog in our monthly roundups. But there is one more challenge left, so make it count!
This month, your challenge is to write a single-chapter longform story in response to this writing prompt:
It’s New Year’s Eve and you’ve been given the chance to do one thing over—to turn it all around. Choose wisely!
"With the upcoming holidays, we will be extending the entry period all the way to the end of the month, so you have until December 31st to enter your longform chapter into the challenge. We will post the featured stories in January. Good luck! We can’t wait to read your do-overs.
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Sounds like fun, doesn't it. If you would like to participate in this challenge head over to the Storybird blog https://goo.gl/VdLzLP
Storybird is my favourite, free, story writing application
on the web www.storybird.com. I
use it with my classes all the time, and I love all its tips. In my email newsfeed Storybird has posted their November challenge, It's a lovely idea - "to write a picture book that shows someone that you care." This is how Storybird words it below - this is taken straight from the Storybird blog: https://goo.gl/yceGrv
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November Challenge: Who Cares?
"There are so many ways to show someone you care. A smile in the direction of a lonely schoolmate. A hug for a friend who’s having a tough day. A phone call to a far-away family member. Here on Storybird, we often use hearts and comments to show our friends and community members that we care about their creations. And every story you create is a sign of how much you care about writing, and creativity, and art.
"This month, your challenge is to write a picture book that shows someone that you care. Maybe it’s a story about a mother and daughter who get in a fight, but ultimately learn to see each other’s perspective. Maybe it’s a story about friendship and beating the odds by working together. Or maybe it’s a tale of two sisters who can’t see eye to eye but share everything else in common.
"As you’re writing this book, think about a real person in your life who you would share this book with. Remember not to include any personal information in the book, like last names, schools, or hometowns. But experiment with what it’s like to share your feelings in a story, and show us how you care.
_________________________________
What a lovely idea from Storybird! If you haven't yet signed up any of your classes to
Storybird, head over to www.storybird.comtoday and join. Your students will love
this application.
In my first post I introduced you to one of my favourite writing tools in the classroom, Storybird. You can find it at www.storybird.com. I have used Storybird with great success through the years. The wonderful thing about this tool is that you can sign up your whole class so that you have access to their stories on your dashboard. As a result you can edit the stories and keep a watch on your students' progress. 1. Sign up your class
Once you have joined Storyybird for yourself, the next thing to do is to sign up your class or classes. Since I am a computer teacher this means sign up classes for me. This takes a little bit of time, but once it is done its done. Your students won't need email addresses.
2. First wet your students' appetites...
Prior to your class logging in to Storybird prepare them on what to expect. I told mine that this is a free program with the most exquisite art. They don’t need to think of a story before they start – they’ll browse through many images until they see one that inspires them. When they select this image they'll suddenly be surrounded by a large number of other images that match their chosen theme. At the end of their writing they will end up with a lovely e-book. Just to wet their appetities I take them to the latest roll-out of good stories on the Storybird blog, such as this one https://goo.gl/LxY88h or this one https://goo.gl/rmrRFJ and I give them five to ten minutes to browse through. They will find a number of exciting titles, such as this one. Click through on the arrows below.
3. Log in to Storybird
When it is time to get started with Storybird, the class will each log in on their temporary password that you have provided. The first time your students log in to Storybird they will need to update their passwords by changing their passwords to something they’ll remember. Please keep a copy of these as students forget their passwords all the time! What I do here is I already have the class added to Google Classroom. I create a Google Form that says ‘Storybird’passwords and I put the link into google Claassroom. The students log in to Google Classroom and they each fill in their own form. Google Forms collects all the details and stores them on a single Excel spreadsheet. It is as simple as that.
Whatever method you decide to use - make sure you use it the first time they log in. Then keep the list of the passwords in an easily accessible place.
As they log in they'll notice that one is greeted everywhere by exquisite art.
A storybird lesson example
I revise paragraph construction, and especially ways to write descriptive paragraphs, with the class before we start. Descriptive paragraphs include details that appeal to the five senses: sight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing. A good description allows the reader to be a part of your world, to clearly imagine the scene, to feel the sensations, the smells and the tastes of the subject you are writing about.
We also talk about creating exciting headings for stories and different ways of starting killer first lines! The storybird blog has five great examples for this:
1. Start with a shocking statement.
2. Start with an introduction of the character.
3. Start with the character talking directly to the reader.
4. Start with a description of the setting.
5. Start with an interesting fact.
6. Start with clever dialogue.
So get your students started on this fascinating journey of writing stories inspired by pictures. They''ll love it.
