Boosting writing using the iPad

Over the past term, I have been working with a group of Year 5 children, looking to boost their writing using the iPads. All the children were slightly below where they need to be in terms of their progress with writing, so it has been my job to try and improve this using the iPads. It has been tricky as I have only been able to work with the group once a week and even then, whenever a teacher has been ill or on a course, I have had to cover so missed the session. However in the short sequence of lessons we have had we have seen some incredible writing inspired by the use of iPads.

I have been using a lot of ideas from Inspired Mind's fantastic book - Developing Writing through Comics and decided to use a comic app as the inspiration for the writing project. The app 'Shifter,' is an interactive graphic novel with some incredible artwork, sound effects and an augmented reality partner app. The only problem with the app is that it has a 12+ rating on the app store as further into the story their is some choice language that isn't appropriate for use in schools. It is a real shame really as the potential to this app is unbelievable and the way the children responded to it was impressive. We just used the opening scene as the stimulus. The series of activities led to children creating their own digital stories that showcased their writing and motivating them knowing their writing was going to be transformed on the iPad and proudly showcased on our school blog!

The video explains all the activities carried out on the iPad that aided the writing process before creating our digital stories using a range of other creative skills to enhance and bring the writing to life -



When the writing was presented to the class teacher, it was compared to other assessed writing and we found all the children made significant progress. I know this was an isolated project and cannot undeniably show the direct impact iPads have had on their writing. But our next project will be non fiction, so I am hoping to see a continued progression.

If you are interested in how to best use mobile technology to really enhance children's learning, Mr P can provide bespoke training for your school - details here. 

Comments

  1. Emily3 December 2014 at 08:22

    Wonderful Post, I highly appreciate those people who share some good information, because I like those people who actually share :).

    ReplyDelete

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