22 Sites for Creative Writing in the Classroom

Our students today have so many great resources at their hands: apps, websites, online templates. When it comes to writing, teachers are able to tap into these resources to get students more interested in the prospect of having to do schoolwork. Below are the links to those resources. This post will be added to the Language Arts page on the left of my blog.




25 Creative Writing Prompts- from Writing Forward

698 Free Worksheets- each sheet is marked as PR, IN, ADV for your grade level; ESL teachers can use these as well

The Best Places to Read and Write "Choose Your Own Adventure" Stories- terrific listing from Larry Ferlazzo

Boomwriter- Sections include StoryWriter, ProjectWriter, and WordWriter


Classroom Writing Ideas- Pinterest board covers writing and picture prompts, worksheets for younger students

Creative Writing Worksheets- for younger grades

Collaborize Classroom- free collaborative education forum


Creative Writing Ideas/Lesson Plans- Pinterest board

Creative Writing Lesson Plans- @Web English Teacher

Creative Writing Lesson Plans- from Scholastic; K-12 covered

Creative Writing Teacher Resources- from Teachervision; by grade level

Developing a Fictional Narrative- from Education World

ESL Creative Writing Prompts- nice listing

Fakebook- students set up a fake Facebook page



Lino- free sticky and canvas service; works on computer, Android and iPad/iPhone

PicLit- creative writing prompts

Picture This! Building Photo-Based Writing Skills- lesson from the NY Times Learning Network

Quill- many interactive writing lessons with quizzes already made for the teacher; includes Quill Proofreader, Quill Grammar, and Quill Writer.

ReadWriteThink- lesson plans for English-Language Learners for K-12

Skills Practice:Writing Effective Openings- from the NY Times

TeAchnology Writing Lesson Plans

Visual Writing Prompts- sections for grades 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12

34 Lessons, Games and Resources for Language Arts Teachers

Currently, Language Arts teachers have their own tab at the top of this page, with resources on Digital Storytelling, Shakespeare and Poetry. Today I have updated the list to also have lesson plans and resources for all grade levels. The most recent list is below. As always, please share your additions by commenting below.

LESSON PLANS 

10 Great Language Arts Lessons- from We Are Teachers; 

Discovery Education Lesson Plans-covers grades 9-12; over 500 listed!

English and Language Arts-Based Lesson Plans-the Lesson Plans Page; grades noted when you choose the lesson

Growing Up With Crayons-lesson for upper elementary/middle school level; from EBSCO

Interactive Whiteboard Activities- from Scholastic; grades K-9

Language Arts Lessons for 11th and 12th Grades- from PBS

Language Arts Lessons- from ReadWriteThink; covers K-12 (grades are labeled)

Language Arts Lesson Plans-from TeAchnology

Literature and Language Arts Lessons- from EDSITEment; grades K-12

PBS Learning Media-covers English Language Arts and Literacy; all grades; choose from many subcategories

Smithsonian Education-varied topics cover grades K-12

Spelling City Lesson Plans- vocabulary; videos, worksheets, games

Teachit Lesson Plans- vast number of resources!

Top 25 Lesson Plans for 2011- from Thinkfinity; grades are labeled- K-12

RESOURCES AND GAMES
Cliche Finder- 3,300 index cliches

Common Core English Language Arts Resources- from ShareMyLesson

Curriki's Language Arts Resources-small listing covers all grades

English ELA Review Games- pick your grade level

Funbrain Game Finder

Grammar, Usage and Mechanics- from Writer's Choice; grade 9

Guide to Grammar and Writing- over 400 references

Hemingway- students can analyze their writing with this app

Integrating Technology into the Language Arts classroom

Language Arts for Middle and High School- long listing

Language Arts Games on Gamequairium

Middle School Reading Interactives- listing includes language interactives, grammar help, general comprehension stories and much more

Online Language Arts Games- from TeacherVision

PicLits- inspired picture writing

Popular Technology Resources for Reading and Language Arts- covers K-12; from TeacherVision

Powerpoint Presentations on Authors- for grades K-6

Reading, Writing, Grammar- Mr. Donn's extensive site is loaded with resources for K-12

Teaching English as a Language- from Web English Teacher; links for ELL and ESL teachers

We Are Teachers- reading, grammar, spelling vocabulary

Writing Prompts- huge listing of resources!

10 Websites to Create Monsters and Creatures

With Halloween arriving next week, I thought it would be great to share some sites where students could create their own monsters and creatures. Teachers can turn the project into a creative writing experience by having the kids write stories about their monsters. You can find a huge listing of other holidays from September to June here on this blog. 

Thank you to my colleague Norma for telling me about the resources!

Alien: Assembly Required- for younger kids; part of the Arthur site

Goosebumps Monster Maker- based on the R.L. Stine series Goosebumps, students drag and drop body parts to create their own monsters.

Make a Monster- simple interface for younger kids

Me Make Monster- easy to use; share or save the monster created or print it on a tee shirt, mug, bag or baseball hat

Me Make Zombie- students upload a photo and make it into a zombie

Monster Maker- select various body parts for your monster and control the width, height, texture and background

Playnormous Monster Gallery- choose eyes, nose, ears etc. and have your monster rated on the site; gallery currently has over 5400 monsters.

Tinkatolli- create a "Tinka"

Toonix- create a "toonix" on this colorful site; many choices to create

The Troop: Monster Creator- the premise is simple: students recreate the monster they saw by clicking and scaling body parts