The Inspired Writer blog

10 Writing Apps to Inspire your Elementary Students

todd@writestepswriting.com — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 03:29:00 GMT

Do you want to know what I love the most when I meet teachers from around the country during my travels? That it gives me the opportunity hear how WriteSteps is making a positive impact in their classrooms. I also enjoy learning about writing apps teachers have discovered that inspire students to become better writers and make writing fun!

I love my iPad and am an advocate for combining education with the use of technology for the purpose of engaging and motivating students. The following apps are great for students to use outside of the classroom that reinforce their writing skills in a format that is fun and enjoyable! They cover a wide range of writing skills for all levels of writers. From apps that help beginning students just learning to write, to apps that help more advanced students organize their thinking prior to beginning a narrative, there is an app that will inspire any elementary school writer!

An Encouraging Message for Schools

todd@writestepswriting.com — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 22:42:00 GMT

December 14, 2012. This date will forever remain in the hearts of people across our nation. Months have passed since the tragic events unfolded at Sandy Hook Elementary School, but the scars will never completely heal.

We invite you to hang these remembrance posters in your school hallways and classrooms so the Newtown community knows the lives of the children and educators lost will never be forgotten.

Tags: Sandy Hook,Newtown,Inspirational Posters

Advantages of eWriteSteps in Elementary Classrooms

todd@writestepswriting.com — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:13:00 GMT

At WriteSteps, we realize the importance of integrating technology into elementary classrooms. Students have higher motivation, immediate access to quality instructional materials, and increased engagement. Utilizing technology in your classroom also prepares young students with the skills necessary to succeed in our technology driven lifestyles. Technology provides teachers like you with an unlimited wealth of resources and tools to teach and expand your knowledge; there is no limit to the resources you can use to help your students in today’s information age!

Tags: technology tools,eWriteSteps,animated video,technology

Act of Kindness Campaign: Writing Prompts to Help Students Deal with Tragedy

todd@writestepswriting.com — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 18:04:00 GMT

The unspeakable events at Sandy Hook Elementary School have shaken the WriteSteps team to the core, like so many people around the world. Many of us are former elementary school teachers and educators, so this tragedy felt very personal. We are still trying to make sense of the events in Newtown. Though this senseless act can never be explained, we hope those personally affected can find comfort from the outpouring of love that is being sent to the victims and families.

We decided to pool our energy and resources into honoring the precious lives that were taken on December 14, 2012. Many students, whether it be those directly affected, or those that have heard about the horrific accounts from the news, will be shaken and changed forever.

We were inspired by the Act of Kindness campaign that has kicked off, due to a tweet from NBC News’ Ann Curry. WriteSteps is participating in the campaign in a number of ways. To kick it off we came up with writing prompts to help students express themselves during a time of grief and/or tragedy. Writing can be very therapeutic and is a wonderful tool for students, especially when words can’t be spoken.

Most experts tell us that when children experience grief and/or tragedy, it is wise to give them an opportunity to express their feelings. Because writing is a medium that we teach at WriteSteps, and something we are all passionate about, WriteSteps felt it was important to create a list of writing prompts that can help students during this time.

If you teach Kindergarten through the 2nd grade

Our suggestion is to model writing about something that was specifically upsetting to you. Then invite your students to do the same, leaving it up to the individual student to express his/her feelings in an individual manner.

You can model writing about:

A time you moved and “lost” your friends
The death of a friend, relative or pet
An event in the news
The loss of a favorite item
Seeing someone you love go through a sad time

Keep your writing fairly general in order to avoid creating trauma or increased sadness.

If you teach 3rd grade and up

Our suggestion is to assign or provide one or more of the prompts listed below to help your students express their feelings through writing.

Grief/Sadness

Write about a time you or someone you know about felt grief or sadness. What happened? How was it dealt with?

Courage

Write about a time something worried/upset you or someone you know about. Tell the reader how having courage helped overcome the obstacle.
Write about a time when you saw or experienced courage in your life.

Hope

Write about a time when hope helped you feel better about something that worried you or made you feel stressed.
Write about something you are looking forward to.

Gratitude

Write about what you are thankful for. Consider things you might over look or take for granted in your daily life.
Write about the most important thing(s) in your life. (i.e. family, friends, love, health, safety, yourself)

The WriteSteps team also wanted to include a writing prompt on bullying, with the hope that it will address an important topic in school and can help students open up about bullying and build empathy and tolerance.

