I let my students text in class

Yes, I let my students text in class...in fact, it was required!

Much written communication is done via text messaging these days, so it's worth focusing on this specific medium of writing in class. 

In a recent writing lesson, my students discussed texting language and shared various words or acronyms like BRB and NVM. Then we focused on texting etiquette where we considered how our texting habits and language may change according to who we are messaging and what are the unwritten rules of texting. And, of course, we spent time texting. 

The students enjoyed creating conversations that included abbreviations, funny miscommunications, and problem-solving. 

Text interactions created by my students

There are various free apps that can be used to create texting interactions. Here are the three I have used with my students:

iFake Text Message

IFake Text Message is a super simple website. Just input a name and type the messages. Then download the chat as a picture.

Texting Story

Texting Story is an app where you can create a text conversation and then transform it into a video that can be downloaded.

Messagink

Messagink is more like a community of readers and writers. You can read chat stories that others have written in a fun format where you tap the screen to show the next message. It makes you feel like you're inside the conversation. You can also write and publish your own stories within the app for others to read and comment on. To create your own stories you have to sign up, which is free. Another nice thing about Messagink is that you can use it both as an app or just on your browser which is handy for my students in China who cannot always access apps.

Texting in class can be fun and practical. More ideas for exploiting this type of writing are swimming around in my head...I might explore them in the future.

• Have you done anything like this in your class?
• What other ways could we use these texting apps?