creative-writing

Tikatok Across the Curriculum

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:55:46 +0100

Writing lessons and project ideas for your K-8 classroom.

This free monthly series of activities, project ideas and learner worksheets integrates writing across a variety of subjects from maths, science, social studies, art, and more.

Visit http://www.tikatok.com/writing to get your downloads.

The Wasteline Test

Sun, 07 Nov 2010 18:04:12 +0100

The Wasteline Test assesses whether a person's writing is 'flabby' or 'fit'.

The test works by counting percentages of words in five categories commonly associated with stodgy sentences...

weak verbs;
abstract nouns;
prepositions;
adjectives/adverbs; and
'waste words' (it, this, that, there).

For every writing sample users submit, they will receive an overall fitness rating ranging from lean to heart attack territory.

Visit http://www.writersdiet.com/wasteline.html to find out more and/or take the test!

I Write Like...

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:44:03 +0100

Are there similarities in your written works and the works of a famous author? To find which author’s works your writings resemble, head on over to “I Write Like.”

I Write Like is a free and simple to use web service that claims that it can tell you which author you write like.

Users paste in a piece of their work and after quick analysis "I write Like" displays a famous author’s name whose work their writing resembles. They can paste in any text they have recently worked on:

a blog entry,
an essay,
the introduction written for a website, etc.

For the best statistical analysis, the longer text entered, the better. Click on the “Analyze” button to get the text thoroughly analyzed; a matching author’s name is shown.

I'd suggest trying out different samples of author's writing to see which results come up for them - there own name perhaps!

Visit http://iwl.me/ to try it out.

Writing with Writers

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:03:29 +0100

The Scholastic website has an area called "Writing with Writers" that might be of interest to practitioners and learners because it pulls back the veil on the writing process.

The progression of activities and sequencing of tasks (along with insights by known authors)

Jane Yolen,
Virginia Hamilton, and
Jack Prelutsky,

...makes Writing with Writers a valuable tool for most learners. A bonus is that learners can get stories published here, too, so the writing is an authentic experience.

The section about myths, by Jane Yolen, lays out what a myth is, and she shares one of her own short myths. Each step in the process - from brainstorming to publication - is laid out in simple language, with useful pointers.

The site's interactive elements are also helpful. There is, for example, a brainstorming tool that is a mind mapping activity in which a learner can choose images of gods, monsters, and settings, then write some notes on each.

Another useful element of the Scholastic site is that any word in any text can be chosen by a click of the mouse, and a pop-up box will provide a definition search. This can make the lessons accessible to a wide range of learners.

Visit http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/index.htm to find out more.

Inkheart

Sat, 17 Apr 2010 12:33:08 +0100

All the Inkheart news that's fit to print

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Writing Games
aclJohn

''Everyone has a story to tell! To tell or not to tell, is another question?'' The problem is, if you want to TELL, where do you start?

For those who have access to the internet, there is a whole array of 'tools' that can be used; tools that help plan, those that help with layout, those that provide and/or allow users to produce illustrations and a number that stimulate ideas. A number of these resources can be found in the Creative Writing Blog at http://www.acljohn.com/.

Yes I know that many of you will prefer ''the proper'' ways of telling your story; face-to-face and/or on paper using a pencil/pen. (I wonder how many still use a typewriter?). One size, as always, doesn't fit all but, if you don't experiment how will you know what is 'right' for you?

Digital story telling is being adopted by more and more people every day; using cartoon strips, animations, podcasts, vodcasts, etc. I've written this using scholastic's Inkheart; an online guide to producing an editorial. Go on try it out at http://www.scholastic.com/inkheart/editorial/form.asp

Wacky Web Tales

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:46:48 +0100

Wacky Web Tales is a collection of "Auto-Creative Writing" activities from Houghton Mifflin.

Wacky Web Tales...

is designed for younger learners but has the potential to be used with all age groups.
asks learners to fill-in a blank form using words to make parts of speech prompts.

The words the learners write into the blank form are the used in an automatically generated short story. This online resource could be...

used by learners to practice identifying the parts of speech;
used by Family Learning Practitioners to help parents/guardians/careersetc., create stories for children;
used by Creative Writing Practitioners as a tool to prompt debate...

Note: if students get stuck on any line, Wacky Web Tales has a help option that they can utilize.

Visit http://www.eduplace.com/tales/ to try it out.

StoryJumper

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:46:32 +0100

StoryJumper is a site that gives parents, guardians, children, and authors a set of intuitive tools for writing and illustrating childrens stories.

The goal of StoryJumper is to inspire anyone that's ever wanted to write a story for children to get started.

Visit http://www.storyjumper.com/ to find out more and/or http://www.storyjumper.com/main/starter for online CPD/tutorials.

FlickrPoet

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:27:06 +0100

Have you and/or your learners got a story to tell or a poem to write? You can now both do so with pictures from Flickr using FlickrPoet.

Simply go to FlickrPoet and type a sentence. When you click on the ‘Show Story‘ button, FlickrPoet will browse the Flickr database and pull an image for each word/phrase used in your sentence. These images will be organized to provide you with a picture story.

Go on try it out at http://www.storiesinflight.com/flickrpoet/index.php.

Five Card Stories

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:45:35 +0100

Five Card Stories is an experimental web site designed to foster visual thinking.

How does it work? Users...

are dealt five random photographs for each of five draws,
select one each time to add to their selection of images; they will probably find it easier if the first image they select is of a person or animal, which can then be the main character in their story.
take the 5 images to tell a story; illustrated by them...
- give it a title,
- add a name (it doesn't have to be your real name)
- complete the story and then
- type in the two security words and
- save it to the site.
will then be able to come back each day and see how people have voted on their story.

Five Card Stories provides learners with...

quick writing practice and
the opportunity to...
- give feedback and criticism to other users and
- receive feedback and criticism of their own written work

Find out more at http://web.nmc.org/5cardstory/index.php or
play the Five Card Flickr Game at http://web.nmc.org/5cardstory/flickr.php.