Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Become a Book Creator, reviewed here, Certified Author or learn about this resource's different components by completing the course curriculum. This course includes eighteen lessons that share features found on Book Creator, such as importing media, using the camera, and using templates. The final activity is a twenty-question quiz. Complete sixteen or more questions correctly to receive a digital badge and printable certificate of completion. The course takes approximately two hours to complete.

tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (143), digital storytelling (143), ebooks (39), literacy (109), preK (257), professional development (394), writing (316)

Create interactive digital stories with Elementari. Features include drag and drop text, illustrations, and shapes. Choose from image filters and a variety of fonts to personalize the look of your story. Other tools include the ability to animate illustrations or text, and to create interactions by touch. Use interactions to play a sound, go to a new page, or animate a feature. After creating your account begin by selecting the option to write your story. Follow the prompts to add Elementari's free images, backgrounds, audio, and more. When finished, preview your story then publish. After publishing, share using social media links or the provided embed code. You can also create 1 class with 35 students. Students do not need email to use Elementari. Students with existing accounts can also connect to your classroom. Students can choose an avatar from the ones provided and cannot upload any pictures. Teachers must approve stories before they can be published. Be sure to check out the Curriculum Guide!

tag(s): creative writing (121), digital storytelling (143), writing (316)

Notebook.ai is a story planning tool for writers. After registering, choose from different sections of the site to begin creating different portions of your fantasy world. Options include universe, character, world, creatures, governments, and much more. Free accounts allow you to build up to five universes with unlimited characters and items. Upload up to 50 mb of images to use within your stories. The default setting for all story tools in Notebook.ai is private, turn on the public setting to share a link with others to view.

tag(s): characterization (16), creative writing (121), descriptive writing (39), digital storytelling (143), stories and storytelling (41)

Engage in digital storytelling using the many features included at ABCYA Paint. Choose from the included tools to spray paint, draw, add stickers, and more. When finished, save as a PNG file to your computer or print.

tag(s): digital storytelling (143), drawing (60), painting (55), preK (257)

Imagine Forest offers free Writing Resources, tools, and ideas to create stories. Begin right away finding inspiration by exploring the blog. Example ideas from the blog are Creating Comic Strips and 70 Fantasy Writing Prompts. Explore the Story Crafts for PDF downloads of craft patterns for stories like Red Riding Hood, Pirate Treasure Island, and others. Though Imagine Forest is not accepting new accounts, you can still access the free resources found on the site and the ideas in their blog.

tag(s): creative writing (121), digital storytelling (143), writing (316), writing prompts (58)

Create beautiful multimedia digital books with Book Creator. Scroll down the landing page to the bottom menu, and click the "Help With Getting Started" title. Note: This points out how you need to change to the "teacher sign in" (the default is for students). This is a wonderful tool with many features. Reading the short Getting Started Overview first and watching the beginning videos would be best. Then, you can go to the Resources tab from the top menu, where each grade level has a video, and you'll find example books created by students. Under Resources, you can also search by subject to find suggested ideas and books designed for a specific subject. Next, click Resources from the top menu to find the "Teach your first lesson toolkit" with lesson plans, remixable student templates for different age ranges, and a teacher guide. You can also choose Remixable Books to get you and your class started. When finished, publish and share your book using the site's web-based reader for access on any device. Once you have mastered the basics, click on Features to see the magic of using the pen and discover all the features of the graphic organizers, comics, and more. By clicking the "more" you will can embed documents on your page(s). These documents can be narrated and interactive! The free plan offers one library with up to 40 books storage. Book Creator presents a variety of levels for technology use depending on teacher requirements for the project or even student ability; it allows for adding narration, videos, text, using your webcam, and adding links to help explain the artwork. When creating your book, click on the big + in the upper right corner to add text, audio, images, your camera, and the pen; you will also see The lowercase "i" (for inspector), which offers colors, comics, paper type, and more. There are other apps, but you must have a premium account. You can use Book Creator on iPads, Macs, Android devices, PCs, and on these browsers: Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Chrome. Teachers need to provide an email to create an account. However, students do not need emails to make their books. Once ready, follow the site's prompts to add video, text, images, audio, and more to your book.
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tag(s): collaboration (87), DAT device agnostic tool (143), digital storytelling (143), ebooks (39), literacy (109), preK (257), reading comprehension (143), writing (316)

