Books That Grow is a digital reading platform featuring fiction and non fiction texts that adapt to the student's reading ability, so that students of varied abilities can read and learn together. Video overview
Curriculum Bank Lesson searchable by grade and subject. Often include videos
Where to Search for Free hard copy books
PBS Learning Media has a free service called Learning Media. Resources include pictures, video and interactive materials from a robust library of high-quality digital content from PBS, and a growing list of other contributors including the National Archives, Library of Congress and NPR. There are research-based resources, including videos, interactives, images, audio files and lesson plans. You can view three resources. Then you have to create an account which is free. Can be filtered by grade level (Pre-K to 12+), subject (8), media type (document, audio, video, etc.), language (5) and accessibility (text, audio description, display transformation, etc).
Literactive is the leading provider of reading
material for pre-school, kindergarten and grade 1 students available
online. The program is comprised of carefully levelled guided readers,
comprehensive phonic activities and a wealth of supplemental reading
material which gradually develop a child's reading skills
Adolescent Literacy
AdLit.org is a national multimedia project offering information and
resources to the parents and educators of struggling adolescent readers
and writers.
Rewordify is a free site that was developed by a special education teacher and former computer programmer for the purpose of helping students read complex passages. At its most basic level Rewordify takes a complex passage and rephrases it in simpler terms.video
Nuskool This is a site that uses pop culture as teaching moments for students. Tailored to grades 6th-12th students learn a variety of subjects such as: Math, Science, English, etc through educational lessons based on the different elements of pop culture (video games, sports, films, etc.).
Age-Appropriate Stories for Struggling Readers? Story
Shares offer free, age-appropriate stories for struggling teen and
young adult readers. Browse their full library of titles!
MobyMax offers a integrated curriculum covering reading, writing,
vocabulary, language, math, fact fluency, number sense, science and
early reading. The program identifies student skill gaps with
find-and-fix technology that targets instruction
ThinkCERCA offers CCSS-aligned lessons that promote close reading and
argumentative writing for Language Arts, Social Studies and Science
classes for grades 4 - 12. Some of these close reading lessons and
corresponding student performance tracking tools are available for free.
Write Well
is a web-based application with interactive templates that help students
organize their thoughts and ideas, while writing more effectively. When
students are finished with a project, it can be exported to Microsoft
Word, Google Drive, or as a PDF. This
is an application to help students write because it provides
numerous supports and addresses different learning styles. It's drag
and drop platform is perfect for tactile or hands-on learners. It
interface is good for the students who need to visually see how
everything fits together. For the student who is overwhelmed with
managing their ideas and time, it provides the ability to focus on one
section at a time. It is that it is cloud-based, meaning
everything saves on the website and you can access this anywhere you
have Internet access.
Listen and Read is a set of 54 non-fiction stories from Scholastic for K-2 students. The stories are feature pictures and short passages of text that students can read on their own or have read to them by each story's narrator. The collection of stories is divided into eight categories: social studies, science, plants and flowers, environmental stories, civics and government, animals, American history, and community.
Word Tamer Word Tamer has potential to get reluctant writers started on their way to crafting creative stories.It is a site for learning the process of developing characters,
settings, and plots in creative writing. Word Tamer is set up as an
interactive journey through a carnival of literary devices. As students
move through the carnival they develop characters, develop a setting,
and develop a plot for their stories. Along the
way there are videos to help students understand the roles of
characters, settings, and plot development in crafting a good story.
Analyze My Writing.
Paste your text into Analyze My Writing
and it will generate a ton of information about your writing. Analyze My
Writing will give you a break-down of the readability of your writing
on five indices.
The analysis will include listings of the most common words and most
common word pairs in your writing. A listing of how frequently you use
punctuation and punctuation types is included in the analysis provided
by Analyze My Writing. Finally, a word cloud is included at the end of
the analysis of your writing. Analyze My Writing
could be a great resource for high school and middle students to use in
editing their works. Beyond the readability of the their papers
students will receive important information about the words and phrases
they have used repetitively in their writings.
