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Ten Creative Writing Activities - Traci Gradner
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
These are great activities to have at the tip of your fingers for days when inspiration just runs dry or you are looking for a new approach to creative writing. You might have each student bring in one thing for your "found treasures" bag and then pull them out at random for a class story. The "jumble story" idea is also great because you can substitute current events or topical characters or settings.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Calibrated Peer Review - University of California
Grades
9 to 12Although the collection of lesson plans is heavily science oriented, there are plans from other subject areas, for high school and college. The site appears to function just fine, though the copyright date on most areas is 2001.
In the Classroom
Use this site to teach students how to do peer editing. Besides allowing them to see their classmates' writings, it has a series of specific questions, called calibrations, which give them ways to make effective comments. After students make comments on others' essays by responding within a "calibration framework," they can read, respond to, and correct their own writings.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Dragon Writing Prompts - Joyce Fetteroll
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Assign a small group of students to each kind of prompt category and create a writing contest for each week or month. You can create prizes, publish bulletin boards, or even create your own class online writing magazine wiki with the results.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Literature Board Games - Gary Brooks
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Using this idea as a "final" evaluation of text is a good way for students to remember. A more technologically advanced idea is for students to create a PowerPoint game or other multimedia presentation. Have the students share their projects on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Board games are also a more innovative way to have students do individual book reports, particularly if several students in the class are reading the same book.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Meg Cabot - Meggin Cabot
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Use this site to encourage daily writing. Help students improve their sentence structure and use grammar painlessly through frequent personal writing. ESL and ELL students will enjoy journal-writing as a safe place to practice without corrections. Some journal-writing can also take place on classroom blogs, though you may want to keep uncorrected student blogs behind passwords until students are comfortable with the more public setting.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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NaNoWriMo's Young Writers' Program - NaNoWriMo.org
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Engage your students with the free classroom kits, workbooks, and Common Core-aligned K-12 lesson plans. Teachers can use this challenge and the resources to get their kids writing. It also offers the chance to be published online. Use your interactive whiteboard or projector to get your students started filling in their profiles. Show students that they are to click "yes" whether or not there is a current challenge (they can still get started writing). Then have them click the link for detailed instructions for getting started.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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6+1 Trait Writing Lesson Plans - Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
Grades
1 to 12In the Classroom
Use this site as a starting point to understanding the 6+1 Writing Traits Model or as a refresher on your previous understanding. For more in-depth knowledge, be sure to visit the FAQ section on this site to find answers to many common questions related to implementing and understanding this writing model. As you introduce this writing model to students, share curated examples using the column features of Wakelet, reviewed here, or Padlet, reviewed here. Create a column for each of the seven traits and share highlighted examples of the use of the featured trait. As students create text to share, use the same method to share their work in each category. Ask students to share their work in a writing portfolio created with Seesaw, reviewed here. Include a self-reflection work of writing for students to reflect and share their growth in writing.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Kidlink - Kidlink
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Students need not have their own email to use this site. Kidlink explains that they are permitted to use the teacher's email address (which allows you to monitor their activities, as well). You might want to use your "extra" email account. Set up accounts for your students to communicate in your world language class or as part of your study of other continents. With younger students, you may want to communicate as a whole-class activity, composing on a projector or interactive whiteboard.If your school policies limit your ability to use such a site, see the FAQ information and ready-to-go presentation explaining Kidlink. Share it with your principal and parents. ALWAYS get written parent permission when sharing student work/ideas online.
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English literature: Lord of the Flies - BBC
Grades
9 to 12In the Classroom
This is a great supplementary site for pre-reading or for reviewing. An especially nice extra is the inclusion of a sample essay question and answer. It sets up the question to be answered in a five-paragraph theme and offers possible topic sentences as an outline for writing that theme. Using the sample on a projector or interactive whiteboard is a good way to help students learn how to structure their own essay answers. Have students share and critique essays on the projector or interactive whiteboard.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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English Literature: Jane Eyre - BBC
Grades
10 to 12In the Classroom
A great review before a test, this site is also good for pre-reading activities to build understanding of 18th century times and novels, particularly the views of women. The sample question takes students through a step-by-step writing of an outline for an essay. On a projector or interactive whiteboard, students might write their own collaborative answers to the sample outline and then compare it with the finished model given.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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English literature: Of Mice and Men - BBC
Grades
8 to 10In the Classroom
The "sample question" is a great lesson to go over with on an interactive whiteboard or projector in class or have students work through individually or include in student blogs.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Wolf Quest - Minnesota Zoo
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Introduce this free resource on interactive whiteboard or projector. The lesson plans and interactive activity are both perfect tools to drum up enthusiasm in biology class. The Game Info provides excellent descriptors and instructions for using this program. Be sure to check back for updated episodes. Include this website on your teacher web site (and the activities) as one of a set of activities on animals and their habitats to be done in class or outside. Then challenge your students to work together in documenting local animals and habitats in a class wiki or group science fair project.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Thoughtful Learning - Write Source: Writing Topics - Houghton Mifflin Co.
