I know many smart people who have a tough time filling pages with words, sentences and paragraphs in order to express their thoughts. I’ve also learned that a picture is often worth at least a thousand words and that a short video can be worth millions. Here’s an online application that facilitates combining a picture with a few words in order to express a thought. In my estimation, this is a very special online application that deserves to be well known and widely used by learners everywhere!
PicLits is a brilliant application that is elegant in its simplicity. The site’s tagline says it offers “inspired picture writing”, and that’s exactly what it does. You pick a picture, and then add words to express a thought. You can drag and drop words from listed words that are categorized according to parts of speech. Or, you can compose your words “freestyle”, as illustrated below by my first attempt.
Terry Friedlander, the site’s creator, intentionally encourages the development of creative writing skills in a section of the website entitled “Learn It”. As a registered user, you can save your ‘piclits’ to a gallery and receive feedback. It’s also easy to share your creative expressions with a link or to embed it elsewhere.
My PicLit above is a simple screenshot. Below, I’ve embedded a couple of my favourites from the gallery to demonstrate how the clickable embedding feature works. You need to click on the image to view all of the poetry.
See the full PicLit at PicLits.com
See the full PicLit at PicLits.com
Paul, this really is a versatile literacy tool. I had heard of it but hadn’t explored it for now. Great for all sorts of learners. I’ll definitely be using this one. Some great images too.
Thanks also for the art tools you have written about recently.
Paul & Marie
Happy Holidays from all of us at PicLits.com. Thanks for the enthusiasm and review. We are slowly getting the word out and will try blogging after the holidays. We are working on categorizing the photos by themes and considering a PRINT function to allow for your PicLit to be turned into a card or personal greeting. Thanks again.
Terry Friedlander
Paul,
This is just terrific – thanks for sharing. I’m new to your blog, but will be back as often as possible!
Caroline
I just recently stumbled across your blog and have found it an awesome resource for both myself and my teachers.
I wanted to point you to a couple of resources that do something similar to PicLit but do not require a login. They are roflbot and automotivator. Links to both can be found here: http://wigflip.com/ I included this URL because it has other links to text based tools and toys that teachers might find useful.
Thanks again for all your work on this blog! It is great!