Writing Apps for Students

I am a writer.  By no means a great (or good) one, but a writer of some sort.  How do I know this?  Well, I spent 4 years of my life pursuing a journalism degree, and then I spent the next 4 years running away from it.  Yet somehow I always found my way to writing.  No matter where I lived or where I worked, I would always be writing something.  I couldn't escape it and I am very glad I didn't. 

Writing is an essential tool for life.  No matter what career path you pursue, to a certain degree, writing is going to be involved.  It is by no means an easy task (the more you practice the better you become), there are times when it can be extremely difficult, but when an idea comes to mind or when you are researching a topic of interest the process can be a little easier.  Getting students motivated about writing can also be quite the challenge.  For them, there are hundreds of better things to be doing than thinking about the day's journal entry.  So the question is, how can I get students to be as excited about writing as I am?  While there is no concrete answer, using apps and tools available online could spark their interest. 

Free Tech for Teachers, recently posted a list of sources dedicated to writing prompts.  One particular iPad app that caught my attention was Things to Think About, which offers writing ideas created by 2nd-5th grade students.  Instead of reading the topic of the day from the board, students can listen to a recording and view a picture using the app.  This new component could make writing more appealing to students.  A journal assignment becomes more than just a requirement by the teacher, it becomes a new way to experience the writing process.  In addition, using a visual dictionary/thesaurus such as Snappy Words, which creates webs of words, may help expand students' vocabulary skills, especially if they tend to use words and phrases repeatedly.  Using this tool with their weekly list of vocabulary words can be much more helpful than writing them out 10 times for memorization.

No matter what grade level, writing is a way to engage with the world.  The tools and ideas are out there for students to flourish as writers.  There is no better privilege than that.