Writing

Level 100 = beginner/advanced beginner
Level 200 = intermediate
Level 300 = upper intermediate
Level 400 = advanced

Level 100 and up	Art Safari (NY Museum of Modern Art) - This cool site allows you to look at famous paintings involving animals and to write about what you see. You also can create art of your own. http://www.moma.org/onlineprojects/artsafari/safari_menu.html Click here if you need to download Shockwave® or Flash®.
Level 100 and up	Bubblr (Make Comics) & Bookr (Make Books) Using Flickr Images - (TTV)  Sample with Bubblr - Relative Clauses (Bubblr) | Blog and Sample with Bookr (Peachey)
Level 100 and up	D.FILM MovieMaker - OK, this is fun!!! With a few clicks and by writing your own dialogue, you can make a movie to send by email to your classmates, teacher, family, etc.!! Here are the steps: You choose 1) background 2) sky 3) plot (action) 4) characters 5) type dialogue and 6) music. NOTE: Now, you can add another scene if you want. You can repeat steps 1-6. Or if you are done, just click "Finish Movie." Finally, put in a title, director's name (that's you!) and title design. Now watch your movie and see what you think. Was it great!? http://www.dfilm.com/new_site/assets/mm2/movie_start_flash.html Click here if you need to download Shockwave® or Flash®.
Level 100 and up	Electronic Postcards - Send an electronic card to anyone in the world who has an Email account and Web access. Practice your writing and help someone have a nice day! A portion of the money earned from advertisers at this site goes to the World Wildlife Federation. http://www.e-cards.com/site/ Free Greeting Cards - A huge assortment of greetings and cards. You will have to wade through a large number of pop up ads, but there is a lot of variety here and for free! http://www.123greetings.com/ Java Lake Effects Greeting Cards - These greeting cards are really neat. These greeting cards have reflections of mountains and animals in lakes. You've got to see them! http://www.lakecards.com/ Choose a postcard and send it to a friend. Or send one to me at krauss@lclark.edu (I'd *love* to hear from you!) BlueMountain eCards - Still can't find the card you want? Try BlueMountain--they have the largest selection of cards that I've seen! You can also attach a photo, video, or voice message! (a voice message is free from the U.S., but will be a long-distance international call for those sending from outside of the U.S.) NOTE: to use most of the cards on this site, you'll have to join for a fee. However, you can get a 30 day free trial, so have fun for 30 days! http://www1.bluemountain.com/ More E-Card sites: Pacific Products Gallery, Yahoo! Greetings, Hallmark E-Cards, American Greetings
Level 100 and up	Getting Started Writing:  Creative Writing Prompts | StoryStarters | Five Card Flickr (choose "Play a Round" or "Random Story" from pulldown menu)
Level 100 and up	Life Magazine- There is nothing better than high-quality beautiful images to inspire a budding writer. Find a photo that interests you. Then write what comes into your heart and mind. Any writing you do, no matter what level of English, will be meaningful and motivating. Writing is how you improve your writing! http://www.lifemag.com/Life/millennium/photos/alfred.html
Level 100 and up	MakeBeliefs Comics - Bill Zimmerman has launched a free new web site where students can create their own comic strips. The site offers fun animal and human characters with different moods, thought and talk balloons to fill in with words, and story prompts. It's a wonderful resource to spur children and adults to write, read and communicate their ideas and to practice English It is also being used as a tool by educational therapists who work with deaf and autistic children to help them understand concepts and communicate at http://www.makebeliefscomix.com
Level 100 and up	The Miniature Earth - If the world had only 100 people, how many would be Asian, African, European, American, etc.? How many could read, have enough food, or a bed to sleep in? Watch this 3 minute slide show to find out--beautiful photos and music. Then complete the Interact activity below. http://smart.tin.it/luccacos/miniatureearth/miniature_earth.htm Vocabulary you will need to understand the slide show (suggested by students): poverty - not having enough resources (food, shelter, clothing, etc.). famine - a very serious shortage of food torture- to purposely cause severe physical or mental pain passion - A powerful emotion, such as love, joy, hatred, or anger. Response by Myung Joon Lee, Korea Response by Takashi Fukushima, Japan Response by ChoYeon Kim, Korea Response by Mari Kawamura, Japan Response by chail1225@hanmir.com
Level 100 and up	My Brochure Maker - Currently free, this tool lets you create a brochure online. You can choose a template then customize the text and graphics. It only takes a few simple steps to create a high-quality color brochure. Requires Flash and Microsoft Word. Sponsored by Hewlett Packard, created by Doodlelab. This is fun! I tried it and found it easy to use. Any student can make a brochure using his/her level of English. Click here if you need to download Shockwave® or Flash®.
Level 100 and up	PIZZAZ (Leslie Opp-Beckman) - Free, printable creative writing activities (Here are samples of student writing using these materials). Students (or teachers) try out some of these creative writing assignments! http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~leslieob/pizzaz.html
Level 100 and up	RhymeZone - Like a Swiss Army Knife, this site helps you do many things in one place. Example: Enter the word "bear". You can get the following information: rhymes, synonyms, antonyms, definition, related words, similarly spelled words, homophones (words that sound alike), quotations using the word, photos illustrating the word, and more! A great place to improve your vocabulary and to provide information for your writing. http://www.rhymezone.com/
Level 200 and up	Squidoo - The stated function of the site is to make it easy for people to create free pages (called "lenses") on their interests. Practice writing on anything you have special knowedge about or a strong interest in and the world can see it. All for free. http://www.squidoo.com/
Level 200 and up	Political Cartoons.com - Looking at political cartoons is a great way to keep up with current events around the world while giving your sense of humor a workout. Click on any cartoon and you'll be able to send it to someone as an email card. There is a message box on the email form so you'll have a chance to practice your writing too. Send one to me at krauss@lclark.edu because I'd love to hear from you! http://www.politicalcartoons.com/
Level 200 and up	Purdue University On-line Writing Lab (OWL) - Although designed for native speakers, there is much information here for you to use! There are many handouts designed for ESL students. Click on English as a Second Language to find handouts on Using Articles (A/An/The), Adjectives with Count and Non-Count Nouns, Count and Non-Count Nouns, Appositives, Verbals: Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives, Prepositions of Direction: To, On(to), In(to), Prepositions of Location: At, In, On, Verb Endings, and a Verb Chart. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/index.html
Level 300 and up	Never Say Neverisms - When writing English, there are things we are supposed to *never* do! William Saffire gives excellent examples, such as "Don't use no double negatives" and "Verbs has to agree with their subjects." Get it?! Follow Saffire's suggestions and your writing will improve! http://www.mapping.com/never2.html
	Storybird - Create, Read and Share digital stories.  This site provides very easy integration of images as you create stories to share.  Great for younger learners, but older students will love it as well.  Here is a Teacher Training Video tutorial on how to use Storybird.
Level 300 and up	TakingITGlobal - An online community that addresses international issues for students fom age 13-30. Here is the link for discussion boards. Why not write about things that matter. . . globally! http://discuss.tigweb.org/
Level 300 and up	TV411 Writing - (ALMA- Adult Literacy Media Alliance) - Interactive activities that help you learn to plan and write business emails, complaint letters, personal letters, an autobiography and more! You'll need Flash v. 6 or later. http://www.tv411.org/writing/ Click here if you need to download Flash®.
Do you want more?	See Best Websites for K-12 Writing Instruction/Reinforcement by Larry Ferlazzo at http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/01/11/the-best-websites-for-k-12-writing-instructionreinforcment/
Return to top.

Return to ESL Independent Study Lab.