Choose any padlet friendly modality that you prefer. After exploring sites that interest you and trying several out for ease of use post links to 3 contenders for your favorite technology resource. The resources can support any component of the writing process. Briefly explain why each resource appeals to you, what skills they could be used to develop and anything else you think would benefit your colleagues to learn. 

In the syllabus I noted several resources that you may want to explore and consider, you are not required to select one of these but are welcome to!

 

A second technology resource is Thinkport. Thinkport is a free site, which offers many graphic organizers that teachers can use to support their students with their learning, thinking, and organization skills. Examples of graphic organizers that are available and are ready to be downloaded are character maps, Cornell note-taking, sequence of events chart, Venn diagrams, and timelines. I like this site because it can support students in the writing process. When students are in the planning stage of writing, teachers can distribute a story map graphic organizer to students, which can help them plan and organize their story—especially useful for students who are visual learners. The story map will contain elements such as setting, characters, problem, solution, and important events (beginning, middle, and end). Students will fill it out, which can guide them when they begin drafting their stories.

 

A third technology resource is MakeBeliefsComix. MakeBeliefsComix is a free site, where students get to create their own comics! I like this site because it is really kid-friendly. MakeBeliefsComix offers many writing prompts, allow students to create greeting cards, and teachers can have students create comics to practice new vocabularies and experiment with dialogue. This can support the revising step in the writing process. There are students who may need help with adding dialogue into their writing pieces, and the usage of MakeBeliefsComix site can develop their dialogue skills. By using this site and integrating it into lesson plans, this can help spark students’ imaginations and creativity. 

Mind Meister is a website that was not included in the UDL resources that I would love to introduce to everyone as it is the same concept as Coggle and Mind-Mapping Tool, but I have find it so easy to access with a google account. This resource would be used for the pre-writing or drafting stages of the writing process. It is a collaborative mind mapping tool that students can use to organize and map out ideas. Teachers can see what students (by name) add to the mind map as well as comment on their work using small bubbles. One of the great things that I love about this resource is it allows visual and auditory learners the opportunity to collaborate with their classmates. Not only does this resource allow you to type text bubbles, but also insert pictures and videos. For the free version, you are allowed three bubble maps, can share, and publish your work. An example is if a teacher is working on seasons, a student can state Spring, another student can have visuals of flowers, and the other could have a music video of Spring by Antonio Vivaldi. 

MakeBeliefsComix is an engaging, motivating, and easily accessible resource that can meet the needs of multiple students during the all aspects of the writing process. By providing templates for backgrounds, characters, and prompts, many struggling writers, students with disabilities, or English language learners can show their voice by creating a comic strip. All of the content is age appropriate and can really appeal to visual learners. Students can easily save their work and many ideas and “starters” are given to the student to brainstorm and start the pre-writing process of what they would like to write about. If a student has found a start they would like to use, they can begin to draft their idea, revise, edit, and publish using the easy editing features provided by the resource. This resource also provides printable categories based on many aspects of life and lesson plans that teachers can use with their students. Additionally, they provide a section for parents for activities and how to encourage their child to write, read, and tell stories using comic strips. 

Storybird: 
  https://storybird.com/ 
  Storybird is a great online source to use when having students create their stories. Instead of just writing it on paper or typing it, students are given the opportunity to work on creating a digital book. Students can create a front cover for their stories and create pages for it as well with pictures and use the many other features that it offers. StoryBird gives students that feeling of being able to publish their stories by seeing their stories become a digital book or they also have the option of getting a hard copy of it. 

Scholastic Story Starters : http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/story-starters/index.html
 Scholastic Story Starters serves as a great way to help students find writing prompts, if they are struggling to think of ideas when it comes to writing a story.  Scholastic Story Starters offers a fun way of helping students pick their prompts for their writing. First, it gives students the option to pick a theme. Next, they input their name and grade. Then just like spin the wheel they are able to spin to get a writing prompt. If for any reason they don’t like it, they are able to change certain parts of that prompt by spinning only that part of the prompt. Lastly, they are given an opportunity to pick the type of format in which they would like their stories written, so they can start writing it, when they are done students can print it or download it to save it.  

