What it is: Lightning Bug is a fantastic resource for the writing classroom. The tag-line of Lightning Bug is, “Your writing partner, helping you write a story from beginning to THE END”. That is exactly what it does. For each stage of the writing process, students have access to excellent guides and resources to aid the process. Students can get help finding a story idea, developing the idea, and finishing the story. Students can even have a look at what kind of writer they might be based on their personalities. Lightning Bug has a great collection of writing resources. Students can explore author blogs, search for character names, get some exercises in creativity, get help with grammar and spelling, and even get help for publishing their written work. The teacher resources are equally helpful for teaching writing.
How to integrate Lightening Bug into the classroom: Lightning Bug is a great resource to have going on your classroom computers as a writing/publishing center. Students can visit the site to get help with every stage of writing. This is an excellent site to send home and alert parents to, it would be enormously helpful for at-home writing projects. If you have access to a computer lab or 1 to 1 setting, allow your students to walk through this website as they work on any piece of writing. The site is organized really well and easy to navigate independently. Be sure to take a look at the teacher resources.
A few of the recommendations for the writing process include worksheets such as mind maps. Instead of using a worksheet for students to map their ideas, consider using online tools that will let students organize their thoughts and collaborate with others as they write. Try using online mind mapping tools such as Creza’s Mindomo or Comapping. Students can use tools such as Zoho, Google Docs, or Kerpoof to collaborate as they write.
Tips: Many of the ideas and resources found on Lightning Bug are useful for digital storytelling.
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Lightning Bug in your classroom.
I’ve passed this along to my son’s teacher. Thanks for sharing another great resource!
I’m glad that you found it useful Christine!
Love this tool. Your students must be top writers with all of the brilliant resources you use with them. I’m passing this on to a friend who is an elementary teacher who is a technophobe.
I think that this is a great tool for teachers to use within the increasingly technologically savvy classroom. Students know an increasing amount about the internet and sources like this will help to facilitate their generation’s type of learning environment.
I think that this is a great tool. I am a kindergarten teacher, so I am slowly introducing this site to my students as they learn how to properly use the internet. I current use this site to help with my own writers block or stress about a paper.