VSTE+2012

= VSTE 2012 =

Power Up: Excite * Ignite * Write!

 * //Power Up: Excite * Ignite * Write!//**
 * //Ignite//** the writing process by involving your students in powerful projects utilizing free software; writing a novel, an electronic Choose Your Own Adventure book or the script for a movie or play.

Keeping your students inspired to write throughout the year can be a very daunting task even for the most experienced teacher. Learn how to utilize the Youth Writers Program to write a Novel in 30 days in the fall and write a script for a TV show, movie or play in the spring. Each program comes with pre-created workbooks for teachers and students to use as well as lesson plans developed to aide in the writing process. Lessons and worksheets are easily adaptable for the content and material you already use. Both program build upon the knowledge of each other and can use the free program //Celtx// to format their writing and track assets utilized, easing the burden of additional formatting. Lessons not only include the writing process but also the creation of various multimedia projects while learning about the writing elements, including a script for interviewing various characters. For those students who enjoy the Choose Your Own Adventure books, teachers can utilize one of three free software packages with their students to create their own book. No matter which option a teacher chooses, they begin to ignite the writing process through project based learning which capitalizes on prior learning and utilizes 21st Century skill in creativity, collaboration and multimedia presentation. Excite your students, Ignite their creative flame, and write, write, write!

Reading and Writing are two of the skills that all students need to master to function in today's society. Many times we find that we spend a great deal of our time working with remediation and students who are not on grade level only to leave those students who excel and grasp the concepts alone to their own design. Writing is one of those items that can be ignited with a few simple programs.

Novel in a Month (NANIWRIMO) November is the month where the Young Writers Program runs a month long contest encouraging people to write, not only students but adults as well. One of the best things about this program is that it supplys you with precreated lesson plans to use in your classroom. When we think of a protagonist in a story or novel we get descriptions of how they look and can get a feel for what kind of person they are by the way the act. Things like this do not just happen overnight. NANOWRIMO is designed to have students look deeper into what motivates a character to act the way they act. The Young Writer's Program is designed so it can be used at any level, elementary through high school. Workbooks are provided for each level that will guide students through the preparation stage of their writing process. Students have the ability to set the daily word count to work toward while writing their novel. The program designed for adults National Novel Writing Month is designed with a specific word count for people to reach. As of November 27th, 305,802,929 words in novels had been registered in the site. This can be used as either an extracurricular club or as part of a Language curriculum. This program does not have to happen up through November and then end, it can be expanded to last further into the month with additional activities. A basic timeline might be:
 * September - promote the writing process
 * October - prepare to write your novel by using the supplied workbooks
 * November - Write Your Novel!
 * December - Write the "Inside Cover" of your Noveland create a cover
 * January - Bring out your editing skill and refine your novel
 * February - Find a way to publish your novel (iBooks Author is a great free way)
 * March - Host a book signing party for parents and administrators to show off all the novels

Novels can be written with a standard word processor or can be created in a free program called Celtx. One of the things I like about this free program is that it will create a master catalog of all the items in your novel with basic fill in forms for information.

Script Frenzy Another activity that can dovetail into the NANIWRIMO project is writing a screen play of your novel. Unfortunately ScriptFrenzy, a version of NANIWRIMO but in script format, was discontinued. The good thing about this website is that although the month-long scriptwriting challenge has been discontinued, all the resources(including workbooks and Lesson Plans) are still online for use. Depending on the time constraints in your program, students can take a small excerpt from their novel to create a movie teaser. Students can then make a poster advertising their movie through Big Huge Labs.



Create Your Own Adventure Books

Create Your Own Adventure Books have been around since the 1980's when INFOCOM released ZORK I. In the past, Choose Your Own Adventure Books have gone by many names such as Interactive Fiction, Interactive Stories or Text Adventure Games. As the creation of these stories has evolved, they have become easier and easier to create. Perhaps one of the easiest ways to create a Choose Your Own Adventure book is by using the free program INFORM7. INFORM7 is designed to closely mimic our English language making it extremely easy to use. The books created with this program can be viewed on any format of computer and even on the iPad. The writer creates various rooms and objects to interact with inside the room to tell a story. The reader can choose to interact with the objects or move from room to room exploring. The initial manual for using the program can be very scary but there are a few basic commands that can be used to create a fully functioning book.

Do you have to use a program like INFORM7 to write a Choose Your Own Adventure Book? Certainly not, the task can be accomplished by using any program that will allow the use of hyperlinks. There is even a new website, inklewriter, which will allow you to create an interactive story online. Once an adventure has been created, it can be shared with classmates to see if they can reach the final goal.

I found a great website to help with the creation of items called I7 Thing Creator. You just fill in the boxes and it formats the text for you.