Helpful Websites

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/pagegen/brochure/

This site is a good resource for students to find information on famous people in any category.
There are some audio recordings as well. I found the interviews to be well written and informative.


http://www.adlit.org

This site provides information and resources to parents of struggling readers. It is affiliated with WETA and features reading lists, news and commentary about adolescent literacy.

This is a website that encompasses all facets of adolescent literacy. This site has information about dealing with this area, a section with advice and comments from experts in the field, and books that are design for young adults. The book lists also have guided discussions of the books highlighted. This is a good overall tool to use for teachers, students and parents.

Resources for parents and educators of kids in grades 4-12. Site includes interviews with an expert and an author, comprehension strategies, newsletter signup, research information, and suggested reading lists.

AdLit.org is a national multimedia project offering information and resources to the parents and educators of struggling adolescent readers and writers.

A web site for parents and educators that contains a menu of adolescent literature essential topics from A-Z. These include: comprehension strategies, research and reports, blogs, ask experts, news letters, lists of books and authors, videos and multimedia, and a glossary of related terms.

This site’s focus is adolescent literacy and is for parents and teachers of students in grades 4-12. It offers comprehension strategies, current research, books and authors, and an ask-the-expert section.

This site offers resources for parents and educators of kids in grades 4-12. These resources include comprehension strategies, research on adolescent literacy, and report/journal articles.

All About Adolescent Literacy is part of a national multimedia project presenting literacy resources for families and educators of children in grades 4 – 12. Some of the resources offered include booklists, comprehension strategies, quotes, a blog for teens, and daily literacy quizzes.

The National Adolescent Literacy Coalition provides information on the best methods to improve adolescent literacy and recommends effective programs.


http://www.aesopfables.com/

Aesop’s fables online with a few audio stories. Also, A Christmas Carol is online here as well. K-12


http://a4esl.org

I like this site because it has activities that the teacher can assign ESL students while the rest of the class is taking a test in which they may not be taking. It has vocabulary and grammar instruction. There are pod cast, You Tube, and also ESL videos.


http://www.agirlsworld.com

This website is geared toward girls 5th grade and higher. It has advice columns for teen issues as well as interviews with the most current celebrities. In addition, there are sections where kids can write poetry or essays on changing topics of interest.


http://www.all4ed.org

Alliance for Excellent Education: There’s a crisis in American’s high schools. Many interesting articles about adolescent literature, graduation rates, and other data on the impact to society caused by students who have difficulty reading and who don’t graduate from high school.

A web site titled the crisis. This site offers some of the same information as the others listed above however it also includes information about graduation rates and dropout factors, and college access. This site also includes students of color and the achievement gap.

The Alliance for Excellent Education offers statistics on adolescent literacy and the impact on the American society.


http://www.americanfolklore.net/index.html

This folklore site contains retellings of American folktales, Native American myths and legends, tall tales, weather folklore and ghost stories from each and every one of the 50 United States. You can read about all sorts of famous characters like Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, Daniel Boone, and many more. So grab a cup of coffee, pull up a comfy chair, and stay awhile. K-12



http://www.angelfire.com/wi3/englishcorner/index.html

Good site for vocabulary instruction. It has cloze passages, vocabulary games, picture quizzes and more.


http://www.apples4theteacher.com/langarts.html

This website has a wealth of information. I know that there may be teachers who are already familiar, but it is definitely worth adding to your favorites. It offers resources for teachers and activities for students.


http://www.asij.ac.jp/elementary/gr5web/c5r/book_cube_instructions.htm

Book Review Block/Cube template.


http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/

A site for teachers designed by teachers. There are teacher tips, discussion forums, and many printable worksheets, plus theme resources for special days. Helpful for making word searches and worksheets for language arts.


http://www.awesomelibrary.org

This site provides links to popular magazines that can be read online such as Car and Driver, video game reviews and some news magazines. There are many links to middle school literature and video games that supplement the literature.


http://www.awesomestories.com

This site consists of collections of online stories grouped by topics. This site incorporates web technology to engage the reluctant reader.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/tweenies/storytime/

This site deals with children’s stories for pre-school to 2nd grade. There are links for games and activities. Since this is a BBC site, some pronunciation may be difficult for young children to understand.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/

KS2 Bitesize is an interactive website that allows students to create very short stories by selecting a title, appropriate text, and a picture to match the title and text. Reading exercises include deduction, dictionaries, and non-fiction. Activities for spelling and grammar are included. Each activity is followed by a short quiz with explanation for each answer. This site is good for struggling readers at any level.


http://www.biography.com

This site is based of the TV station Biography. Pictures and bio’s of people from television stars to past presidents are given. There’s even a “born on this day” and “died on this day” section. It’s a great site for students of all ages to learn a little more information on people they are studying in school.

This website has video biographies of famous people. There is a kid section, which focuses on people that children learn about in school or may find interest in. I would not allow children to have free access to this site due to mature content; rather, I would use it as a teacher resource.


http://blogs.scholastic.com/whats_new/books_teen_reads/

This site offers summaries of the newest books for teens. Some have video interviews with the author that may motivate readers. There are also featured books that have study guides, author talks, and even trivia games to accompany them.


http://www.bookadventure.org/

This is a great place for a classroom or parent reading program. I really like the “online card catalog” that children can create a book list of books they want to read. K-8


http://www.bookcloseouts.com/default.asp?N=0

This is an inexpensive place to purchase books. They may be a few years old. These are overruns but great deals on many books.


http://www.bookcrossing.com/

Imagine finding a book just sitting on a shelf, counter or table with a picture like this on it.
The book you just found might be a “book on the loose” and you can take it home to read it. Look inside the front cover and enter the id number on this website. Add your comments and “set the book free” again in a public place. Your can track where this book travels by the id number assigned to it.


