7 Smart Ways to Teach Creative Writing with Apps

Featured article by Michelle Brooks, E-learning Specialist

It can be difficult to enter into the spirit of writing. This is especially true for students. Learners usually have the required skills and are motivated by teachers to write. Still, many of them don’t like or even hate those types of assignments.

Is it possible to make your students enjoy creative writing? Yes. Here are seven ways your students can use apps for their writing needs.

1. Use writing prompts

Beginning the creative process is a daunting task for those who struggle to think of story ideas. Essay Service writing company offers professional advice how to get inspiration for composing essays. Ready-to-use topics will rescue your students from writer’s block. Recommend them to start off their writing assignments by using the following prompt apps:

– Writing Prompts offer topic ideas pulling them from news, scenes, words, sketches, texts, and colors.

– iDeas for Writing and Story wheel are great creativity trigger apps with lots of topics suggestions.

– Write About This contains visual (custom photo) writing prompts.

2. Note down writing ideas

If your students get used to recording their daily thoughts, they will get their own bank of story ideas. It will help them develop the plot. While a pen and a paper cannot be accessible at all times, gadgets give a possibility to write down every idea on the move. Offer them different apps available on iPad. The iPad can be a powerful portable writing tool as it allows taking advantage of inspiration both in and out of the classroom. Whenever your students have a flash of inspiration, they can use any of these note-taking tools:

– StoryKit has a feature of recording the ideas with voice, which is especially useful when on the go.

– Educreations app can be used for writing down the thoughts and accompanying them with pictures.

– Notability helps to organize the notes in different ways. This is helpful when it comes directly to writing a paper.

3. Brainstorm

Brainstorming is an effective technique for generating creative ideas. Teach young writers to share thoughts and fresh insights in order to create cute characters and original plot. Such sessions boost learners’ imagination. The next apps will help them to brainstorm not only in the classroom but on their own when they perform essay writing home task:

– The Brainstormer is a tactile tool that is helpful in a combining a plot, subject, setting and even style.

– 99 Words and PicLits bring a diversity of topics along with the relevant vocabulary and suggestions on how to develop the story.

4. Develop graphics

Graphical imagery is a visualization tool that trigger’s the student’s interest in writing. After all, illustrated books attract kids the most!

Make your students draw! Excellent drawing skills are not required for this exercise. Easy-to-use graphics apps like Strip Designer and MakeBeliefsComix will encourage learners to create their own comic strips from photos.

5. Use multimedia

Multimedia is another powerful tool for visualization.

– PicCollage is great for creating interactive collages for writing assignments. Funny stickers involve children in writing process and encourage comprehension.

– Toontastic turns users into animators, character designers, and storytellers. Children move characters around onscreen and tell their story at the same time. Though it is rather a movie creation app, it teaches students to structure a story to make it interesting.

6. Organize narration

Young learners need an efficient guidance on how to organize a story. Fortunately, some wonderful apps were designed to help them develop a good grasp on the text structure.

– StorySkeleton helps to arrange the scenes as index cards and shuffle them to develop a single narration.

– Scribble My Story offer different formats to follow when completing creative writing projects. Children can draw pictures or use stickers to enhance the storytelling.

– Book Creator helps students organize their thoughts and ideas, collect raw materials and references. They can use text, images, audio, and video to bring their ideas together before crafting the final draft. This app can be used both for creative (poetry, stories, comic adventures) and academic paper writing (science reports, research journals, etc).

7. Revise and edit

When the story is written, the final part of the work remains. It is editing and proofreading. Emphasize the importance of grammatical accuracy and text’s readability. Every student must understand that their grade depends on that.

Advise your students to use the apps designed for this purpose. Grammarly is one of the best tools for checking grammar, and Hemingway – for improving clarity, style, and readability.

Students should learn what makes a good story before starting to write anything. It can be explored through different types of media, from comics to games and films. The above-listed apps enhance the development of children as writers. Help your students discover and boost their writing skills!

About the Author: Michelle Brooks is writer specializing in e-learning, career and self-development. Currently, she contributes to the educational resource.