BY: Jennifer Bond
Write About This is one of my favorite apps to use with my third graders. When I first got the app, I only had it on my personal iPad. I would allow partners to write on my iPad during writing time, hoping to give all students exposure to the app. When our PTA purchased an iPad cart, Write About This was one of the first apps we added.
Having access to Write About This to use with the whole class at one time has been great. It has allowed me to integrate it into several areas of my curriculum. We do love the high quality prompts and utilize the multiple levels of prompts, but we also really enjoy creating our own prompts. By creating our own prompts, we have been able to use Write About this in many ways.
Custom Write About created with 2 students while at the State Board of Education meeting
One way we have utilized it is writing reflections of our Time for Kids. After reading the cover story, we created our own prompt by taking a photo of the cover and writing down the important facts and information. This fall we used it to summarize our read aloud, The Secret Zoo by Bryan Chick. In addition, we have used it to reflect on our learning. We were able to take photos from around the room to highlight things that we have learned in third grade. Finally, we used the Write About This app to list the things we were thankful for to celebrate Thanksgiving.
Here are some things Team Bond 3rd graders would like to share about what they like about Write About This:
· I like the photos that they have.
· I like it is like a notepaper.
· I like when the prompts that go along with the photos.
· I like that you can take a photo and make your own prompt.
· I like that it is very easy to use.
· It is nice that you can save it.
· It prints out nicely.
Integrating writing throughout the curriculum is important, and Write About This is a great tool. It is easy to create writing samples, share them through email, and print in a quality way. If you have not tried Write About This yet, I highly encourage you to do so!
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Jennifer Bond is a 3rd grade teacher, loving wife and mom of 2. She is a cheerleader for innovative learning and advocate for teaching to and from the heart. Check out her blog at edtechcheerleader.com