One resource that I have found to be helpful, especially during the pandemic, is Flipgrid. My class relied on Flipgrid last year to publish our writing; students would record themselves reading their pieces and we would play them on the Smartboard as our 'publishing party.' Many of my students appreciated this platform because it took away the anxiety provoking component of public speaking. Instead, students could record their reading as many times as they liked until they felt it was ready to be shared. The site allows you to decorate your recording with stickers and virtual backgrounds, creating an added engaging and stimulating piece.

 

BookCreator: https://bookcreator.com

I was recently introduced to this resource during a PD session at work and thought it was a highly beneficial  tool to use while teaching writing. BookCreator allows students to create digital books from start to finish. Students may begin by designing the cover and then move into adding the text and images that make up their stories. The site has all different features, allowing students to design their books in all different ways, for example, text, images, video, audio recording, and pen tool features. I also appreciate that this site emulates a classroom library. When students log in using their classroom code, they are taken to their own classroom library. Here, students can browse the books made by other classmates, as well as their own.

 

ThinkPort: https://thinkport.org/graphic-organizers.html

Thinkport is a resource that offers free, pre-formatted graphic organizers that can be integrated into lessons or used on their own. The site offers graphic organizers in many different areas, including character mapping, comparing and contrasting, and sequencing. I find that students benefit greatly from having the opportunity to map out and visualize their thoughts during the planning process, using resources such as graphic organizers to do just that! Graphic organizers can also be used throughout the writing process as a point of reference to keep students on track or to help them when they get stuck. This resource is very user friendly, providing brief descriptions of each graphic organizer focusing on areas and lessons for which they are helpful. With a simple click, the graphic organizers can be downloaded as a Word document so that they are ready to be printed or typed in!

I liked the collection of pre-formatted graphic organizers as they can be integrated into activities and Writing lesson plans.
 Example: Story Map- Helps with the outline or blueprint of a fictional story. It can help students plan their writing.

BookCreator:

While researching the resources I liked bookcreator a lot because students can create stories, reports using book creator. It is easily used. Many options for creativity and individuality and can be used for variety of subjects. Students can add audio, visuals, text and videos. It will definitely motivate students. 

 
Storybird:

I like storybird because it is a creative platform focused on visual storytelling. Students can create picture books, comics, poetry etc using storybird. It also offers writing lessons and resources created by experienced educators. It is user friendly and engaging.

StoriumEdu provides gamified, collaborative writing prompts in the form of a D&D style online role playing game. Each student creates their own character and writes their journey through “story card” prompts that provide the twists and turns of the narrative. The cards are sorted into genre decks such as “Young Adult Dystopia” and are highly visually engaging. The site also tracks how many words each student has written, awarding achievements at certain milestones! Unfortunately this is not free, priced at $10/month for individual educators. This would be great for building engagement in the writing process through collaborative planning, and providing a ton of hurdle help for writer’s block.

Kaizena is an add-on for Google Docs that allows educators to interact with students through multiple forms of feedback. Through this app, teachers can record voice messages to their students and leave them as comments on Google docs. Teachers can also highlight specific skills in comments and rank the students' performance based on a rubric. Teachers can also embed video, audio, or text mini lessons as comments on a doc. The app also includes text comments, though that is already a feature in Google docs. I thought this app was a really cool way to inject some UDL into a Google Docs centered classroom, especially important for remote or hybrid learning. It’s free! This app would be useful for feedback during the editing process.

Read & Write is a chrome extension that provides student friendly text-to-speech reading. Students can highlight text on a webpage or text file to hear it read aloud by a computer generated voice. The app also contains annotation tools as well as color coded highlighting tools that can export highlighted words or phrases into lists. A really cool tool in this app is “simplify,” which removes photos and links from webpages for less distracting reading. This app would be highly helpful for students in the research phase of writing as well as the feedback and editing phase. This app is not free unfortunately!

One of the resources I found that I enjoyed the features of was Spelling City. It allows teachers to input a list of words that students are working on, whether its spelling, vocabulary, or phonics that is being taught. Once the words are entered, users can choose to either practice spelling, writing, phonics, or vocabulary. The site generates exercises for each of these subjects that are effective for learning. It is very simple to use and captivates the user.

Book Creater

The second resource I found that I enjoyed exploring was Book Creator. It offers the user to utilize words, images, sound, and video to create publications of stories, books, reports, manuals, etc. It is a tool students can use to help students to display their understanding through their creation. The site also helps to engage students in a variety of ways. Their creations can be made through different modalities: video, audio, digital. There is also the option to collaborate in unique ways, with either students within the classroom or from around the world.