http://www.bookpop.com/

This is a charming site for younger or struggling readers. Books are web-enhanced and available for online reading or you can choose animated audio stories. All books and stories are on a PreK-3 level.


http://bookwizard.scholastic.com

This site is more to help teachers. Here one can search for books by title and get grade level equivalents and lexile levels. There are summaries, teaching resources including vocabulary, writing prompts, discussion guides, and similar books.


http://www.brainpop.com/

Brain Pop is a popular animated site that students can use in all courses. My classes have used this site for writing, reading, and other language skills. There are short video clips on lessons, tests for assessment, and other fun information.


http://www.busyteacherscafe.com

This is a good site for fluency and its components. It has literary strategies such as fluency instructions; it suggests when to implement fluency instruction and how to assess fluency. There’s also a writing workshop and much more. Visit this site and you won’t be disappointed.


http://www.carnegie.org

The Carnegie research institute provides information on why adolescent literacy matters and its importance to America’s future. The site provides links on the way this can be achieved through teaching strategies and policy implementations.

Carnegie Corporation of New York addresses the state of adolescent literacy today and offers resources and information on public policy to families, communities, and educators.


http://www.ccsso.org

The Council of Chief State School Officials offers an Adolescent Literacy Toolkit that provides resources at the district, school and classroom level.

Site lists several articles about adolescent literacy that can be read.


http://centeroninstruction.org/

The Center on Instruction, a partnership of five organizations, provides resources and expertise to the Regional Comprehensive Centers in reading, mathematics, science, special education, and English language learning.


http://www.chompchomp.com/menu.htm

Grammar Bytes! Definitions (detailed), handouts, interactive exercises and PowerPoints. 6-12


www.colorincolorado.org

Colorin Colorado is a bilingual site for families and educators to get resources, guides, and toolkits on numerous literacy topics and practices.


http://www.crimeandsuspense.com/classics.htm

This is a website that has classic mystery/suspense novel as well as movies that you can read for free. The titles include Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, and others. It is a great way to have access to these novels from your computer.


http://www.deweybrowse.org/

Not just for librarians. This site has websites listed by Dewey categories. Great to show content teachers so they can find water cycle websites, mathematics websites, holocaust websites, etc. Note the Dewey number and look for books in the library with the same call numbers. K-12


http://www.e-book.com.au/freebooks.htm

This is a way to access different free digital library around the world. This includes libraries in New Zealand, Australia and England.


http://edhelper.com/

A terrific website for teachers. This site has many pre-made activities, as well as many options for teachers to make their own activities. Most pre-made activities are free to visitors.


http://edselect.com/novel_studies.htm

This is a list of links to novel studies and publisher web addresses. 4-12


http://www.education.com/activity/article/Bring_Books_Alive_fifth/

This website allows students to tell about a story they have read with different activities that include using art, writing, and acting.


http://education.jlab.org/

Jefferson Lab provides teachers and students many resources. There is a teacher resource section, a student resources section as well as a section for games and puzzles. Jefferson Lab activities deal mainly with science and math objectives.

http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hme/6_8/proofread/proof.htm

This interactive site helps the students correct writing passages. This would be great with the Smart Board. 2nd to 8th grade


http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/

Help your students children classify ideas and communicate more effectively. Use graphic organizers to structure writing projects, to help in problem solving, decision making, studying, planning research and brainstorming.


http://eduscapes.com/ladders/index.html

Lots and lots of links on this Literature Learning Ladders website. This web project will help you make the connections between theory and practice by exploring some online resources related to literacy, themes, literature circle, technology and learning. K-12

This web project will help you make the connection between theory and practice by exploring some online resources related to literacy, themes, literature circles, technology, and learning.


http://www.eduscapes.com/tap/topic93.htm

This is a professional development resource for educators and librarians. From this site, a teacher can tap into many different sources for adolescent literature.


http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00000737.shtml

This website has a few graphic organizers such as story maps to print. It also has links to passages and comprehension questions that go along with it. It also has articles to help teach comprehension strategies.


http://www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers/storymap/

Enchanted Learning is a member-supported site. Non-members do not have access to everything there. The site contains over 50 types of graphic organizers for most reading and writing activities.


http://englishcompanion.ning.com/

“A place to ask questions and get help. A community dedicated to helping you enjoy your work. A cafe without walls or coffee: just friends.”


http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/resources/books.html

100 things to do with books besides the typical book report. K-12

This site is a compiled list of numerous websites/resources to teach literacy. The links are divided into topics so all you have to do is look under the topic you need and click on the links to the various websites to gain more resources.


http://www.ericdigests.org/2004-1/literacy.htm

I included this site because it offers some interesting reading on literacy instruction through communicative and visual arts. It discusses the use of drama, television, and comics as effect literacy tools.


http://essaypunch.com

A website that breaks down the writing process and the student through to the successful completion of an essay by first asking leading questions and having the student fill in short answers to create a writing list, and then building to a finished project. Relatively small fee to be able to use.


http://www.factmonster.com/

I love Fact Monster. This site is filled with loads of information from homework reference guides and almanacs to interactive, educational games where students can practice their skills. If my students were studying the five kingdoms in science and needed a little bit of extra help, there is a place on this site where they could get that extra information. Math, science, history, geography, and a language section are all included. Interactive quizzes are also found throughout the site. This website is for the K-8 student.


http://50states.pppst.com/virginia.html

This site provides free power point presentations for Math, Science, Language Arts and Virginia Studies.


