There's simply an endless amount of great Web 2.0 tools out there that are useful in the English classroom. Over the next few weeks, we want to concentrate on ones that are useful tools for engaging students in writing.
Here at Ticking Mind, one of our favourite tools is the newspaper clipping generator. You can see the results of one of our efforts below:
We generated this mock clip using this web 2.0 tool: http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp
There are a few ways this can be used in your 7-10 classrooms. Write an article of your own, bring it into class, and see if you can trick your students into thinking it's a real article. Now set your students the same task -but they need to trick their other teachers or their parents.
Otherwise, this tool can be used simply to write authentic looking newspaper articles as part of a unit on newspaper writing (or simply as a fun activity on Friday afternoon!)
Starting from next week, we'll be keeping a blog on short films called - Short Films, Big ideas, which gives suggestions about how to use short films in class to get students writing about some of the big questions in life.
Here's a link to a funny short Australian film we've been keeping our eye on lately:
It's called 'Reach,' and shows what happens to a little robot who is prevented from moving beyond a small radius because of the cord that plugs him into a power socket. It's a great short for inspiring students to write about their goals and the blockers. What do they want to 'reach' for - what prevents them?
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