Ben Zacarelli - QU MAT Performance Task for Technology Module

TECHNOLOGY &
CREATIVE WRITING
Benjamin Zacarelli
for 12th grade students
Using technology to aid your writing!

Evaluation of Content
• All websites, organizations, and tools included in this presentation
have been thoroughly researched and vetted by the presenter as to
their informative validity and usefulness. Any of those included in
this presentation are sources I recommend highly, having personally
used all of them over the course of my education and teaching.
• All images used in this presentation were created by the presenter
from screenshots of their respective web pages, with the URL to
all web pages cited in the notes section of each slide and listed on
the “Sources Cited” slide at the end of the presentation.

How can
technology and media aid the
writing process?
All writers are, essentially,
storytellers, whether they write
fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or lyrics. In
order to create effective stories,
writers need to recognize what makes a
story compelling. This is one area in
which writers can look to technology
for aid.

darcypattison.com/blog
Darcy Pattison has made a living out of creative writing. She is the author of
many books for children, fiction and non-fiction. She is also a teacher of writing, a
blogger, and the founder of publisher Mims House. Her blog on fiction writing is a
fantastic tool for creative writers.

The University of Iowa
& The Writing University Podcasts
Although the University of Iowa’s Writing University no longer posts
new podcasts, its extensive archive of podcasts on creative writing can
be an invaluable tool for any writer, including students who may be
unfamiliar with creative writing.

John Brown
& Larry Correia
on YouTube
A series of videos are posted on
YouTube from a lecture given by
John Brown and Larry Correia at
“Life, the Universe, and Everything”
on February 11, 2010. The lecture
was entitled “How to Write a Story
that Rocks” and offers interesting
and informative insight into creative
writing methods. John Brown is a
noted author who most often writes
short stories. Larry Correia is the
New York Times bestselling author
of Monster Hunter International and
other noted works of fiction.

Inspiration Software, like
Kidspiration, is a great resource for
so many different disciplines. As a
potential teaching aid to creative
writing, Inspiration offers information
and templates for “Webbing,” which
is an excellent way for writers to
map out themes, characters,
plotlines, and other elements
essential to creating an effective
story.

Teaching Material I
edHelper.com is a great resource
for teachers of any subject. It
provides many different types of
materials teachers can use in
subject units.
In teaching creative writing, I might assign the class a short story to read, such as
“The Man Who Would Be King” by Rudyard Kipling, in order to have the students
experience effective storytelling firsthand. The materials above would aid such a lesson.

Teaching Material II
Samples of effective outlines
for storytelling can be found
all over the internet, but the
best examples are usually
created by colleges or
universities. The example to
the left is a very simple short
story outline from Notre Dame
Academy, a middle school in
Canada.

Teaching Material III
Wordle is an exceptionally
cool tool that can be used to
find prominent words in a
given selection of text, such
as the wordle on the right,
created from Poe’s “The
Tell-Tale Heart.” This
would be an invaluable aid to
students who wish to analyze
their own writing and
determine what the reader
will walk away with.

Teaching Material IV
inklewriter is another example of a
cool, interactive way for writers
to organize, write, and eventually
publish their stories. It also is an
excellent tool for integrating
innovative media into lessons for
teachers.

Collaborative Internet Resource
Goodreads.com is a website designed
to connect readers in order to share
reviews and information on books Students can use Goodreads to
analyze the stories they read
and interact with both other
students and the teacher
through reviews and social media.

Additional Internet Resources
for Creative Writing
• http://www.writing.com/
• https://www.coursera.org/course/basicwriting
• http://writing.colostate.edu/
• http://thewritepractice.com/creative-writing-tools/
• http://lynettebentonwriting.com/
*For a list of the most useful writing apps available for cell
phones, you will want to read this article by the Huffington
Post from 2013.

Sources Cited
• Darcy Pattison / Fiction Notes - http://www.darcypattison.com/
• The Writing University - http://www.writinguniversity.org/podcast
• “How to Write a Story that Rocks” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bS7sSy2GMM
• Inspiration - http://www.inspiration.com/inspiration-language-arts-examples
• EdHelper - http://www.edhelper.com/short_stories/The_Man_Who_Would_Be_King.htm
• Outline - http://www.notredameacademy.ca/docs/homework/Short%20Story%20Outline.pdf
• Wordle - http://www.wordle.net/create
• The Tell-Tale Heart text - http://americanliterature.com/author/edgar-allan-poe/short-
story/the-tell-tale-heart
• Inklewriter - http://www.inklestudios.com/inklewriter/
• Goodreads - http://www.goodreads.com/

Ben Zacarelli - QU MAT Performance Task for Technology Module

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