http://www.free-ebooks.net/?category=Youth

Free e-books and you do not need a Kindle. You can download a PDF version or you can get it on your phone, blackberry or Kindle. K-12


http://www.freereading.net/index.php?title=Main_Page

This is a really good site for grades K-3. I found reading passages with about 100 words that teachers can use as fluency passages. The passages target comprehension skills, root words, advanced phonics skills, fluency, comprehension, etc. It also allows you to help build the site by creating short stories yourself.


http://www.freerice.com/

This website donates rice to third world countries for each trivia question that is answered correctly. Visitors can choose the category for questions, along with an appropriate level. I find all of the questions to be interesting, especially the vocabulary questions.


http://www.ftutorial.com/learning/writing-a-book-review-essay-3/?k=fun+writing+activities+for+kids

This website has a lot of links for fun writing activities.


http://www.funbrain.com/

This is a very colorful website geared to the K-8 student. Here, students can play sudoku games, read books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and play educational games. There is even a blog site for kids! Bringing it back to old school, there is a Mad Libs section too! Kids would love this website and could have fun while reading and learning at the same time.

I really like this site because it provides lots of really fun games for students to build up mastery of 5th grade objectives. This site provides games for K-8 students in Math and Reading.


http://www.gigglepoetry.com/

Poetry for everyone that is young at heart.


http://www.googlelittrips.org/

Use Google Earth to map out the places talked about in your novels. Need to download Google Earth – it’s free. K-12


http://graphicnovelreporter.com/

This is a review site for various graphic novels, a genre that is becoming quite popular. There are novel reviews and author bios. A blog section is found on the site as well where students can read what is said by their peers. There is a different part of the site geared towards kids, teens, and adults so each group can see what type of graphic novels are written for them. I would say that some sort or parental or teacher supervision would be necessary due to the adult section of the site where some of the topics might not be kid-friendly.

This teen friendly website reports on the latest graphic novels on the market including newer titles and some classics(Fahrenheit 451). Kids can make comments about the novels, enter contests to win by reporting on what they are reading, and read “best of” lists. For educators, there is also a roundtable sections where teachers can post comments.


http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ela/6-12/reading

This is a good site for 6th-12th grade teachers. It shows various writing genres; expository, persuasive, etc and there are rubrics, and annotative writing models. Hope someone can use this site. Well, after going to the home page and found things for K-5 resources also.


http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/tess/

This is a great site for making tessellation examples and worksheets for students to practice with.

http://www.hedgehogbooks.com/gradelevelptr/

This website has appropriate read aloud books for grade levels K-8. The books are arranged alphabetically. It also has top ten lists and picks of the week. The website is updated frequently so it is a great way to keep up with new publications.


http://hillside.needham.k12.ma.us/cyberventues/literacy/grade_4_literacy/4_literacy.htm

This is an interactive site that provides lots of hands-on learning through technology with grammar. I especially liked the inclusion of poetry and power proofreading. This would be a great link to add to classroom computer station on computer lab for students to practice skills independently or whole class learning.


http://www.hotchalk.com/mydesk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=67&Itemid=54

This is a free learning environment for teachers, students, and parents. I have used the lesson plans, but there is also a site for student bloggers to comment on readings.


http://www.ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/practice guides/

This site offers practice guides that present strategy guides that classroom teachers can use to address everyday challenges faced in the classroom.


http://interactives.mped.org/view_interactive.aspx?id=110&title

This website allows students to create there on newspapers, booklets, and flyers. The program walks students through the process step by step so it’s pretty self-directed.


http://www.internet4classrooms.com/skills_4th_lang.htm

Again this site is probably familiar to teachers, but what I particularly like is the organization of the site. It is grade specific and divides the standards into categories: oral language/decoding, comprehension, writing, elements of language, and review/help. There are tons of activities. It could easily be a link on computers in the classroom or computer lab for easy student access.


http://its.leesummit.K12.mo.us/writing.htm

This is a site that lists other sites to aid in writing instruction. It includes graphic organizers, capitalization, punctuation, vocabulary, biographies, letter writing, poetry writing, essay writing, etc.

This site plugs into outside sources to help integrate technology onto the classroom. I am looking forward to using this site in fall to facilitate Smart Board activities.


http://itweb.fcps.edu/connections/index.cfm

Connecting books to the Virginia Standards of learning (Fairfax project) K-12


http://www.kathleenodean.com/yabooks_pairs.htm

This has short lists of books to pair fiction with nonfiction, teen novels & Shakespeare books, teen books into movies (links to other sites) and recent reviews of teen books. Middle to High School


http://www.keystoliteracy.com/index.htm

This is a website that contains articles and strategies in the fields of comprehension, vocabulary, planning. To get the full benefit of the website, one has to be a member but there is much information available for without a membership.

Keys to Literacy is a website that offers professional development programs to improve reading comprehension and vocabulary instruction in grades 4 – 12.


http://www.kidsclick.org/

KidsClick is a search engine that was developed for students by librarians. The site is broken down by category such as: The Arts, Sports and Leisure, Literature, etc. Many categories have sub-categories as well. For Literature, a sub-category is folklore. Links for the categories are provided and the students can learn information on their chosen category. This site is designed for the younger student, probably elementary level, and is a safe site for students.

This website is a great research tool for children. It has been created by librarians and is a safe search engine for children.


http://kids.learnoutloud.com/Kids-Free-Stuff

This website has a large library of audio books. Although they are not all assessable online, there are a great deal of stories that you can listen to on the website. It also contains famous speeches that can be useful when teaching history.


http://kids.mysterynet.com/

Kid’s mysteries online. K-8


http://www.kidsonthenet.org.uk/create/index.cfm

This is a creative writing website for students. They can read other students writing, post their own writing, read tips on writing, and it has links for teachers.


http://www.kidsreads.com/index.asp

This site focuses on adolescent reading by giving book reviews, author Q & A’s, and author biographies. Students learn about some of the newest and most popular books that are out there for them and have the chance to learn more about the books before they read or purchase them. There is also a trivia section with questions from popular books and series that most students would know. This site is for upper elementary and middle school students.

