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Loudlit.org is a wonderful FREE audiobook resource for many classic texts. Students can stream audio, use the listen and read feature, or download mp3s for their personal device. This resource is a life-saver when we navigate all forty-three daunting chapters of Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

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Please support LoudLit.org's goal of providing high quality audio books free of charge by donating to LoudLit.org.

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Towson University Online Writing Support 

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Towson University Online Writing Support 

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I love using the Towson Online Writing Support site for both guided direct instruction of grammar/usage/style or as a supplemental source for both remediation and differentiation. Many students have reported it useful for brush-up of certain grammar skills prior to taking the ACT or SAT. It's a great one-stop shop!

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Here are some additional great resources. Sadly, Channel One is no longer broadcasting (it is one of the links at the bottom). However, all the others are great resources!

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Here are some additional great resources. Sadly, Channel One is no longer broadcasting (it is one of the links at the bottom). However, all the others are great resources!

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10 Free Resources to Keep Students Reading | Texthelp

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Top 10 list of reading resources that we think will help keep your kids reading all year long

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Maybe a bit of a pre-writing offering, but I will throw these out.  As an exercise in thought organization, I have students access one of three tools to free-flow enter their topic, subtopic, arguments, etc. into one of the mind mapping tools (Bubbl.us or Mind Meister) or writing organizer (Scrivener).  Disclaimer: Scrivener is a paid application we have in one lab.  Great tool, but can be spendy.  Bubbl.us and Mind Meister both have great UIs and are easy to use with students in generating ideas surrounding a topic.  Is your topic robust enough? Is your topic too broad?

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MindMeister: Online Mind Mapping and Brainstorming

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Create, share and collaboratively work on mind maps with MindMeister, the leading online mind mapping software. Includes apps for iPhone, iPad and Android.

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Bookshare is a wonderful accommodation software tool that allows for people with reading disabilities to personalize their reading experience. It is designed for readers of all ages and levels -K to Post Secondary. This site can be used to support both reading for academic purposes and for leisure. It’s free for school organizations to use once they have signed up.

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Bookshare | An Accessible Online Library for people with print disabilities

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Bookshare makes reading easier. People with dyslexia, blindness, cerebral palsy, and other reading barriers can customize their experience to suit their learning style and find virtually any book they need for school, work, or the joy of reading.

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Hemingway Editor is a great tool for refining and clarify our writings (or ramblings in my case).  The simple interface is easily accessible for many levels.  Our middle school writers utilize this site (desktop app available also) to filter their drafts into an understandable, readable work.  The visual prompts are awesome.  Students also like the readability index notation.

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Hemingway Editor makes your writing bold and clear.

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ABC Mouse is one of my favorite programs for Kindergarten and 1st grade especially. It is a website that allows the teacher to set up accounts for the students under the teachers link. It is free for teachers to use. It allows students to click on their name and then they can follow what they call a learning path. You can set the student to different levels based upon their needs. It incorporates books, poems, songs, games, coloring, and all sorts of activities for the students. You can assign certain lessons for the students as well if you want them to work on a specific skill. It incorporates some writing throughout the learning path along with reading and math. The students absolutely love it and more often than not choose to go here if we have any free time at the end of class.

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ABCmouse.com helps kids learn to read through phonics, and teaches lessons in math, social studies, art, music, and much more! For kids ages 2 to 8.

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Starfall is a great program for elementary students. They have a level for students who need to listen to books, and they also have a place on the website for students to read to themselves. What I like about one of the categories called "It's Fun to Read" is that it allows students to choose things as they read the book. They play little mini games as they are reading. This engages them and they really enjoy it. I also like that it has some games for phonics. You cannot see data, which makes things a bit more difficult. It also isn't a progressive kind of website where students get a login so that it tracks their progress. It is highly engaging for students though! There is a free version and a paid version.

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At Starfall, children have fun while they learn. Educational games, movies, books, songs, and more for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade learners.

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This is one of my favorite websites for beginning readers. Students design their own monster and then play reading games by helping their monster rebuild its ship and travel to different planets.
The program is designed for K-1, but will also work for low 2nd grade students or, for EL students who are learning to read. This program offers three levels to allow for differentiation.
The program is free to teachers and offers many reports for data tracking or class differentiation.

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Write About is a writing software that helps incorporate technology through typing. Students can follow prompts from all the different genres, and publicly or privately post their work digitally. Not only are there prompts that are already set in this program, but teachers and students can create their own prompts to share with others. This is a great way for others to read what was created, make connections, and comment on the work as well. As a teacher, you can give written or audio feedback, for personalized instruction and assessment.

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What ages and grade levels is Write About for?

Elementary, middle school, and high school students have all had great success using Write About! We recommend a good starting point to be 2nd grade. With features for privacy, teacher moderation and content filtering, teachers can scaffold the experience appropriately.

Is Write About a curriculum?

We offer thousands of writing starters (Ideas) aligned to all core genres and do provide suggested lesson plans, but teachers bring their own curriculum and pedagogy for their class. It's up to you whether to integrate Write About into all or some of your units and you can choose how many custom writing experiences to create with your class(es) for the genre studies, literature responses and skill development from your standards.