Do you have access to computer devices at school? Do you know about the great, free, easy-to-use online writing tool, Storybird, found at http://storybird.com/? It will transform your students' writing - that is what I have discovered at school. Storybird is one of the most popular free tools for digital storytelling in schools around the globe, a MUST in any classroom. You will end up with a room ful of young authors!
What exactly is Storybird?
Storybird is an application that provides simple tools that help one build books in minutes, online. In addition to creating your own book you can read other books that have been created. One of the innovative things that sets Storybird apart from other creative writing applications is that it curates beautiful artwork from illustrators and animators around the world and inspires writers of every age to turn those images into fresh stories. The art inspires the stories. The weakest writer in your class will be inspired to produce a beautiful, professionl looking story in the form of an e-book. The beautiful art will help them to express and develop their ideas and they will be left with a feeling of great success. They will be ble to show their family their stories at home. The stories can be made and viewed as e-books and they can also be purchased as hard cover books. My students love using this application. You can also use Storybook to fundraise for your school. Find out about this at http://storybird.com/fundraisers
Watch this short video (4.49 mins) that takes a walkthough of Storybird.
In our next post we’ll look at how to easily get your class signed up to Storybird.
Guess what! Our church has started Connect groups (in addition to cell groups) so that we can get to know folk who have the same interests as we do. I have always wanted to start a writing group SO... I took the plunge! Eighteen folk joined my monthly writing group called ‘Writing for Life’. We had our first meeting on the first Saturday afternoon of May and it was a really enjoyable, interactive, writing afternoon. I used many of my tips and tricks from teaching writing at school. I think many of us were surprised that we could write so well! The goal is to craft a short story by the end of the year amid lots of fun, laughter, writing and sharing. So, let's tell the story in pictures and words. Here is the advert for the Writing for Life group which is placed with the other groups on the church notice board.
My goals for the group I attended a five-day 'short story' writing course at UCT Summer School this year and I think that really motivated me to want to start a group. I also belong to the Fish Hoek Scribblers which meets once a month. Basically, what I want to achieve is to get everybody understanding the basics of a short story and also to discover that they actually can write.
Our May meeting As mentioned, our first meeting took place on the first Saturday afternoon of May and I was thrilled at the turn out. We meet in the coffee shop. At this meeting we got to know each other in a fun, interactive way and we delved into characterisation in stories. Here are some photos from the May meeting.
This collage is a collection from Facebook
I had some lovely comments from folk by sms and Whatsapp after the group which encouraged me immensely. - Thank u soo much for a fun afternoon Fiona. These sessions teach us so much in such a lovely non threatening enviroment. You are real good at what u do girl!!!🌹 - Hi, Fiona, You offered such a lovely course today. Thank you. And sure, I may be an encourager bu be assured that I only congratulate when congratulations are due. Be assured that I only congratulate when congratulations are due. You should, my dear lady, hear me complain :). Then you'd know EXACTLY what I'm talking about :). SO looking forward to your next session. Peace, love and blessings - Hi Fiona, I enjoyed the first writing group today, and then forgot to ask when the next one will be. - Hi Fiona, I wanted to thank you for the wonderful class and interaction that we had today. Thank you for taking the initiative and bringing us together as a group. - Hi Fiona, had a great time. Thank you, I will definitely be back! - People really enjoyed writing and I think surprised themselves Our June meetingIn our June meeting we went on to PLOT before we did SETTING. We also moved venue to the small hall which has a big TV screen so that I can run a PowerPoint etc. I just loved the meeting! The focus, as mentioned, was on PLOT in a story and we came up with great ideas. We looked at different ways of getting inspiration for a story and tried out a few of them.
Here is the advert followed by a collage I put on Facebook.
Once again I received many positive thank yous that really warmed my heart. Our July meeting I decided to continue with PLOT in July as I had a really good idea for writing a children's story. We looked at hooks for children's stories and how to write good openings and endings. It was a real fun session. As one person noted ina thank you 'it was my most significant yet'. At this point I haven't downloaded photos from the afternoon, but I will do so soon. Here is the advert:
I am always searching for creative writing ideas especially for the ICT classes of younger students that I teach. Recently I was looking around the blog of a local computer teacher at Bridge House and I saw that she mentioned a wonderful Literacy website called Communication 4 All. When I opened the page that she referenced I was really excited. I knew that our Grade 1s and 2s would LOVE using one of these freely downloadable templates for story writing.
Let me introduce you to a few of these band then show what the Grade 2s did with them:
a) Well-known stories
b) Winter stories
c) Spring stories
d) Summer stories
e) Autumn stories
f) Historical stories
g) Pirate stories
With my Grade 2 class I gave them a choice of which template they would like to download and strangely enough they all wanted to write about Easter! (They are all looking forward to Easter it seems). Two of the students finished their stories today. I found that OneDrive is great for publishing these PowerPoints online so that the class can share them with their parents. One Drive is a free Microsoft application that gives you free access to a range of Microsoft Office products https://onedrive.live.com If you would like to see how I uploaded these stories to PowerPoint Online in One Drive please visit this post on the SchoolNet blog where I have outlined the process in detail.
