Taking It to the Next Step Along With TPACK

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The reading teacher in me has been quiet and is ready to come back out ….

While reading is a great way to help a child grow in vocabulary and imagination, it is what you DO with what is read that really encourages and supports critical and creative thinking skills!

Technology can be used in many ways to support and encourage the many things that can be done with reading ....

Here are a few ideas of activities that can be used to support higher order thinking skills:Make a collage which might be found hanging in the bedroom of one of the characters and write a brief explanation of each item selected.

• Write diary entries that one of the characters might have written during the course of the story.
• Write a poem or a song that expresses one or more of the characters’ feelings.
• Create a piece of original artwork that interprets one of the themes in the book.
• Write and perform an original skit based on the book.
• Write letters that two of the characters might have written to one another about what was happening in their lives.
• Create an original board game based on the book.
• Write and record an original news broadcast about the events in the book.
• Draw a timeline of the book, complete with illustrations and commentaries about each event on the timeline.
• Create a cause-and-effect continuum of how and why the main character changes as a result of the events and situations that occur.

Did you notice the differentiation embedded in these activities? 

Children would be able to utilize their strengths to demonstrate their learning …

Choice could even be involved if you gave an assignment similar to this one:

• Choose a book (online or from the bookcase)
• Read the story
• Select and complete the activity that most appeals to you and/or best fits the story you read
• Explain why you chose the activity and how you completed it 

With the added explanation part, you are jumping into that metacognition area … asking children to really think about their thinking!

That is taking it to the next step!

You can look at the WSFCS TPACK Activity Guides to see possible technology tools that can be used for activities like this!

Click on a area and then you can find possible activities in the table along with suggested resources to use!

What do you use for writing prompts?

Writing Prompts ...

What do you use for writing prompts?

Do you have a list of topics for you and/or your students?

Do you look around you for inspiration for your own writing?

When I taught a 4th grade Writing class, the first thing we did each day was write for 10 minutes in our journals .... notice I said OUR ... I did it too! I replaced the Writing Teacher who retired. She left me these small flip books full of writing prompts. I also had my own collection of books of writing prompts (I think those are still in the basement now). I would have a journal topic on the board for students to write about most days.  Most of my writing prompts either stated "write about ..." or asked a question for students to answer .... but they were basically just words.

At EdCamp NC this year, someone showed me a different option for writing prompts ... http://writingprompts.tumblr.com/

I just want to let you know that I could get totally distracted looking at all the ideas on this site, so be warned that might happen to you too!

At this site, you will find some of the daily writing prompts one teacher uses in his class. All the ones I have seen have an image element to them. Some have a variety of questions, some have choices for the writer, some provide topics for compare/contrast ... and there are even categories of writing prompts!

Options:

• writing prompts about reading
• writing prompts about personhood
• writing prompts about education
• 28 tried and true writing prompts
• all of the writing prompts
• random writing prompt selector

The topic of these prompts are for older students ... but they can serve as inspiration for adults and younger students too!

Think about the journal topics and blog post possibilities ...

Here are a few of the ones I found interesting:

As lovely as ....

Similes ....
How do you teach similies?
What resources do you use?


One evening recently on twitter, this message came to me:


I am currently working with 4 grade and trying to come up with a lesson on similes. Any suggestions??


Since this request came from a future elementary educator, I wanted to find some things to share with her. I began searching through my blog posts, my diigo bookmarks, and some former lessons to see what I could find. That was when it hit me that I talk about twitter being a great place to find resources and ideas, so maybe I should look too!


I sent out a tweet asking for advice and suggestions to share (it is nice to have a PLN to share with and pull from).