The most successful classrooms allow students some choice-based writing time on the platform at least several times a week and also use it to go through the writing process for longer pieces.

What standards are covered with Write About?

Students have the opportunity to write and publish for all genres and purposes, so designing learning experiences with Write About as your platform will easily align to a wide variety of academic standards:

- Writing
- Speaking and Listening
- Language
- Research and Media
- Technology

Do students have to use writing prompts?

Nope. We believe that great visual Ideas can spark curiosity and engage student writers but also know that students often have their own ideas to write about. We fully embrace the option and provide the tools for authors to start writing and to publish writing with their own ideas and images.

Teachers on Write About use Ideas to provide choices within a certain genre or topic, to start a discussion around literature, have students reflect across content areas, and for thousands of other purposes.

We use the Workshop format or other specific methodology during our writing time, how will we have time for Write About?

Don't look at Write About as another thing to add. It's a platform for writing and a community for publishing writing...regardless of the genre, purpose, length or audience. We believe a balance between digital and physical is a healthy thing, and support your pencil/paper writer's notebooks whole heartedly! But when you want students to transition their writing skills into a digital space...when you want to empower them with choice and visual inspiration for creative sparks...when you want them to have an authentic audience for their writing...when you want them to leverage multi modal tools like audio and images...that's where we come in!

Is student writing public?

Only when the student author and the teacher want it to be. Private Posts are only visible to the student's teacher. Classmates Only posts are only visible to other students with the same teacher. Teachers can connect their class with other classes for a "walled garden" approach to sharing online.

What privacy and safety measures are in place?

A lot! Student privacy and safety are always a priority as we strive to build a positive writing community. Student accounts are associated with a teacher who is in control of all student activity. Only student first names are displayed throughout the site. Content can quickly be marked as abusive. Take a look at our Community Guidelines and Privacy Policy to learn more.

Questions about specific Features or Getting Started? Please visit our Help Center.

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Elementary, middle school, and high school students have all had great success using Write About! We recommend a good starting point to be 2nd grade. With features for privacy, teacher moderation and content filtering, teachers can scaffold the experience appropriately.

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Edmentum Exact Path is a great tool for differentiated instruction.  It focuses on math, language arts, and reading skills.  Teachers import MAP test data and the instruction is tailored to the students' needs.  When a student is working on ELA skills, he or she go through a tutorial, practice lessons, and quiz.  The student gets real-time feedback, and rewards for doing well.  It also is great for keeping the students' interests, through animation.  Stories are read to them,  students play reading games, as well as answer questions to meet the multiple ELA standards.  This has been a great tool for grades K-5, with minimal push-back by the students. Teachers also benefit, because of the many strands of data it produces, and you can create small groups on the website to fit to their needs.  You can also adjust  a student's learning level based on performance if needed.

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My third grade students love this program! It has individualized, standards-based practice in social studies, science, ELA, and math. For this assignment, I'll focus on the ELA features, but I use it for both math and ELA in my classroom. Students can take a word study pretest and be placed on a path that introduces concepts in phonics and spelling sounds and patterns. They can also access articles with paired comprehension sets. When students answer comprehension questions, the program responds with justification and explanation for correct and incorrect examples, providing text evidence. The texts and questions adjust complexity based on a student's performance. A great formative assessment tool! The free version allows you to see weekly data, but not over the entire year - you have to pay for that version. Available through browser, iOs, and android. Check out the video below!

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During the summer we encourage some of our reluctant readers to take advantage Audiobook Sync’s summer deal - two free audio books a week. Audio books can be very useful in trying to instill the love of reading in teenagers who don’t find value in it.  They expose students to authors they otherwise wouldn’t know of. Which may prompt students to check out another book written by that same person.  In addition, they model good interpretive reading, introduce good vocabulary and teach critical listening skills.

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SYNC is a free summer audiobook program for teens 13+. AudiobookSYNC gives participants two thematically paired audiobooks each week.

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Continuing with my theme for the younger learners, I really like ABCYA.com. ABCYA is an educational website sorted by grade PK through 5 and by subject. Most of the games are simple enough for the younger learners to play with little or no adult support. ABCYA has read to me books to help students who are still struggling to read. They have writing program that I have used with my 1st grade group when working on simple sentences and wanted to do something a bit more fun. ABCYA is aligned to Common Core standards and offers many choices for our learners. One downside is that there is no way to track data. This is a great tool to enhance a lesson that you have already taught.

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This program is amazing! It provides thousands of digital texts and audio books for students, for free! Students get book recommendations based on their reading, can do "read to me" books, and can click on words to have them read aloud and defined. Students can like and share texts and develop skills as digital citizens. There are books in different languages, and many books come with comprehension questions. Questions can also be created by the teacher within the program. The teacher portal allows you to track reading time, pages turned, and books completed. I really like the book collections that can be shared between staff and assigned to students. Check out the video below! It's available by browser, iOS, and android.