This website is a wonderful resource for kids. It has many sections in which you can search for interesting reads. Some of the sections include review, authors, books into movies, coming soon, and cool and new.


http://www.kimskorner4teachertalk.com/writing/menu.html

This website is good for teaching the 6 traits of writing. It has posters of each trait, along with lessons to teach each trait and rubrics to grade each trait.


http://www.kitzkikz.com/flashcards/

Make your own flashcards online for free. If you have a two-sided printer, you can print your cards front and back. It is an easy two-column format with the vocabulary word going in the left-hand column and you type the definition in the right-hand column. The font size will automatically be adjusted to fit the card. Need more cards, just click on the “more” button. K-College


http://knowledgeloom.org/adlit/index.jsp

Adolescent Literacy in the Content Areas (Brown University). Site with panel discussion that can be heard, sample lessons, strategies, and stories of how some school incorporate adolescent literacy in their curriculum. Spanish version is available.

Knowledge Loom addresses adolescent literacy in the content areas. The site offers information on problems areas and provides readers with strategies to improve learning across the curriculum.


http://www.knowtes.com/decks

Make your own flashcards and study online. Search the huge library of flashcards made by other users. You can identify which cards you have mastered and only study the ones you need to still work with. K-College


http://languagearts.pppst.com/readingcomprehension.html

This website has powerpoints for reading for teachers and students.

A free website that connects to PowerPoints on other sites. Some are for teachers; some for students. It is useful for teachers and students’ use in studying and making Power Points. . There are over 600 topics to choose from. I have used it for lessons on Affixes. This connection is for the 6 Traits of Writing.


http://www.lanyc.org

This site provides multiple resources that include text references, online resources and samples of adolescent writings that are used as models for why adolescent literacy should be stressed at the middle and secondary levels.


http://www.lcandler.web.aplus.net/

A wealth of information on this site! Check out the filing cabinet to find loads of activities for all subjects. I love the literature circle blackline masters. K-12


http://www.learningpt.org/literacy/adolescent/strategies.php

This site has a listing of reading strategies to use in the classroom. While some of them are duplicates of what is in our text, the site provides additional examples and some links offer additional links to more examples from specific school systems.

This site is a great source of reading strategies and research articles. Each strategy is explained in detail in how to present the idea to students as well as how to use it in instruction.


http://www.liketoread.com

This website has a lot of ideas for reading assessment and grouping. It has a compilation of websites, lesson plans, and tips created by Karen Haag. This website could be helpful for all grade levels.


http://www.literacyleader.com/?q=node/450

This is a website that for the state of Kansas that gives some useful information to teachers for writing, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, literacy interventions as well as links to other websites the offer a whole gamut of information.


http://www.literacymatters.org

This is an overview of how to select, teach and assess adolescent literature.

Literacy Matters: What matters most in Today’s Classrooms. Sections for teachers, parents, and young people 18 and under. Has research articles, lesson plans, activities for students, and sites to find adolescent literature.

This is a great site which is divided in sections for teachers, parents, and those under 18. In the teacher section, one may choose to look at an overview of adolescent literacy, questioning, response strategies, selecting literature, and assessment. There are also sections on content literacy, technology, student activities, and lesson plans. This site has a great amount of information.


http://www.literacy.uconn.edu/index.htm

This is a website that a section for teachers that gives information and reference material. There is a literacy section that has a great list that takes you to many different websites that have everything from books and other reading material to tutoring assistance.

Many, many links of interest. K-12

Adolescent Literacy. Site has links to many articles on adolescent literature, booklists for adolescents, and instructional resources.

This site has a wealth of other sites on vocabulary instruction, comprehension instruction, comprehension strategies, and comprehension practice. This site is for teachers of K-12, special needs, ESL, ELL, and preschool.

A web site for teachers offering topics such as teachers, what’s new, literacy topics, research and search. This site breaks its information by grade level from preschool to adult Ed. It also includes special needs and ESL students.

This site addresses adolescent literacy by grade level. After choosing your grade level on the homepage, you are then guided to your grade level page where there are links for webquests, lesson plans, integrating technology ideas, literacy topics and research, and literature. When clicking on these links many of these sections provide additional links.

On this site, you click on the grade level that you wish to get literary resources. Resources include lesson plans and articles.

This site is useful to teachers. There are popular links listed for students and teacher links too. As always you need to view sites before use with students to be sure it is appropriate.

This website offers information on adolescent literacy and reading comprehension and provides multiple literacy topics to address all ages.

This website joins teachers to current research in the field of literacy. There are best practices for teachers, material for students, and ways to integrate technology.


http://www.loc.gov/index.html

The Library of Congress website has a wide range of resources that can be used in the classroom. It has sections for kids, families, and teachers, along with many others. The kids section has so many search possibilities that I find myself browsing for lengthy periods of time. This is a great resource.


http://www.magickeys.com/books/index.html

This website has free stories and books that you can download. Most of the books are for pre-teens.


http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/

This absolutely charming site allows young students to create comic strips. A character is selected then text is added in balloons. The completed comic can be emailed or printed. Students reading on a 1st or 2nd grade level may be motivated to create.


http://math-and-reading-help-for-kids.org/elementary_literacy_games.html

This site includes articles that would be helpful to teachers and parents. Teachers could include some information on weekly newsletters, share information during parent-teacher conferences, during open house, etc.


http://mce.k12tn.net

This website has a multitude of information for teachers. It has an extensive number of titles in a book unit. Each book has online questions, printable questions, and vocabulary. There are also language arts PowerPoint’s available for download.