The results are shown below. I'm sure you'll agree that displaying these stories on One Drive is a great way to share them with the world.
How BuiLD YouR WiLD SeLF works
The way it works is you start with a human creature and then start adding animal parts. The program was created by the New York Zoos and Aquarium and a link to the New York Zoos and Aquariums can be found on the website pages.. It is a very easy site to use. No registration or logins are required. To get started enter a name, choose boy or girl, and add various body parts. One just follows the prompts and makes choices from the various options continually. You can view the names of the animals as you mouse over each part of the options offered.
This tutorial from YouTube gives the step by step process
Creative writing task
After my Grade 6 class had created their wild selves on the site I set them a creative writing task: 'Write about a short dream adventure you had when you changed into half human half animal. What happened?" Here are examples from three of my students:
Student 1:
"One morning I woke up from my first sleep in the Californian jungle (I was there to observe birds) I saw the Condor a beautiful bird. Secretly I wished I had wings like that so I can fly and have a birds eye view. The next I knew I had developed the wings I had wished for. I set off to observe all the lovely birds."
Student 2:
"I was running away from the flock of birds chasing after me when my foot got stuck in a puddle of mud. I tugged and yanked but my foot would not move. The birds came racing past me, cutting my face with their sharp claws and beaks. That’s when I fell over, my face half submerged in a puddle of water. “None of this is real,” I whispered to myself. I rolled over into puddle and swam through the water. “Ahh!” I yelled out in agonising pain. There were wings sprouting out of my back and my legs were turning into jelly-fish tentacles. I was become half an animal! I woke up with a gasp. “Thank goodness it was only a dream,” I said. “Oh no…” I muttered, looking down at tentacles floating in the water around me…."
Student 3:
"I was at the zoo and I was watching the tiger in its cage.
It was so big and beautiful to look at. It looked friendly! I felt an urge to
touch it, so I nervously put my hand slowly through the cage. Then, all of a
sudden I found was in the Sahara desert. I was half tiger and I could run as
fast as lightning. I had the most beautiful wings and I could fly high in the
sky as well. It was awesome! I flew around the desert looking at all the other
animals. Then I landed. The animals came
running to me and they started talking to me. They showed me everything and
introduced me to their families. They gave me a special place to sleep and I
flopped into bed filled with excitement and wonder. In the morning, when I woke
up, the animals were gone! My wings were gone and I wasn’t half tiger anymore,
The special cave I had slept in was
gone. That’s when I realised it was only a dream…"
This was a fun activity - the students enjoyed it!
This is a cross post from the SchoolNet blog which I also write for.
In the first week back after the holidays I asked the Grade 4 class to write a short text about their holiday. Instead of using one of the usual applications for this I decided to use a Microsoft Word template from the fabulous site Oakdome which was in the form of a phone. We had a short oral session first and then we went to our computers to write in the Microsoft Word template.
The task
Describe, in around 200 words or less, one or two events from your summer holiday. You'll do this as though it is a phone message so although your report back has a beginning, a middle and an end you won't use paragraphs. Add an image related to your story.
Two student examples
Evaluation
The students loved using this template.
We had a number of really excellent stories from teachers who discovered their writing gift within them. Something that fascinated me during this course was the ingenious ways that teachers used to illustrate their stories. Take a look!
Fabric with felt cut outs which were then captured with a camera as shown in ‘Emily and the Seagull’.
Own photos with words at the side and a colourful background as shown in ‘There’s a zoo in my school’.
Some used royalty-free images from the Internet such as in ‘The sheep who wanted to knit’.
Some asked different learners in their class to illustrate each page as shown in ‘Sisipho signs away’.
Some teachers asked their students to create their own illustrations using Microsoft Paint such as in ‘Bunny tells the children’.
Some asked their own family to do their illustrations
Some created templates and coloured themin such as in ‘Khotso goes to the zoo’.
Some asked a talented friend to do their illustrations for them such as in ‘The noise in the night’.
Some used royalty free pictures from Pixabay such as ‘Angus the Dinosaur’.
Some created tasteful collages made from different materials such as in ‘Nonyane’.
Some used whole, original photos and pasted the words in a convenient spot as in ‘On Safari’.
Some used commercially obtained illustration programmes owned by their schools such as in ‘Monsters under my bed’.
We are looking forward to the launch of the African Storybook Project website later this year.
