Piclits

PicLits

is a really neat creative writing site that provides pictures and a word bank for students to create Language about a picture. “The object is to put the right words in the right place and in the right order to capture the essence, story, and meaning of the picture.” Students can choose to only drag words from the word bank to create their sentence or compose a sentence freestyle. .

PicLits __[|**http://www.piclits.com/compose_dragdrop.aspx**]__is a great way to get students to think creatively and critically about writing. Students can choose any picture and then use the word list to create a sentence. __[|Pic Lits]__ is complete with punctuation and any word can be capitalized. Students can use __[|Pic Lits]__ individually on computers, as a whole class with a projector, or within a creative writing center in the one or two computer classroom. When using __[|Pic Lits]__ as a class, choose a picture for the day and have students write their sentences on paper using words from the word bank. Take turns sharing to hear the combination of words and the different meanings that students gathered from the word bank. This is a great writing exercise to use in your classroom every day! Use __[|Pic Lits]__ with an interactive whiteboard and invite your students to choose pictures and create sentences.

Students can sign up for a free account and save each __[|Pic Lit]__ they create. At the end of the year, each student can create a book of their __[|Pic Lits]__ to take home for creative inspiration.

**How To** The photos and words change daily. You can "View the Gallery" to see already-created PicLits as well as comments and ratings. After selecting a picture (or using the one they provide) you can drag a word onto the screen that you’ve chosen from the word bank. Supposedly you can see different forms of the word by using the drop-down menu next to the word. Move your words anywhere on the screen for creative writing. You can also click “freestyle” instead to type in your own words instead of choosing from their list. Word lists change, depending on the image selected. The words you can choose from are labeled by their parts of speech, and once you drop the word on the image you can see all the different verb conjugations and choose one. You can write a poem, a caption, a title, or describe the picture. You can comment on your own effort, send it out to post, wait for other people to comment, comment on theirs, engage in a back and forth exchange, and so on

**The Learn It Sections** See the “LEARN IT” section for ideas on lesson plans starting with a simple sentence and heading towards poetry in the “MASTER IT” section of “LEARN IT”. "Learn It" provides learning opportunities and examples for creating captions, compound sentences, or paragraphs. Dyslectic students would find this site helpful but also ESL/ELL teachers find it useful in working with second language students and visa versa. The bottom-line is that writing is a requisite for success and a complete sentence is essential to that success. Writers can start simple and progress.The Master It section under the "LEARN IT" icon is pretty sophisticated and advanced.

**Skills Required:** Join the site (requires email but does NOT require that you wait for confirming mail to arrive so jump right in!). Users of PicLits must be able to navigate tabs on sites, manage logins, and use URL's and embed codes to share results on websites and blogs. Play to learn the tools before or after joining. Help also provides a short-and-sweet text explanation of the tools.

**Safety/Security Concerns:** Registering for a PicLits account requires the use of an email address. PicLits can be used without an account but users are unable to save or blog about their creation without an account. This site allows outsiders to comment on created PicLits. Many school policies prohibit such interaction, so be sure to check the school policy. Teach about proper “netiquette” and making appropriate comments as students use this site. Set specific written class rules and consequences for interacting with outsiders. If you wish each student to have an individual account, they need to create it with an email address. Our school doesn’t give kids email accounts. And it may be tricky accessing/sharing student email on school computers.

Teachers may want to create their own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. A class account can be created instead. However, it does not show which work is attributable to which student. You may want to require that students initial their contributions in order to get credit. All work on the site can be seen without a login. All projects are public. Check your school policy for posting student work online. Written permission is always a good idea.

**Management Suggestions:** You may want to create a word doc, Favorites folder, or other “collection” of the URLS to all your students’ projects in one place for easy work at grading time. Some teachers use a class wiki or blog with links to all projects from there. You may allow students to self-register, but be sure to keep a written record of their passwords for when they “forget.” It may be worth your time to do advanced registration for younger students or simply use a whole-class account.

**Possible Uses:** Teachers with interactive whiteboards might share a PicLit at the start of a grammar or writing lesson to discuss word choice, figures of speech, or vocabulary. Teachers could use the visual picture prompt for journal or blog writing, allowing each student to compose a unique poem or haiku. Even science classes can write about concepts illustrated in the many nature photos. Freshman writing teachers, who want students to practice descriptive language, will love for students to show the feelings and describe facial expressions in the pictures. Make a collection of PicLits for a curriculum topic or as a literary magazine online. ESL students can create PicLits to learn new vocabulary. Have students create PicLits for special occasions and special people (mom, dad, grandparents, school nurse, or others). Use the embed code to place their creations on many other sites, including the teacher’s class wiki or blog. You can share your PicLit by using a URL or code for an embedded widget. **Note: Advertisements run alongside the PicLits screen. Caution students to ignore these, like Papa John’s Pizza.**

**In a High School English Class** A Universal Theme in Young Adult Literature is alienation. Asking students to find a PicLit from the gallery and respond to it before reading that literature can move them a little closer to the writer’s themes.

**Could Connect to Social Studies As Well** Sometimes teachers want students to think about a Big Idea before getting involved in a specific unit or topic within a unit. Some of the PicLits will prompt this kind of connection and for visual learners, this kind of non-print analysis is perfect.

**Downside** As great as this site is, you can’t do everything. For example you can’t just copy the pictures or download them. You can share them or send (email) them to yourself or a friend and then you can format the picture you’ve created. That’s what I’ve done. When it shows up in my Google email, I've saved the image into a Google Doc or Word doc, Then I can format it.

PicLits is the essence of Web 2.0 – free, simple to use tools that amplify student creativity and self-expression.