http://www.middleweb.com/Reading.html

This site’s focus is reading for the middle school learner (if you have a low level high schooler the site would be helpful too). This site has a number of links to resources and articles that address the reading debate and the teaching of reading. Some topics include, how much reading homework should be assigned, new ideas for teaching reading, and reading online.


http://www.monsterexchange.org/index.asp

Monster Exchange is different than most other sites. This is an education site where students create their own monster, draw it, and write a description about their creation. Each class is paired with another online and they switch monsters with the other class. The site works for students of all ages but in order to participate, parental permission should be received since the drawings are uploaded to the website. It looks like a lot of fun though!


http://www.mrsmcgowan.com/projects/tales/

The following site uses literature circles. It includes detailed information of how it was used by an elementary teacher’s students in New Jersey in collaboration with another elementary teacher’s students in Wisconsin and a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University’s students. The text is Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing. It offers great ideas that you can incorporate in your own class.


http://mspowell.com/otherwebpages/centerideas.htm

This website is useful for incorporating literacy centers in the classroom. One of the links connects you to a 4th grade teacher’s classroom and includes information about literacy centers, organization, and includes information that you can print. It also includes links to other grade levels. I know that we usually see centers K-3, but I think it would be great to incorporate in 4th-5th, since our students are motivated by having choices while learning.


http://www.myaccess.com/myaccess/do/log

(Subscription will be located at our Junior High next year) writing to a prompt; students compose based on the prompt given and the computer scores the writing. You can also connect to SPMS- diagnostic assessments for reading grades 2-12. ISEEK- Search hundreds of thousands of categorized and reviewed educational resources. Lexipedia- Word definitions, examples of sentences, make word associations and web words.


http://www.mybrochuremaker.com/flash.html

Students can use this site to create original brochures using a step by step directions. Brochures are a different way to write and also can be used to assess comprehension through writing.


http://www.nadasisland.com/ghaith-writing.html#activities

This website gives lessons to help with different types of writing such as narratives and essays. It also gives lessons to help guide students through the writing process.


http://nancykeane.com/

Wonderful website with many links for book talks, podcasts of book talks, and hundreds of suggested reading lists. I especially like the read alike lists. K-12

This is a listing of close to 1,000 book lists arranged in a variety of ways. It is useful for teachers of all grade levels and ability levels. Books are arranged by genres, read alikes (if you like ______, you should read ______), recommended books for read alouds by grade level, readership targets (from the struggling reader to the AP student), school subjects, themes, and values to name just a few.


http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/archive.html

National Geographic’s Grimms’ Fairy Tales (some have audio tracks). K-12


http://www.ncte.org

The National Council of Teachers of English site that provides research links and lesson plans for teachers who are attempting to engage students in reading.

The National Council of Teachers of English is devoted to improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education.

This site is sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English. It offers lesson plans, journal articles, and opportunities for professional development.

National Council of Teachers of English is a professional organization improving literacy in all grade levels. This website provides information on policy research, Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of NCTE, professional development, and web seminars.


http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.1f41d49be2d3d33eacdcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=291e9b322a472010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD

This site also has information that would be helpful to educators. It is important to understand the theory and practice as well as being able to implement effective strategies to help improve adolescent literacy in our schools.


http://www.nifl.gov

The National Institute for Literacy is a site with on-line teacher workshops and models that allow teachers to develop the skills necessary to improve their student’s literacy skills.

The National Institute for Literacy offers a series of workshops to inform readers about the state of literacy, successful practices to improve literacy, and research needs.


http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/literature/golding/index.html

This interactive site is useful after the students read the novel “Lord of the Flies” and can be completed in a short amount of time. This can be a one computer/projector activity, a small group (paired) or an individual student activity. The students begin by matching thoughts and items to each of the main characters. Once complete, the scene changes to another puzzle and so on. This website has a “Survivor-like” look to it. High School age


http://www.notemesh.com/?a=home

Create your own classroom wiki-like discussion board. It is a place to share class notes. I have no used it yet but it looks interesting. K-College


http://www.nwp.org

This site provides research and plans for teaching reading. It has links to sites about motivation, assessment and professional development opportunities.


http://www.nytimes.com/learning/

The New York Times has created a learning website where students can find out about “This day in History” and read current news stories. While reading an article, a student can turn on the geography and vocabulary tools which link to Webster’s atlas and dictionary online. This way, if a student did not know a certain word or where a country was, with the click of a button, more information pops up. A “word of the day” and “test prep question of the day” section is provided as well. This site is geared towards the 3-12 student.


http://www.ohiorc.org/adlit

This site is sponsored by the Ohio Resource Center for Mathematics, Science and Reading. Some of the resources available are instructional, research/best practice, assessment, reading strategies, sample unit plans, and video clips.


http://www.opencourtresources.com/ocr/gradex/fluency.html

This website has links to print decodable passages and other passages. They also have links to print reader’s theaters. There is also links to articles to help improve fluency.


http://www.pampetty.com

Dr. Petty is an instructor at Western Kentucky University. This site provides a list of books that have proven successful in promoting adolescent literacy. She also provides supplemental links for each book where ideas and lesson plans can be found for most of the books.


http://www.pandora.com/

This isn’t related to reading or writing unless you want to play music while the students are free writing. This is a free Internet radio station and you determine the genre you want to hear. You set up as many radio stations as you would like. You can vote on the selections with a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Just play it in the background when you are near a computer. Periodically it will ask if you are still listening. Fun web site.


http://www.paperbackswap.com/tags/index.php?type_id=1&tag_id=531

This is a swap club for young adult books. It does require membership, but may be good for someone with limit resources to trade books.


http://www.paragraphpunch.com

This website provides step-by-step tutorials for children learning to write paragraphs. It goes through the writing process, incorporating everything from prewriting to publishing, while providing tips to make writing more interesting.


http://pbskids.org

For the younger readers and parents at home. Links to PBSteachers. This is a discussion site as well as a link to the classroom. Check it out.


