Digital Tools for Writing
J2 Training - Janet Corder & Joan Gore
Writing Prompts
The New York Times
A search in the New York Times provides several PDFs of educational writing prompts. You are able to view 10 articles a month for free.
What's Going on in this Picture includes images that allow students to explore visual literacy by analyzing and commenting on them. The actual caption and meaning behind the image are explained several days after the image is posted.
Wheel of Names
Wheel of Names is a random name picker that allows you to insert images. You can easily add writing prompts If you create a free account, your lists will be saved.
Have fun with these examples:
Spinner Wheel
Example:
Writing Prompts - Spin the 3 wheels and use the content to write a story.
Video Writing Prompts
These short videos created by John Spencer of The Creative Classroom are designed to inspire students to fall in love with writing. There are nine genres of writing included on the website.
Would You Rather?
The Would You Rather website spurs debate, discussion, reasoning and writing into the math classroom. Students are given two scenarios and they use math to decide the answer.
Creative and Fun Websites for Writing
Students can create a tombstone to summarize a character from a historical fiction book.
Toasted Cheese
This site includes a monthly calendar of writing prompts.
John Spencer - The Creative Classroom and Write About
The Write About website is an online tool that allows students to write for an audience and gives teachers the ability to provide feedback. There is a bank of writing prompts categorized by grade level and category or by grade level and genre. Teachers can also add to the bank of prompts. There are different pricing levels for the site, but the free version is a great place to begin or to use for writing prompt ideas.
Get a Free PowerPoint with 100 Writing Prompts for Middle School from John Spencer!
Writing Cubes with QR Codes
- MLK Writing Prompts Cube
- Science Writing Prompts Cube
- Oil Spills Writing Prompts Cube
- Hatchet Chapters 1-4 Writing Prompt Cube
Need writing prompts for the cubes??
Tony Vincent of Learning In Hand has created a Reflection Dice (cube) to help students reflect on a lesson, unit, activity or project.
Calendars of Writing Prompts
Writer Igniter
Writing Tools
Wordwall
Wordwall allows you to create both interactive and printable activities. The free version allows you to create 5 resources, however, you have access to the activities that other educators have created.
When you are on the Wordwall home page, go to the Community tab and search for a topic. Once you find a game you want to try or send to your students, look under Switch Template to see what other interactives are available for that topic.
Click the Share button to send the game to students.
- Writing an Essay - bit.ly/wwall1
- Argument Essay - bit.ly/wwall2
- Parts of an Essay - bit.ly/wwall3
- Subject-Verb Agreement - bit.ly/wwall5
- Writers Start With a Hook - bit.ly/wwall7
- Ending Punctuation - bit.ly/wwall8
Word Art - Figurative Language
"These aren't done yet but too excited to not share. We have been diving deep into figurative language. We used wordart.com to create these. I challenged them to use figurative language about themselves and were challenged to include at least one simile, metaphor, hyperbole, and onomatopoeia. However, they have to be able to explain why they chose it to represent them. My favorite part about teaching is when kids are way more creative than your expectations.
I teach 3rd grade."
Awesome Screenshot Chrome Extension
Add annotations and comments on the captured image. The images sync to your Google Drive or OneDrive.
Click here to download the extension.
Example:
ReadWriteThink
- Bio Cube
- Mystery Cube
- Circle Plot Diagram
- Compare & Contrast Map
- Comparison and Contrast Guide
- Essay Map
- Plot Diagram
- Graphic Map
- Persuasion Map
- Resume Generator
- Story Map
- Timeline
- Stapleless Book
- Trading Card Creator
- Venn Diagram
- Acrostic Poems
- Diamante Poems
- Theme Poems
- Flip Book
- Comic Creator
- Fractured Fairy Tales
- Letter Generator
- Calendar Activities
ReadWriteThink also includes lesson plans to accompany some of the interactive tools. A few of the following:
- Fishing for Readers: Identifying and Writing Effective Opening "Hooks" - The Flip Book in this lesson is an interactive tool that allows students to create several hooks for a single-story topic.
- The Strategy Guide for Persuasive Writing offers teachers a variety of methods for helping their students with writing skills. The Persuasion Map assists students as they map out their argument for writing a persuasive essay or debate.
