Using Twitter in Writing

One social networking activity that I found to be of interest is called “creative story theme.” Students in my classroom recently finished writing a narrative based on island survival and suspense. I thought that this Twitter activity could enhance the creative writing experience that my students have when developing narratives. Students would begin the activity by writing an opener for their island story.

Ex. “Jon was sprinting through the path he had carved months ago when he arrived on the island. He almost triggered the trap he had constructed from the blood berry vine and sticks he had retrieved earlier. Jon had never been very fast and that much had definitely changed about him. He had also gained several layers of raw muscle; however, it was still no use against the native from Doom Island who was now chasing him.”
~An opening excerpt taken from one of my student’s stories

Once students tweet an opening to their story, they read and add on to other openings posted by students on the network. The network can be comprised of other students in the same grade level, school, or even from around the world. Students contribute to each other’s stories until all students in the network have written excerpts for a set number of other tweets. Then, students work on developing a coherent story based on the excerpts that were tweeted.

The benefits of using social networking to collaboratively write a story outweigh the problems. Utilizing other students’ ideas help to extend student thought, understanding of varied sentence structure, development of plot, etc. When writing the stories simply with a pen and paper on their own, students miss out on collaborating and learning with their peers. I also think that students would be motivated to work with peers outside of the immediate classroom. It is critical that the teacher maintains a constant presence when students are tweeting and that the students are guided through higher order questioning while writing their excerpts.