HOLT

This is the third resource I explored thoroughly that I enjoyed. It offers users interactive graphic organizers in various means. There are all different types that can be chosen that also are suggested to be used for different assignments. They can be used for organizing details, main ideas, sequencing, compare and contrast, and more. Within these categories, there are several options for all kinds of learners and their preferences.

I remember exploring this last semester for one of my classes. I even had the chance to creat a short book. Publishing is a big deal in the writing unit. This is where students do their very best so they can showcase their work. Students are able to create their book just how they want it. They can add different designs, visuals, and include audio as well which is great for all types of learners. Book creator is a great tool to use for student engagement and well as creativity.  Best thing about it is that it is very easy to use. You can also incorporate a publishing party where the students get to take a look at each others work. 

Below is a short story I did for one of my classes last semester.

Take a look at the PDF attached of the short story I created.

Mindmeister

I was introduced to this tool last year. I love this tool because it can help anyone with planning a new project, or brain storming ideas. I found it to be a really good tool for students to use for brainstorming for their writing piece. For example personal narrative small moments in the middle and then adding small circles around it with small moments.  This also helps with students who need help with organization. You can also do it on your iPhone. I’ve only got the chance to do it on the iPhone and it’s simple to use. My favorite part of all is that you can  invite people to collaborate. This is great tool to use when doing peer feedback. Overall this is a great tool to use to visually convey your ideas which is very important in writing. If you were to use this with your students, I believe you would get a paid subscription that would allow multiple participants to collaborate. I would highly recommend this tool for the brainstorming process.

Graphic organizers are a great tool for learners who need help with organization and struggling writers.It has many different graphic organizers such as KWL chart, story map, timeline (which helps with sequencing events), concept map, and more. 

Prezi is another great tool for the brainstorming process. You can select different templates and add visuals. It is very visual oriented and you can collaborate with others. This is great for organizing what you are going to write about. This tool can be engaging to students and encourage creative thought. 

I found this technology resource helpful because it allows educators to list some words for spelling or phonics. Students can see and read the words and play the phonics games to better understand the words' meaning and spelling. During remote teaching and learning, students are learning online. Spelling city makes students more engaged in the word spelling process provides visual support and learning from playing. Also, it helps to improve students' typing skills in a certain way. 

Graphic Organizer

I like to use this graphic organizer (attached) for the planning process in writing. A graphic organizer provides visual support for students and can be a work checker that keeps track of their thinking process, clarifies their planning of the writing piece, and begins the writing draft. Using the graphic organizer, students can build up the sense of inserting more elements into their writing piece, such as characters, setting, and clarifying the sequences of events in the writing story. 

Storybird

It is a great online resource for students to create their stories in a digital format instead of writing their stories with a pencil. Students can choose and create illustrations and pictures for their writing and cover page. It is a student-led activity that allows students to decide what they want their writing storied being published and encourages students to work on their writing. Also, it is an excellent resource for building up students' storytelling skills and writing descriptions. 

Storiumedu is a great resource for older students in helping them with the writing process. Specifically, this can help with brainstorming/drafting by providing examples of concepts to write about and how to write a story. The way it works is that students all log in with their classroom code (set up by a teacher).  Once in the classroom the website works as a game. Every student gets a character and playing cards that have scenarios on them, or fragments of a story. Students take turns playing their cards to build a story. 

Spelling City is a simple but extremely useful online tool for supporting the editing stage of the writing process. The website has you plug in spelling words or vocabulary words and then students can play a variety of games/review activities with the words. This website is great for mini lessons about spelling and vocabulary before or during teaching the editing stage with students.

http://www.writeaboutapp.com/ 

The “Write about this” app is one of the cutest apps I’ve found for teaching brainstorming and drafting to younger elementary students. The app is visually appealing with bright colors and nice pictures. For brainstorming, the app has a "categories" screen with various topics such as culture, living things, transportation, places etc. Once you click on a topic, the app provides multiple prompts such as “where is your favorite place to explore”? or "the girl put on her magic shoes and...." In terms of drafting, the app has another feature which allows students to pick a prompt, record and/or write their response, and add a picture to go along with the story. For this feature, teachers can also add their own prompts. 

