Age Scale: 10-adult
Device: iPhone, iPod, and iPad
Quick Line: A List of Lists
What Educators Need to Know:
My sixth graders surprised me today. We talked about how highly successful people set goals for themselves. We discussed how goals should be SMART.
And I sat back and let them generate four goals for themselves for the first quarter. I could not have been more pleased! Gone were the blatantly obvious “I want to be better in Reading class” goals. These kids gave careful consideration to what they thought were reasonable, reachable goals!
Even more impressive, some recognized writing as a weakness, and they sought help to generate phrases that would reflect exactly what they wanted to improve upon. A few mentioned making their writing more interesting. I briefly suggested a newly downloaded app called List for Writers.
Since we are speaking of lists, I thought I’d give my reasons for supporting this app in (you got it!) list form.
Reasons I like List for Writers – ideas for creative writing
- It is simple and neat. As the title suggests, List is full of lists, including those relating to characters, personalities, plot, setting, and words. There are no graphics or anything else to distract you.
- It is comprehensive. Each list contains hundreds of suggestions for words you might need in each of many categories. For example, there is a list for first names (a list for both male and female), last names, occupations, clothing, people, and even body types! The action verb and adjective lists would be particularly useful in narrative writing. I also really like the list of seven basic plots. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them laid out so plainly!
- With a simple tap, most words are defined by a built-in dictionary.
- You can copy and save your favorites to a notepad while you continue to generate ideas and formulate your ideas.
- One notepad might not be enough. It would be nice to be able to work on more than one story at a time.
- A favorites list might come in handy.
- Although the lists are extensive, a thesaurus option might be an easy addition.
- It would be nice to be able to add your own items to lists.