This website is geared towards an elementary student. It has several reading games for students to explore. Such games include: Movie Maker, Facts and Opinions, Writing Letters, Story Scramble, Un-matching Game.


http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/jad22/

This is for fun. It is a list of first lines of books. Good Luck.


http://www.picadome.fcps.net/lab/teacherl/teacher_resources/techclass.htm

This site is helpful for the use of technology in the classroom. It lists several links for teachers to browse through to get ideas for lessons and how to successfully incorporate a variety of types of technology in to the classroom.


http://www.planetbookclub.com/kids/

Planet Book Club is a great resource for kids. The site is targeted towards elementary school kids. The links include sections on vocabulary, book recommendations, book reviews, and homework help for all content areas. The forum for book recommendations is open to any visitor, so kids post most of the recommendations. Also, the book reviews are very appealing to children, describing expectations and doubts about a book, before giving the hooks.


http://www.playkidsgames.com

This website offers vocabulary based games and offers teachers instruction on creating a class literacy page. Some of the games include: Word Scramble, and Vocabulary Pinball. This website could be adapted to a wide variety of grades, depending on the level of vocabulary chosen.


http://portaportal.com

This website is a great tool for teachers. It is a way to organize websites that you use for you class. Students can access the website as a guest. You can share website or portaportals with your co-workers.

Do you need a place to keep all these wonderful websites? All you need to register is a username, password and an email address. You create your own categories (folders) and add links from any computer as you find great web sites. Allow others to see you collection by giving them your guest access (guest name). Look at mine but I will warn you there are lots of links and some may be outdated and not work anymore. Guest name – dcreamer


http://www.pt.liverpool.k12.ny.us/reading/rcalculator/assessmentcalc.htm

This site consists of a Reading Assessment Calculator. You are able to input data to score your reading assessments (a.k.a. running records) quickly and accurately with this online calculator.


http://www.randomhouse.com/teens

Teens @Random features the newest adolescent literature and blogs where teens can add comments.

It is separated by gender and includes video games that supplement the new books and quizzes and surveys to which kids can respond. Finally, there are video summaries to entice readers to try to new books and contest and scholarships too.


http://rcps.info/education/components/docmgr/default.php?sectiondetailid=15988

Roanoke City Schools web site has smart board activities that are SOL specific for Virginia Studies. There is at least one activity for each SOL.

http://www.reading.org/

Since 1956, IRA has been a nonprofit, global network of individuals and institutions committed to worldwide literacy. More than 85,000 members strong, the Association supports literacy professionals through a wide range of resources, advocacy efforts, volunteerism, and professional development activities

Paid membership site, but there are several free areas available such as reviews, book lists, and podcasts.

This is the main site for the International Reading Association. There is a link that you can click on called “Booklists” which will allow you access to three different types of lists: Children’s Choices, Teacher’s Choices, and Young Adult Choices. On this site, you will also find lesson plans, links to articles, and resources by topic (Adolescent Literacy, Assessment, Beginning Readers, Children’s and Young Adult Literature, and Coaching & Leadership).


http://www.readinglady.com

This website could be used as a teacher resource. The “Reading Lady” provides ideas and strategies to teach comprehension. She also provides ideas on teaching poetry or author study. One link also gives access to reader’s theater scripts.


http://www.readingonline.org

This site is sponsored by the International Reading Association. It consists of hundreds of articles on reading education. You can either search or browse the author, title or subject indexes to find articles of various topics.


http://readingquest.org/

ReadingQuest is designed to provide you with the philosophical bases for sound comprehension strategy instruction, directions for a range of comprehension and content reading strategies, and printable handouts and masters for transparencies. You will be invited to think about how a social studies skills framework might help you choose the right strategies for your lessons.

This is a great site to find numerous reading strategies. Each strategy is explained in detail. Templates of the strategies are also provided.


http://www.readingrockets.org/

This website has great resources for teachers. There are articles on many topics. It also has a link for books for children.

Reading rockets is a site with strategies for struggling readers, teacher techniques, pod casts, blogs, videos and more Check it out.

This site offers a variety of types of texts to look at—podcasts, videos, articles. The site focuses on strategies to help struggling readers, techniques for teaching reading, and suggested authors and books for struggling readers.

Reading Rockets offers multiple informative articles and strategies for struggling readers as well as methods to improve reading comprehension.

This sites gives the steps to help aide in better comprehension skills of students. It also allows you to print graphic organizers. They also give links to help with other areas of literacy such as fluency.


http://www.readwritethink.org

This site has lots of resources for making flip books where students can retell stories or create their own. There is also a letter generator that briefly explains the parts of a letter and then has a page where the students can write themselves. There are lots of other sections in this “readwritethink” website.

This is a wonderful demonstration of how to take notes. It talks the students through each word in the paragraph and explains why or why not to copy it into the notes section. Elementary to middle school

Create your own comic strips and print them out. K-12

Provides Lessons, information on Standards, Web Resources, and Student Materials.

The site contains lessons standards web resources and student materials. There are Diamonte Poems Hero’s journals character blogs and a look at texting in the Catcher in Rye.

At this site, students can create their own comic strips for a variety of contexts. Students can choose backgrounds, characters, and props, as well as compose dialogue.

