Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Sign up with College Essay Builder to receive free tools that develop the skills to write powerful college essays. Tools include StoryBuilder and a series of story-writing courses. Begin using StoryBuilder by selecting the "Build" link. Then, StoryBuilder guides you through five steps: finding stories based on personal experiences, focusing on moments of growth and change, telling stories out loud to discover memories and emotions, mapping the story from beginning to end, and focusing on defining and incorporating specific details instead of generic details. Finally, download completed writing projects as a PDF onto your device.

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This handy guide provides step-by-step information on creating a research paper from start to finish. The manual begins with an overview of the three universal research purposes - exploratory, descriptive, and explanatory. Then, each step provides specific information on the nine essential items to complete the research. In addition, this article includes a handy image that provides a visual representation of the basic steps required for a research paper.

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Wordtune is a fabulous Chrome extension and Microsoft Word add-on that takes your writing and provides options for rephrasing and clarifying the information to make it more concise and engaging. The free plan offers up to twenty rewrites per day; each rewrite includes up to 280 characters. The Chrome extension works with Google Docs, Twitter, Outlook, Facebook, and other websites. After installing the extension, open any included site or document, highlight an area of text up to 280 characters, and select the Wordtune icon. Using AI technology, Wordtune generates a list of possible alternatives to your current writing. Select your preferred option to replace your work. See how it works on the Wordtune homepage before installing the extension.

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Take advantage of prize-winning journalism published by the New York Times to teach writing to middle and high school students. The staff at the Learning Network of the New York Times shares a curriculum focused on seven different genres of writing. Each unit includes daily writing prompts, guided practice, mentor texts, opportunities for student work to be published on the New York Times site, and culminates in a monthly writing contest.
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tag(s): creative writing (122), critical thinking (112), descriptive writing (38), essays (20), journalism (72), persuasive writing (55), Research (83), writing (315)

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 (122), descriptive writing (38), differentiation (84), letter writing (18), persuasive writing (55), process writing (38), writers workshop (31), writing (315)

Create interactive digital stories with Elementari. Features include drag and drop text, illustrations, and shapes. Choose from image filters and a variety of fonts to personalize the look of your story. Other tools include the ability to animate illustrations or text, and to create interactions by touch. Use interactions to play a sound, go to a new page, or animate a feature. After creating your account begin by selecting the option to write your story. Follow the prompts to add Elementari's free images, backgrounds, audio, and more. When finished, preview your story then publish. After publishing, share using social media links or the provided embed code. You can also create 1 class with 35 students. Students do not need email to use Elementari. Students with existing accounts can also connect to your classroom. Students can choose an avatar from the ones provided and cannot upload any pictures. Teachers must approve stories before they can be published. Be sure to check out the Curriculum Guide!

tag(s): creative writing (122), digital storytelling (141), writing (315)

Create beautiful multimedia digital books with Book Creator. Scroll down the landing page to the bottom menu, and click the "Help With Getting Started" title. Note: This points out how you need to change to the "teacher sign in" (the default is for students). This is a wonderful tool with many features. Reading the short Getting Started Overview first and watching the beginning videos would be best. Then, you can go to the Resources tab from the top menu, where each grade level has a video, and you'll find example books created by students. Under Resources, you can also search by subject to find suggested ideas and books designed for a specific subject. Next, click Resources from the top menu to find the "Teach your first lesson toolkit" with lesson plans, remixable student templates for different age ranges, and a teacher guide. You can also choose Remixable Books to get you and your class started. When finished, publish and share your book using the site's web-based reader for access on any device. Once you have mastered the basics, click on Features to see the magic of using the pen and discover all the features of the graphic organizers, comics, and more. By clicking the "more" you will can embed documents on your page(s). These documents can be narrated and interactive! The free plan offers one library with up to 40 books storage. Book Creator presents a variety of levels for technology use depending on teacher requirements for the project or even student ability; it allows for adding narration, videos, text, using your webcam, and adding links to help explain the artwork. When creating your book, click on the big + in the upper right corner to add text, audio, images, your camera, and the pen; you will also see The lowercase "i" (for inspector), which offers colors, comics, paper type, and more. There are other apps, but you must have a premium account. You can use Book Creator on iPads, Macs, Android devices, PCs, and on these browsers: Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Chrome. Teachers need to provide an email to create an account. However, students do not need emails to make their books. Once ready, follow the site's prompts to add video, text, images, audio, and more to your book.
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tag(s): collaboration (86), DAT device agnostic tool (143), digital storytelling (141), ebooks (38), literacy (107), preK (253), reading comprehension (141), writing (315)

Explore and practice the art of writing a robust and thoughtful review using the lessons found on this site that combine to make a four-week writing unit. Using content familiar to them including movies, books, and food students evaluate and reflect upon a variety of reviews before working individually. Each lesson includes group observation and working together as a class before releasing students to work on individual projects.

tag(s): descriptive writing (38), Teacher Utilities (146), writing (315)

The scientific research behind WriterReader is that one develops and improves reading skills by writing. With WriteReader, kids create their books, including text, pictures, and voice recordings. Adults/Teachers have space on the page to write comments and make corrections. The interface is so simple that even a young child can use it successfully after some adult guidance. Open the Features tab on the top menu to see an index to all features categorized by Literacy Development, Easy Book Creation, Publishing and Sharing, and Teacher & Student Management, all with several links to explore. Click the Resources Center tab on the top menu to select Lesson Plans, Templates, Writing Prompts, Videos, and more. The basic plan offers 60 books and all the essential features. Register by email or your Google account. After logging in, use the menu bars in the upper right corner and find Guides, which has a Parent Letter, a Quick Start Guide, a Template, and a few other get-started items. For creating student accounts, you can enter students manually, or students can join the class with a class code. WriteReader has upgraded its page templates to support older students. US English, UK English, Dansk (Danish), and Svenska (Swedish) are available. There is also an introductory video on the landing page that will help everyone get started. This video resides on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, the video may not be viewable. WriteReader has added new premium features such as Read Aloud, Voice Search, Book Templates, and several others. For these, you must pay.

tag(s): digital storytelling (141), literacy (107), multilingual (64), reading strategies (96), science of reading (31), writing (315)