Day 7 of 20 Days to Tech-Tastic - Writing

Better late than never :)  here's the next instalment of the challenge... Day 7....

Do you have learners in your classroom that struggle with writing?  I've found when teaching that for students there seems to be something magical about being given a device to write with rather than just their writing book and a pen. 

So the challenge today is to look at your writing programme and to add tech to it if you haven't already or re-visit it and use the SAMR model to think about what level your writing with tech is currently on and how you can change it. 


Here are a few ideas I've come across….
WRITING INSPIRATION…

The literacy shed 
One of my favourites.  This site has a collection on plenty of videos with ideas for lesson plans to go with them. This resources is definitely worth a look! 

iPad apps 
There are plenty of books out there that have been converted into iPad apps, these would be great starting points for writing.  Some of my favourites are There's a Monster at the End of this Book, 'Fantastic Flying Books', both apps are on the pricey side if you compare them to what other free apps do but I love the stories so wasn't too worried about the price tag.  I haven't found too many free ones that are of the same calibre as these two.  I'd love to get a few though so please comment with your favourite free iPad apps for writing.


THE WRITING PROCESS...

Read Write Think has some great writing prompts that may be useful, depending on what you're currently working on.

Writing Blogs
I linked to my class writing blog in an earlier post, this was one way I found writers were motivated to produce something if it was their turn to post to the blog.  I'm sure you can think of even better ways of using a writing blog, please post a comment if you do use a writing blog in a different way.

Shared Google Docs
Create your own class story using a Google Doc and getting children to login and use their own piece.  Using comments to help to edit and improve the document is very powerful as well.  You can use presentations to create stories as well, perhaps one slide per child or… endless possibilities.

Kerpoof
A great little site that includes the chance to setup teacher and student accounts.  Students I taught had great fun creating their own animations using this site.  


PUBLISHING WRITING…

ebook authoring tools
- Book Creator apps for iPad
- ibook creator app for mac 
- publishers 

- Google sites
- Google Presentations


- Youtube videos

A great slideshare presenation created by Jacqui Sharp...




- QR codes 
Allanah King was the first post I saw about using QR codes in a pick a path format here's the blog post about it.  Allanah also presented at the K12 Online conference, loved her ideas about using QR codes in the classroom, here's her blog post on it.

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