- This blog post explains how one teacher uses the interactives from ReadWriteThink to Explore Non-Fiction Text Structures Using iPads
Hemingway Editor
Click the Write button, paste your text into the site (or compose something new), and then click the Edit button. You will be able to check the readability level, view a word count, check for grammar errors, and more!
Wordtune Chrome Extension
Wordtune uses ariticial-intelligence to help you rewrite your sentences in a more clear and compelling manner.
There is a free version as well as paid plans. Check out this video tutorial from Richard Byrne on how to use Wordtune.Poetry Machine
Poetry Machine is an easy way for students to create original poetry by choosing one of 48 forms. Check out some of the various formats for writing poems including:
- If I'm in Charge of the World
- One Inch Tall Poem
- Famous Biography Poem
- Phone Number Poem
- All About Me
- Best Friend Simile Poem
- I Don't Understand Poem
Google For Education Applied Digital Skills
Examples:
ThingLink
Using ThingLink is a creative method for students to write book reports or book trailers. Upload a picture of the book jacket or a student-drawn picture of their favorite scene, add text and/or links to websites and videos. There is also an app available.
WriteReader
Examples:
The Quick Start Guide under the Help menu will help you create your account and get your students creating books! Six Ways That Teachers are Using WriteReader blog post can be found at tinyurl.com/writereader.
Adobe Spark Page
Examples:
How to Draw by a 5th Grader
Creating a Page Directions:
- Create a free account.
- Launch Spark and click the blue plus (+) sign.
- Click Start from Scratch and select Web Page.
- Click the Themes button at the top of the window to choose a Theme for your Page.
- Add a title and subtitle.
- Click the small + sign at the bottom of the screen and click Photo.
- You can upload your own images from your computer, select Adobe Stock, Creative Cloud, Lightroom, Dropbox, Google Photos, Google Drive OR choose Find Free Photos.
- Find Free Photos - Type in a topic and click Enter/Return to find Creative Commons-licensed photos. The attributions for these photos will automatically be listed at the end of your presentation.
- Select the photo you want to be in the background of your first slide.
- Click the down arrow to change the focal point, replace or delete your first image.
- Click the plus sign (+) under the image to start writing your Page. Here you will have different options for adding content to your Spark. Keep adding content by clicking the small + sign.
- Select the Preview option and make any necessary corrections.
- Close the window, select the Share option, choose Publish and Share Link, complete the questions and click Create Link. You will have several sharing options.
Microsoft Sway
How this teacher uses Sway for Science experiments.
Examples:
Creating a Sway Directions:
The following directions are for creating a presentation about a topic that includes images and definitions. The types and styles of presentations you can create in Microsoft Sway are endless!
- Login to your Sway account.
- Click + Create New to start with a blank Sway. You can also choose to Upload a Document or Start from a Topic which will allow Sway to help you create your presentation.
- Give your Sway a title
- Click Drag an image here
- Look through the suggested images or use the search box to find images.
- Drag the image to the Drag image here box.
- Click the green + button to add a new card.
- Click Image
- Use the search box to find an image of one of your words and drag the selected image over.
- The caption is your word and definition. Highlight the word and click Emphasize.
- Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the rest of your words.
- Click the small white box in the bottom right corner of each of the slides that have an image, word and definition. This will group these slides together.
- Click Group Type in the gray bar above the grouped cards.
- Choose how you want the stack to appear in your presentation.
- Click the Design button.
- Click the Styles button.
- Choose how your presentation will be viewed: Vertical, Horizontal or Slides.
- Choose one of the themes. Customize allows you to create your own theme.
- Click the Share button to determine how you will share your presentation with others.
Wordle
This tool is great for brainstorming, however, our favorite way to use it is to have students copy and paste their essays into Wordle and then they will see a visual representation of the the words they have used. If a word or words appear very large, they need to find synonyms to replace them.
NoRedInk
Seesaw
Examples:
Smore
Smore is an excellent tech tool for creativity, writing, design and marketing. There is a free version as well as a paid, educational account option.
Examples:
- Jackson Vandagriff of Anna, Texas has created this Smore for his middle school ELA class.
- Short Writing Assignment One
- The Interaction Between and Among European and Native Cultures
Book Creator
The Book Creator app ($4.99) is an extraordinary app that allows students (and adults) to unleash their creativity and publish ebooks to be shared with the world. This app can be used in all content areas to support writing across the curriculum. Check their website to download the app for IOS, Windows and Google Play.
