In previous weeks we have been writing about great Web 2.0 tools to use for writing. These have included vocabulary tools and fun tools for generating mock newspapers, t-shirts and movie posters.
This week we would like to talk about tools for quality writing tasks. What are quality writing tasks? Short writing tasks that get students to focus on the quality of what they saying and not be distracted by having to reach a certain quantity of output. One tool we really like for this is online word magnets. UK education outfit Primary Teach It have a great tool that can be used here.
This tools allows you to type in a number of sentences and then turn each word and punctuation point into a magnet which can then be moved about. See the picture below.
This tool can be used to get students practising sentence structure. Have them type in two sentences describing their day so far. Once they have generated the words into magnets, get them to experiment and see how many different ways they can structure the sentence - which is the best? They can also experiment with punctuation. Get them to add punctuation marks you would like them to experiment with. If you have an interactive whiteboard in one of your rooms - this is an ideal whole class activity. Each student can take a turn moving the words around to create a different sentence structure.
We can also encourage students to look for more interesting synonyms for the words they have used in their sentences. Synonyms don't necessarily need to be bigger or more sophisticated. Thsrs is an interesting thesaurus tool that lists only shorter synonyms for a word you enter. It is ideal for weaker students because they will know most of the synonyms that the tools lists, and also for stronger students in teaching them that longer words aren't always the best words.
Finally, a fun way to get students writing and concentrating on quality is to use Folding Story. This is an elegant online version of the folding game (where students each write a sentence, fold the paper and pass it on - creating hilarious nonsense stories). This site gives students limited time and limited characters to write a response and then 'fold it'. Students will need to create a free account first to use the tool.
Stay tuned for our next bulletin where we will preview Web 2.0 tools to use to help students with their argumentative writing.
Regards,
The Ticking Mind Team
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