https://bookcreator.com/resources-for-teachers/elementary/ 

This is a great tool because it offers a lot of options for students to publish their work once it’s finished. I like that the site offers various sizes for the books, such as newspaper, magazine, cookbook or yearbook, and that there are options to create picture books or comics. I think students will enjoy these options because they are able to create their own unique book using different formatting styles to add to the story. This tool can build on student creativity because students have to think about how to format their story within a book and what images or visuals to include to enhance the story. I also like how the books can be displayed on a virtual bookshelf for the class because it almost makes it seem like the books are real and on display. I think students will enjoy seeing their completed stories as (virtually) finished books. 

Coggle 

https://coggle.it/ 

I preferred this website for brainstorming or planning ideas because it was easy to follow and understand how to create a mind map. I like that Coggle gives students the ability to organize their thoughts freely without having to use the same graphic organizer everyone uses. With this tool, students can be creative in the beginning stages of writing and connect ideas the way they understand. Coggle can support students with brainstorming, planning and organizing. Additionally, I think students will enjoy having room to organize their thoughts and find ease in creating a main idea and connecting smaller ideas.  

Moovly 

https://www.moovly.com/ 

I really love this tool because it’s a fun and easy way to visually tell stories. Although this is a site to create videos, I thought this could be a fun option for students to tell their stories once they reach the publishing stage. Or it could be used as an optional add-on project after the class has completed the writing process or to transition into technology lessons. I think students would really like the option to turn their stories into small videos and see their stories come to life. Moovly makes it accessible to create videos with easy-to-follow guidance and can support students’ visual storytelling skills and technology skills.  

Spelling City- 

www.spellingcity.com

I have used spelling city in my class before and have found it a really helpful resource to use especially during rotating centers. Teachers can upload students spelling words each week, they can be differentiated depending on the students ability. Students can they play games with those words like typing them, and other activities. Students really enjoy spelling city and don’t realize they are even practicing their spelling words. 

Book Creator- 

https://bookcreator.com/resources-for-teachers/elementary/

Book creator is a great tool because it allows teachers to put any books online. It also allows teachers to create their own books and publish them. During remote learning I used this tool a lot because I was able to share lots of books with my class by putting them onto book creator and sharing my library with the class. We also created a class book the end of the year which was so fun. We went through the whole writing process and it was really fun for the students to become authors and publish their work. 

Boom Cards-

Boom cards is another resource that I have found and loved. Boom cards is so fun and so interactive. Each student has their own account and teachers can assign them boom cards. You can also assign boom cards to different student to differentiate it. Student would also not know if they got a different set of cards.  Boom cards also creates reports for teachers to show them the students that completed the boom cards and what they got write vs. wrong. Teachers do have to pay for a boom cards account. My favorite part about boom cards was that they have every single topic. Being remote for a whole year it was very challenging to find things that were engaging and that students actually enjoyed but all of my students loved doing boom cards.  

I found this tool and I think it would be helpful in the revision process. Students who struggle to incorporate interesting vocabulary can use this as a way to visually see which words they are using excessively. They can look at the breakdown of their text into word maps, graphs, and more. If a word shows up a lot in their work, they can start by looking at that word and finding more interesting words to replace it. A student who writes a personal narrative starting every sentence with “I” would see that on the Voyant tool and would have a starting place for revisions.

Our students benefit from structure, and this website offers many different graphic organizers that can help students writing in a variety of genres. I like that the organizers are not “cutesy,” so they work well with all ages. Several of the main idea organizers start with evidence at the top, leading students to a conclusion, so they don’t have to come up with a main idea until they have considered what happened in the piece. I also like the opinion piece graphic organizer. Students can state their opinion, but they then need to list evidence for their opinion.

Students can benefit from taking ownership of their work by checking their writing. A checklist helps them build autonomy in the writing process, and this website offers an easy way for teachers to create and print individualized checklists for students who have different needs as they write. Some students may have a checklist reminding them to look at punctuation, while another might need to focus on organizing their thoughts. The drop-down menus make it fast for teachers to change checklists based on need.

