Teaching Tots to Twitter Instills Love of Writing: Part II Transform Teaching With Twitter

If students learn to tweet in the primary grades, is it possible we may begin to see an improvement over time in students' writing skills and overall attitude toward writing? I believe Twitter, if properly implemented, can support writing and reading instruction and promote a love of writing. Twitter in the elementary classroom can be essential for establishing the mind-set for students that they all have something worthwhile to say in writing, and there are actual readers of all ages, i.e., parents, family, teachers, administrators and even other students, who are eager to read what they say.  For various reasons, writing can be a difficult task for so many students, and for teachers it is often difficult to teach, but what if Twitter served as a teaching aid to motivate reluctant writers and thinkers. What if students had daily Twitter tasks to show them at an early age that: 

• writing allows us to express our thoughts, emotions, experiences, imaginations, etc.
• writing allows us to connect with others.
• writing does not have to be perfect; we can always correct our errors.  
• writing does not have to be a tedious, isolated activity, but can be interactive.
• writing involves careful editing and revising.
• writing involves careful deliberation of our words, grammar and punctuation. 
• writing impacts and influence others.   

Twitter can become a teaching tool to instill a positive mind set about writing, and help young students internalize how writing is an essential aspect of communication,  involving careful attention to so many language arts skills.  Rather than assigning writing prompts with the teacher as the sole reader, Twitter can enable students to directly and concisely communicate in writing with an authentic audience and an unlimited number of readers. Although a tweet is 140 characters or less, tweets can serve as a springboard for lengthier writing tasks and with proper teacher modeling and coaching, students can see the impact, influence and power their words have on others as they create content and receive tweets. Twitter can revitalize writing instruction and inspire students to take on lengthier writing tasks if we use Twitter to build students' confidence in their writing skills.  Twitter can also support grammar instruction if we use tweets to model mini lessons on specific grammar traits. No need to teach grammar in isolation anymore; when composing tweets, students see, revise and edit a specific grammar trait in action. 

Please check out this insightful article: "Twittering About Learning" http://www.essentialschools.org/resources/451 where one teacher describes his experiences with  Twitter in the elementary classroom. Read how this educator has created student Twitter opportunities to tweet audio clips using Chirbit.com to support reading instruction. Students practice their reading fluency, phrasing, intonation, and rate and record themselves reading a text. They record their read alouds using Chirbit.com, and then use Twitter to share the chirbit.com audio clips with their Twitter followers http://www.chirbit.com/room302.   Check out his students' tweets and the many ways he uses Twitter Classroom Twitter: http://twitter.com/room302.  I would love to hear how are you using, or how you plan to use Twitter in your elementary classroom.    

Here are my A to Z twitter tasks for the elementary classroom, and a video by Elbert Chu on how Tots Tweet In Kindergarten!


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Tech Tools To Support Writing Instruction!

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Writing's A Smash @ Storymash.com!

How do we build a community of writers and readers in our classrooms? How do we teach students to give, receive and apply feedback? Storymash.com can help students experience the writing process first hand! 

First, students post their writing in the form of a draft. Each draft posted is considered a chapter regardless of the genre. Storymash.com attaches a discussion forum to the post so any reader on the site can post feedback, or even provide extension ideas for the piece. Any reader can also choose a featured draft and take the storyline in a different direction or change the genre completely. Hence, the name storymash.com since all visitors to the site can potentially "mash" their stories. 

Once a student receives feedback, students apply the feedback and repost the revised piece, making it available for further peer review and ranking, but best of all, for the possibility to earn MONEY! 

In the draft stage of the writing process on storymash.com, only the student can edit the piece, but once the student has edited the piece, he/she will repost the piece as "published. As a "published" piece on storymash.com, writing can no longer be edited by students, but readers can still comment, and rank the writing. If the piece becomes popular, then students earn revenue for their writing through the page advertisements. Storymash.com also offer writing contests with prices over $500!  (Please visit storymash.com for a more detailed explanation on how revenue potential works. I could definitely see how a school could create an account and use the revenue for school needs, or how students can create personal accounts with parent permission and see how they can earn money through their writing.) 