Knight Lab offers a variety of tools for storytelling and promoting quality journalism. Choose the Projects tab to find all available options sorted by categories of Storytelling, Research and Reporting, Teaching and Learning, and Prototypes, Experiments, and Past Projects. Projects include examples and full instructions for using the tool in any classroom.

tag(s): digital storytelling (143), images (264), maps (207), timelines (50)

EasyWrite is a simple to use writing tool for creating easy to understand content. Just type your text into the text box and begin writing. EasyWrite highlights words not found in the 1,000 most commonly used words in the English language. At the time of this review, EasyWrite worked best with Chrome or Mozilla FireFox.

tag(s): digital storytelling (143), editing (90), multilingual (67), process writing (38), vocabulary (236), writers workshop (31), writing (316)

The scientific research behind WriterReader is that one develops and improves reading skills by writing. With WriteReader, kids create their books, including text, pictures, and voice recordings. Adults/Teachers have space on the page to write comments and make corrections. The interface is so simple that even a young child can use it successfully after some adult guidance. Open the Features tab on the top menu to see an index to all features categorized by Literacy Development, Easy Book Creation, Publishing and Sharing, and Teacher & Student Management, all with several links to explore. Click the Resources Center tab on the top menu to select Lesson Plans, Templates, Writing Prompts, Videos, and more. The basic plan offers 60 books and all the essential features. Register by email or your Google account. After logging in, use the menu bars in the upper right corner and find Guides, which has a Parent Letter, a Quick Start Guide, a Template, and a few other get-started items. For creating student accounts, you can enter students manually, or students can join the class with a class code. WriteReader has upgraded its page templates to support older students. US English, UK English, Dansk (Danish), and Svenska (Swedish) are available. There is also an introductory video on the landing page that will help everyone get started. This video resides on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the video may not be viewable. WriteReader has added new premium features such as Read Aloud, Voice Search, Book Templates, and several others. For these, you must pay.

tag(s): digital storytelling (143), literacy (109), multilingual (67), reading strategies (99), science of reading (33), writing (316)

Code your own art, music, and interactive fiction with Pencil Code Gym. The main language is Coffescript, but you can click the word Reference in the upper left corner to use HTML for writing tags in your code. Pencil Code also supports Javascript and CSS. Follow instructions to code using drag and drop blocks or text. Toggle back and forth between the two formats to view the different formats. Click the pencil in the upper left corner to see several resources including Materials for Teachers, Teachers Manual, Printable Activities, and several others. The wide range of activities make this site perfect for use with students of all levels of coding abilities. When complete, share finished projects on "GymStage", the sharing portion of Pencil Code Gym.

tag(s): coding (89), computational thinking (41), critical thinking (110), digital storytelling (143), drawing (60), geometric shapes (136), musical notation (35), problem solving (225)

Give students the chance to write a novel, either individually or as a group, by participating in this annual event. Register for a free account, fill in your profile, go to your dashboard, and start creating your classes; yes, you can have more than one class! Give your students the unique code for their class (the site also provides a Website Permission Form for districts requiring consent from student families). Click the "How it Works" tab at the top and slide down to "For Educators" to get complete instructions for the challenges and more. By its own admission, this is about quantity, not quality, but the idea is to get words on paper. Be sure to check out all of the tabs at the top; there is a wealth of information and resources for teachers, students, and families. All of the novel work students do remain the author's property, so there's no problem with ownership. You do have to register for an account (student or teacher), but it is free.

tag(s): creative writing (121), novels (31), writing (316)