Analysis

• Accelerated Reader
• Literature Circles – Each of the roles in a literature circle is described in brief here.  You can also download the requisite worksheet for each role.
• PearsonSuccessNet – The textbook portion of Reading Street is available online, in its entirety, along with some fun activities.  Who’ s a bad Grammar Jammer?
• Vodcast | Book Trailers – These exciting previews will get your student readers clamoring for new books to read from local school libraries.

Content

• Aesop’s Fables – This online collection of Aesop’s Fables includes a total of 655+ Fables, indexed in table format, with morals listed. There are many more on the way. Most were translated into English by Rev. George Fyler Townsend (1814-1900) and Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) the rest are from Jean De La Fontaine in French and translated to English by several good internet souls. Included are Real Audio narrations, classic images, random images, random fables, search engine and much more on the way. Recently added are 127 fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen.
• The Children’s Poetry Archive – Poetry doesn’t just live in books – it lives in the sound of the words, the voice of the poet. When poets read aloud, they breathe life into the poems. The Poetry Archive is a place where everyone can listen to poetry. The idea for it came from Andrew Motion (Poet Laureate) and Richard Carrington (recording producer). They agreed that there is something special about listening to a poet reading his or her own work, and that it would be good to collect lots of recordings and make them available to people who were interested in hearing them.
• Letters of Note – Letters of Note is an attempt to gather and sort fascinating letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos. Scans/photos where possible. Fakes will be sneered at. Updated as often as possible; usually each weekday.
• Storynory – Storynory has published a free audio story every week since November 2005. All stories are beautifully read by professional actors. They have books and poems by classic authors, fairytales from around the world, myths and legends, and a host of original stories including Prince Bertie the Frog, Katie the Witch, and Astropup.
• Tech Toolkit – Created by Paige Coker, an Instructional Technology Coach in Georgia, you’ll find SMART Response Notebook files for the Scott Foresman Reading Street Series Weekly Selection Tests.

Creation

• InkleWriter – The inklewriter lets you write as you play, branching the story with choices, and then linking those stories back together again. It keeps track of which paths you’ve finished, and which still need to be written. There’s no set-up, no programming, no drawing diagrams – so there’s nothing between you and the empty page. Oh, and it’s free to use. And once written, you can share your stories with whomever you like.
• Read-Imagine
• Story Starter Machine – Ready to get excited about writing? Scholastic’s Story Starters serves up hundreds of creative combinations that take the writer’s block out of creative writing for students. Set your writing loose with prompts that explore the themes of Adventure, Fantasy, or Sci-Fi. Or choose Scrambler, for random word combinations. Story Starters gives ideas for character, plot, and setting. If you want to change your writing prompt, pull the lever and it will serve up a new prompt, either piece-by-piece or all at once.
• Storybird – Storybird lets anyone make visual stories in seconds. They curate artwork from illustrators and animators around the world and inspire writers of any age to turn those images into fresh stories. It’s a simple idea that has attracted millions of writers, readers, and artists to the platform. Families and friends, teachers and students, and amateurs and professionals have created more than 5 million stories—making Storybird one of the world’s largest storytelling communities.
• Write Source – Writing Topics – The best way to get into writing is simply to write . . .and write . . . and write . . . freely. This practice helps you develop a feel for writing. To get started, you’ll need a topic to write about. At this site, you will find lists of ideas to serve as starting points for personal or journal writing.

Grammar & Mechanics

• Editing Marks – A list of proofreading marks. Some proofreading marks call for fairly simple corrections, such as fixing problems with spacing, alignment, or type styles. Others refer to mechanical and grammar problems, such as punctuation, sentence structure, and word choice.
• NoRedInk – NoRedInk.com is a web-based learning platform that helps students improve their grammar and writing skills. NoRedInk.com uses high-interest content; adaptive learning; practice exercises, quizzes and assignments; and progress-tracking features.
• Spelling City -Dedicated to helping students, teachers, parent-teachers, and school systems, VocabularySpellingCity is an award-winning site with ongoing introduction of new features, many based on input from existing users. Their mission is efficient game-based study of literacy skills using any word list. Follow this link to find your class’s spelling words, but please make sure you are looking at the right list for the week.