Using Digital Resources to Inspire Creative Writing in the Classroom

/

Creative writing is one of the easier topics to teach remotely - after all, it just needs pen and paper and an instruction from a teacher, right? While that is true, there are a number of digital tools teachers can use to make creative writing easier, more interactive and just more fun for students. And these tools work great for both remote and in-person teaching!

 
Using Digital Resources to Inspire Creative Writing in the classroom. A look at a range of digital tools teachers and students can use to inspire creative writing and to assist in the writing process. Perfect for students and teachers working remote…
 

Writing Prompts

Sometimes it can be really hard to start writing from a blank piece of paper, especially when the days are melting into each other and inspiration can be hard to find. This is when teachers can step in with some writing prompts to make it that bit easier to get writing.

There’s some great writing prompt websites available, thanks to some very creative people. One of my favourites is Pobble 365, a website which combines a picture prompt with a story starter, questions and even art suggestions. Students can look at the daily prompt, or choose a day from the calendar.

Students might also respond well to picture prompts. They might like to use freewriting cards like these ones, or you might like to choose a range of photos to send to them to warm up their writing muscles. Unsplash is a high quality photography site with a wide range of images which you can download and send to your students for writing.

If you want to give students a little more power over the prompt they use, you might like to engage them in a digital creative writing resource like this Galarious Goods school one. This resource offers a page filled with click and drag prompts which students can combine to make their own story starter (each resource has 216 different possible combinations!)

Brainstorming Tools

Brainstorming is a great way to expand on writing prompts before actually starting to write the story. Students can use a range of digital tools to assist with this brainstorming. A simple way to allow for collaborative brainstorming is by sharing a Google Doc (or a shared document in another shared learning platform). You can open this up to your whole class or create pairs or small groups by only sharing it with certain students. Students can add text, images, story ideas, links and more and you can easily monitor their engagement in the process.

You can also use more structured online tools for creative writing. Students may enjoy using a mind mapping tool like Bubble.us to organise their plots and ideas, or they can use a brainstorming tool as part of a bigger resource like the Creative Writing Digital Resource.

 
 

Writing with Slideshows and Documents

There’s lots of tools when students come to writing their stories, from the old pencil and paper to word processing tools (and even voice recognition apps!). Word processing tools and slide show tools (like Power Point and Google Slides) can be some of the most effective tools, with students able to combine text and images, able to create picture books and able to easily share with others for collaborative work and to share with their teachers. Students can also use the linking tools in slide show tools to create choose your own pathway stories or to create ‘tables of contents’ for their work - as a teacher you can also combine student work into a ‘class book’ of stories using these tools.

Reflecting

When students finish their writing, it’s important to take the time to reflect on their work. Students can write about how they felt as they were working on the writing and what they think worked well or not so well. They can use comment features on documents and slide shows to add information about how their writing went, or they can use a structured reflection tool that you share with them. 

Have your students engaged in creative writing using digital tools? Share your experience or any great tools you’ve used in the comments

 
 
 
Read More!
Using Digital Resources to Inspire Creative Writing in the classroom. A look at a range of digital tools teachers and students can use to inspire creative writing and to assist in the writing process. Perfect for students and teachers working remotely or classrooms involved in 1 to 1 computer programs. A Galarious Goods blog post
Using Digital Resources to Inspire Creative Writing in the Classroom
Explore the Pig the Pug Series with These Writing Tasks - 5 Writing Task Ideas for classrooms and students exploring Pig the Pug by Aaron Blabey and how teachers can teach them. A Galarious Goods post
Explore the Pig the Pug Series with these Writing Tasks
Writing skills and expectations before goal setting. Don't jump straight into making writing goals with your students. Take a moment to make sure they understand what is expected of them and how they can achieve that. A Galarious Goods blog post
Writing Skills and Expectations Before Goal Setting
Don't Make Writing Goals with Blank Pages - Creating Writing to Make Writing Goals
Don't Make Writing Goals with Blank Pages - Creating Writing to Make Writing Goals
Including Freewriting in Your Classroom Writing Centres - a blog post from Galarious Goods looking at using freewriting in the classroom through setting up freewriting writing centres
Including Freewriting In Your Classroom Writing Centres
Freewriting in the writing classroom. What it is and how teachers can use this writing strategy
What is Freewriting? (And how can it be used to teach writing?)
3 Different Ways to Explore Poetry in Your Classroom. A blog post exploring poetry and some different ideas for bringing poetry alive in your classroom
Three Different Ways to Explore Poetry in your Classroom
Using Badly Written Texts in the Classroom. This writing blog post explores how teachers can use badly written texts in a range of different ways in their classroom.
Using Badly Written Texts in the Classroom
Where can we find the time to explore persuasive writing? A Galarious Goods blog post exploring how teachers can find time to teach persuasive and argument writing in a busy teaching and classroom schedule. Perfect for classroom planning and classroom organization. Teach students persuasive writing as you explore a range of other subjects and topics.
Where Can We Find the Time to Explore Persuasive Writing?
Where do we find persuasive writing? A Galarious Goods blog post exploring persuasive writing and how teachers can engage students with real life persuasive text examples. Great teaching ideas for classrooms exploring persuasive writing and arguments..
Where Do We Find Persuasive Writing?
 

