Connecting to Build Literacy

More from ISTE 2015! With our district focus on literacy, I was excited to find a number of online opportunities in the poster sessions for our students to connect and be a part of global community of learners. I plan to offer this information at the Elementary Literacy Conference in August as well.

100 Word Challenge
Creative Writing for Children under 16
Created by Julia Skinner, retired Head Teacher

Each week, a writing prompt is posted. It may be a picture or a series of words. Students can use up to 100 words to write a creative piece. **The piece is posted to a class or student blog and then linked to the 100 Word Challenge blog. Each challenge is typically posted on Sunday and stays open until the following Saturday.

Currently you do need a class or student blog, but it appears that this requirement is changing in September. Waiting for more information from Julia, but I think it would be best to have your own.
The 100 Word Challenge has a "team" of adults from across the world who have volunteered to comment each week on a given set of entries. To ensure capacity, each school participating must provide at least one commentator.

**Beginning September, you will no long need your own class or student blogs but will be posting (copy/paste from your own if you want both) to NightZookeeper site.

5 Sentence Challenge
Creative Writing for Younger Writers (and Struggling Writers)

Aimed at assisting younger students or those who might struggle with 100 words, the prompts are thematic and the link is up for 2 weeks giving students more time for posting and discussion. the 5 sentences can be a list or a piece of prose.

Blogging Is Writing
Susan Davis @suludavis

Susan and her teammates have jumped into student blogging. Each ones has tweaked the format/process. All their resources can be found on their blog. Susan's goal was to have students see writing and blogging as one and the same. She alternates traditional assignments with free posts. Assignments included an :About Me" post, a persuasive piece, an infographic/book trailer, and a review (selections for "Bloggy Awards").

TwitterTale
https://twitter.com/6_avenuetech
Shannon Wentworth

I didn't get a change to actually meet Shannon, but I picked up her card at a poster session. Looking

at her resources, she uses her Twitter account to post challenges. Students can reply to the post and/or there are hashtags. Cool idea, but still working through how to manage in your classroom of little ones... maybe a classroom account?

Interactive E-Literature: via Digital annotation and Multimedia Storytelling
Alli Gubanich @alligub
Ali uploads plain text versions of novels they are reading (when available) in class to a Google Docs shared folder. Each night, students complete mandatory annotation activities within the appropriate folders. She feels these activities help her students make connections between the text they are reading and the outside world, collaborate with one another, and develop their communication skills. Visit her website to see examples and video tutorials.

Need help developing or "tweaking" any of these ideas to implement in your classroom? Contact me and comment below! Would love to hear your ideas!