PicLits: Writing

Details

Activity Description

Source: PicLit (License: Protected by Copyright (c) [i.e. screenshot])

 

PicLits is a website where students can choose from a variety of interesting and beautiful images and drag and drop provided words to create short compositions or type in their own words. PicLits, according to site founder Terry Friedlander, means pictures + literacy: "a combination of words placed on an image to capture the essence, story, and meaning of the picture. It can be anything—a sentence, a caption, a poem, a single word, a rap, a quote, and more." The site is perfect for students to experiment with poetry, but it can also be used for prose (descriptive and narrative) writing projects.

Preparation

Try out the site ahead of time.

1. Create an account.
2. Create several examples.
3. Choose an image.
4. Drag and drop words from the given word list onto the image or choose "Freestyle" to type in your own words.
5. Save your PicLit.

PicLit also allows you to set up a profile with information about you, if desired. You can then view your saved PicLits by selecting "My PicLits" on the navigation bar. Select a PicLit you have created to see sharing options, make a new PicLit with the same image, view others' PicLits with the same image, and edit or delete a saved PicLit.

See Example Document for step-by-step instructions for making a PicLit. Print instructions for your students.

Teacher Tips

The site's Learn It [www] section has three useful parts for both students and educators:

• Write It [www} gives ideas for using the site including "Basic fun with words," caption writing, writing compound sentences, and building sentences into paragraphs, with samples.
• Rhyme It [www] provides suggestions for how to write a rap and a poem, and introduces the poetic device of simile.
• Master It [www] contains advanced lesson plans for teachers to help students read and write poems and learn about poetic devices. The lesson plans include How to Read a Poem; What is Poetry?; Traditional and Contemporary Poetry; Types of Poetry: Descriptive, Blank Verse, Formal Verse; Figurative Language: Metaphor/Simile, Personification, Metonymy, Allusion, Symbol, Apostrophe, Irony, Imagery; Right Words, Right Order: Poetry and Connotations

The PicLit is saved online once an account is created, has its own URL, is saved in the site's online gallery, and can be shared via e-mail, on a blog, Facebook, or other social networking site or Web site. Others can comment on, or rate your PicLits.

More Ways

This Web site is rich with possibilities:

• write a one-sentence description or story about an image
• choose a favorite proverb and type it on an appropriate image
• write a personal motto or creed and add it to a picture
• make an online greeting card
• write a short story about an image
• write about a goal, dream, plan for the future
• write a summary or interpretation or paraphrase of a class reading on a fitting image
• write a one-sentence picture caption
• practice parts of speech by being required to write about a chosen picture using a certain number of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs
• practice syntax by putting words in correct order to form sentences or paragraphs
• practice vocabulary by changing a PicLit using synonyms or antonyms
• choose a favorite song, find its lyrics online, and choose a suitable images on which to add the song's lyrics
• practice symbolism by writing poems, sentences, or paragraphs using abstract nouns that an image depicts
• practice word families by changing the adjectives to nouns (or vice verse or adjectives to adverbs) in a given PicLit
• make motivational classroom posters
• make a list of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs for a given image and have classmates guess which image the list belongs to and then write a story or description from the list of words

Program Areas

• ABE: Adult Basic Education

Levels

• Low
• Intermediate
• High
• All Levels

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