called Writing Den, has sections on grammar rules and writing tips for sentences, paragraphs, and essays; a vocabulary word-of-the day email signup; and a guide to help you use and navigate the site. There are other dens you can visit, such as MathDen, and the site also has software tutorials (eg. Internet Explorer, PowerPoint, Office, others).
WriteSource is a K – 12 site offering prompts for writing personal compositions or for journal writing. For each grade, there are also different types of student writing samples, such as personal narratives, expository and descriptive paragraphs, reports and creative writing. At the high school level, you can view samples of different types of essays, responses to literature, and research writing.
Essay Writing Instructions:Download for writing expository, descriptive, argumentative, comparison/contrast, and persuasive essays.
SAS Curriculum Pathways' Writing Navigator Suite of Tools: Leads students through a step-by-step writing process. There's the Writing Planner which helps students to state a purpose, define the audience, and generate and organize ideas. Writing Drafterprovides a framework for developing ideas into a first draft. You build an essay section by section, at the end of which you are prompted to analyze sentences, word usage and transitions. The essay can then be opened in the Writing Reviser, which points out potential problem areas, like cliches or misplaced modifiers. It also presents checklists of questions regarding the structure of your essay, sentence variety and clarity, verb tenses, and other things.
Thesis Generator: Type in your topic, your opinion on the topic, some reasons supporting your opinion, an argument against your opinion, and the generator comes up with several possible thesis statements.
Graphic Organizers:These are from Holt, including main idea, drawing conclusions, sequencing, comparison/constrast, and others.
Non-fiction and informational fiction passages: For K- 8, these cover such topics as a partial eclipse, plate tectonics, and the Great Barrier Reef. Includes comprehension question sets.
Reading Worksheets: These downloadable worksheets cover a number of topics, including figurative language, grammar and sentence structure, characterization, theme, author's purpose, context clues, and others. For grades K - 12.
Non-fiction Reading Skills: Download one-page, non-fiction reading passages designed to reinforce a specific skill, such as summarizing, and supporting a main idea. For grades 2 - 10.
Free Study Guides: Comprehension questions, vocabulary activities, and other exercises for a number of novels, including The Call of the Wild, The Giver, Holes, Hatchet, and others.
