Any writing is art, and it requires thinking outside the box. A good teacher involves kids in the world of creation and keeps them excited about what they do. Today, with technology development ahead of the curve you can inspire and engage your students easy as pie.
Some students know from their inner self how to write. However, even the creative thinkers suffer from the writer’s block now and then. That’s not a problem! Not at all, with today`s art and technology integration. The market offers a variety of wizard writing apps and tools.
Then, how not to get lost in dozens of tools? Follow this 7-step guidance, which will help you match teaching practices with the most appropriate software.
1. Use story prompts
When there’s no idea where to start, the ready-to-use story prompts will be a true rescue. Train fancy with your students – point them in the direction of how many topics there exist to cover and show how much fun it can be. Prompts teach that any routine situation can easily turn into a captivating story, should you use it right.
The resources like Writing Prompts or Story Starters will help you with a diversity of subjects so much loved by kids and teens – adventures, or sci-fi, or mysteries, to name just a few. Use these apps to invoke zest for inventions and explorations – and watch them develop into fascinating narratives.
2. Keep a record of writing ideas
Those getting out of ideas can’t even imagine how helpful it is to note their daily thoughts. Teach your students to get into this habit. A couple of words a day – and here we go: they have plot ideas!
Worry it is a bit tight to write down every idea on the move? Like a breeze, with the writer`s lifesavers like Note Everything or RedNotebook. No need for a pen and paper! What they do is launch the app on their gadgets every time they`ve got a stroke of insight, and record the ideas. You can even add pictures that inspire your creativity.
3. Brainstorm
Brainstorms are difficult to overestimate when it comes to creative writing. Practice brainstorm sessions with your young writers whenever you can. Exchange thoughts and fresh ideas to develop cute characters and ingenious plot. Provoke your writers to imagine. One cannot invent anything more writing-friendly than classroom discussions like this.
Use 99 Words or Brainstormer PicLits as a strong auxiliary support to inspire your brainstorms. Proved as easy-to-apply, these apps will bring a variety of topics, with the respective vocabulary and ideas of how to implement the inspired concepts.
4. Create multimedia
There is no use to emphasize the power of visualization. Multimedia are those effective tools that stimulate the cognition way more than discussions not supported by any visual images.
Engage your students with Easel.ly, an app with simple interface that provides beautiful themes and templates to create multimedia presentations. PicCollage is smart vision-based application that helps create interactive collages and timelines for your stories. (Not to mention, the app states that no accounts are required along with no social sharing features, making it perfect for young children and classroom use. Funny stickers will encourage the insight and motivate for more involvement.
I used this brainstorm app to create this: “His disheveled hair fell into his eyes as he explored the treasure hidden among the blades of grass.” ~EMP
5. Make graphics
Graphical images are yet another visualization tool which aims to drive the writer’s interest. All in all, books are always more attractive for kids when supported by illustrations!
Make your learners draw! No skills? Can it be a problem when you’ve got user-friendly graphics applications? Use Strip Designer to encourage children for creating their comics from photos. MakeBeliefsComix will bring joy to the classroom with comiс strips that students can make by themselves.
6. Organize narration
Once your boys and girls have enough material for writing, they need to organize it in some efficient way. It is not that comfortable to have all the stuff on separate sheets of paper, which can get lost. Developers offer a wide range of all-in-one organizers that can piece your thoughts together, however messy they are.
For writings, use the widely recommended Story Skeleton or Bubbl.us – these will help you segregate apples and oranges! Their simple interface is combined with high-end functions. Skeleton`s virtual board keeps a number of index cards, each having a scene on it – very easy to then put together in a single narration. Bubbl.us is a mind map that shows all the writing outlines in colorful pictures – a simple and funny way to structure the story-to-be.
7. Proofread
Finally, the story is written. Most work is done, congrats! Still, there is something vital left: proofreading. Always teach your students how important it is to check texts for grammatical correctness and readability at the final stage of writing. It’s a piece of cake today, with quite a few focused programs in place!
Along with traditional checks like reading aloud or asking friends for opinions, use the special-purpose apps like Grammarly – to check grammar, and Hemingway – to improve the narration clarity and style. Readability-score will help to make sure that the story is not only mind-blowing but also easy to read.
It’s stunning to observe how the worlds of art and technology get together today. Strange as it is, but poker-faced hi-tech and passionate artwork seem to find a common language. More and more apps appear to bring value to creative minds of the globe! And now, to awaken your artistic genius, it is enough to go to your gadget.
About the author: Jennifer Lockman is student majoring in Journalism, freelance editor and blogger. Currently, she contributes to EssayService. Her expertise includes e-learning, linguistics and psychology.
Image source: https://www.pexels.com/
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