Guest Post: Top Websites To Use When Teaching Writing.

It’s that time of the year again when I go through my bookmarks and Diigo lists and try to choose websites I like when teaching writing: this prepares me well for the upcoming school year. Most of the time, I end up adding even more sites to the existing lists! The sites listed below are brilliant and children love it when I use them.

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My Top 5!

1. Readwritethink.org: An absolute must whatever type of writing you work on! My personal favorites are the poetry and mystery cube creators.
2. Writingprompts.tumblr.com: Perfect for advanced-level students with lots of inspiring prompts to choose from.
3. Wordtamer.co.uk: A site which I never get tired of using when teaching story writing. There are lots of different word activities to choose from and an amazing online environment to experience.
4. Sixwordmemoirs.com: I’ve mainly used this site for six word poems before introducing my students to writing in 3 words.
5. BBC.co.uk/bitesize: I’m a huge Tim Burton fan so it makes sense that I love this ‘Trapped! game’ on leaflet writing.

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Creative Writing

1. Bogglesworldesl.com: One of my favorite sites to use for interesting/unpredictable story starters. This page also features my all-time favorite Halloween questionnaires – great to use with students of all levels.
2. Scholastic.com/teachers/story-starters: Scholastic’s story starter generator is another excellent website. Apart from giving you really creative story starters, I also love the fact that you can spin each wheel separately and change parts of the prompt you end up having.
3. Creativity-portal.com: A site I’ve used again and again whenever I have racked my brains to find something inspiring or unusual. In addition, make sure you also check out this awesome list of more creative writing suggestions/tools.
4. Creativewritingprompts.com:  Creative writing prompts.
5. Busyteacher.org: More creative writing prompts.
6. Writeshop.com: Even more creative writing prompts!
7. Bigthink.com/videos Big Think is a great site to use for listening practice, class debates or writing projects.

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Different types of Writing

1. Learnalberta.ca I’ve mainly used the newspaper feature of this site and it is so effective. I really like how students are first introduced to the news broadcast before learning about the different parts of a newspaper and creating their own articles.
2. Factmonster.com: Fact Monster is more of a reference site for students providing them with help and information they need to do their homework. The writing skills page is particularly useful because it’s well organized and reminds my students of the basics of essay writing whenever they want to refresh their memory.

Young Learners

1. Pinterest.com: Pinterest is a treasure trove of materials and this board is no different. There are a variety of activities, from letter sorting and phonics, to basic sentence writing.
2. Pbskids.org: A great game to work on order of events in a story.
3. Learner.org/interactives: A great animation on story elements.

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Let me know which ones you use.  Leave a comment below!

By Maria Theologidou