No Red Ink - One of my favorite sites for helping students w/ Grammar and Writing skills. NRI uses differentiated instruction to help students w/ problem areas and adjust accordingly. Also, teachers can track students and generate detailed reports.
SparkNotes has videos on YouTube. The SparkNotes YouTube channel offers 23 short animated video overviews of literature commonly read in high school courses.
Grimm Fairytales It defaults to read aloud, but you can turn the audio off
Starfall - (grk-2) stories categorized by phonetic sounds
MeeGenius (gr 2-3) Six free clasic fairytales
Story Cove is a service that hosts audio and video stories based on the folktales from a variety of places and cultures. The stories are divided by their continent of origin. Each story is intended to convey a lesson on culture and society. The stories can be watched as videos or listened to as audio-only recordings. Applications for Education Story Cove provides a nice selection of lesson plans to accompany each of the stories in its collection. The lesson plans are in PDF form and include handouts for students. The lesson plans are categorized by story and by grade level, pre-K through grade
iStoryBooks is a free iPad, iPhone, and Android app that offers two
dozen free digital storybooks for kids ages two through eight. Most of
the stories in the app are adaptations of classic children's tales like The
Ugly Duckling. The app gives you the
option to read each story or to read along with each story while
listening to the narrator.You can find the iOS version of iStorybooks here. Get the app from the Android Market. And now you can get iStoryBooks
on Kindle Fire
LitCharts is a service that provides condensed outlines and summaries of classic literature. The outlines and summaries are far shorter than those you would find in Sparknotes or Cliffnotes. LitCharts color code the themes addressed and symbolism within a particular work. LitCharts provides nice outlines and summaries but doesn't provide so much information that a student can avoid actually reading the books you've assigned to them. In this way LitCharts could be useful study aids for students.
Scholastic's Character Scrapbook provides a nice template that elementary school students can use to write about and reflect on the characters in their favorite stories. The Character Scrapbook also allows students to create pictures of their favorite characters.
OuiWrite OW is a very innovative site that students
use to create a paper. While they are typing their paper OQ
automatically searches for content they are typing about and find them
sources. These sources can then be cited or added as a bibliography
automatically. Also, OuiWrite has other great features such as a: genius button (w/ a
very cool counter point feature), built in dictionary/thesaurus, as well
as the ability to check for plagiarism. Finally, OuiWrite has built in templates for creating different types of
papers and bibliographies, as well as saving everything on the web
Textivate site for getting interactive activities based on text This works by copying and pasting text (up to 500) and then
clicking a button. Then a wide variety of activities such as: fill in
the blank, separate the words, tiles, and more can be chosen.
Into the Book - Excellent reading
comprehension resource - Using Prior Knowledge, Making Connections,
Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing, Evaluating and
Synthesizing. K-4
Browser Books - "This website was
created to allow beginning readers to read books on their web browser.
Readers can click on the triangle in the lower right-hand corner of each
page to turn the pages. If they are unsure of a word, they can click on
it to hear a child's voice read the word to them. The books have been
sorted by level and by subject according to the curriculum." (from the
website)
International Children's Digital Library
A massive collection of children books collected by the University of
Maryland. A user-friendly interface that lets children search, browse,
read, and share books in electronic form.
Literature Map provides a web of authors you might like based on authors that you already enjoy reading. To use Literature Map
just type an author's name into the search box and webbed list of
authors will be displayed. The authors' names closest to the author
whose name you entered are the authors whose work you're most likely to
enjoy.
AdLit.org (gr. 6 - 12) is all about adolescent literature. On AdLit teachers can find book lists, video interviews with authors, and a comprehensive list of strategies for teaching reading and writing. The strategies page gives detailed descriptions of how to implement each strategy. AdLit's strategies page also gives guidance as to the proper timing for implementing the suggested strategies.