This site plugs into high qualities resources for students and it has many lesson plan ideas for English teachers. I use it often for my 7th grade English classes.


http://www.rif.org/kids/readingplanet.htm

This website (Reading is Fundamental) has a plethora of games, poems, songs, and read-to-stories that students could explore. It also has a section for feature books and authors and a writing postcards activity. This website is best suited for elementary and middle school grades.


http://www.rockingham.k12.va.us/tech-resources.htm

Rockingham schools have created a link for technology resources that is free to the public. There are hundreds of activities for review of all levels and all subjects.

http://roythezebra.com

This website features games to strength a students vocabulary. The games are in two sections: word level and sentence level. It can be used with students in elementary and middle school. Many of the games can be done individually or teacher directed for a whole class.


http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/learn.jsp

Scholastic is a great resource for teachers, students, and parents. On the student section of the site, it is broken down by grade level all the way from Pre-K to grade 12. Students can click on their grade level and pull up information pertaining to what they might be studying. At the bottom of the site, it’s broken down by subject category as well for easy access to a particular topic. Students can go to computer lab favorites which is an interactive section of the site, the word wizard dictionary, or even the write and publish section. Students can write or read reviews written by other students about popular books. Because this site is very interactive with other students across the country, students would want to get parental permission before publishing something on the site.

“Scholastic, the global children's publishing, education and media company, has a corporate mission supported through all of its divisions of helping children around the world to read and learn. Recognizing that literacy is the cornerstone of a child's intellectual, personal and cultural growth, for over 87 years, Scholastic has created quality products and services that educate, entertain and motivate children and are designed to help enlarge their understanding of the world around them.” (Scholastic Mission Statement)

An excellent site for summer enrichment. Great reading selections and reader response opportunities.

This is a wonderful resource for students and teachers. Students can blog on “Share What You’re Reading.” There are good activities for writing as well. I used their plans for lessons on Text Structures.


http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/professional-development/childlit/AuthorSite/authora.html

Collection of author and illustrator websites to explore. K-12


http://www.scott.k12.va.us/martha2/

This site is specific to Virginia Studies. There are teacher resources, web links, and daily review for Virginia Studies.

http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/SCORE/cy68.html

Looking for literature guides for your novel studies? Check this site and see if your book is here. K-12


http://www.skenoyer.org/writing.html

This site is just about writing. It provides links to graphic organizers, rubrics, grammar instruction, how to teach poetry, lesson ideas, and an entire section on the 6 traits writing mentioned in class.


http://www.sldirectory.com/libsf/booksf/kidsbooks.html#id3177650874

This is a clearing house of information. This site includes links to several websites dedicated to kids and young adult literature.


http://www.softschools.com/grades/5thgrade.jsp

I use this site for math games. They have games for all topics taught. The kids really like most of these games. This site also provides worksheets to go along with math topics. There are also activities for Language Arts, Social Studies. and Science. They also provide quizzes on many topics.


http://www.sparkisland.com/public/articles/howtoinformation/parent.html

Most of this site is a subscription site but there are a few articles for parents that are free. This is an article on nonfiction text strategies that is free.


http://www.starfall.com/

This website is wonderful for early elementary. When I taught first grade my students loved it! It has activities for different seasons and holidays. It also has games to play to help learn how to read.

This is an interactive site for young or struggling reader’s readers that would be great to share with parents for home use. ABC’s has videos with songs, worksheets to practice writing the letters and even some basic math. Learn to read has Zac the Rat and other basic tales to help decode. Its fun to read has about me, art gallery and magic. Im reading has plays nonfiction, comics and more.


http://www.storiestogrowby.com/

Stories from around the world for a variety of ages. Reader’s Theatre play scripts as well. K-8

“Stories to Grow By” with Whootie Owl, allows a teacher to select folk and fairy tales from around the world, on many topics and for in class reading. Also available, the teacher can get free play scripts to use with their class. No membership is required. A good site for elementary levels and struggling readers of any grade.


http://www.storylineonline.net/

Storyline online is a website that has members of the Screen Actor’s Guild reading picture books. The stories they have chosen are great! Although there isn’t a huge selection to choose from, it is a neat site that kids might enjoy.

Sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild, this website offers audio books with activities and lesson plans. An actor who is a member of SAG reads each picture book. Captions are also available. This website would be helpful in elementary through middle school grades.


http://www.studyisland.com/

My students love to use this site for computer. The academic content is both fun and engaging.


http://www.succeedtoread.com/index.html

This is a great website to use for students who have reading disabilities. It has links to improve short term memory, rhyming skills, and phonics. It also has links for famous authors and books for children to read.


http://teacher.scholastic.com

I love this site; it is great for poetry and other writing features. This site wonderful was for fluency, comprehension, writing, and vocabulary and can be reached through links from other sites. It’s a great site for elementary teachers.

Although advertising Read 180, the site does have links to an adolescent literacy resource center for various educational levels, as well as links to find information about funding.


http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jeather/writingfun/writingfun.html

Writing Fun by Jenny Eather, presents text organizers to assist students with organization of information. There are interactive organizers available for 14 writing styles: persuasion, explanation, narrative, and poetry are just a few. When viewing an organizer for a particular purpose several examples are given. Next to each example, is a menu providing tips. When a tips link is touched with the curser the text is highlighted for examination. Though this site would likely not be useful with reading assistance, I feel it is quite helpful for middle and high school students and writing.

This website gives organizers for all types of writings. It then gives examples of good writings. Some examples of organizers include response, letters, narrative and descriptions. You can even print blank organizers.


http://www.teachersdomain.org

This site contains content area and stand alone literacy resources for teachers. It provides multiple lesson plans and strategies.