5 Ways to Help Students Learn When They Can't Be at School

/

We’re currently in one of those moments - the moments which history remembers. With a pandemic spreading around the world and countries slowly (or quickly) shutting down, our own governments are having to make some tough decisions about what happens next.

For many of us, that means schools closing. Which comes with a wide range of challenges - have our students got access to technology? Have they got an environment in which they can learn? How can we make sure they cover the curriculum in the best way possible?

I definitely don’t have all the answers, but I’ve been thinking about some ways which might make it a little easier to get learning to our students over the coming weeks and months.

 
5 Ways to Help Students Learn When They Can't Be at School - a look at some different approaches to out of school learning including two free resources which can be used by teachers or parents. A Galarious Goods blog post
 

1. Use Information Sheets and Activities

When we teach science and social studies, so much of it revolves around content and learning basic facts and concepts. Information sheets can be excellent for providing this information to students, allowing them to also explore content reading.

One way to share information sheets is as a PDF file - with a PDF reader like Adobe Reader allowing students to add their own notes to the sheet. If students have access to a printer or are provided with a package, these can be highlighted and written on as well.

Follow up activities can be as easy as identifying key information and vocabulary in the resource, through to developing further questions, turning the information into a diagram, creating a poster or cartoon about the information or creating a series of comprehension questions for other readers.

The Australian Government mini units for Year 4, 5 and 6 are designed around information sheets and follow up activities. To only send students the pages you wish to send them from a purchased resource, you can use the Print as PDF feature in Adobe Reader to save those particular pages, then share them with your students.

2. Research Activities

Research activities are great across a wide range of subjects. Want to explore the works of a particular author when school returns? Ask students to research that author! Want students to understand the daily importance of maths? Ask them to investigate some of the ways they’re using maths every day at home! Want kids to travel without travelling? Ask them to research a country!

Research can be honestly difficult for students, so you may like to provide some scaffolding - either in the form of additional questions for students to take a closer look at (eg. What are 3 important things in the history of that country? What are some popular foods in that country?) or by providing some additional research tools.

Click here to download some research tasks you might like to share with your class. To allow you to easily load these onto online classrooms or closed learning spaces, these are available as a collection of jpg images and on a PDF.

If you’re considering a novel study for Boy Overboard, The Ruins of Gorlan (Ranger’s Apprentice) or Nim’s Island this year, there are also research resources available which students may be able to explore before they read the book.

 
 

3. Writing Activities

Writing is one of the easiest tasks to set for home. Students just need something to write on and with - whether it’s paper and pencil or a laptop or device. Students can even experiment with some of the dictation tools available!

Writing tasks can be easily shared - on a piece of paper in a package, in an email to parents, through an online classroom. Students can send their work back too - even if they need to photograph it to send it through.

Writing tasks can be fiction or nonfiction, reflective or imaginative, big or little. You can set text prompts, picture prompts or no prompts at all. And - just to make it even more attractive - writing also helps with reading.

Click here to download some writing tasks you might like to share with your class. To allow you to easily load these onto online classrooms or closed learning spaces, these are available as a collection of jpg images and on a PDF.

I also have a collection of Freewriting activities and prompts, and a blog post which you can share with your students.

 
 

4. Digital Resources

There’s definitely going to be a boom in digital resources appearing in the next few days and weeks, but they have both advantages and drawbacks. Good digital resources should be more than just worksheets with text boxes. They embrace moveable elements and different ways of engaging with learning. However, using them also involves an amount of technological know-how (including the most important ‘undo’ buttons on Google slides resources!)

One exciting option is to ask your students who have access to computers or devices to create their own digital resources using Power Point, Keynote or Google Slides. They can explore adding information, including moveable parts and text boxes, trying to add videos or audio, any required animations or transitions - and for some extra fun, linking from one slide to another.

There are currently 7 Government focused Galarious Goods digital resources available looking at types of government and elements of democracy. 

5. Character, Setting, Retelling and Whole Novel Exploration

You may have reached the end of your class novel before school was closed. Or you may have been given permission to read your class novel through an online classroom. Or students may be lucky enough to have their own copy of the novel. If this is the case, you can absolutely continue taking an in-depth look at this novel.

While it might be harder to do comprehension or vocabulary activities remotely, there’s lots of ways you can explore characters, settings or the novel as a whole. Ask students to create profiles of the main characters, to write letters between characters or to create lists of how the characters might behave if they were in lockdown. Ask them to create tourist guides of the settings or to compare one setting with another. And ask students to retell the story or to look at some of the themes or events from the novel.

You can find a free resource for Retelling here as well as free sample packs for Boy Overboard, Nim’s Island and Hating Alison Ashley. You can also find a wide range of Novel and Picture Book resources at Galarious Goods - many of which you can utilize in a home setting. 

Take care and stay safe