Write to Communicate Activities

Friday, I worked with a student teacher who was having a difficult time helping his first-grade students use writing to communicate. The problem was the students couldn’t write multiple sentences. A single sentence is easy for first graders; just write a subject and a verb with some other words thrown in. But to write multiple sentences, children must string thoughts together. To help solve the problem, I gave the students an interactive writing activity on the computer.


The Story Tree activity is fun and engaging, with characters urging the students on. The sentences are all there, on the screen, already connecting to each other. Like Mad Libs, students can click a word, see other words, and substitute one of them for the original. In this way, they have a model of multiple sentences and can “write” multiple sentences without actually writing them. And all of this involves only a few minutes, which helps the students feel a sense of accomplishment. Now they are ready for some more interactive writing activities!

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