This site consists of key literacy strategies, activities, and lesson plans used to enhance literacy skills of struggling readers in grades 5-8. It includes videos, interactive activities, note-taking, reading and writing for science and history topics.


http://www.teachersmousepad.com/Reading/Reading%20Resources.htm

This website has links to famous authors such as Beatrix Potter and Berenstain Bears, as well as links to other helpful reading websites.


http://www.teachervision.fen.com/

This website has resources by grade levels. There are writing rubrics, printables, and resources for other subject areas.


http://www.teachingbooks.net/pronounce.cgi?name=Scieszka%2C%20Jon

Don’t know how to pronounce an author’s name? Look it up here and hear it pronounced. K-12


http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index3.aspx?id=3264&menu_id3=793


http://www.teencentral.net/

On this website, teens can write teen stories, read other teens’ stories, and respond to the stories. Adolescents can also post videos and read about celebrities.


http://www.teenink.com

Teens can post articles for different genres including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and sports. The site allows teens to review writing and post responses. There are also college links.


http://www.teenreads.com

This website provides an ultimate reading list for teens which includes genres and summaries. There are also some videos that relate to recent popular teen book series.


http://www.thinkfinity.org/home.aspx

Areas for educators, students, parents, and afterschool. Free assessments, free online courses, interactive games for students, and podcasts.


http://thinktank.4teachers.org/index.php3?ts=1157373113

Think Tank is an organizer to help students create a list of topics to think about when developing a term paper or report. The student may create an account (easily), log in, save their work and retrieve it later. It helps to create a working outline for their research project. 4-12


http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/

We have the Time for Kids readers in our school which are wonderful resources. This site is great too. While it’s for the K-6 student, some older students might find it useful as well. Here, students can browse through the readers, broken down by grade. A list of summer reading books is included on the site as well, each reviewed by someone so the student find out some additional information about the book. A homework helper section provides additional information about topics studies throughout these grade levels as well. This is a great resource that teachers can use in the classroom or send students to on their own.


http://www.titlewave.com/

This is a book vendor that most of your librarians currently use. You can search by topic, reading level, interest level, etc. Reading level is determined by using vocabulary, grammar and sentence length, etc. to calculate and reported in year.month format. K-Adult


http://www.tosiproductions.com/_amazingadventure/index_fl.asp

This site has stories and movie adventures along with accompanying audio, on some stories, for struggling readers. Some of the stories have short video clips to go along.


http://TV411.org

A website that leads to a large variety of online school sites. The portion of this site that I found interesting included writing help, academic writing help, and editing service. Beware teachers this site also where you can buy essays and research papers. Reading program for kids was like a home school site information site. There is also a link to brain spark. There is also a reading diagnostic test under the link titled is it a reading disorder.

This website was created to help adults improve their literacy skills. It could easily be used in high school grades. It has short, realistic video clips, followed by practical questions about reading or writing. Such topics covered include: how to fill out a job application, how to read a newspaper, reading for information, etc.


http://www.ualr.edu/teenread/id99.htm

This website gives helpful information on how to use literature to help with writing. It shows how you can use journals and response logs.


http://www.uwosh.edu/library/emc/literature.html

This is a website sponsored by the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. The site contains links to books for young adults as well as lesson plans for teacher teaching certain adolescent books.


http://visualthesaurus.com

Likely one of the most useful sites for any English classroom, the site requires membership. Subscriptions are available for students, educators, and schools, on a monthly or annual basis. The concept is simple: search a word and up comes an interactive word map. Click and you hear pronunciation. Lessons and educational articles are provided for many topics. Visual Thesaurus is excellent for all grade levels and any content area.


http://vocabulary.co.il/

This website is great for individual practice with building vocabulary. It offers a wide variety of game son various skill levels, including test prep vocabulary. This website could be suitable for upper elementary through high school grades.


http://www.vocabvitamins.com/reference/pointers.php

Writing help and has a word of the day at the top of the screen. K-12


http://www.voycabulary.com/

This website allows you to type in a URL of any webpage. Once the URL is entered, any text on the page can be clicked and the definition of the word will be given.


http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/

This site has great photos of many of the most well known volcanoes. The site also has what is happening around the world with current activity with each active volcano. There is also a great link for students with activities for them to complete about volcanoes.

http://www.webenglishteacher.com/

This site has lots of links to a variety of items of interest to an English teacher. AP, IB, Childrens’ Literature, Young Adult Literature, Shakespeare, etc can all be found here. K-12

There is a tremendous amount of information embedded within the site. There is a link to an author’s page where you can find texts for students and lesson plans, activity sheets, etc. Teachers will find this site helpful in providing students with literacy activities.


http://wps.ablongman.com/long_licklider_vocabulary_1/0,1682,11667-main,00.html

This site would be useful for teachers to use with their students for vocabulary practice. It provides exercises with antonyms, synonyms, roots, context clues, dictionary exercises, easily confused words and vocabulary in real life.


http://www.writinga-z.com/

This website is good for giving students checklist when they are revising and editing.

This website gives lesson plans and worksheets for different books, and for writing practice.


http://www.writingfix.com/

This is a good site for writing interactive prompts. It features writing prompts, writing lessons, writing traits, the writing process, summary writing, and more. Mostly designed for upper level teachers although it can be used at the lower level.


http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1983/3/83.03.09.x.html#h

This website can be used by 7th and 8th grade reading teachers for more advanced students to understand the elements of a short story. There are reading and writing activities for each element.


http://www.youngzones.org/Elaine/

Dr. Elaine Young is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi. Dr. Young provides grade appropriate literature to use when teaching mathematical concepts. Look for the box that says Literature & Mathematics, then select the specific topic for you class needs. Literature suggestions are available for Preschool, middle, and high school.


http://www.yourdictionary.com/

This is an excellent source for definitions, thesaurus entries, spelling, pronunciation, and etymology. The best feature is the free audio pronunciations.