Here are a few of the ideas and resources that were shared with me:

• Snowflake Bently Activity and Idea Webpage which contains a book mark, an art project, information on the illustrator, directions to make a book, and lots of great links
• Picture book recommendation: My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Socks (This book is full of similes about the family of the main character) 
• A great idea for a Color poem on this blog that coul be redone using similes: ThePolkaDotOwl: Poems Anyone? (other great stuff on the rest of the blog too)
• Someone also shared some powerpoints they have used as an introduction in the past: Similes and Metaphors
• Laurie posted this as a comment on an earlier blog post: "I used familiar movie characters like Shrek and Fiona and Donkey and Puss in Boots. I had the kids go over adjectives that were nice to describe a person. Then we talked about how to stretch that into similes. Shrek is as green as the grass in June from Shrek is green. And so on."
• Similes and Metaphors in Pop Culture   (Thanks John Downs)
  Mr. Wasko presents examples of similes and metaphors in pop culture- from Kanye to The Wizard of Oz.

And while I was looking for ideas for teaching similies, I came across this great collection of ideas for teaching figurative language using a Valentine's Day theme on ReadWriteThink!


Do you have any ideas to share about ways you teach similes?


Do you have any resources to suggest?


Thanks in advance

image source

Read ... Write ... Think ...

My daughter is in Kindergarten. She amazes me each day with the words that she says (and uses correctly). I know that her verbal vocabulary is much greater than the words she can read and write. She also has a very active imagination (hmmm ... wonder where that comes from?).

After talking with her teacher, it is clear that she has a good understanding of letter knowledge. She can the identify letters and tell you what sound that letter makes individually. It is when you put the letters together to make words that is causing a bit of trouble right now. We need to work on her ability to put those sounds together. She also really enjoys the way words are spelled. She will "read" a string of letters to me to find out what word they spell.

So I have been looking for some ways to work with her. Since my job is in Instructional Technology, it would make sense for me to look for some technology options (I also have a background in Reading Education).

The other day I came across some information on Thinkfinity about Puzzle Me Words from ReadWriteThink:

Puzzle Me Words is an exciting new interactive from ReadWriteThink.  Students in grades K-1 learn about language by combining letters to form words based on the pictures that they see.  A talking school bus named Scootie reads the words aloud and further reinforces letter sounds for young learners. With each new round that is completed, students earn a new puzzle piece toward their prize puzzle: a coloring sheet they can print, color and display proudly at home or in school.  Try it with students today!

Although I thought that description was interesting, the way that I saw and heard my daughter interact with this activity made it so much better. I think it would be great to use with students in a classroom.

ReadWriteThink is more than just a website; it's a community of educators working to improve literacy learning for every student. ReadWriteThink is sponsored by IRA (International Reading Association) and NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English).

I wonder how Puzzle Me Word and many other resources from ReadWriteThink would be on an Interactive White Board (IWB) in a classroom for a small group of students as a center activity?

image source

How do You Celebrate Writing?

The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is celebrating the National Day on Writing on October 20th. According to their site, the first National Day of Writing was first on held October 20, 2009 and since then more than 30,000 pieces of writing, including poems, videos, essays, letters, audio recordings, blog entries, artwork, email and text messages, and short stories, have been submitted.


Why celebrate writing?

1. People in every walk of life, in every kind of work, and at every age write more than ever before for personal, professional, and civic purposes.
2. They write through text messages and IMs, they use video cameras and cell phones, and, yes, even traditional pen and paper
3. The social nature of writing invites people in every walk of life, in every kind of work, and at every age to make meaning through composing.

If you would like to celebrate writing on the official National Day on Writing (or any other day), here are some good resources:

• Resources on Writing from NCTE
• Tips for Writers from NCTE
• Why I Write Testimonials
• National Gallery of Writing

image source

Is a Tall Tale really tall?

Recently a Wonder-of-the-Day from Wonderopolis really got me thinking (but I guess that is what it is supposed to do): Why do they call it a "Tall Tale"?

Focusing on reading genres, like Tall Tales, was something I really enjoyed when I was in the classroom. We would do genre studies where we would explore many examples of a certain genre type and then talk about the similarities and characteristics we found. I also liked to introduce a variety of vocabulary words that could be associated with the genre. Wonderopolis has done a great job of pulling all those thing together! I could have used their help several years ago when I was trying to do all that. :)

I did a search on ReadWriteThink to find resources on Tall Tales:

• A lesson plan: Thundering Tall Tales: Using Read-Aloud as a Springboard to Writing
• A tall tales booklist
• A writing rubric for students to provide evidence that the stories they have written contain elements important in a tall tale
• A sequencing activity: Did Paul Bunyan gouge out the Grand Canyon before or after he dug the Great Lakes? Students create a life-sized timeline showing the sequence of events in this tall tale.
• A podcast: Gifts come in all shapes and sizes, and the characters in these four tall tales have plenty of unusual gifts to keep you reading all winter. Listen in to hear about them and to meet Ingrid Law, the author of Savvy and Scumble.