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Have the students choose their own prompt from the list and then share their writing within a small group, with the class, or on their own blogs. Replace paper and pencil and have your younger students create a blog using Seesaw, reviewed here., while older students can use Telegra.ph, reviewed here. With Telegra.ph you just click on an icon to upload images from your computer, add a YouTube or Vimeo, or Twitter links. This blog creator requires no registration. Use the models and anonymous sharing on an interactive whiteboard to create a "safe" way for students to share writing as process and hear how others do it. Take this a step further and enhance student learning by having them use a collaborative writing tool like Penflip, reviewed here, or Google Docs. There is also the option of altering student learning and PUBLISHING student models with Book Creator, reviewed here, or Ourboox, reviewed here, as a motivator. Be sure to get parent permission!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Timeless Ideas for Teaching - Concord Monitor Publishing
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Whether you use hard-copy papers or electronic editions, many of these ideas will work even better using technology: word processing, wikis, blogs (for editorials), graphic organizer tools, digital cameras, etc. Use today's tools to study this powerful medium as it goes through transition into an electronic world. Consider asking students to compare electronic vs. hard-copy newspapers and their pros/cons, as well.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Common Craft - Common Craft Productions
Grades
K to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Start by looking at "Most Viewed" and "Most Popular Right Now," but don't be afraid to search for other topics that have you wondering. You will definitely want to make this site a Favorite and tag is as "professional" information to keep you informed. Share it on your teacher web page to help out your parents, too!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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BBC-GCSE Bitesize English - The BBC
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
This is a gold mine to delve into again and again for both students and teachers. It offers simple techniques for remembering what's important such as GAP (genre, audience, purpose) and allows individuality for student needs. One idea might be to assign a different genre of essay (inform, describe, explain, advise, etc.) to different students in the same class. Using the tools on the site to improve their writing, students could then share their finished products with the rest of the class, explaining their methods and revision techniques. ESL students and poor reasders will benefit from the audio recordings. Be sure to make this site available from your teacher web pages as a reference, as well.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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A+ Research & Writing Step-by-Step - Kathryn L. Schwartz
Grades
9 to 12In the Classroom
This site helps you help your students and them students to work at their own pace through the pieces that are difficult for them. Use the entire site as a guide for you research process or select different pieces of this site as models when you teach research papers so students can practice right then and there "how to do it." Be sure to include the link on your teacher web page so parents can support students as they approach deadline-panic (and you know some will procrastinate, no matter what you do).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Quizlet: The End of Flashcards - Brainflare: Andrew Sutherland
Grades
3 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Membership asks for an email. Email allows you to notify others that you want to share a word list or activity with them. If students cannot have their own email accounts, consider using a "class set" of Gmail subaccounts, explained here, this tells how to configure Gmail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. This would provide anonymous interaction within your class. KEEP A LIST of students usernames (non-identifying) and passwords, incase they forget them! If you already use Google Classroom with your students, it only takes a few minutes to get them set up with a Quizlet Class.Quizlet has a very thorough "Help Center" to get the idea of how the site works. Save your "sets" and decide whether you want them to be entirely public, just for you personally, or shared with a "group." The new version of "study sets" allows you to scan your notes with your phone or tablet and create study sets designed for your specific needs. You can now highlight main ideas, underline key concepts and bold important study terms to create custom content. Create your own groups for each class or subject. Be sure to note the fact that you can upload vocabulary lists by copy/pasting from various formats--- a time real saver! Use this tool easily in your BYOD classroom since all students will be able to access it for free, no matter what device they have.
Content and English teachers may set up their personal network of users. Pretest your gifted students and allow them to "test out" of material they already know. Learning support teachers will want their students to create their own Quizlet sets and help learn them in the process! Teachers may create your own sets of words, or let students do the work for themselves and each other. Use the interactive whiteboard for quick flashcard or electronic testing using your sets. World language and ESL/ELL teachers will find many word sets already built and ready to use at this site. If you team teach with others at your grade level, take turns making the online Quizlets to accompany your science or social studies chapters. Be SURE to share this tool on your teacher web page for students to use at home.
Be sure to see the classroom quiz game for groups, Quizlet Live (from the creator of Quizlet), reviewed here.
Edge Features:
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Includes social features, such as "friends," comments, ratings by others
Requires registration/log-in (WITH email)
Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
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Icebreakers, Games, and Fun Group Activities - icebreakers.ws
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
New or veteran teachers who want students to get to know each other as they enter a new school (starting middle school, for example), want to observe them so YOU get to know them, or need to build better team skills with a challenging class or club, will find ideas to try. Mark this one as a Favorite so you can find it again, since "first day" activities tend to get lost in the flurry ---and in the fading memory-- during the year.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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ESL Lessons and Help - Karin M. Cintron
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Assign individual or mini-lesson practice on laptops or a computer cluster in your classroom after grading writing assignments or while studying grammar. Learning support and ESL teachers will also like the extra practice options to help students with grammar skills and idioms. Since there is no "scoring" function, you may want students to raise hands and SHOW you how they did as they complete activities.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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