Storymash.com helps students understand writing requires reflection, collaboration and revision.  I hope writing will be a smash in your classroom at storymash.com! 

(Disclaimer: This site is open to anyone, so teachers should ask for parent permission/school approval before registering since content of published stories will vary, and may include mature themes. Teachers can still use storymash.com to have students post their own stories, but monitor what stories students read on storymash.com.)

"When You Wish Upon A Wall..."

No offense to Jiminy Cricket, but this time, we'll leave the stars shining in the night sky and make our wishes on www.wallwisher.com. This brilliant site will make every teacher's dreams come true! 

Wallwisher.com is a virtual bulletin board of sorts to post and share what you want--text, images, videos, and links. It's a great tech tool for informal or formal assessments at all levels of Bloom's taxonomy.

It's a free site with a no registration option, and it's easy to build a wall in minutes.  Teachers can build a wall by registering. However, if you do not register, you will not have editing abilities. Teachers will want to register to be able to receive emails for screening student posts and offer feedback for post revisions. Once registered, you are prompted to create a unique URL for your wall so you can share it, and determine who can view and post on your wall. Wallwisher.com allows you to personalize the wall by picking a color theme and image or uploading your own. Most importantly, you can add a title and subtitles at the top of your wall so contributors to the wall know what they should or shouldn't post. Titles and subtitles serve to state the wall's purpose, and can be in the form of questions, descriptions, thought-provoking quotes, or whatever purpose you want the wall to serve. 

Here's how I have used wallwisher.com:

1.) I have used wallwisher.com to practice vocabulary. I have asked students to post original sentences for their assigned set of vocabulary words, and include an image, video, or link to illustrate the word's definition and connotation. Since students see each others' contributions, it's great practice for students to click on each others' posts to read other original sentences and see the attachments illustrating each of the definitions. 

2.) I have used wallwisher.com to assess reading comprehension for pre-reading, during reading and after reading practice. At different stages of reading instruction, I have asked students to stop reading, reflect and post predictions, connections, inferences, personal interpretations, comparisons, cause and effect examples,  and more. Students have posted what they believe to be the themes of a piece; they have identified the tone and mood of a reading piece and then included a post with an image, video or link expressing that particular tone or mood.

3.) My students have used wallwisher.com to have virtual sticky note conversations by responding to each others' posts. Students have practiced how to elaborate, agree or disagree with each other and how to provide textual support for their arguments in the form of images, links, videos they attach to their virtual posts. 

A classroom wall can be theme based or can be used for brainstorming. Teachers can post content for students to edit on the wall, and students can always include additional links, videos, or images to elaborate, extend and support whatever they post. All posts are limited to 160 characters which also teaches students to be succinct. 

As a virtual bulletin board with unlimited postings, there are as many possibilities for wallwisher.com's uses as there are stars in the sky to wish upon.  Not only can wallwisher increase student engagement, but it is a great tool to encourage a sense of collaboration and community in the classroom.  

"When you wish upon a Wall, 

Makes no difference who you are 

Anything your heart desires will come to you..."  

As Jiminy always says, "Let your conscience be your guide" when you design ways to use www.wallwisher.com in your classroom. Feel free to share how you have used this stellar tech tool! 

Check out a video from eduTeacher on how to use wallwisher.com, and my Fearlesstech4teachers Wallwisher to post how you will use this tool in your class!

Think Collaboratively: Mix and Match Your Ink!

MixedInk.com leads the way in supporting collaborative writing and critical thinking. Students not only write original content, they also practice how to edit, comment and rate their peers' writing. Students evaluate each classmates' content and synthesize the best ideas, mixing and matching different versions to ultimately create one best piece representing the collective voice of the class. Every student's voice is heard because MixedInk.com identifies key words and phrases giving each original author credit for his/her contributions. As students mix and match their words with those of their peers, they receive real time examples of other classmates who have used the same language. These real time suggestions encourage students to elaborate, and expand on the ideas of their peers. Every student is accountable to write and contribute his/her thoughts. Throughout this collaborative writing process, students rate each text anonymously practicing the art of constructive criticism and evaluation. Students' ratings determine the best contributions. Teachers can easily assess writing strengths and weaknesses as students engage in the collaborative writing process.

