All links to the apps mentioned will take you to the iTunes page so that you may learn more information about each app or install it on your iPad.
Work on Writing Apps
There are so many directions you can take Work on Writing. I tried to get a varied array of choices for you.
Write About This is a favorite of mine and I have used it with quite a few classrooms. Students pick a prompt or create their own and then start writing. The finished products can be saved to the camera roll in order to get them off the iPad. An account is not necessary. Of course as with any free version, there are limitations. There are about 50 different prompts in the free version and something like over 300 in the paid version. 50 makes for a pretty good selection. Here is a link to a tutorial to get you started.
Padlet is an online corkboard where students can post answers to questions, write out parts of a story, collaborate with one another or be part of an online anthology. I included it here because, while it can be used whole class for things like exit tickets, it is not thought of as a writing tool.
Thinglink is another atypical place to practice writing. It a free online or app based platform where students can "tag" a background picture with pictures, videos and text. It makes for a wonderful research tool. Check out a tutorial here.
Pic Collage for Kids is what it says. Students create a collage of pictures and they can add captions to describe the pictures. Or, how about using it to have kids create a how-to. The text can be moved and placed anywhere on the collage so the sky is the limit. Once finished, the collage can be saved to the camera roll so that it can be more easily taken off of the iPad. Click here to learn how to use it.
The next 2 apps, Book Creator, Little Bird Tales, and Story Creator are eBook creators. Have your students creat picture books for younger students or to use in the other lit centers like Read to Self or Read to Someone. I've linked tutorials for each of the apps for you above.
Haiku Deck is another research tool option. It is similar to presentation apps like PowerPoint and Google Slides except for the fact that the amount of words that can be included is limited. This one works great to teach students how to truly present material. No one wants to read a dissertation on a PowerPoint or Google slide. Presentations should be concise and get right to the point. Haiku Deck forces that issue. It is not a limitation of the app, it is a change in thinking.
Now we get into apps that serve a more specific purpose. Comic Maker and Comics Head Lite are ways to encourage your students to create in the comis genre. How many of your students would be excited to have the opportunity to create comics? Students can add backgrounds or take pictures with the iPad camera to use in their stories. You know the drill. Click the app names above to access tutorials :)
The next 5 apps come from ReadWriteThink.org. They have taken some of their popular online interactive activities and transitioned them to apps for the iPad. Have your students construct poetry with Acrostic Poems, Haiku Poem and Word Mover. Students are led step-by-step through the creation process for each of the 5 apps. Timeline offers different types of timelines for students to create. This app, like Pic Collage for Kids can be utilized to create hot-to's as well as more traditional timeline activities. Trading Cards is one of my favorites. Students can be guided to create a trading card (ala Pokemon or baseball) for both fictional or real people and places. It lets you create a card for events, objects and vocabulary as well. For each of the 5 apps, the finished products can be saved to the cameral roll.
We are coming into the home stretch :) Popplet is a mind map app. Hah! Say that 5 times fast. We talked about Popplet earlier on the Word Work page. Click above to get back to more info about Popplet Lite.
There are apps for the old Word Processing staples like Word, Google Docs, and Pages. If you are looking to have your students try something different, then the above apps should fit the bill.