I also searched for Tall Tales resources on ArtsEdge:

• Tall Tales Today: Where have all the heroes gone?
• Exploring American Tall Tales: What can our tall tales tell us about the American spirit?

*Wonderopolis, ReadWriteThink, and ArtsEdge are all Thinkfinity Content Partners!!

image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/65172294@N00/4285640113

So you want to be a better writer ....

On Monday nights on Twitter, a group of 4th grade teachers meet, talk, and share resources using the hashtag #4thchat. I found this chat by accident a few weeks ago and wrote a blog post about the night they shared Math resources. Last night's chat was about Social Media in the Classroom. The 4th grade chat has a wiki where they post the resources shared during the chat, the chat archives, and many of resources relevant to 4th grade. They even have their own logo for the #4thchat! :)

When I was a 4th grade teacher, I primarily taught Narrative Writing (for two years, I taught 3 writing classes each day). I decided to look through the archives to see if I could find anything about writing since I really like that type of resource. I found an archive of a whole chat devoted to just that topic. I picked a few resources to share but would strongly encourage you to go look at the whole archive since you never know what you might find (even if you don't teach 4th grade).

• Steven W. Anderson and I do a weekly podcast on Instructional Technology, so the mention of a narrative writing podcast caught my attention. That blog post from Maureen Devlin (@lookforsun) outlines the steps involved in the process, share the numerous benefits, and even provides some examples. Maybe I need to find a 4th grade class to try this with next year ....
• Another resource called 30 Ideas for Teaching Writing was also shared:The ideas shared in this resources are great as standalone strategies and also work well when paired together:

The National Writing Project's 30 Ideas for Teaching Writing offers successful strategies contributed by experienced writing project teachers. Since NWP does not promote a single approach to teaching writing, readers will benefit from a variety of eclectic, classroom-tested techniques.

• Finding the presentation called "Writing for Real" from Angela Maiers was a definite plus. Angela Maiers is an independent consultant from Des Moines, IA. She shares so many great ideas both on her website and in her presentation (I have been lucky to attend one of her presentations before).

Writing For Real Reading Recovery Conference

View more presentations from Angela Maiers

Do you need to teach Reading? Writing? Thinking?

The ReadWriteThink website is a great place for teachers to find resources and ideas. ReadWriteThink is partners with the International Reading Association (IRA), National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and Thinkfinity. ReadWriteThink offers Classroom Resources, Professional Development, as well as Parent and Afterschool Resources. There are a number of Student Interactives available to support learning. This morning on twitter, I saw a tweet about one of those Student Interactives called FlipBook.

Here is the overview describing FlipBook:
The Flip Book is designed to allow users to type and illustrate tabbed flip books up to ten pages long. Students and teachers can use the flip book for taking notes while reading, making picture books, collecting facts, or creating question and answer booklets. Students can choose from nine different layouts for the pages of their books (shown left). A blank flip book is available for demonstration and planning.

I think FlipBook is a neat idea and I enjoy looking at the sample book, but I found myself wondering: What are some ways teachers and students could use a resource like FlipBook?
I continued looking at the page where I found the overview and was pleased to find lessons for various grade levels that use this interactive.

Here are a few of the lessons that caught my attention:

• Shared Poetry Reading: Teaching Print Concepts, Rhyme, and Vocabulary (grades k-2)



• Using Children’s Natural Curiosity to Lead to Descriptive Writing (grades k-2)
  


• Question and Answer Books--From Genre Study to Report Writing (grades 3-5)



• Characters in Because of Winn-Dixie: Making Lists of Ten (grades 3-5)
  


• A “Cay”ribbean Island Study (grades 4-7)



• When I Was Young In...A Literature to Language Experience (grades 6-8)



• Swish! Pow! Whack! Teaching Onomatopoeia Through Sports Poetry (grades 6-8)



• Students as Creators: Exploring Multimedia (grades 6-8)



• Blogtopia: Blogging about Your Own Utopia (grades 9-12)
  

image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/35240403@N02/3857853340/

Writing and Wordles ....

