Writing (K-3) – The Traveling Pencil

Writing (e.g. Creative, Informational)

Book Creator – https://bookcreator.com/ – Students can produce and publish their own simple books or comics with images, videos, and audio. Students join the class library using a code and the books they create can be accessed by the teacher or added to the class library to share with classmates. There is a free option but a paid subscription will provide more.
BoomWriter – https://boomwriter.com/ – Aimed at grade 2 and up, it focuses on getting students to collaborate as both writers and readers. Teachers can assign three types of writing projects – StoryWriter, WordWriter, and ProjectWriter. StoryWriter allows students to co-author their own books. WordWriter lets teachers provide a list of vocabulary words that students use their writing. ProjectWriter focuses on non-fiction by encouraging students to create a textbook-style collection of writings.
CAST UDL Book Builder – http://bookbuilder.cast.org/ – This tool is designed around the Universal Design for Learning (an educational framework meant to support diverse learning needs). Books can include a range of visual, audio, and interactive supports for readers. Students can use the tool to publish their own stories with original illustrations and photographs.
EduBlogs – https://edublogs.org/ – Teachers can create classroom and student blogs that include text, video, images and other media. It can also be used to share class content, communicate with parents and showcase student work. For students, the blogs can become portfolios, as a way to collaborate or share ideas and showcase work. Recommended to start this website at grade 3. For more than basic tools, need to pay.
Elementari – https://elementari.com/ – Creating and publishing simple interactive and animated digital stories. Students create a series of slides featuring text, images, illustrations, sound, and code blocks. The site comes with a large library of media to use in stories but students can upload their own for original content. One drawback: it would be nice if stories could be kept private and only share with specific people instead of it being public. Suggest that it starts with grades 3 and up. Free for the basic, need to pay for more.
Institute for Excellence in Writing – https://iew.com/ – Equipping teachers and teaching parents with methods and materials which will aid them in training their students to become confident and competent communicators and thinkers.
Learning Without Tears – https://www.lwtears.com/hwt – The writing products are not just effective but easy to teach and easy to learn. Students are engaged with hands-on materials that are different and make learning to cursive write easier. Another component teaches students how to type on the keyboard more easily. The products are based on their knowledge of children, how they develop, and the steps that prepare a child to be successful.
Little Bird Tales – https://littlebirdtales.com/ – Created to help nurture children’s creativity and imagination while simultaneously creating one of-a-kind digital stories that can easily be shared. Giving educators and students a truly interactive experience with options like listening to verbal instructions, voice recording/verbal response, drawing, importing images, and writing using a keyboard. With hundreds of ready-made lessons offered, teachers will have more time to focus on teaching.
National Writing Project – https://www.nwp.org/ – With an emphasis on emerging technologies in writing and learning, attention to civic engagement and community journalism, and a steadfast belief in the potential of great teachers to become educational leaders, the NWP network continues to draw on and support great teachers to reach all our young people.
New Pages – https://www.newpages.com/writers-resources/young-writers-guide-to-contests – A news, information, and guides to literary magazines, independent publishers, creative writing programs, alternative periodicals, indie bookstores, writing contests, and more. This link goes directly to a list of writing contests with the monthly deadlines specified and it is for all ages.
Night Zookeeper – https://www.nightzookeeper.com/ – It is an adventure game that quizzes students on writing concepts and encourages them to write. Students start with creating their own avatar, a prewriting assignment is scaffolded like a text exchange and are given challenges to include in longer writing assignments. Between writing assignments, students play games — challenges that contribute to story ideas or playing spelling, grammar, or usage games.
Pic-Lits – https://piclits.com/ – The focus of this website is to serve as a Grade 1-12 e-learning literacy website utilizing writing and photography to inspire and spark creative writing. Pic-Lits can be sentences, definitions, captions, poems, paragraphs, quotations, stories, lyrics, questions, letters, rap or assignment.
Quill – https://www.quill.org/ – A website for interactive grammar, writing practice and development. It features hundreds of activities organized into five separate tools – Proofreader, Grammar, Connect, Diagnostic and Lessons. All of the tools offer differentiation for ELL students. Teachers can create a classroom, add students, assign diagnostics, single activities, or entire units to individual students, small groups, or a whole class. There is a Premium upgrade for more detailed reporting. Good for teachers with no budget.
Read&Write – app or Chrome extension – Read&Write is a literacy support tool available as an app and a browser extension. It has 10 features and was developed to encourage readers and writers – especially those with special language or literacy needs – to access texts and improve their skills. Students can listen to any written passage with a line-by-line, text-to-speech option. It also has a translator option to support foreign language words and vocabulary builders.
