Young Students Write Novels

During November’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNaWriMo)

Although, adults are encouraged to write a 50,000 word novel during November, the count is flexible for children. Grade 1 teacher Lily Jones decided to have her young students write novels. The idea was that they’d each write their own novel and all the words written by each student would be totaled. The goal for the class was 5000 words. Jones’ students learned about chapters and characters and enjoyed the freedom of writing fiction. The students didn’t master the art of creating chapters and plots, but they came up with delightful stories and saw themselves as novelists.  Jones went on to help create the NaNoWriMo curriculum for Kindergarten through Grade 12 students. You may want to put some of the NaNoWriMo ideas to work in your classroom this month and throughout the school year. Give your students time to create a story of their own, either using word processing or getting it down on paper. They’ll be proud of their accomplishment.

Grammar with Tech

The TL Advisor Blog is always packed with useful information, like Ozge Karaoglu’s suggestions for great grammar tech tools.  Some of those recommended are the Grammar Ninja, Free Rice, Road to Grammar, and Grammaropolis. There’s also Noredink.com (No Red Ink) where you can create classroom materials featuring apostrophes, fragments, hyphens, subject-verb agreement, and all those confusing words such as its, it’s, accept, except, affect, effect, than, then, and loads more.

Hispanic Heritage Essay Competition

Students in Middle and High School in the CableVision region of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Connecticut may enter the 2013 Hispanic Heritage Essay Competition. By writing an essay of 500 words or less, students have the chance to win a $2,500 scholarship, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, or a Kindle Fire. Students must submit original essay on the topic, “Name a Latino, past or present, with whom you would choose to spend a day and explain why.”  Submissions are due by November 1, 2013 and must be submitted online. Rules and entry forms are available on the site.

Colonial Dames Washington Seminar Essay Competition

The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in cooperation with the Washington Workshops Foundation offer a seven-day (June 21-27, 2014) seminar to high school essay winners. To enter, students must write an original essay on the topic, “To what degree can it be said that the decisions of John Marshall’s Supreme Court laid the essential groundwork for establishing a strong federal government?”

Highlights of the experience include interaction with guest speakers from the three branches of government, visits to Washington D.C. landmarks, housing at Marymount University, exposure to career opportunities, and much more.  Online submissions are due by November 28, 2013, and written submissions by December 1, 2013.

Memories of Today and the Future

The app To Me, By Me ($1) lets students email their future selves. They can choose to receive an email in as little as a month or in several years. Using the app, students think about what memories they want to preserve. The memories can be text, images, and audio recordings.  The company that produced To Me, By Me also has apps for journals and daily diaries.

textHelp: Lots of Great Resources for Reading, Writing, & Speech

Dedicated to the development of innovative software for those with reading, writing, speech, and language difficulties, textHelp provides excellent products that students can use with Macs, PCs, and mobile devices. The software is especially designed for students with literacy problems and those learning English as a second language. New to the textHelp library of resources is Read&Write for Google and the iPad app, Reading Champion. Read&Write for Google works with Google Drive in the Chrome browser making Google Docs, PDF files, and ePubs all available on PCs, Macs, and Chromebooks. The Reading Champion app gives students the impetus to practice and enjoy their reading. (You can try the $6.99 app free for 30 days.)  Other products offered by textHelp include Read&Write, Fluency Tutor, BrowseAloud, English Hero, Lexiflow, Read&Write app, and SpeechStream.

Bookabi

There are 2D and 3D characters, fun backgrounds and stickers, and lots more in Bookabi by Tamajii, Inc. Your students can make up their own stories by using the resources available and adding speech bubbles. Students can take their own photos and use them as backgrounds in the story.

Digital Storytelling in the Classroom

Check out Samantha Morra’s “8 Steps to Great Digital Stories” in order to get ideas for integration of oral storytelling into your classroom. The author believes that digital storytelling is the “21^st Century version of the age-old art of storytelling.” The difference is that today students can share their stories via video and the Internet worldwide.  Students, however, need a plan of action to help them tell their stories. Morra provides one as she suggests you lead your students through a series of steps that includes thinking of ideas, developing storyboards, gathering input, creating products, and getting feedback. She also notes that great digital stories are usually personal and concise, follow a script, use available materials, involve collaboration, and are based on universal story elements.

Handwriting in the Digital Age

Because we spend so much time typing into our digital devices today, we may think that handwriting is a dinosaur that we don’t need to bother teaching. Research, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal (October, 2010), tells us that learning to write “is more than just a way to communicate”, because it “engages the brain in learning” in ways that keyboarding doesn’t. To learn more about the importance of handwriting and how to encourage students to develop the fine motor skills needed for good handwriting, subscribe to Zaner-Bloser’s free online newsletter, Write On!

Digital Storyboards

The ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) book Serious Comix: Engaging Students with Digital Storyboards, by Eydie Wilson, shows how struggling learners progress by creating their own comic books. Wilson used the technique when teaching students with special needs in New York City; her book details how it helped them improve in reading, writing, and analytical skills. “Illustrating a story,” according to Wilson, “helps students with visual literacy, which in turn helps them express their thoughts” and create their storyline.