Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

PapersOwl monthly blog shares guidelines and tips for writers. The site also includes a series of guides divided into topics focusing on writing lab reports, essays, literature reviews, and many more. Each blog post and guide is written by professors who share helpful tips and how-to directions for each topic.
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tag(s): creative writing (121), descriptive writing (39), essays (20), expository writing (31), letter writing (18), persuasive writing (55), process writing (38)

Write and Improve provides practice and instant feedback on writing responses to prompts. Choose from one of the many provided topics to begin. Narrow down options based on writing levels from beginner to advanced. Writing choices range from writing an email to longer stories. After writing your response, select the link to receive feedback. Feedback includes a graph of your writing level and tracks revisions. Create a free account to save your work and access all material on the site. This site was created in England so some spellings and pronunciations may be different from the American usages. Note: There is a paid portion of this site for the International English Laguage Test System (IELTS), however, you can take advantage of looking at 10 free tasks, and even writing in the box provided and using the timer, but you will not receive a score. These would be good assignments for your writing class before state testing time.

tag(s): creative writing (121), descriptive writing (39), differentiation (84), letter writing (18), persuasive writing (55), process writing (38), writers workshop (31), writing (315)

Telegra.ph is a simple to use web publishing tool for even the most novice creators. Click and type to fill in the title, your name, and add content. After starting your writing, you can choose the camera icon to upload images from your computer or select the brackets to paste a YouTube, Vimeo, or Twitter link. When finished, click on the publish button. That is it! Your work is now online. Just copy the URL to share. Add or delete content at any time using the link to edit.

tag(s): blogs (66), communication (136), writing (315)

No sign up or registration is needed to create personalized postcards with this interactive tool. Follow directions on your screen to add a mailing address, message, description, and to choose from a collection of stamps. When finished editing, print the postcard using the provided link.

tag(s): digital storytelling (141), writing (315)

Visual Writing Prompts provides a considerable choice of creative writing prompts using Flickr images. Each prompt has an unusual image along with basic information such as the Creative Commons Credit and appropriate age groups. In addition, the Prompt Explanation gives added discussion questions. Scroll through the prompts using arrows or by genre, grade, or subject. Each image has an icon to download your favorite prompts. There is really no need to download the prompts unless you want to save them for quick access in the future.

tag(s): creative writing (121), descriptive writing (39), expository writing (31), letter writing (18), persuasive writing (55), poetry (189), writing (315)

Rootbook is an interactive story reading and writing program. Without signing up, you can read books in English, German, Italian, and many other languages. Once registered (requires an email, player name & password), you can create your own stories to save. Registering allows you to submit reviews of the stories available on the site. Rootbook says they will soon have filters to monitor inappropriate language. Until then, read stories and branches prior to sharing with young people. Leave a comment if you find anything offensive, and they will remove it.
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tag(s): creative writing (121), digital storytelling (141), interactive stories (21), narrative (14), writing (315)

Academic Help offers a collection of writing guides for almost any type of writing need. Scroll down the page to find Featured Tools in topics such as Plagiarism Checker, AI Dectector, AI Essay Writer, Paraphraser, Summarizer, and Citation Generator. Next to Featured Tools click on Writing to find an AI Essay Writer, a Lierature Review Generator, Research Paper Generator, and others. Within each category find specific step by step directions for writing in that style. Content on this site includes a copy and paste Plagiarism Checker (5 times for free) and an online Glossary with links to examples. The "ask an expert to check your work" section involves a fee.
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tag(s): artificial intelligence (101), creative writing (121), descriptive writing (39), expository writing (31), letter writing (18), paragraph writing (15), persuasive writing (55)