Bullying/Showing Tolerance

Write about a time you or someone you know about was bullied. Did anyone show tolerance or kindness toward the bullied student? What happened? How was it dealt with?

We hope these writing prompts and ideas will help you with your students. What prompts do you use to help your students express their feelings during a difficult time? If you haven’t heard of the act of kindness campaign we strongly urge you to check it out. It inspired us during this time of tragedy and gave us hope for the future. We hope it does the same with you. If you found this blog useful please pass it along to others you think will also benefit!

Additional resources for schools and educators on dealing with a crisis:

National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement

Connecticut Commission on Children

NASP School Safety and Crisis Resources
More ...

Tags: Writing prompts to deal with tragedy,Sandy Hook Elementary

Supplementing Writing Lessons with Picture Books

todd@writestepswriting.com — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 19:47:00 GMT

I am a firm believer that students learn best by example. In our WriteSteps K-5 Common Core program, we provide teachers with real student t writing samples demonstrating the different writing topics students learn. We include low, medium and high quality samples so students can see all levels of works.

Picture books can also be a great way to demonstrate a specific writing skill to your students. If you are looking to supplement your writing lessons, in addition to the student writing samples provided in our daily lesson plans, here are some good suggestions.

Below you will find five examples of picture books and how they can be used as mentor texts when teaching a particular writing skill to your K-5 students.

A Mentor Text for Opinion

The Cat in the Hat
By Dr. Seuss

Teachers can create a T-chart to record the cat’s opinion and the fish’s opinion. After you have completed this, ask students to write their thoughts supporting one of the opinions using facts from the story.

A Mentor text for Describing Relationships

Little Bear
By Else Minarik
Illustrated by Maurice Sendak

Have your students describe the relationship between the key events of the overall story to the corresponding scenes that are illustrated.

A Mentor text for the use of Descriptive Words

Roller Coaster
By Marla Frazee

Students can use learn from some of the descriptive words in this book and then write a short story incorporating some of the new vocabulary they have learned.

A Mentor text for teaching Transitions

The Tiny Seed
By Eric Carle

This book is recommended by author Lisa Morris (Awakening Brilliance in the Writer’s Workshop) for teaching transitions. While reading the book, point out the transitions to your students and have them write these on a chart. Once this is finished, students should come up with their own transition examples and add those to the chart.

A Mentor Text for Personal Narrative

How to Write Your Life Story
By Ralph Fletcher

This book helps students learn to write narratives from their own personal experiences. Fletcher uses his own life story to share ideas and activities for students to develop strong writing skills.

A fun class project would be to have your students design a picture book demonstrating a specific writing skill, related to the Common Core, and then have them teach this particular skill to your class sharing the book they created.

As American Author Robert Cormier said, “The beautiful part about writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time,” and this holds true to what we teach students in our WriteSteps program. Our student writing samples show there is always room for growth and improvement in writing and that you don’t have to get it perfect right off the bat. WriteSteps inspires students and helps shape them into confident writers.

For all of you teachers out there-do you have any favorite mentor texts you use when teaching a particular writing skill? Please comment on when and why you use a particular book. I would love to hear your suggestions and learn what you use in your classrooms!
More ...

Tags: mentor texts

New Study: "Text Messaging May Harm Grammar Skills"

todd@writestepswriting.com — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 05:11:00 GMT

"The human race wasn't very advanced... They mostly spoke in monosyllabic grunts... In fact, the last words from their civilization before the meteor hit were "OMG" and "WTF."

This cartoon would be hilarious if it weren’t so ominous. It’s ominous because it pokes fun at a distressing problem: text messaging may be harming kids’ language skills. That's the finding of a new study published in New Media & Society, a top-ranked, peer-reviewed journal. The authors of Texting, Techspeak, And Tweens say:

The question to date was whether or not adolescents were able to switch between writing text messages and using correct English grammar for class work. The results of this study indicate that most adolescents are not able to do so.

Does this worry you? It worries me. But my friend Chris Drew is unconcerned. In the spirit of friendly debate, we decided to trade blogs on the topic. I’d love to know what you think, too!

