66 Writing Tools for the 21st Century Classroom

Here’re a wide variety of writing tools for students. Some practice good habits, others offer options for writing requirements. See what works for you (check here for updated links):

1. Character Trading Cards
2. Context Clues Millionaire
3. Friendly Letter Maker
4. Garfield teaches Writing Skills
5. Identify the Main Idea
6. Letter Generator
7. Main Idea Battleship
8. Make another story
9. Monster Project
10. Newspapers, posters, comics—learn to create
11. Using a table of contents
12. Videos—using Sock Puppets (iPads)
13. Writing games

Blogs

1. Blogger
2. Class Blogs
3. Edublog
4. Kidblog
5. WordPress

Brainstorming

1. Bubbl.us–simple to use, no log-in, free–but a bit quirky (IMHO)
2. Inspiration–as an online tool or an app
3. Mind42–online, free
4. MindMaple—free or fee
5. MindMeister–free trial for education
6. Pearltrees
7. Popplet—for iPads and the web
8. Spicy Nodes
9. SpiderScribe–add text, pictures, files; free sign-up,

Comics

1. Comic creator–Arthur
2. Comic Creator–Boy’s Life
3. Comic creator–Bubblr
4. Comic creator–Garfield
5. Comic creator–ReadWriteThink
6. Comics, newspapers, posters—learn to create
7. Make Believe Comix
8. Pixton–comic creator created specifically for schools
9. Toondoo–for olders, professional look, but intuitive for students
10. Writing with comics

Newsletters

1. Tackk–picture and text
2. Thinglink–creative approach–click hotspots to get topical text–available to <13 yo, no email required

Note-taking

1. Evernote
2. Notability–quickly take text, draw images, record sounds, all with a few clicks
3. NoodleTool–3-step note-taking process that helps students takes notes while they learn the process
4. Note-ledge–app for note-taking
5. Penzu–create a private online journal

Skills

1. Hemingway App--paste your writing in; it highlights areas of improvement

Stories

1. 30 Hands–digital storytelling app
2. Bookr—create stories from photos
3. Create a story
4. Google Storybuilder (see how-to video here)
5. Little Bird Tales–upload drawings, add student voice to them–K, 1 best
6. StoryBird—-storytelling with art–beautiful
7. StoryJumper–build a book

Social Media

1. Fake headline
2. Fake IPhone Text
3. Fakebook–fake FB
4. IFakeText–fake SMS text

Storyboards

1. Storyboard That–intuitive interface for creating a ‘story’–or a sequence of events

Words

1. Spelling practice—use with spelling words
2. TagCrowd
3. Visuwords
4. Vocabulary Fun
5. Word Central—from Merriam
6. Words in Context

Lesson Plans (fee)

Quick Stories in Class

Digital Quick Writes in Your Class

Write an Ebook Lesson Plan

Common Core Lesson Plans (fee)

By strand

Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.