ReadWriteThink (Student Interactives) – http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/ – Engage students in online literacy learning with these interactive tools that help them accomplish a variety of goals—from organizing their thoughts to learning about language—all while having fun.
Scholastic – https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/collections/teaching-content/writing-resources/ – These materials will give students the means to develop as writers and publish their work. Lesson plans include the use of word choice, voice, sentence structure, theme and all the other writing elements taught at every grade level. Each article, blog post, lesson plan and activity specifies the appropriate grade level. There may be some content requiring payment.
Storybird – storybird.com – Storybird’s writing curriculum offers 700+ lessons, quizzes, and writing prompts created by experienced educators and expert authors. Choose from multiple writing formats, from comics to picture books to poetry to longform. Start with a challenge for ready-made inspiration. Storybird lets anyone make visual stories in seconds and curates artwork from illustrators around the world. This is a great way to inspire writers of any age to turn those images into original stories.
StorybookThat – https://www.storyboardthat.com/ – A platform where teachers can create materials and lessons for their classes,or students can take ownership of their voice and learning. The is a free basic option, the rest requires payment.
StoryJumper – https://www.storyjumper.com/ – Students create and publish their own illustrated stories. Whether students are beginning writers or brushing up on their skills, this is an outlet for them to use their imagination and learn some real writing strategy. Students’ progress can be autosaved and students can drag and drop images to illustrate their stories with text. Stories can be published into different formats for an additional cost. Start with students in grade 2 and up.
StoriumEdu – https://storiumedu.com/ – It is a web-based, collaborative writing platform that’s part card game. In groups (up to four), students write a story together based on a scenario created by the teacher. Each student picks a character and they take turns writing brief scenes. On each turn, students play cards that give them a basic framework for what to write – including the scene’s goals, characters’ motivations and their strengths. It is recommended that students start at grade 3.
Story Starter Junior – http://www.thestorystarter.com/junior.html – Write your story starter sentence on a piece of paper or copy and paste it into your favorite word processor and start writing your story!
Teachervision (Writing) – https://www.teachervision.com/subjects/language-arts-writing – A variety of resources are available but the free version only let’s you download 5 resources whereas the premium membership is unlimited. Resources range from activities, worksheets or graphic organizers to assessments and lesson plans.
The Teachers Corner: Writing Prompts – https://www.theteacherscorner.net/daily-writing-prompts/ – On as many days as possible, they have selected an event from the monthly event calendar to be the focus of the writing prompt. The topics are for a variety of age groups and it is available in PDF or can be projected on a screen.
ThinkCERCA – https://www.thinkcerca.com/ – The CERCA acronym stands for Claims, Evidence, Reasoning, Counterarguments and Audience (which represents the structured approach to teaching critical thinking and argumentation). Students can click answers to multiple choice questions, type in responses to short-answer questions, highlight sections of text, develop graphic organizers and make claims about what they’re reading. Suitable for grade 3 and up. Beyond basic option, payment may be required.
Time 4 Writing – https://www.time4writing.com/free-writing-resources/ – Provides free writing resources to help parents and educators teach writing more effectively. The writing resources are organized into seven main categories. Each category includes a selection of fun writing games, instructional videos, worksheets and other writing tools that are topic specific. Beyond basic option, payment may be required.
Writable – https://www.writable.com/ – Content covers all major writing genres – persuasive, narrative, and expository. As students complete assignments, they learn how to respond to prompts in quick writes, short responses, essays and extended writing projects. This website works with existing writing programs such as Six Traits or Writer’s Workshop. Teachers manage the peer feedback and revision process. It is recommended for grades 3 and up.
Writing A-Z – https://www.writinga-z.com/ – Offers a complete collection of lessons and resources to teach writing to K-6 students, and a set of online tools for various student compositions — from single page essays to entire books complete with illustrations. Teachers have access to a wide array of resources that help students of all skill levels become capable and confident writers. The lessons and supporting resources allow teachers to introduce basic writing elements to emerging writers and more advanced writing skills/processes for fluent writers.
Write About – https://www.writeabout.com/ – A good way to help kids engage with the writing process. There’s a wide array of prompts and it’s empowering for students to discover so many avenues of expression. There are a lot of ways for students to be creative and find their own voice.
Writing Wizard – https://writingwizard.longcountdown.com/handwriting_practice_worksheet_maker.php – Not really a website for learning how to write stories or essays. Instead, this website concentrates on handwriting (both print and cursive) by giving you the ability to create worksheets with the tracing lines for whatever exercise you want to make. It is pretty simplistic butmight be helpful if you are teaching young students how to handwrite.