Teaching writing? Try these H5P Tools.

13th August 202213th August 2022 John Allan

Teaching writing online or in blended mode is challenging as a learner comprehension of structures and nuances are not evident to the instructor while using virtual classrooms. One way to improve this situation is using online tools that provide interactivity, writing activity structure and feedback. H5P offers a few tools that can assist teachers and students to improve the writing process. These are Sort the paragraphs, the Documentation Tool, Dictation Tool and Structure Strip. Each of these perform a different function that writing instructors can use to create awareness of a writing pattern or style, provide a template that students can use to write within a desired structure and even evaluate themselves based on a writing goal that the students, define. Details of each tool and a link to quick “How To” sheets follow in this post. If you have any experience, ideas or comments on these or any other H5P tool related to writing, please comment below.

Structure Strip

The Structure Strip tool allows teachers to create a structured writing activity to ensure that students attempt each section of a writing to task to meet task expectations. The sections can be exported to the computer’s clipboard for use in office software apps to allow the students a means of refining the text. The maximum and minimum length of a document in characters can be set by the the structure strip author. The proportions of each paragraph or strip is determined by the author. These can be a little frustrating to define, so be sure to set the Slack of paragraph/strip proportions to 50%. You will know what I mean, after you have tried this.

Sort the paragraphs

The Sort the Paragraphs tool allows instructors to create a variety of sorting activities. Possibilities can be sorting the sequence of paragraphs in an essay, words in a list, numbers, sentences in a paragraph, words in a sentence, steps in a process and any other sorting order that can be imagined. To provide process clarity or context, teachers can add images, audio instructions or videos at the top of a Sort the Paragraphs activity.

Documentation tool

The Documentation tool allows teachers to set up a guide that allows students to support structured writing processes. Students can export the project to a word processor formatted document for submission or reflection purposes.

Dictation Tool

The dictation tool is a combination of a listening and writing activity. Students are offered the opportunity to listen at a normal and a slower speed. They are challenged with typing exactly what they have heard. Teachers can set typo allowances to compensate for human error if they choose.

Final Thoughts

I hope some of these resources are useful for supporting writing in different situations moving forward into the upcoming term. The H5P How To documents below are all geared towards using LUMI as the editor. Slight variations on the first few steps may be required based on your H5P editor. See the post, LUMI, an H5P Editing Alternative , for more information about acquiring and using LUMI.