Tags: texting,grammar skills,writing skills,Common Core,text-messaging,WriteSteps

Text Messaging Does Not Negatively Impact Literacy Skills

todd@writestepswriting.com — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 04:11:00 GMT

Guest blogger Chris Drew is the founder of Pocket Literacy Coach, an innovative resource that provides parents with literacy activities to do with their children.

Thanks to my friend Chris Drew, for permission to re-blog the following post, originally published in the Pocket Literacy Coach blog on August 14, 2012. ~Suzanne

A friend of mine, Suzanne, at WriteSteps recently shared a story about how "Texting May Undermine Language, Spelling Skills." It's an interesting summary of a new study about correlations between "techspeak" and grammar test performance. We had a friendly back and forth about our disparate perspectives on this issue. In a nutshell, she generally supports the claims of the article, and I do not. The issue of texting impacting language and grammar skills is much more complex than this one story would lead us to believe. As pop news reporting on academic research usually goes, though, the author, Rick Nauert, doesn't quite flesh out the whole story from a much larger context.

So Suzanne and I had a bit of a back and forth and we decided to trade our thoughts more publicly to see what our readers think and where they stand.

Tags: texting,pocket literacy coach

K-5 Blogging to Publish Student Writing

todd@writestepswriting.com — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 07:27:00 GMT

WriteSteps Curriculum Creator Katie Davis meets the Common Core technology requirements for publishing K-5 writing with a simple and engaging blogging platform.

Last week, we published "4 Free Technology Tools to Jazz Up Writers Workshop" in the August issue of Inspired Writer. If you missed, it you'll definitely want to check out these powerful motivators for young students developing Common Core writing skills: StoryBird, Little Bird Tales, ePals, and iMovie.

Then, if you haven't found your way into blogging yet, try another publishing option your students will love: a free blogging platform that's so simple, even first graders can use it! Our fourth-grade curriculum creator, Katie Davis, recently gave WriteSteps Coaching Director Arlynn King the scoop on Kidblog.

Tags: Common Core,K-5 writing,digital tools,blogging,technology tools,publishing,kidblog,StoryBird,Little Bird Tales,ePals,iMovie

Promise and Paradox: Writing in America's Schools

todd@writestepswriting.com — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 02:45:00 GMT

Promising advances such as writer's workshop have changed the face of writing instruction, but national measures still tell us that two-thirds of our graduates can't write. How do we solve that paradox?

Why do America’s children write so poorly? Writing instruction has seen a lot of innovation since I was a kid. Like many of my peers, I struggled with writing under the old system of the 3 A’s – assign, assume, and assess. My teachers assigned a topic, assumed we could write about it, and assessed our finished pieces.

Today's kids have it better. Yet there’s still a disconnect. Despite the advances in instruction since I was a child, most teachers still don’t teach writing well. On the last national writing assessment (the NAEP), less than a third of 12^th graders, and less than a quarter of elementary students, could write proficiently.

How do we reconcile promising changes in writing pedagogy with this reality? That calls for a quick history lesson in writing instruction.

Message Over Mechanics

New approaches for young writers emerged in the 1980’s when process writing made its way into American classrooms. The whole language movement had made its impact on reading, and now Donald Graves and Donald Murray brought a similar holistic approach to writing.

Tags: common core writing,process writing,writer's workshop,6 Traits,NAEP,National Writing Project,K-5 writing,Donald Graves

3 Great Reasons to Collect Your Own Student Writing Samples

todd@writestepswriting.com — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:22:00 GMT

Binder of 3rd grade writing samples collected by Denise Dusseau for next year's class. Once teachers are well-grounded in the WriteSteps lessons, collecting class samples can be a great way to honor student work and help your evaluations.

Today I'm pleased to welcome back our 3rd grade curriculum creator and incredible teacher, Denise Dusseau. Here's Denise, on using anonymous student writing samples with K-5 writers:

Denise: WriteSteps provides dozens of excellent anonymous samples for each grade, but I started creating my own collections when I was still using the Lucy Calkins program. Whether or not you already have plenty of anonymous student sample writing to use in your lessons, using samples from your own students can be powerful. Why?

• they honor your students' work
• they reflect the unique culture of your school
• they can help your evaluations

Tags: learning disabilities,ADD,Lucy Calkins,student writing samples,mentor texts,teacher evaluation