While I found myself completely excited while reading about and
playing around with the various digital writing apps and tools for this week's
module, I can't help but also admit that I felt completely overwhelmed, as
well. There's just so many! However, I know that the articles we read helped to
narrow down the latest and greatest, which makes choosing the ones you want to
try out in the classroom with your students a bit more manageable.
As you know, I teach high school English at the private school I
work at, so I felt a bit defeated going into this module, thinking it would
probably only be targeted for writing tools for primary and middle school
students. Luckily, this was not the case. I wrote down so many great writing
apps/tools that I plan to use this upcoming school year with my freshman,
sophomore, and seniors. Yay!
As far as prewriting goes, the first great
website tool that stood out to me was Story Planner. I was
thoroughly impressed with the possibilities that it presents to my high school
students, especially my freshman. Every year, after reading numerous short
stories, I ask them to write a short story of their very own. Each day, I do a
mini-lesson on what I would like them to focus on during the designated free
write time after, such as on how to format dialogue, improve word choice, etc.
Therefore, this tool would be so beneficial to my students during this unit.
Story Planner aims to help writers plan stories of all types. I clicked on
Novel Launcher and it walked me through the six steps to plan a great story:
explore the idea, concept, central characters, structure, plot points,
and outline. I was very impressed with the feedback it provides directly, as
well. This would be especially great for my struggling writers, as they often
need more time from me than I can feasibly provide, unfortunately. I also came
across Storyboardthat.com, which I have used in the past in my
classroom in a different manner. I use it with my seniors after reading the
epic poem, Beowulf as a class. I divide up the sections (Cantos)
in the text and give them to different groups to summarize the main plot points
by creating comic strips. Then, they present as a group to the class afterwards
as a review before the test. They liked that they can upload photos and the
many options, overall. However, this got me thinking: my freshman can
additionally use this website to plan out their unique short stories in this
format, as well.
Next, the various apps for writing were even more
impressive. I do writing prompts with my students for five minutes twice a week
in all of my classes, but I think I need to shake things up a bit, and one of
the apps in particular will do just the trick: Writing
Challenge. It turns creative writing into a game! I mean is there
anything better?! Students are given a writing prompt and the clock starts
ticking right away. They are asked to complete it before the time is up, and
when they do, they are given something new to add to the story. So fun! In
addition, the Storywheel app sounds awesome. I can also use
this with my freshman during our narrative unit. I really like how
collaborative it is, as it involves the whole class in a fun writing activity
that would be really cool to do to introduce this unit. Here's how it works:
one student chooses an image and records 30 second of narration before
the next student spins to see another image and does the same, and so on. As
stated, it would be a great way to practice generating ideas quickly and learn
the wonderful art of storytelling.
Then, I moved on to the apps/tools for revising and
editing. I also have to admit that this raised a lot of questions for me to
ponder. The biggest question I have is whether some of these are more hurtful
than helpful? In other words, will students rely too heavily on them for help
rather than working hard to fix their errors on their own first? I also wonder
if some of these resources, like Grammarly, cross the border
into plagiarism or not. I know that if you go for the paid upgrade on that
website, it has the power to completely transform one's writing. Maybe too
much. So, I may struggle with some of these questions for a while. However, I
do like the idea of having students use some of these digital apps/tools to
correct a lot of their basic grammar and mechanical errors prior to turning in
rough drafts and final copies to me. It would certainly cut down on the amount
of time I spend proofreading piles and piles of papers and free up my time to
better spend on helping them revise content, etc. The digital apps/tools that
stood out to me in particular were the following: PaperRater,
Editminion, Slick Write, and Smart Edit. These ones seem more
innocent to me than Grammarly and some of the others I’ve
seen/heard of. I look forward to trying this out in my classroom in this manner
this year, nonetheless.
There were more publishing apps and tools than I
could possibly imagine out there. Some of the best I read about and played with
were Glogster.com, Figment.com, and ScribblePress.com. These
will all be great for my teaching context for a variety of reasons. I love the
idea of my students using Glogster.com to create a collage to house my students’
sources when gearing up for a big research paper. It would be a fantastic
organization tool. Figment.com would be cool to use to motivate students to
do their best writing due to the contest aspect. I also like the collaborative features.
Lastly, ScribblePress.com would be a great tool to use to have my students
create books that can additionally be printed as a hardcover if they so choose.
I think these digital apps and tools definitely support student
engagement and motivation when it comes to writing in the classroom. It is hard
to deny that our 21st century students perk up any time we
incorporate technology into the classroom, and it is much better to see these
than to hear groans when explaining an assignment, project, etc. These apps and
tools are especially more engaging and motivating due to how they turn
instruction, practice, and assessments into the game format. Students love this
for obvious reasons. Also, these tools have the ability to aid teachers in
instruction and assessment, which frees up some of their time without harming their
students’ writing progress. In fact, they have the ability to further students’
writing skills in a shorter amount of time. This is by far the best benefit
this type of technology offers teachers and students today.
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