I wrote on reflection responding to some questions on Teacher Leadership, then I copied and pasting that whole reflection in Wordle to create a word cloud image. From this word cloud, I can clearly tell the terms knowledge, technology, team, teacher, learning, and classroom were prevalent in my reflection. If you wrote a reflection on teacher leadership, what do you think that Wordle would look like? If students created word clouds using something they have written, what information could that tell you?

I have written about Wordle and various word cloud creators before, but I thought I would share some of the highlights again.

http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=dhn2vcv5_157dpbsg9c5

Here are some other great resources related to word clouds and Wordle:

• Ways to Use Wordle in Your Classroom
• Using Wordle for Comparision (example uses innauguration speeches)
• Word Cloud Resources, Tips, and Tools (provides some options for making word clouds besides Wordle
• More than Wordles
• Tips, Tricks, and Resources for Word Clouds including an idea and directions for putting wordle image over another picture

Big Universe

"Instill the love of reading, writing, and learning."

I think that statement pretty much sums up what I think education should do for students. Those were my goals as a classroom teacher, and finding that statement as the heading on a website made me like the site before really even looking at it!
Big Universe is a place to "read, share, and create books online" that uses the above statement on its homepage. I have enjoyed reading and sharing some ideas from there on twitter (@biguniverse). Since I enjoy many of the ideas they tweet, I decided to go look at their site. There is information there for parents and educators, as well as an informative video. The reading teacher in me started thinking of some ideas, but then I wondered about the quality of the stories. so I decided to try them out. My 4 year old daughter crawled up in my lap while I was looking at the computer(21 inch widescreen monitor), so I thought I would read some stories with her. We started off looking at the FREE member-created books. My little one enjoyed naming the animals in the The Wild ABC's by Reaghen West. She wanted to read more. I started thinking about how reading and even creating alphabet books like that could be used as a great project at school for younger students learning the alphabet but also a project for older students to see what they had learned at the end of a unit.
My little girl did not want to stop, so we looked for more. This time we looked at one of the Premium Publisher Books (not free, but there is a free trial): What Really Happened to Humpty? My little one loved all the characters that she recognized, and I liked the more complicated mystery story line that would interest older elementary school students. The illustrations for this story looked nice. I liked the way you could "turn the pages" with the click of a mouse to make it even more like a book. I kept thinking how nice it would be to use a story like that on an Interactive White Board. The teacher could "write" on the story to emphasize and teach certain skills. Students could circle the parts of the story/pictures that helped them predict what would happen next. The story would be large enough for all to see.
I let my little one choose one more story. She wanted a pirate story, so I decided to try out the search box (keyword, category, reading level, age, subject, genre). When I typed in pirate, there were three choices. She chose The Pirates? The Princess (those are her two favorite things right now). This was another Premium Publisher Book, but this one had a read aloud option with it. My daughter and I were both impressed with the read aloud since the characters had different voices, there were some songs, and the words in the story changed color as they were read aloud.
Both the parent and the teacher in me really like this site, the quality of the stories, and all the other things it has to offer involving both reading and creation of the stories (there's over 7,000 images available). Even though I am a big fan of FREE things, I could see myself paying for this.

image from http://www.biguniverse.com/

Post EOG Creativity

Whew! End of Grade Testing is over. Finally. Now what?

The students may feel like they have used every morsel of energy trying to recall all they have learned throughout the course of this school year. What can you give them that will get those creative juices flowing again? Something to get them talking. Help relieve the long awaited build-up and the stressful anticipation of test-taking all week… have them visually and literally share what they felt, what they thought their experience was like – and how they feel now that it is over.

Well… how do you get them talking about all of that? Visually inspire them with photo prompts. And, most importantly, make it fun!

Here is a picture/prompt to get you going….