Boomlearning.com is a website that gives students and teachers access to thousands of, essentially, virtual interactive index card sets on specific popular learning topics in school.  There are premade sets on all different topics but teachers also have the ability to make their own cards on a more specific concept that is being taught in school.  This website is extremely easy to navigate because teachers can “assign” cards to children online- there is no searching for students.  Teachers are able to make fun interactive lessons.  Once a deck is completed, it is automatically graded for each student and teachers receive real-time reports on student work.

Book creator- 

Book creator is a free online resource that allows students and teachers to create their own interactive books, read them, and then publish them online.  Book creator allows students to become authors of their own stories and creates excitement and energy around writing.  This site also supports students throughout the writing process.  One of the best features of Book creator is that teachers can create books about what they are learning in class and share them with students to provide a new resource for students to learn from.

Typing agent-

Typing agent is a K-12 keyboarding and typing program that includes fun and engaging games that build students’s proficiency in typing.  With remote learning and the use of computers and tablets more than ever in schools, this program is great for building typing skills so that the actual act of typing does not hinder student learning.  The program adapts to each student based on ability and provides fun incentives and personalization features that build student engagement. 

One resource that I found helpful is flipgrid. Flipgrid is useful for virtual learning and in-person learning. I love how it allows students to record themselves; their peers can view unlimited times and provide comments. When it comes to writing, I will use flipgrid during the publishing phase of writing. I will allow my students to record their writing pieces by reading them aloud and uploading them to the class page. Then I will have students comment on grows. Since it is a pandemic, many students have trouble hearing one another clearly, so flipgrid would be best to allow peers to share their writing pieces. 

Story Starters Scrambler 

Another resource that I found helpful is the story starters scrambler. I love how it allows students to generate story prompts according to their grade level. Some students have trouble deciding what to write about. I love how it allows students to click on buttons to generate writing prompts for them automatically and may choose a theme of their choice. If they don’t like part of the prompt, they can click the button again and change the prompt. It can be the whole prompt or partial prompt. It allows students also to pick a format in how they want to form a story, such as a notebook, letter, newspaper, and postcard. 

Project-Based Learning

Students can benefit from using a checklist to monitor their progress when it comes to writing. I love how this website allows teachers to customize lists according to students’ needs. There are different suggestions such as capitalizations, conventions, ideas, punctuations, and word use. Every student has different needs when it comes to editing. For example, you might have a student who needs help with capitalizing and another student who needs help with commas. With this website, teachers can generate different checklists for each student.

  

2. The second resource I found is Scholastic Story Starters. This website mainly is used for fiction writing as it gives a variety of genres, such as adventure, fantasy, sci-fi, or if a student does not like any of those genres, they can pick scrambler. Then, students would select which grade level they are in and are then given a prompt when they spin the wheel. This resource appeals to me because the prompt generator is helpful for students who do not have an idea of what they want to write about. In addition, once students get their prompt, they can pick their formats of writing, such as notebook, letter, newspaper, or postcard. I also like the option of including a drawing. These format of writing support UDL Guidelines 1.1, which offer ways of customizing the display of information, and UDL Guidelines 2.5, which these format help students illustrate their writing through multiple medias. Overall, I think this resource is great for students in any grade level as it is easy to navigate, and fun to use.

3. The third resource I found is the Typing Club. This resource appeals to me because this website is a great resource for students to develop their typing skills. When students were shifted to online learning, this resource would have been extremely helpful for students to be comfortable using and typing on the keyboard. This website has a placement test to assess students’ skills in typing. Once they are done, they are placed at a particular lesson to start from based on their skills. If the student wants to learn from the beginning, they can do that as well. I like how the website tells you what lesson the student will be learning and that each lesson is locked so they would not be able to skip around lessons. I also like how the students can go back to see their progress as it supports UDL Guidelines 6.4, which enhance capacity for monitoring progress. This website also provides a lot of visuals, such as videos to watch and where to place your hand on the keyboard. These visuals support UDL Guidelines 1.3, which offer alternatives for visual information. Overall, I think this resource is great for students to improve and be comfortable with typing on the keyboard.

One of the technology resources that I love is flipgrid. I have been using flipgrid since long before the pandemic and think it is extremely useful for both in person and online teaching. Flipgrid allows students to record themselves speaking or in a presenting mode. They are also able to view their peers' videos. I think that flipgrid is awesome for the publishing part of the writing process where students can showcase their work. 