   

Student Writing Soars With Storybird!

Soar to new heights with Storybird.com, a site that allows students to create, collaborate, read, and share their own stories. Storybird.com has thousands of art pieces arranged by themes. Students select a theme or piece of art to inspire them to write a story.

Students can invite collaborators to share the writing of a story. 

Storybird.com also has a public library for visitors to read stories others have created. 

Students can create reading lists of their favorite Storybird stories. 

Best of all Storybird serves as a publisher! Students can publish their stories privately or publicly online or in hard copy. The site is entirely free, but for a reasonable price, parents can order soft or hard cover of books their children create, or you can order a PDF version of a story to read on an e-reader or iPad.

Storybird encourages collaborative writing and supports all aspects of the writing process. Its features are easy, intuitive and safe. There are endless possibilities for using Storybird to support reading instruction as well. Regardless of age or grade level, storybird.com's art work inspires anyone to be a connected reader and writer!  

Storybird Quick Tour from Storybird on Vimeo. Here is a story I wrote about technology using storybird.com! Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed creating it! The Purple People and the Elephant by firstclasstutoring on Storybird

Say Aloha to Wikis: Using Wikis to Teach the Writing Process!

What did one control freak say to another control freak? "Get your hands off my wiki!" 

If you've heard the word wiki, but are not quite sure what it means or how to use it, then you've come to the right blog! Wikis are webpages created for ongoing editing and revision by one author or multiple authors. 

Control freaks and wikis do not mix well because a wiki is meant to be in a constant state of revision and editing by multiple authors. (The control freak will want to keep that wiki all to himself!) 

Wikis can be messy and should be! A wiki promotes collaboration and critical thinking. All students can throw in their two cents, and see every contributor's thought process, but they serve an even better purpose!  They teach students about the writing process. In many classrooms, writing is not taught as a recursive process. Students are given writing prompts, but rarely receive feedback to understand how they can improve their writing skills.  If they are lucky enough to receive feedback, students may not know what to do with that feedback, nor do they have the opportunity to revisit a writing piece to polish it. (And by the way, kids do read feedback if they're taught how to read it, apply it and and give it...another post for another day.) Here's where wikis are a breath of fresh of air and give new life to teaching the writing process!  

Teachers can create wikis for pairs of students who have different writing strengths, small groups of students or an entire class. These wikis can be safely shared online locally, nationally or globally by joining wiki sites like Wikispaces so students can receive writing feedback and participate in collaborative writing projects with their peers.  

If you're worried that wikis may be too messy for your taste because content may get deleted,  Hakuna Matata, no worries! (Oops, not a Hawaiian expression, but let's pretend!) When you create a wiki, there is a "revision history" so the wiki creator knows who edits, what is edited and even at what time the editing took place. Issues that may arise with wikis include:

• allowing students practice time to learn how to use a wiki 
• building a community of trust so contributors feel confident their contributions will be valued 
• ensuring the quality of the content students add to the wiki
• assigning authentic writing topics so students will be excited to write and collaborate
• assigning subtopics to each student and/or roles so students have a distinct contribution
• determining how you will assess the content added to the wiki
• safeguarding your wiki so it is not vandalized or deleted                                                   

Luckily, wiki sites offer monitoring controls to wiki creators. You decide to make your wiki public or private, and who contributes and edits. Students can also add videos, images, audio or links of websites that support their content.  So, fear not and hang ten! 

A wiki can change students' attitudes about writing because they will participate in different aspects of the writing process.  Students will learn from their mistakes, recognize their peers's mistakes so they can help them, but most importantly they will collaborate with peers, and internalize the process of revising, editing, polishing and presenting their writing. 

Students at any grade level can create wikis on any subject, and even share their wikis with classrooms around the world to receive input from other student or teacher authors.

Check out these educational wikis looking for student and teacher collaboration! 

http://www.wikispaces.com/

http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Examples+of+educational+wikis

http://pbwiki.com

http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com

By the way, the word wiki-wiki is Hawaiian for fast or quickly! 

So start your class wiki, wiki-wiki today!