What's In Your Writing Tool Belt?

With today being the National Day on Writing, my students and I have spent some time discussing "why I write." They have actually created tweets to add to the hashtag #whyIwrite throughout the day today. When I think about the what has made the biggest difference in my students' perception of creating and writing, it has to be that they now write and publish for an authentic audience...not just for me or some mystery scorer. Their writing has an audience and a purpose.

So on this National Day on Writing, I would like to share our top ten favorite tools that support writing. These tools empower my writers by strengthening their voice.

1. KidBlog- Those of you who have been following my blog know that my learners have latched onto blogging like a fish to water. They have become voracious writers sharing what they are learning, reading, exploring, or contemplating. Rarely is there a time when at least one of my students isn't blogging. They have found the power of personal reflection and love the aspect that what they write has an audience who will continue their conversations and challenge one another's thinking.
2. Voice Thread- This is a truly collaborative tool that allows participants to make comments and continue conversations. Usually my writers create a piece of writing, upload it, record it and then their peers will comment upon one another's writing. Comments can be done with text, voice, video, or doodling. 
3. Wikispaces- Wikis are a fast and simple way for students to collaboratively publish their writing projects. It gives you the ability to not only insert text, but also insert Word documents, audio files, URLs, PowerPoints, video files, spreadsheets, and photos. And if that wasn't enough, you can also embed projects like VoiceThread, ToonDoos, Vokis, Xtranormal, Wallwishers, and Livebinders directly into a wiki.
4. ToonDoo- ToonDoo is a tool that lets the writer create a comic strip. They provide a huge gallery of clip art and speech bubbles, my my creative students love drawing their own illustrations, scanning them and uploading them into their ToonDoos. You can also upload photos. If your students want to create more of a comic book page than a comic strip (like my students), you can try using ComicLife.
5. PhotoStory-My learners love taking their writing and turning it into a digital story. When they finish publishing,  we often have a viewing party.  The tool that we turn to most often is PhotoStory.It is very intuitive to use as it walks the user through every step of the publishing process.
6. Audacity- If you are looking for a tool for your learners to create an audio file or podcast, Audacity is user friendly. There are the basic functions of recording a piece of writing as well as a lot of bells and whistles which can really tap into a student's creativity.
7. Lintor Publishing- I described Lintor Make-a-Book in this blog post.  Because sometimes writers still want a tool that allows then to hold, carry, and physically share their books with others, my writers love using Lintor's products. They provide a variety of templates as well as book sizes so that students have the opportunity to create their own hard copy, hardcover book from start to finish.
8. Twitter-In class, we have a Twitter account. Many of you may be wondering about this as a publishing tool as a user only has 140 characters. However, with Twitter, my learners have to learn about being succinct and powerful in their words choices. It has really helped them to focus on their message and the best way to get that message across to their followers. They all agree that standard English is what we use when we tweet from school...no "text speak" so that all of our audience understands what they are saying.
9. StoryJumper-In this post, I wrote about a project that my writers created using StoryJumper. StoryJumper allows students to create digital storybooks which can also be purchased should someone want a copy. StoryJumper has huge selection of clipart and backgrounds, but writers also have the ability to upload their own artwork and photographs, which my learners love.
10. Voki- I wrote about Vokis in this blog post.Voki allows the user to create a personalized talking avatar that can be easily embedded into wikis, blogs, profiles, and email.Voki has the option for the creator to type the text they want spoken or record their voices with their avatar. 

So there's our list...for now. Ask us again what our favorite publishing tools are in an hour and you would probably get a different list. The one constant is the role that these tools play in our stduents' writing....they support the writing; they are not the driving force. We would love to hear about any publishing tool that your students enjoy. Have a happy National Day on Writing today.