60 Second Recap Motivating video 60 second recaps of novels for grades 7 - 12
Inspire My Kids
is a neat website featuring stories designed to inspire kids to
positive actions. Inspire My Kids uses videos, pictures, audio, and text
to tell the stories of inspiring people and groups of people. You can
find stories on Inspire My Kids by browsing through the list of values
and topics. You can refine your story search by age appropriateness.
Writing
Story Maker (gr. 1-3) Walks students through setting up characters and plot theme and then they can add pictures and story text.
NoRedInk This is a site for helping students improve their grammar and writing skills. The way this works is through a variety of different features such as: high interest content, adaptive learning (differentiation), quizzes, student tracking, and more.
Story Creator (gr. 2-5) Create myths and legends with text, pictures and sound effects and record student narration options.
Create your own ebooks (gr. 6-12)
Simplebooklets this is a site that makes booklets. But it is so much more. These flash-based books are like mini website. As with regular books, you can add text and pictures. But you can also embed videos, audio, links, whole websites, calendars, widgets and more. The booklets are easy to embed into websites or blogs.
BiographyMaker Framework for writing interesting biographies
ACMI Generator - This is a great site for older students for digital storytelling and creating a storyboard scene with a script.
Circle
Plot Diagram The Circle Plot Diagram can be used as a prewriting graphic organizer
for students writing original stories with a circular plot structure as
well as a postreading organizer used to explore the text structures in a
book.
Essay Map The Essay Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to organize and outline their ideas for an informational, definitional, or descriptive essay.
Story Map This site has 4 maps for students to choose
to design templates for them to create stories, these maps include:
character map, conflict map, resolution map, and setting map.
Google has introduced their new feature for Blogger called "Google Scribe". click for review of options Google Scribe is text suggestions and auto complete feature, which can now be found in Blogger in Draft. Google Scribe helps you write more efficiently by suggesting common words and phrases as you type. Google Scribe supports Arabic, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish. The language is automatically detected using the text in the post. Enabling Google Scribe is easy. Simply click the pencil icon in the toolbar within the Post Editor. After Google Scribe is turned on, suggestions will appear in gray as you type, and you can accept them by hitting the spacebar or by typing a punctuation mark, such as a comma, period or question mark.
Boom Writer - BoomWriter is a supremely engaging creative writing website that has students reading, writing and assessing content
Wiki Summarizer is
a site that allows you to search Wikipedia, have articles summarized by
key points, and provides lists of articles that are related to your
original search.
Paper Rater Paper Rater is a web tool that offers a robust grammar checker to find mistakes and correct them. It can also check to see if a students paper contains plagiarized text.Most recently, the site has added a feature that will try to
make suggestions so that students can actually improve their work.
Revision Revision makes it easy for students' assignments to be teacher or peer reviewed, and allows students to collaboratively work on assignments.
Story
MapThe Story Map interactive is designed to assist students in prewriting
and postreading activities by focusing on the key elements of
character, setting, conflict, and resolution.
Literary
Elements Map Students can map out the key literary elements of character, setting,
conflict, and resolution as prewriting for their own fiction or as
analysis of a text by another author in this secondary-level
interactive.
Persuasion Map The Persuasion Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to map out their arguments for a persuasive essay or debate.
NewsCred Create a free online newspaper
Zimmer Twins Edgar and Eva Zimmer are 12 year old twins who appear normal but have developed psychic powers. On the Zimmer Twins website, students can create their own cartoon movie endings to a story starter, or create their own animated movie from scratch.
Fotobabble is an online creation tool that allows students to create and share talking photos. It is very easy to use, just upload a photo, record your voice, and send or embed it.
Night Zoo Keeper Users design an animal, either based on a real animal or something completely new. Then they write a profile bio for the animal and upload pictures. Then users are encouraged to write a story about their creature. There are also games and activities to play once you have signed in.
