TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Jan 15, 2023
Here are this week's features. Clicking the tags in the description area of each listing will present a list of other resources with this topic. | Click here to return to the Featured Sites Archive
Writer's Workshop - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 6tag(s): creative writing (121), descriptive writing (39), expository writing (31), letter writing (18), paragraph writing (15), persuasive writing (56), writers workshop (31), writing (318)
In the Classroom
Bookmark this site and the many resources to include with your other lessons and activities for your writer's workshop. Use Symbaloo, reviewed here, to share and organize student resources. For example, include letter writing templates, links to online dictionaries and thesauruses, and examples of writing projects for students to access easily. Extend learning by asking students to share writing projects by choosing from various multimedia tools. For example, ask emerging writers to share their stories using Write Reader, reviewed here. Write Reader includes options for adding recordings, a place for student writing, and correct spelling on each page. Another digital book creator to share with students is StoryJumper, reviewed here. StoryJumper includes options for writing and sharing collaborative stories and uploading custom images, including custom characters designed by the story author.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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College Essay Builder - StoryBuilder
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): digital storytelling (147), essays (21), stories and storytelling (44), writing (318)
In the Classroom
Share the College Essay Builder with students as they prepare to write college admission applications and use it as a guide for writing personal essays for any topic. Engage students in the writing process by creating a set of Google Slides, reviewed here, to use as a template. Create a slide for each of the five steps used in the story-telling process for students to organize and refine their thoughts. When complete, ask students to use a website creation tool such as about.me, reviewed here, to share their final essay and additional information with college admission personnel.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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How to Research: Ultimate Guide [+Online Tools] - IvyPanda
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): presentations (17), process writing (38), Research (83), writing (318)
In the Classroom
This article is quite lengthy, but it provides students with a great deal of information on research and reporting researched information. At a minimum, share the provided link to the step-by-step image with students to use as a reference guide. For more in-depth lessons, break down the information into smaller pieces and include them in your current research project lessons. Consider using a curation tool such as Padlet, reviewed here, to share this resource and others with students to guide research projects. For example, include a column with tools for evaluating sources such as Checkology, reviewed here, and another column with online tools to create citations such as MyBib, reviewed here. Offer students an option of different tools to create and share their presentations, including Ourboox, reviewed here, to create a digital flipbook or Powtoon, reviewed here, as an option for video presentations.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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OK2Ask: Digital Storytelling 201 - TeachersFirst
Grades
3 to 12Get ready for digital...more
Get ready for digital storytelling--a valuable strategy for instruction and formative and summative assessments. You or your students have a story idea, but now what do you do? In this session, we'll review the digital storytelling process, talk about tech tools you can use to create your product, and share ideas for managing your classroom while students are working on digital storytelling projects. As a result of this session, teachers will: 1. Understand the digital storytelling process; 2. Explore a technology tool for digital storytelling; and 3. Plan for the use of digital storytelling in instructional settings. This session is appropriate for teachers at all technology levels.
tag(s): digital storytelling (147), professional development (392), writing (318)
In the Classroom
The archive of this teacher-friendly, hands-on webinar will empower and inspire you to use learning technology in the classroom and for professional productivity. As appropriate, specific classroom examples and ideas have been shared. View the session with a few of your teaching colleagues to find and share new ideas. Find additional information and links to tools at the session resource page. Learn more about OK2Ask and upcoming sessions here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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OK2Ask: 3 Cool Tools for Persuasive Writing - TeachersFirst
Grades
3 to 12Persuasive writing...more
Persuasive writing is a critical skill that can seem daunting to elementary and middle school students. Now more than ever, readers and writers must be able to distinguish between fact and opinion and clearly identify supporting evidence. Understanding the terms "fact", "opinion", and "evidence" is key to digital literacy, and using them appropriately will help students to construct (and deconstruct) an argument. Join this workshop to look at three tech tools that support authentic persuasive writing. As a result of this session, teachers will: 1. Understand how facts, opinions, and evidence come together form an argument; 2. Explore three online tools for persuasive writing; and 3. Plan to use persuasive writing in instruction. This session is appropriate for teachers at all technology levels.