Becoming "Techknowledgeable"

When my students returned after the winter break and wrote their reflections (see Focusing on the Journey), one of my students wrote that he had become "techknowledgeable" since beginning 5th grade. When I conferenced with this student, I asked him to explain what he meant by this word. He explained that before entering 5th grade, he didn't know how many things could be done on a computer. He said that he thought computers were for playing games and for grown-ups to do boring work on. As he continued, he explained that things like the wikis, podcasts, and digital stories really helped him express his thoughts and create something fun for others to enjoy too. Pretty observant for a 10-year-old, exceptional education student, huh?

We've just finished publishing our 6th Edition of The Coast to Coast Chronicles with over 300 other students (our page is the Alabama page). This digital journal's theme for this edition was investigating the habitats around us. Students focused on plants and animals in their areas and created content to share with the other students. By doing this, each student got to become an expert and teach all of the students through their writing and publishing. While working on their individual writing projects, students worked with their peers, bouncing ideas of of one another, editing, giving feedback, providing tech support, and generally being supportive.

For the student mentioned above (and many of my other students), this was a huge step in him not only learning content, but finding his voice and applying it in a meaningful way. For a student who usually struggled to gain success, technology, used with collaboration of his peers, gave him the ability to not only be successful, but also give back to our learning community. I doubt that anyone in his life went without hearing about the digital story because he was so proud of his accomplishment. His final digital story has been published in this edition. Now he's thoroughly engaged in his next writing project, demonstrating how "techknowledgeable" he has become with even more tech tools.

For many of our learners, technology provides for them the opportunity to succeed beyond traditional methods.  They are able to overcome many of their obstacles in order to create outstanding work by being able to interact, create, and apply the knowledge that they are gaining while collaborating with their peers.  He recognized the power of technology being used to support his learning in a meaningful way because the technology aided him in becoming knowledgeable. Just like this student, others can find that success that has been eluding them in previous years. I think it's time all of our students become "techknowledgeable", don't you?

Small Shift, Big Change

As my students are now putting the final touches on their parts of the collaborative journal that they are publishing with students from across the country, I realize how much my students have grown in the few months that we've been together. This project is 100% student-driven. For each edition of this journal, the students select a theme wherein each group, from each of the eight different classrooms, can create and publish.

The teacher's role in this project is one of a guide, a facilitator of learning. This shift from teacher-driven instruction to student-driven learning was a scary proposition the first time I decided to let go, and let the students' ideas flow. See, even though the students are selecting the type of writing, creating and publishing that they will pursue, I'm guiding them in making choices that will teach and reinforce the standards for each of the content areas, while helping each student meet his/her individual goals.

The theme that the students chose for this edition was "exploring the habitats around you." Although my students had already studied habitats a couple of months earlier, I figured that their writing would just reinforce their learning. As it turns out, these writing projects took their understanding to a whole new level of mastery.

As a class they decided that they each wanted to create a digital story from the point of view of an animal or plant that lives in our area of Alabama. Since my students had not previously done any digital storytelling and with our limited time, I was hesitant to agree. 

Of course my students, once again, showed me that this was the way for them to learn. One of the students, who completed his work, asked to go to one of our classroom computers and create a list of plants and animals that live in Alabama. The students then went to him to select their animals and started doing some basic research about their animals. Then they began composing their stories adding in a mixture of humor and facts, telling each animal's story. As we began conferencing, I was amazed at how quickly they had gotten these first draft written. The last writing project that we had done had taken two weeks to get this far.

Within a week of squeezing in time to work, over two-thirds of the students' stories were complete. There was a combination of digital stories, podcasts, comic strips, digital videos, and Choose Your Own Adventure Stories. Now they are eagerly anticipating their next project.

What caused this shift? I put the students in the charge of making decisions. I didn't assign anything; they assigned these projects. They know that an authentic audience of students from across the country is waiting to read, watch, listen, and comment upon their work as my students are anxiously awaiting for theirs. Looks like that little shift made a really big difference in our learning environment.

Here is a story about using collaborative technology to promote critical and creative thinking:

• Reading, Writing, and Wikis