Updated on March 8, 2017
These free websites and apps help students of all grade levels with a variety of writing and composition skills. They range from guides for essay writing, biographies, research papers, and writing prompts to comic creators and online book and story writing tools. Some of the sites include lesson planning resources for teachers.
From site: The ability to summarize information is one of the most important critical thinking skills you can develop. Taking large quantities of information, understanding what the information means, and condensing it into a shorter version of the original allows…
From site: An essay can have many purposes, but the basic structure is the same no matter what. You may be writing an essay to argue for a particular point of view or to explain the steps necessary to complete…
From site: The Biography Maker is like those homework machines we have been hearing about for many years. It is designed to help you convert facts into insights, dull and boring information into fascination and magic. It will help you…
From site: Welcome to our workshop. Here you can learn how to research and write a biographical sketch a story about someone’s life that tells a lot about who that person is or was. Along the way, you’ll find…
Learn writing skills from professional writers for several types of writing. Biography, descriptive, mystery, book reviews, myths, and speeches are some of the writing topics explored in this workshops. Students have the opportunity to publish their completed works online through…
From site: Do you remember the day your brother or sister was born? Or how about the time your family took a special trip? What do you remember most about your favorite birthday party? Moments like these provide great opportunities…
Use this as a quick writing activity to try every day. Students pick from a variety of formats: notebook, letter, newspaper, or postcard. By chosing from hundreds of creative combinations, kids can that take the writers block out of creative…
Youth Voices is a meeting place where teachers and students can share, distribute and discuss their digital work in a format similar to Twitter. As it was designed for K-12 students, it provides a more secure environment than Twitter. Teachers…
Create your own comix strip with this online tool. Designed for students, the comix provide several characters and moods to spur their creativity in writing. Zimmerman provides extensive lesson ideas for use in the classroom, and with special needs and…
This site provides free unedited writing samples for students in grades 4-8. The sample paragraphs are sorted by month and themes common to monthly events and traditions. Each writing sample has ten errors in grammar, punctuation and spelling for students…
This site discusses the role of graphic organizers in writing. It uses five broad categories: Star/Web, Chart/Matrix, Tree/Map, Chain, and Sketch. It then defines the various types of writing and provides links to types of charts most useful in specific…
From site: The Postcard Creator helps students learn to identify all the typical parts of a postcard, and then generate their own postcard messages by typing information into letter templates. Students follow the steps and fill in the address, details…
From site: The Letter Generator tool is designed to help students learn to identify all the essential parts of a business or friendly letter, and then generate letters by typing information into letter templates. A sample letter is included, and…
From Site: Expository writing is an increasingly important skill for elementary, middle, and high school students to master. This interactive graphic organizer helps students develop an outline that includes an introductory statement; main ideas they want to discuss or describe;…
From site: The Persuasion Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to map out their arguments for a persuasive essay or debate. Students begin by determining their goal or thesis. They then identify three reasons to support their…