tag(s): persuasive writing (56), professional development (392), writing (318)
In the Classroom
The archive of this teacher-friendly, hands-on webinar will empower and inspire you to use learning technology in the classroom and for professional productivity. As appropriate, specific classroom examples and ideas have been shared. View the session with a few of your teaching colleagues to find and share new ideas. Find additional information and links to tools at the session resource page. Learn more about OK2Ask and upcoming sessions here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Wordtune - AI21 Labs
Grades
K to 12tag(s): editing (90), grammar (133), proofreading (21), writing (318)
In the Classroom
Use this tool to enhance your writing and share it with students for their writing projects. Include Wordtune with writing lessons to explore different methods of stating information and techniques that make writing easier to read and more interesting to the reader. For example, take a random sentence from a piece of student writing and use Wordtune to analyze and offer options for stating the information differently. Ask students to explore and discuss the changes made, what changes made the sentence easier to understand, or find options that they don't find to be as clear as their original work.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Twitter Chat: Diving Into Digital Writing - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): twitterchatarchive (175), writing (318)
In the Classroom
Find resources and information about digital writing. Share this chat with your colleagues looking for strategies and resources on digital writing.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Teach Writing With The New York Times: A Free School-Year Curriculum in 7 Units - New York Times Learning Network
Grades
7 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): creative writing (121), critical thinking (112), descriptive writing (39), essays (21), journalism (72), persuasive writing (56), Research (83), writing (318)
In the Classroom
This writing curriculum includes units for bi-monthly teaching activities, be sure to bookmark this website to view and take advantage of lessons throughout the school year. Begin your unit using a learning management system like Actively Learn, reviewed here, to share articles with students. Actively Learn allows educators to integrate assignment directions, polls, companion videos, and more to create an in-depth learning experience. Enhance learning and help students identify writing techniques within the articles shared in each unit using Fiskkit, reviewed here. Fiskkit allows groups to collaboratively examine and discuss online articles by highlighting sentences and sharing thoughts. For example, during the first unit focused on the Personal Narrative Essay, use Fiskkit for students to find and discuss details, including examples of writing with voice and use of specific examples instead of broad descriptions. As your unit moves into focusing on student-created work, use Flip, reviewed here, to amplify student's voice and discuss topics for the culminating personal narrative writing project. Pose a question on Flip for students to share portions of a personal narrative they have read, then discuss what makes that portion of the writing stand out. Help students collaborate on ideas for their narratives using a Flip video question asking students to share two or three ideas they have for their narrative and asking peers to share their ideas on what they consider to be most interesting or sharing ideas for inclusion. As a final project, use Sway, reviewed here, to publish and share student work. Create a class Sway with all student work, or ask students to create their own Sway to include their writing, a link to the New York Times article inspiration, images, and more.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Write and Improve - Cambridge English
Grades
5 to 12tag(s): creative writing (121), descriptive writing (39), differentiation (86), letter writing (18), persuasive writing (56), process writing (38), writers workshop (31), writing (318)
In the Classroom
Feedback on this site is based on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) scale, learn more about it here. Include this site with your other resources for practicing and teaching writing as you challenge students to improve feedback scores. Take advantage of the different levels to differentiate practice for all students. Ask students to analyze their writing before hitting the feedback button as a self-reflection tool. As students improve writing, use a digital portfolio tool like Seesaw, reviewed here, and upload all revisions. Also, use Seesaw for students to share their thoughts on their writing and individual progress.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Elementari - Nicole Kang and David Li
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): coding (90), creative writing (121), digital storytelling (147), writing (318)
In the Classroom
You may want to start by clicking Help on the upper right menu. There you will find directions for Creating and Coding, Interactive Lessons, Classroom Dashboard, and others. Create stories together as a class as you move through a unit or topic. Enhance student learning by adding ideas your students suggest. Use in a flipped or blended classroom to deliver course information. Assign several student groups a different topic and extend their learning by having each group create their own version as they learn more about the topic. Challenge gifted students to modify the "standard" class text with the additional material they discover by going deeper and learning about related topics. In lower grades, create teacher-made digital stories for students to use as a learning tool.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Book Creator - Red Jumper Limited
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): collaboration (91), DAT device agnostic tool (143), digital storytelling (147), ebooks (39), literacy (110), preK (259), reading comprehension (142), writing (318)
In the Classroom
Create books together, as a class, as you move through a unit or topic. Enhance student learning by adding images and ideas your students suggest. Use in a flipped classroom to deliver course information. Assign several student groups a different topic and redefine their learning by having each group create their own multimedia versions as they learn more about the topic. Students can combine their books later as a class book. Make a digital bookshelf of all the versions for all to use. Challenge gifted students to modify the "standard" class text with the additional material they discover, by going deeper and learning about related topics. In lower grades, create teacher-made e-books for your young readers, perhaps adding audio - your own voice reading the text. Find much more information and ideas for using Book Creator in any classroom by exploring the Book Creator Toolkit for Schools and Districts available here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Exploring the Genre of Review Writing - Scholastic
Grades
3 to 8tag(s): descriptive writing (39), Teacher Utilities (151), writing (318)
In the Classroom
Be sure to see the many ideas for lesson extensions and assessment found in each of these lessons to enhance and individualize student learning. Use an online bookmarking site like Padlet, reviewed here, to organize information like movie snippets for your students in one location. Take that a step further and ask students to add comments to each shared movie title for inclusion in reviews. Provide a variety of different options for students to share their final reviews. For example, let students use a comic creation tool like ToonyTool, reviewed here, create a digital book using Book Creator, reviewed here, or create their own interactive guide to writing reviews using Symbaloo Learning Paths, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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WriteReader - WriteReader
Grades
K to 5tag(s): digital storytelling (147), literacy (110), multilingual (67), reading strategies (99), science of reading (33), writing (318)
In the Classroom
WriteReader is so simple that very young students can use it successfully after a whiteboard or projector demonstration. While creating their books, students will be able to add images, multiple pages and delete pages, include voice-over, use color on the pages, view one page at a time or the entire book, and toggle between letters' names/sounds or no audio. Use this tool to design simple projects using student drawings to tell the story. Have students draw and annotate stories about their summer at the beginning of the year and share them with classmates. Students of any age love to draw, so why not have them draw their impression of what the message to the reader was after hearing a story and then explain it in writing? Nonreaders and ENL/ESL students especially will benefit from hearing the letter sounds as they begin writing in their new language.Edge Features:
Includes an education-only area for teachers and students
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
Includes teacher tools for registering and/or monitoring students
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