Canva- https://www.canva.com

Canva is also a great resource to use throughout the writing process. Canva has many templates for different types of writing, whether it be letters, pamphlets, infographics, presentations or anything in between there are many different templates to choose from and use. On canva you are able to use these templates to plan and complete projects. I think that this can be extremely useful for students as they can brainstorm using one of the templates and work that brainstorming into a final product. Additionally, students can brainstorm elsewhere and use canva to publish and complete their writing piece. Canva has beautiful templates that make all writing products look extremely presentable. Canva also makes it easy for students to compete projects and save them all for free and still look very nice.

Spell city- https://www.spellingcity.com 

The last resource I wanted to touch on was spell city. Spell city is really great for many reasons. You are able to make a list of your own words, use lists the website provides, and play many games. The website is interactive and allows for reading, writing, and access to many games. What I like the most about spell city is that as a teacher you can put your own words in that the students' activities, readings and writing pieces will be based off of. This allows students to really focus on whatever words it is that they are really struggling with. I also like that students are able to interact with tough words in all different modalities. Spell city is great for the editing piece of the writing process if students want or need extra work with certain words.

The first resource that I would like to highlight is Typing Club (https://www.typingclub.com/). I have a few students who use this website now to build on their typing skills. Since technology is quickly processing and knowing how to type is becoming more essential, especially with Covid the last few years, students need to learn how to type efficiently. The website provides an assessment for students to find out the students’ typing level and adjust their levels accordingly. The website provides lessons at each level while also allowing students to go back and forth between different levels but also allows the teacher to manage this setting. Since students can monitor their own growth and progress on the website, this website is great for UDL 6.4 because students can see their own progress. 

The second resource is spelling city (https://www.spellingcity.com/ ). Spelling city allows students to use it to practice their spelling and teachers can arrange the material on the website for specific groups or individual students on a need-be bases. I love that I can have an individual list for each student because many of my students struggle with spelling so it is nice to customize their spelling words. The websites provides games and interactive lessons on spelling, phonics, vocabulary, and sentence writing. Lastly, the website has an audio option which is great for students who need things read to them which aligns with UDL 1.2.

The third resource is Book Creator (https://bookcreator.com/ ). I first used this during my technology course at Hunter. I personally enjoyed the visuals and graphics the website offered. Students enjoy using this website as a way to bring their stories to life and engage their readers with many different formats. I have used this website for personal writing with my students before and found it simple to use with a whole class.

 

 

 

(2)    Book Creator (https://bookcreator.com)
I like this resource because it gives a polished and visibly pleasing way to complete the last step of the writing process – publishing. I was looking for a way to make publishing my student’s writing feel just as fun as having a physical copy of the book, and I actually think this virtual way of publishing writing is more dynamic and fun. It allows students to add photos or drawings and has options for fonts and themes. I also like that this website allows both teachers and students to collaborate on the projects. It seems user-friendly enough for older elementary students to use on their own, and allows them to gain more technology skills by using creative apps such as this. I think it will also help build students story telling skills if they have to think about which pictures and graphics to add to their story. This resource nicely aligns with checkpoint 5.2 from udlguidelines.cast.org – “use of multiple tools for construction and composition”, allowing students to use contemporary tools for learning. 

 

(3) Scholastic Story Starters (http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/story-starters/writing-prompts/index.html )
This is a fun website that can be used for either the planning/pre-writing phase and/or the composing phase of writing. I think this resource could be used to help motivate students to write. Especially students who have low motivation or endurance to begin with. This allows them to spin a wheel to get an idea, and they can keep spilling parts of the suggestion until they find a silly enough or fun enough prompt to write about. Then they can plan or just go into writing to build up their writing endurance. I especially like because some of the suggestions are so silly it feels a bit like a mad lib and less like an academic exercise and I think that might appeal to students and they won’t realize they are working on honing their craft. I think this resource aligns with UDL checkpoint 8.2 – “vary demands and resources to optimize challenge” as this website can allow students to be challenged at varying degrees. Some students might be ready to write and excited to write and have their own ideas, some students might need the extra support to make the process interesting and exciting by spinning a wheel of what to write about. Also on the website there are different grade levels that can be selecting allowing another option of individualization and challenge. 

