Unwrap 5 Sweet Ideas to use Google Slides in the Writing Classroom

Guest blog by Autumn Riley, Digital Learning Coach in Mansfield ISD 

Finding the right tools and strategies to support our students’ writing can be a treat, and what could be sweeter than incorporating the tasty digital tools of Google Slides into our classrooms? Slides might not be your typical go to writing tool, but it offers a range of features that can help our students wrap their heads around the writing process, from brainstorming and organizing their thoughts to revising and polishing their work.

Let’s unwrap some ways to use Google Slides in the writing classroom, all while incorporating a little bit of sweet success. Whether you’re a writing teacher looking for new ideas or a tech-savvy educator looking to integrate more digital tools into your instruction, you’re sure to find some tasty treats in this list.

1. Brainstorming and Digital Storyboarding with Slides: Use Google Slides to create a collaborative brainstorming and storyboarding document. Students can add text boxes or images to represent their ideas and plan out each scene or event in their story. You can use the “present” mode to facilitate a group discussion and help students see the big picture of their writing.

2. Visual Prompts with Slides: Use Google Slides to create a series of visual prompts for students to use as inspiration for their writing. You can add images, videos, or other types of media to the slides, and ask students to write a story, poem, or essay based on the prompts. This is a great way to engage students who learn visually and to help them get started with their writing. 

3. Revision with Slides: Use Google Slides to facilitate the revision process for writing projects. Students can write each section or paragraph of their essay on a separate slide, and then easily adjust or move the order around to see what makes the most impact. (Often students find that their conclusion makes a much “sweeter” introduction using this strategy.) This is a great way to help students see the big picture of their writing and make informed decisions about the structure and organization of their work.

4. Identifying Parts of an Essay with Slides: Use Google Slides to help students identify the different parts of an essay. Students can use the highlight tools as well as shapes like boxes to identify the introduction, body, and conclusion of their writing. As the teacher, you can create a specific highlighting or shape key of what you want students to identify in their own (or even in others) writing.  Additionally, you can use the “present” mode to facilitate a group discussion and provide feedback. This is a great way to help students understand the structure and organization of an essay.

5. Sentence Stems with Slides: Use Google Slides to provide students with a set of sentence stems that can support them in their writing. As the teacher, you could create the stems in text boxes for students to add directly to or create them as the background of the slide for students to use more like a fill in the blank. You can create a slide for each type of writing (e.g. persuasive, narrative, informational, etc.) and add a set of sentence stems that students can use to get started with their writing. This is a great way to support students who struggle with writing and help them build confidence in their skills. *If you are extra-techy you could create a bank of genre specific sentence stems in the “Theme Builder” 

Google Slides offer a range of features that can support and enhance the writing process in the classroom. Whether you’re looking to brainstorm ideas, outline a writing project, or facilitate collaborative writing, these tools have you covered. So go ahead and unwrap the sweet success of Google Slides in your writing instruction!