The EOG tests gave me a lot to think about and showed me how much I had learned. I am glad it is over but I think…..

Photo Courtesy of http://www.compfight.com/


Want to just give a photo and let them simply be inspired visually? Free writing will help the students get started…

Photo Prompts are GREAT for any subject – and most importantly, prompts increase writing skills and gives students practice in literacy and expressive communication.

Check out this link for more photo prompts. Be sure to include copyrights for everything you use!

--
Simply an interesting read to take photo prompts further: http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3125

The Write On WSFCS Wiki Year 2

This month wrapped up the second installment of the Write On WSFCS wiki, a wiki webpage used to create a district writing project for elementary schools. I was pleased many of the teachers and classrooms involved last year were willing to take it on again this year, and despite the snow days elementary schools across the district did an awesome job taking turns writing and illustrating this year's story.

This has become one of my favorite projects over the last two years, and I hope the students and teachers enjoyed the project as much as I did.

My thanks to all the classes and teachers that participated. Please check out our story at http://writeonwsfcs.pbworks.com/.

• The 2009-10 write on wiki schedule
• Last year's story "What Did You Say?"

More Online Resources to Encourage Classroom Writing...

Simply put... it is my mission to offer up any online resources pertaining to classroom writing that I think are just great!

Create Media (Newspaper, Brochure, etc.) -
http://interactives.mped.org/view_interactive.aspx?id=110&title=

Create a Flip Book -
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/flipbook/

Writing Activities -
http://lesson-plans-materials.suite101.com/article.cfm/creative_writing_in_the_classroom

Writing Worksheets -
http://www.schoolexpress.com/fws/cat.php?id=2257

Lesson Plan Idea -
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/classroom-writing-owner-manual-862.html

Graphic Organizers -
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/graphic-organizers/printable/6293.html
http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers/
http://freeology.com/graphicorgs/
http://www.educationoasis.com/curriculum/graphic_organizers.htm

Journal Ideas -
http://thewritesource.com/writing_topics/
http://classroom-activities.suite101.com/article.cfm/writing_in_a_journal
http://42explore.com/journl.htm

Higher Ed -
http://www.writingclassroom.com/

Overall… great writing website –
http://www.everybodywrites.org.uk/

NCTIES 2010: Eliminating Writer's Block

NCTIES is always a much anticipated conference each year by North Carolinians who share a common thread and interest in education and instructional technology. This year, that excitement and anticipation was proven with a 40% increase in participant attendance!

There were several sessions I attended… The first being my own! My session stemmed from my true passion for writing coupled with educational technology in the classroom. “Writing Across the Curriculum: Utilizing Web 2.0 Tools to Increase Writing Skills in the K-12 Classroom” was designed with a specific goal in mind….. To Get Students Excited About Writing!

It is my personal belief that ALL students have an active imagination, are creative and CAN express themselves. But, just as some folks shy away from Math or History, we also have those students who quickly shy away from self expression through writing. My hope in presenting this session was to offer teachers new inspirational tools that would allow students the opportunity to write without simply being given a pencil and paper and hearing “go for it”!

My session structure was based on specific curriculum ideas and examples from the NCSCOS. To eliminate writer's block, a structured plan for beginning/completing the writing process should be given to the students. Check out some of these resources, which like all 21^st century tools can be great and highly successful with customization and creativity geared towards your specific area…

Instant and Engaging Discussion:

http://etherpad.com/

http://www.scrumy.com/

http://www.quicktopic.com/

Brainstorming:

http://www.text2mindmap.com/

http://bubbl.us/

http://www.gliffy.com/

Forming Content:

http://www.storyjumper.com/

http://storybird.com/

http://writeonwsfcs.pbworks.com/

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/

Writing Prompts (quite a few….) Did I mention, writing prompts make my heart go pitter patter!!! Great way to get creativity and the brain going for students!!!!

http://writingacrossthecurriculum.pbworks.com/Writing-Prompts

Image Journaling

http://writingacrossthecurriculum.pbworks.com/Image-Journaling

http://writingacrossthecurriculum.pbworks.com/f/imagejournalquestions.pdf

Now… I did get a chance to visit some other sessions that were really great…. Check out the NCTIES wiki for resource posts from the various conference speakers.http://2010ncties.pbworks.com/ Want to go next year? Plans are already underway… stay tuned. Oh, and one other thing… I walked away from this year’s NCTIES conference with a brand new appreciation (all over again) for Twitter. Smile.

http://writingacrossthecurriculum.pbworks.com/ is a wiki created simply to house the links used within my NCTIES session discussion.