Follow Book Creator on social media for ideas and updates!
BIG NEWS - Book Creator that will work in the Chrome browser on all devices is now available! Read more about it here.
Slick Write
WordCounter
Twitter Novel
Tech Guru, Jacqui Murray, has written an article, Technology in the Classroom Tools to Teach Writing, that has several excellent ideas for classroom teachers. Our favorite, Twitter Novel, is a fun and engaging activity for secondary students.
Storybird
Teen Ink
BoomWriter
BoomWriter has three platforms available for teachers to use with their students.
- StoryWriter is a collaborative platform for teachers to use with their students and they guide them through the process of creating a real book. Teachers can start a book with a story starter and students add chapters. The teacher can add comments and notes for the students throughout.
- ProjectWriter can be used from nonfiction group writing projects in science, history and social studies.
- WordWriter is an interactive platform for vocabulary building.
Writing Sparks
Imagine Forest
Fodey - The Newspaper Clipping Generator
Check out the other fun activities that Fodey.com has to offer!
Branching Story Template
Cool Google Activities
- Emoji Writing Prompt Generator with Google Sheets
- Creating Punctuation Practice Activities with Google Docs
- Random Writing Prompt Generator with Google Sheets
- How to Easily Assess Student Writing in Google Docs
- Teaching Writing with Google Docs
- Google Classroom: Using a Writing Journal
- Three Ways to Differentiate the Writing Process with Google Docs
Works Cited Generators/Information
Chrome Extensions
- Grammarly - automated proofreader
- WriQ - improve writing quality for students
- Read & Write - provides a drop-down toolbar with several features
- Talk and Comment - Chrome Extension allows you to make audio comments
Apps for Writing
- Story Dice ($2.99) - Good for elementary students
- Write About This ($5.99) - includes 125 categorized images & 375 text+voice prompts
- The Brainstormer ($2.99) - users randomly combine a plot, a subject and a setting or style
- Prompts - Beat Writers Block ($1.49) - more than 1,000 starting lines and creative writing prompts
- iDeas for Writing ($4.49) - complete writing workshop with exercises organized by category & difficulty
- Character Prompts ($2.99) - includes over 20,000 basic elements, over 3,000 info tidbits, over 2,000 character twists & over 800 physical characteristics
- A+ Writing Prompts ($5.99) - includes over 1,250 scene elements, 2,000 words, 460 sketches, 60 colors, 80+ genres & more
- Writing Challenge: Creative Prompts for your Story ($2.99) - a fun game with writing prompts
- The Most Dangerous - Web App that might be addicting!
- 10 Free Writing Apps and Tools - List of free apps to help with writing
- Awesome Apps for the Six Traits of Writing - List of digital storytelling apps
- Draw and Tell - Draw, color, decorate with stickers, create animations and record stories
- Story Creator - Easy storybook maker for kids
- Kid in Story Book Maker ($8.99) - create and share personalized photo storybooks
More Resources
12 Of The Best Digital Tools And Rhyming Dictionaries For Writing by Kenney Meyers
Empower Students with Interactive Writing Tools by Microsoft for Education
Pinterest Board of Star Wars Art - Images for story starters from Star Wars in the Classroom
15 of the Best YouTube Channels for Writers
Top 10 Resume Writing Tips for 2018
9 Writer’s Workshop Apps and Websites
Visual Writing Prompts - Searchable by grade level
Three Tools That Help Students Analyze What They Write - by Richard Byrne (Free Technology for Teachers)
Writing Fix - Writing prompts/ideas associated with various author's books
Wonderopolis - Each day, Wonderopolis poses an intriguing question and explores it in a variety of ways
Kidblog - Safe student publishing tool
Kaizenza Fast, personal feedback on student work
Microsoft OneNote - How to Use OneNote at School: 10 Tips for Students & Teachers
Read & Write Gold - Literacy software with tools designed for reading, writing, study, and research support.
Paper Rater - Offers plagiarism checking, automated proofreading, grammar check, and automated scoring that can analyze your text
Flocabulary - master academic content while building core literacy skills
Writable - K-12 writing practice
Storyboard That - Online storyboard creator
PEG Writing - Grades 3-12 writing site to improve writing
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