Writing and Publishing

This month, explore Web sites on student writing. Whether you're looking for graphic organizers or assessment strategies, poetry lessons or tips on writing research papers, these sites illuminate the writing process from planning through publishing.

Writing - High School | Publishing - High School | Writing - Elementary and Middle School | Publishing - Elementary and Middle School

Writing - High School

WriteDesign Online offers resources for integrating creative writing, graphic design, and technology. Featured in this site developed by teachers at San Diego Jewish Academy are graphic organizers, rules for design and publishing, portfolio templates, rubrics, and more.

The Ask Oxford site gives information on common and esoteric uses of the language. Oxford English Dictionary publishers also offer sections such as Better Writing, World of Words, and Ask the Experts.

Purdue University's Online Writing Lab has resources for teachers-articles such as Writing across the Curriculum, PowerPoint presentations such as The Writing Process, and links for teaching English as a second language. Many handouts for students are also available.

A professor of English at Boise State University created the interactive writer's handbook Paradigm Online Writing Assistant. It features sections on choosing a topic, organizing, revising, editing, and so on.

Poetry Express provides advice and encouragement for students interested in writing poetry.

Only a Matter of Opinion? explores the process of writing opinion pieces such as editorials, columns, and commentary. The teacher-created ThinkQuest site includes writing tips, a teacher guide, and links to other resources.

National Scholastic Press Association can help students become better reporters, writers, editors, and newspaper staffers. Featured are information about school newspaper conventions and contests, as well as articles on trends in high school media.

A professor at Capital Community College in Connecticut created the Guide to Grammar and Writing with articles on many aspects of writing, from using words and writing sentences to preparing research papers.

The Writer's Handbook from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center provides handouts on grammar, writing style, and other topics. Designed for college students, these materials also may be useful to high school students.

The National Writing Project (NWP) is a nationwide professional development program for teachers. The Web site provides information about the program and local writing centers.

Publishing - High School

TeenLit.com publishes poetry, essays, short stories, and book reviews from writers 13 years of age and older. Run by a high school English teacher, the site also provides writing tips for students and information for middle and high school language arts teachers.

A monthly print magazine written by teens for teens Teen Ink lets teenagers read articles and submit essays, articles, short stories, book reviews, and more for publication.

Writing - Elementary and Middle School

The Writing Process, offered by the Puget Sound (WA) Educational Service District, uses the analogy of creating a pizza to guide teachers and students through this process online. Video clips show actual classrooms as well as interviews with teachers and curriculum specialists .

RhymeZone is a rhyming dictionary and thesaurus from Lycos. Users may enter a word and choose to search for rhyming words, synonyms, antonyms, and more.

By inviting students to draw and describe a monster for a partner class, Monster Exchange fosters descriptive writing skills.

Word Central from Merriam-Webster includes an online dictionary, rhyming dictionary, word of the day and activities to encourage students to play with language. A "science lab" runs "experiments" on words or phrases, including translating to Morse code, and Build-Your-Own Dictionary lets kids add their own invented words.

The Somers Elementary School Writing Web Site includes resources for teachers and students such as graphic organizers, style sheets, and a glossary of writing terms. Users also can view a set of annotated student writing samples.

The Biography Maker is a step-by-step tutorial to help students write more interesting biographies.

The Northwest Regional Education Laboratory (NWREL) created 6 + 1 Trait Writing, an assessment tool that pinpoints areas of strength and weakness in student writing.

Encouraging students to brainstorm, organize, and communicate their ideas, The Graphic Organizer includes many examples of graphic organizers and loads of links to resources.

Help Your Child Learn to Write Well from the U.S. Department of Education gives parents tips for helping their children with writing. The brochure may be printed and distributed.

Writing Packet from Margaret Brent Middle School in Maryland offers resources such as writing prompts, graphic organizers, and information about steps in the writing process.

Publishing - Elementary and Middle School

MidLink Magazine publishes articles and creative writing submitted by students ages 8-18 from around the world. Each electronic edition features topics chosen by teacher-editors.

A literary magazine for 8-13 year olds, Stone Soup publishes children's stories, poems, book reviews, and artwork. The Web site has writing samples from the magazine, audio files of young authors reading their work, and a printable submission form. Stories may not be submitted via e-mail.

Designed to foster literacy, artistic expression, and cross-culteral understanding, Kidspace invites children under 16 to submit original stories, folk tales, or class writing for publication.

Story Train is an illustrated, collaborative story project for children from all over the world. Each story "train" includes three cars, and children can write a paragraph or submit an illustration to complete it.

Stories by children and pages where where teachers may post student work are features of KidPub. Authors Club members work together to create stories, and only members may post; membership costs $6.95/year for individuals or $25/year for a classroom.

The Text-only menu provides accessible and printer-friendly access to the Surf Report Archives.

Please contact us if you have questions or suggestions for the Surf Report!