Journaling with Graphic Organizers

Recently my child, a high school freshman, completed an assignment that required him to write ten journal entries and include ten illustrations; one with each entry. The entries would include subjects as broad as describing yourself, discussing the music that best represents you and writing a poem or a song on a given subject.

A bit overwhelmed by what he considered a mammoth task, he determined that to organize the process would be number one. In order to work from school and from home, he chose to use his portable usb storage device to store his documents.
Steps to begin the project:
1. Create a Journal folder on his portable usb drive
2. Name each document in a manner that is consistent
3. Edit and re-edit the document as needed using the usb portable storage.

If only this were enough to have a completed project. Then there was “writers block”. Figuring out how to bring thoughts and ideas together became a bit of a challenge. Now what? Using graphical organizers would be the next essential step in completing this task. A few links to graphical organizers include the following:

http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/graphic-organizers/printable/6293.html
http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/graphic-organizers.html
http://www.writedesignonline.com/organizers/

Writing A B & C

This summer, as with all summers since he started school, my son will be writing journal entries about his summer. Well the first couple of years he drew pictures then over time developed a paragraph to write about his summer camps, vacations and other experiences. This summer would be no different. I considered allowing him to use the computer in order to type his entries, print them and then place the entries in a note book. Another option was to have him blog about his summer.

Then, I realized that he could use a little practice improving his penmanship. For that reason, as painful as he thinks it is, this summer he will again be journaling with pen and paper. Even with this task, technology comes to the rescue. Using the internet to search for penmanship resources, my findings include the following websites. Some of the sites provide printable practice worksheets for manuscript, cursive as well as forming numbers.

http://www.handwritingforkids.com/handwrite/manuscript-interactive-pages.htm
http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/print-k/make-pk-dots.htm
http://www.instructorweb.com/resources/handwriting.asp
http://abcteach.com/directory/basics/handwriting/
http://www.askkids.com/web?q=handwriting

Picture from Microsoft Clipart Online graphics

Why Not Have Students Write Their Own Book!

Do you feel the urge to write a book? What kind of book would it be? Are you in the mood the write a comedy, suspense thriller or a documentary? Perhaps your life has been interesting enough to write a bibliography or maybe you just want to write a book about your family history. Maybe you or your family just came back from an amazing journey and you would like to write about it. Of course you will need to include pictures of your adventures as well. Why not have your students write a book. This could be an ongoing major project throughout the year or you could have students collaborate. Please remember collaboration and creativity are some of the 21st Century skills that we are trying to inspire in our students. Wherever your passion lies, let your thoughts and/or your students’ thoughts flow. Go to http://www.blurb.com/my/dashboard register and download the software to begin writing your book.
The first step is to customize your front cover, back cover and flaps. However, if you are creating a soft cover book, you won’t have flaps. There are many design options to do this. The next step is to choose a design theme for your book which includes your font, coordinating colors, page backgrounds and other design details. You also have the ability to change the page layout. You can choose from several different designs. You have the capability to select the font attributes on every page which of course includes font type, size, bold, italic, alignment, line spacing, bulleted lists, etc. There is also a spelleng cheker, but who needs that? You can drag and drop photographs stored on your computer or add your photos from iphoto, slurp, Flickr, Picassa or SmugMug. You also have the ability to crop, zoom or rotate each of your pictures. Now, you wouldn’t hang a picture on the wall without a frame would you? Please tell me no! Well, go ahead and add frames around your pictures. The BookSmart software you are working in will inform you of any problems you might have in your book such as an overflow of text or a picture that is too large for the resolution you have chosen. At this point you are nearly done. Print out and proof your book carefully. Once you are completely satisfied with your work, click “order book”. You can have them print as many copies of the book as you would like and send them directly to friends, family or not so good friends. The prices of the books rage from $4.95 to over $100 depending on your book size, design elements and the number of copies you order. These books are printed professionally and look like the books you would buy at the bookstore. Furthermore your book is private by default unless you announce it as public whereby you can sell it in the Blurb Bookstore.
Look for my book on the best seller list. Of course this list most likely will be taped on the refrigerator in my kitchen, but a guy can dream big, can’t he?