Comic Creators
Article: Comics in the Classroom
Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
20 Ways to Use Comics in Your Classroom
More than 100 Editorial Cartoon Lesson Plans
Pictures and Cartoons from PRI's The World
MakeBeliefsComix Allows students to create comic strips up to four panels and print them. Supports English, Spanish, French, Italian German, Latin and more languages.
Pikistrips Free, well-designed software that lets you create comic strips from photos and save them for others to view.
Toon Doo Create comic strips with clip art and speech bubbles
Charlotte's Web Comic Creator Create your own comic from Charlotte's Web. As with most comic creator sites a user has the ability to choose a layout, add characters, items, text, etc. Also, a user can create a comic with stills from the actual book.
Comic Master create comics in the "graphic novel style" that is popular with a lot of kids in the ten to fourteen years old age range. Comic Master provides a drag and drop interface for students to build their comics on. Students can create free accounts on Comic Master to save their works and edit them whenever they like. Comic Master gives students the option to print multiple page stories.
Super Hero Squad invites kids to create their own super hero comic strips and comic books. The Super Hero Squad provides users with templates
for comic strips and comic books. Completed comic strips and comic books can be downloaded and
printed.
Kerpoof - Animated comics. Use the movie component to create animated stories with text and action. Teachers account allows you to register classes. Good lesson ideas at the account site.
BitStrips An easy to use comic building site. Students can use this webtool to create a comic cell, strip, or story and then share it with their peers or the world. Use with illustrating a scene from a novel, or even to help a student understand a complex theory such as gravity in science. http://www.bitstrips.com/
Make Beliefs Comix - "Art by Tom Bloom, comix by you." Existing galleries of art make it easy for students to focus on creating the story; Used online; Free. video http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/makeBelief/index.html
Creaza Your cartoon will be organized into a strip with several frames, which
can be presented both on the web and printed out on paper. After registering click on Tools
ZimmerTwins Gr. 1-3 - Create cartoon movies
Comic Brush
A tool that lets you create and share a comic using any
combination of your own drawings, photos and ready-to-use artwork.You
can choose from the site's library of backgrounds, characters and speech
balloons, add your own text or captions, and even your own photos.
Create Your Scenario
A tool that lets elementary students select characters, type lines for
each one, save their work, and generate a playscript. http://www.kids-space.org/HPT/1a/11a.htm
Strip Generator various layout options
SuperActionComicMaker you can create your own super comic hero and tell your story with him.
Inkless Tales - Listen to stories including Dolch words. (use the control + keys to enlarge the font size if students are following along)
Into the Book - Excellent reading comprehension resource - Using Prior Knowledge, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing, Evaluating and Synthesizing. K-4
Read Works - resources for teaching reading comprehension to K - 6 learners.
Spell a Picture- Excellent activity for building phonemic awareness, phonics, and spelling for early readers, lots of picture prompts
Word Magnets -
Cast UDL Book Builder - Check out a previous post to learn about this free online tool for creating digital books with embedded prompts.
UDL Editions - Leveled support for seven texts geared for ages 10 and up
GenieBooks - Decodable books in Powerpoint
Story Line Online - Listen to stories read by Screen Actors Guild members - follow along with the text
Children's StoryBooks Online - illustrated stories for young children, older children and young adults. Some include audio.
Browser Books - "This website was created to allow beginning readers to read books on their web browser. Readers can click on the triangle in the lower right-hand corner of each page to turn the pages. If they are unsure of a word, they can click on it to hear a child's voice read the word to them. The books have been sorted by level and by subject according to the curriculum." (from the website)
Tagxedo Like Wordle, but more flexible and printing and downloading options.
EasyBib offers a student writing guide. The writing guide is well written and easy to navigate. The guide walks students through each step of the research and writing process from locating credible websites to formatting and constructing an APA or MLA bibliography. Many teacher-librarians will be happy to see that the research section of EasyBib's student writing guide is not limited to Google search. The research section includes a list of databases and explanation as to why database research can be better than a Google/ Bing/ Yahoo search.