Download our free U Plan Narrative Planning Tool

Thanks to Scott at mytopten.com.au for this brilliant planning tool to ensure that students can identify and organise all of the key ingredients required to put together a great narrative.  Download the U-PLanner Here.

Pic-Lits - Interactive Image and word Bank for creative Writing

What is it?  Pic-Lits is a very simple site that has a bank of images for teachers to use to stimulate different styles of writing as well as a drag and drop bank of words you can select with with your students to describe what is happening in the pictur,e or just associate basic text related to the image.

How can I use this in the Classroom?  Pic-Lits would be great for snapshot writing sessions when you want your students to extend their vocabulary by using nuns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives. Simply show them a picture then as a group select words you would like to see included with a related writing task and let them go to it.  Students could work through this process about 4 times in an hour depending upon their enthusiasm and ability.  Access it here.

Create Amazing Picture Story Books Online with Bookr

What is it:  Bookr Is a tool to create picture story books using images from Flickr.  Simply find images from Flickr through their search engine located on the same screen as the book editor.  It is extremely simple to use and would be a better option for junior school students as you can not add large amounts of text to each page.  No sign up required.  Very Simple to use.

The finished books are presented as animated flash Files that look great on an interactive white board.

How can I use this in the classroom?   Show your your students the layout of bookr and how to search for images.  read them a picture story book and explain to them that the pictures tell a large amount of the actual story and emphasise that words should be used with a minimalist approach.

Also talk to your students about the best placement of text.

find a theme or topic that your students will have a large range of photos of and are comfortable in writing about.   A perfect example would be "A day at the Zoo." 

I would love hear from anyone else who has tried Bookr.  Check it out here.