Telling a Story

We start at a very early age "telling stories" to family members and friends. The stories could be about what happened while playing in the backyard, going on a trip with the family, or a big event such as a wedding, graduation, birth of your first child. Many people document their lives in stories and publish them in books or magazines. A free web tool to publish your story is Story of My Life.

The site has the largest collection of stories from a wide variety of writers. The topics are limitless. There are featured stories, blogs, Top 10 list, videos and pictures available - all without registering for an account. Once you have setup your free account, you can begin writing your story, decide whether to let everyone read it or share it with a special group. The Timeline feature is very interesting in that you can set a time and date of when your story, pictures, or videos can be viewed. Some are going to go public in a few hours and others are not going to be ready for months or years. Can you imagine the changes in our lives from now till then?

I got to thinking of ways my sisters and I could capture the events in my parents' lives that would help us hold onto them a little longer. We have the pictures and taped conversations. There are some stories written down on paper. Maybe this would be a good way for us to keep the story alive.

Our Writing Wiki

In January I contacted schools to gauge interest for using a wiki to create a district writing project for elementary schools. This writing project involved different classrooms in WSFCS working together to compose a story.With the global possibilities for using a wiki, it seemed like a modest goal to complete in just our district, but I wanted something we could get done in a couple of months and gather from teachers the experience they and their children had with the wiki project. If successful, it might open the door for bigger projects in the future.

Eight educators agreed to take part in the project that entailed a class from each school writing a section of a story and creating an illustration for their section. Melissa from Diggs came up with the idea for the story and volunteered (or maybe I pleaded with her) to go first. And as the story worked its way through the eight classrooms, the story grew and the plot took many interesting twists and turns. I was impressed at how little assistance the classes and teachers needed. Even with the snow days and outbreak of a nasty virus that hit computers in our district, each class met the due date and the story was completed this past week.

I hope the students and teachers enjoyed the project as much as I did, and I would like us to continue these types of collaborative projects across and beyond our district in the future. If you are interested in reading the completed story, check it out on http://writeonwsfcs.pbwiki.com/The-Story

Dare to be Great

Did you ever get to the end of a great book and was let down by the ending? It was either not what you expected or left you wanting more.

Why not write your own ending to that book. Put in what you want the characters to do and say. Make the book come to life in your minds eye and get it on paper, or rather online. Yes online for you to keep or for you to share using Plotbot.

Plotbot, what is it, well it is an online web resource that allows you the user or people to collaborate the writing of screenplays, or manuscripts. As teachers you could also use this site in conjunction with writing assignments and book reviews to give your students the opportunity to write, or re-write, their own ending to a novel, short story, movie etc..
This process allows for student collaboration with their peers as well as with the instructor for feedback. As well will prepare some students for careers in writing screenplays or manuscripts.

The site is very easy to maneuver through. When you come to the splash page you create your account, and its is Free. Once you have created your username and password you are then asked whether or not you want this project to be private or public. If you decide to make your project private no one will be able to view it unless you invite them in. Once you have done that you create the project name and enter in some parameter settings and off you go.
Now that everything is set up you can begin creating your content. You can choose to make a(n) outline, screens, screenplay as well as set up a project blog, guidelines, references or character document. Depending on your content you can set up the rating for this according to the MPAA standards.
If you make the project public, or for your invitees, you can set up an RSS feed to it and keep up with editing.
Plotbot also has its own repository so that you can upload documents straight to the site for download and sharing.

So whether you plan on a career as a screenwriter or not, whether you like it your way take a chance and see what Plotbot has to offer.

Image provided by plotbot.com
video provided by Commoncraft