Letters of Note is a blog that shares letters from a book of the same name, but you never have to buy the book! The collection includes over 900 interesting letters from many different sources such as Leonardo da Vinci's 's job application, a letter from Steve Albini to the band Nirvana, and Virginia Woolf's suicide letter. Start from the archives to find over 900 more examples sorted in different ways such as typed/handwritten, by date, name, or correspondence type. Or click in the sidebar to access most popular or even view a random letter. Most letters include an image along with a short description of the context of the correspondence included. Letters include the original language so be sure to read for yourself before sharing with students.
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tag(s): acting (18), authors (103), europe (75), letter writing (18), politics (112), primary sources (117)

Future Me is an email service that allows you to write an email and have it delivered in the future (up to 50 years later). Insert your email address, subject, and write your email. Choose a future date for delivery, and it's ready to go! Options include adding an image and making the email public or private. Note - the public gallery is unmoderated so may contain content not suitable for school.
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tag(s): back to school (63), creativity (91), digital storytelling (141), letter writing (18), Teacher Utilities (146)

Create interactive, choose your own adventure (branching) style stories with inklewriter. This site is ideal for anyone to create a story and then share with others via a unique URL. These stories allow for others to create their own path or choose an existing one. Begin by choosing to read stories or create your own. Type parts of the story including the title, author, beginning, introduction, and add sections as needed. After each paragraph is the option to create different outcomes of the story, offering choices the reader makes. The site contains excellent tutorials for getting started with stories. When finished, share the URL for your story using Twitter or Facebook or copy the URL to share and bookmark as you wish. Of course, your "story" need not be fiction! You could also write an opinion piece with branches for people to ask (click) on questions about facets of your argument! NOTE: When you click to begin writing, you should click SIGN IN and choose to make a new account. Do this before you start writing in order to be able to save. The tool will then save your work as you go along. Although you do not HAVE to sign in before you start, it is risky to sign up later! . Inklewriter has also made it easier for teachers to sign up students WITHOUT student email addresses. Read the directions about how to do this on the landing page by scrolling down and finding "Sign-up and email addresses."
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tag(s): creative writing (121), digital storytelling (141), narrative (14), persuasive writing (55)

Write your own original books, add images and artwork as illustrations, and read your published books in interactive, online form. There is no fee for the online publication and sharing. This is the ultimate in "digital storytelling." Take advantage of the free apps that make Bookemon even easier to use with any device! Use Bookemon Reader to READ books you created in Bookemon or Bookemon edCenter (available for both iOS and Android). BookPress for iOS devices only allows you to CREATE books from scratch, including using photos from your iPad/iPhone. InstaPress (for iOS only) offers options to make books from documents, pdfs, etc. to be shared on mobile devices as eBooks. Here is an example of a book created by the TeachersFirst Edge editors. Once you set up free membership on this site, students (or teachers) can select to create from a blank start or to use the templates provided. You can also create a book starter of your own as an example so students can follow the prompts you have created. The book creator allows you to upload your own images and to create books from a Word document or PowerPoint file you have already made. EdCenter users can collaborate on books.

After you save and publish the work, share the URL so people can read the entire book online, either among an audience of "just my friends" or publicly. They also offer the embed code to place your books on a class or school web page, wiki, or blog. The easiest option is to copy the address of the new window displaying the interactive book. There is an option to have the book printed for a fee, but this is not required. You can also read books created by others (if they make them public). Use the fully-public option to create learning materials for classes to access year to year for at-home review or reading practice.

This site requires a simple registration. Teachers can set up an edCenter for their school or class in accordance with school policies. See more detailed suggestions "In the Classroom" below and in our sample book! Newer mobile device options include players to view your books on iPads and more.
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tag(s): creative writing (121), digital storytelling (141), writing (315)

Despite text messaging, the formal letter still has its place in our world. Students write either a business or friendly letter through the prompts of this interactive tool. While generating their letter, they also learn the five parts of the letter and punctuation clues. Along the process, prompts ask for the needed information. When finished, print a well-formed letter. The online tool supplies the format; the student still must supply the words.

tag(s): business (47), letter writing (18), writing (315)