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Here’s another one of my “Best of…” lists. This time it’s focused on websites to support writing instruction/reinforcement for grades K-12.

You might also find these other writing-related “The Best…” lists useful:

The Best Posts On Writing Instruction
The Best Places Where Students Can Write Online
The Best Sites For Grammar Practice
Not “The Best,” But “A List” Of Mindmapping, Flow Chart Tools, & Graphic Organizers
The Best Resources For Researching & Writing Biographies
The Best Resources For Learning How To Write Response To Literature Essays
The Best Places Where Students Can Write For An “Authentic Audience”
The Best Places Where Students Can Create Online Learning/Teaching Objects For An “Authentic Audience”
The Best Places To Read & Write “Choose Your Own Adventure” Stories
The Best Sites To Learn About Advertising
The Best Websites For Developing Academic English Skills & Vocabulary
The Best Online Interactive Exercises For Writing That Are Not Related To Literary Analysis (includes Problem/Solution essay resources)
The Best Online Resources To Teach About Plagiarism
The Best Resources For Learning Research & Citation Skills
The Best Sites For Students To Create & Participate In Online Debates
The Best Online Resources For Helping Students Learn To Write Persuasive Essays
The Best Spelling Sites
The Best Sites For Gaining A Basic Understanding Of Adjectives
The “Best” Sites For Helping Students Write Autobiographical Incident Essays
The Best Sites To Learn “Feelings” Words
The Best Sites For ELL’s To Learn About Punctuation
The Best Resources To Help Students Write Research Essays

 

Here are what I think are The Best Websites For K-12 Writing Instruction/Reinforcement (I know that title is quite a mouthful!):

Brainpop. For a few hundred dollars a year, a class can watch excellent animated movies about writing and many other topics, along with additional online activities. Plus, the movies are now closed-captioned, which is great for English Language Learners.

Holt has another collection of student essays.

Here are sources of writing examples specifically aligned with the Common Core Standards:

Appendix B: Text Exemplars and Sample Performance Tasks

In Common: Effective Writing for All Students Collection of All Narrative Samples, K-12

Achieve The Core Common Core writing samples from classrooms around the country.

Ten Ideas That Get Kids Writing is from The National Writing Project.

121Writing Looks Like It Could Be Helpful, Especially With IB & Other Advanced Classes

“Writing with Purpose: Personal Narratives by Teenagers” is from What Kids Can Do. It offers some good writing models.

Writing bingo is a very creative lesson plan from Sandy Millin.

Skills Practice | Writing Effective Openings is an exceptional lesson plan at The New York Times Learning Network.

Post by Teaching English – British Council.

The British Council has a good series of interactive writing skills exercises.

The Online Writing Lab from Excelsior College has some great resources for English Language Learners.

The Moving Writers have created a great collection of mentor texts.

WISE EYES: Prompting for Meaningful Student Writing is from The National Writing Project.

Student Winners From Our 2015 Review Contest is from The New York Times Learning Network. It showcases many winners of a contest where students had to write reviews of “works of culture that were new to them.” It’s a rich source of mentor texts.

NY Times Learning Network Announces Student Editorial Contest (& Shares Past Winner Mentor Texts)

Thoughtful Learning has a great collection of model texts in multiple genres and grade levels.

Learn Alberta’s  Writing Samples page has tons of ELL…writing samples.

EL Education has created Models Of Excellence, a resource bank of student work exemplars.

The New York Times Learning Network announced Winning Reviews from Our 2016 Student Contest. They invited students to pick an event or another element of culture and write a review about it. They make great mentor texts.

A Call to Action: Winners From Our Fourth Annual Student Editorial Contest is from The New York Times Learning Network.

Popula is a collection of short essays where people write about one day in their lives. Some might not be appropriate for the classroom, but many might be good exemplars for students who could be given the same assignment.

Learn Alberta has many samples of ELL writing by grade level.

The Winners of Our Personal Narrative Essay Contest is from The New York Times Learning Network.

Timesaver: Repository of Writing Prompts for Every Essay Type is from Blog de Cristina.

The National Writing Project’s College, Career and Community Writers Program website is a pretty darn impressive resource for writing instruction.

As with all these lists, they’re entirely subjective. I’m certainly open to hearing other feedback.

You can see the other “Best of…” lists here.

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