 

A second technology resource is Thinkport. Similar to Canva, Thinkport offers many graphic organizers that teachers can use to support their students with their learning, thinking, and organization skills. Examples of graphic organizers that are available and are ready to be downloaded are character maps, sequence of events chart, Venn diagrams, and timelines. Unlike Canva, which can be overwhelming for some, it specifically has organizers that only support students in the writing (and reading) process. When students are in the planning stage of writing, teachers can distribute a story map graphic organizer to students, which can help them plan and organize their story—especially useful for students who are visual learners. 

 

The third technology resource is Book Creator. I thought was such a fun way for student to bring their stories to "life" but digitally! Especially during these pandemic times, we can still have publishing parties. I especially like the option to include images, videos, and audios to their digital book. In my class, we have used it a few times, and we are beginning to create a library of our published books that we can share with families, colleagues, and in the hall using QR codes.

 

This resource allows for students to create their own books by recording their work, designing characters and even working with other classmates on creating books together. Students could benefit through creative expression and bringing their stories to a virtual book.

Resource 3: New York Public Library- Educators
There are many resources within this platform. There are many free digital books that can be used. There are also e-books in Spanish that could be given to parents are home to engage families at home as well. 

I was excited to find this website for students to practice their weekly spelling words. This website requires little prep from the teachers and exposes students to different activities relating to their spelling words. It is an engaging way for students to work with their weekly spelling words, and I like that it provides students with multiple options and activities to complete. It is important for students to work on spelling to become more independent writers. 

I frequently use Scholastic and I had no idea that this existed! I love this for giving students ideas about what to write about. I like that it is separated into different genres and grade levels. I also like that the wheel makes it exciting for children when they are choosing their writing topic. 

In this course, I learned the importance of brainstorming and planning before drafting. I believe that planning helps students determine what they want to write about. It also helps them organize their ideas so they are not stuck when it is time to draft and they have a clear vision of what they want their work to be like. This website has so many different planning options to choose from so students can find something that resonates with them and also matches with the type of writing that they are producing.  

Resource #2: Storyboard That looks like a great resource for narrative writing. Often, I find students have difficulty really picturing all of the different scenes in one small moment that they can write about. Storyboard That can make narrative writing more interactive and creative, can help students stay in one small moment, and can help them write more details about the scenes they are writing about. This adds a visual support to story writing for students.

Resource #3: Story Starters is a tool that randomly generates ideas for students to write about. I find that students often do not write because they are stuck on what to write about. Idea generation is an important skill to work on, but this tool can alleviate the stress of generating an idea and students can jump right into writing. 

2.     Write About – https://www.writeabout.com/ This resource allows students to grow as writers. It provides them with a writing prompt and allows them to freely write about the topic or picture shown. This tool helps students practice sentence forming, writing structures, punctuation without having the come up with the idea. Students can continue to practice and choose different prompts. Their writing can then be published to their designated class or the public. This allows students to read one another’s work, get ideas as well as peer edit. 

3.     Story Bird- https://storybird.com/ This resources allows students to write a story for illustrations from various artists. It allows students to show their creative side when writing. They can create different types of writing pieces, comic books, picture books, chapter books and poems. It also have courses and guides that helps teach students “how to” write these types of stories. Students can publish their stories and share them with their class or the public. 

https://app.creately.com/diagram/start/dashboard The first technology resource that I found in my research with the beneficial potential to promote learning for all students based upon principles of UDL in the brainstorming and planning phase of the writing process is Creately. Creatly is an online resource that allows students to collaboratively learn, while producing trackable independent output. This resource can support their learning from each other as they are stimulated to develop rich brainstorming and planning ideas motivated by the teacher and peers. Oftentimes in a writing class, when the students are in the brainstorming and planning phase, some can experience writer's/ideas block, where they are able to come up with little to no ideas, or the ideas they do draft up cannot be richly supported. Using this resource can encourage the students to feed off of their peers, while developing unique ideas during this. I can use Creately to plan and deliver my instructional material, then have rich discussions on the platform about the content. 

https://app.bookcreator.com/library/-Mq0pgJ-5ILj5AK7sOZl The second technology resource that I found in my research is Book Creator. Book Creator to me is an ultimate resource in the quest to encourage students to put on their most creative writing caps and truly think of themselves as authors of their own story version. This is a  technology resource that allows individuals, both teachers and students to create their own books and publish them. As the teacher I can create my own mentor text to use with the class throughout all the stages of the writing process. I can publish a mentor text that focuses on all the strategies I plan on using with my students in each of the stages from brainstorming and planning to the publishing stage. Doing so will give me creative room to tailor my text to match each of my students academic and cultural strengths and needs. The site supports beginner users like myself and is very self explanatory, and even as a novice I can be ready to use it in my classroom in a short amount of time. 

https://thinkport.org/graphic-organizers.html I definitely saved what in my opinion is the best for last. The third technology resource that I found in my research is theThinkport Education resource. First let me start by saying that the fact that this resource contains all these downloadable and editable  graphic organizers is a huge plus for someone like me, who is always struggling to find graphic organizers that are solely geared towards my specific assignment needs. This is a favorite for me because it can be used in all levels of the genre immersion/brainstorming/ and planning stages of the writing process. Research supports the use of mentor texts to better support all genres of writing. I will start to use this learning resource to better support all learners in the classroom during the early stages of genre immersion, even before the brainstorming and planning begins. The clustering graphic organizer will be used to help the students sort out their understanding of the mentor text, which will bring them closer to the author’s planning that went into the writing of the text. This can also be done with the ​​Wheel & Spoke Diagram graphic organizer, when I have students that need less support. The Tree graphic organizer can be used in the brainstorming and planning stage, because it can help the students scaffold their thoughts, omitting the redundant or unnecessary ones.

Valle, J. W., & Connor, D. J. (2010). Rethinking disability: A disability studies approach to inclusive practices. Routledge.

Scholastic: Story Starters is a great source to help students get into their creative sides. This website gives writing prompts which are based around the students interests and grade level, so you know it’ll be appropriate for them individually. It is very engaging and interactive which I find helps most students. I think when something is geared towards a student’s interests, it really gets their minds going.

 

2. Book Creator:

Book Creator is a great way to bring a student’s work to life but digitally and I think it’s so helpful to be able to do that now in the days of virtual school. I think it’s great for students to be able to see each peer’s work digitally. I also like how it goes beyond just telling the story, it lets you add pictures, audio, and videos. I’m excited to able to use this in the future. I think it’s something great for students.

 

3. Comic Master:

Kid’s love comic books. Between the pictures and colors and fun text, you really can’t go wrong. Comic master allows students to create their own comic books virtually. I think this is so an awesome thing to allow kids to do and use their creativity while creating their comic books. I might think this is something for older grades to use as a project. It might be a little overwhelming or distracting for younger students.

I really loved this idea where students can go for ideas. This can start students thinking. Many of my students have difficulties with creating ideas. Once students have a small idea their ideas can flow so this can be a huge help for students who struggle with getting an idea. BONUS: Website was kid friendly

 

2. Book Creator:

I explored this resource in another class which was nice. My students just received a class set of Chrome books and this is a great way for students to publish their writing pieces. Many students have trouble with writing their letters and they prefer to type. They become more conscious of their their writing because they see the red lines of their writing and they know to go back to it to review their work.

 

3. Comic Master:

My students prefer to create comics!! They become a lot more creative when writing a comic than sentences. They are constantly reading comics and my students are a funny bunch. This was a great way for students to bring their comics and writing to life in a different way. I am thinking about using this for them to create a culture comic!

Scholastic story starters is a great fun resource that will help encourage students to become creative throughout their writing. I like the concept of Scholastic story starters; it gives students silly prompts which are targeting their grade level. This can be an essential resource to use because it helps students begin forming their own creative ideas using the process of brainstorming and planning. At times writing can be difficult for students as they do not know what exactly to write about. This gives students different genres to start their own story.

Resource 2: Vocabulary Spelling City

Vocabulary spelling city is a beneficial resource for all students. Throughout vocabulary spelling city, it allows students to practice their spelling by writing down their words in the four-word spaces provided. After the words are written individually, students can go on to the next component where they will hear a sentence using the spelling word, then begin to type the word in the box. This is a helpful resource for students having difficulties with spelling as they can listen to the word out loud and a sentence provided for the word.

Book Creator is a platform where students can create, read, and publish their writing pieces. It allows students to add images, put music, their voice, and videos. The resources throughout “Book Creator” are useful components that brings writing to a modern day life as children can use different resources such as annotating, use shapes, icons, arrows, and emojis to express their ideas. These resources allows students to take writing into a digital fun aspect.