• The Writing Process - In this online self tutorial, Conn McQuinn from Puget Sound ESD in Burien, Washington guides teachers and students alike through the Writing Process with analogy of creating a "Magnifique" pizza. Included with the information is an informative online streaming video presentation for each of the writing processes. There are additional links providing information about the Six-Trait writing.

• The Writing Process - To help students become better writers we need to help them internalize the processes that bring about quality written communication. This site articulates the writing process - Six Trait Writing and the First Steps Frameworks. Includes an overview of the writing process, modes and forms of writing, including mode-specific writing prompts and six-trait scoring guides. All of these pages are downloadable in either ClarisWorks or Word.

• Writer's Workshop - An excellent online reference/resource for Writer's Workshop. Written as an Inservice plan, this site offers tips and tricks to get your writing workshop started, an outline of the writers' workshop day, mini-lessons, planning, revising, editing, conferring, sharing, and more.

• Gloria's WebSite - This web site is an online workshop for classroom teachers that are interested in implementing the writing process in their classroom. Topics include: rationale, curriculum, setting the stage, pre-writing, mini-lessons, first draft, revision, editing, publishing, student-evaluation, and professional resources.

• Writing Workshop - Springfield Public School District web site offers links to reading workshop, writing workshop and word knowledge as their core curriculum for Language Arts. They believe "students learn the craft of writing through practice, conferring, and studying the craft of other authors. The ultimate goal of writing workshop is always to develop life-long writers." Includes quicktime streaming of teacher demos for mini-lessons, great literature, your own writer's notebook and student writing. In addition, there are focus lessons for expository writing, An excellent resource for word building as well.

• Paradigm Writing - Developed by Professor Chuck Guilford of Boise State University, Paradigm helps students think about what goes into a writing before they ever start to draft. There are sections on discovering what to write, organizing, revising and editing your writing. Several types of essays are addressed.

• Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL) The Purdue University OWL offers students and teachers resources. The lab is primarily a tutorial center for writers who want to work one-to-one with a tutor at Purdue University. Handouts are also included for students and teachers. In addition, workshops and presentations are available. Although this is a site intended for higher-education, teachers will find great resources to assist with teaching the writing process.

• The Pro Teacher - The Writing Process - Includes links focusing on revision skills, using the six-trait model for middle school teachers, Judy Blume talks about writing, peer editing checklists,lesson plans for steps in planning for writing and many other sites dealing with Six Trait Writing.

Six Traits

• Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory - 6 +1 Traits of Writing

• Northwest Regional Educational Lab - Discussion forums - New! One of the more effective ways for teachers to learn is from each other through dialogue. Post a question and see what fellow educators advise, browse past exchanges for useful information...

• O.P.E.N. - Practice Scoring - Oregon Public Education Network application provides teachers, students and parent/community members in Oregon an opportunity to score
  student state assessment papers and receive feedback on their scoring accuracy.

• Six Trait Writing - Resource for Students and Teachers. This site is an excellent reference and includes Writing Lesson Ideas, Books to Identify Traits, Assessment Rubrics, Words to Enhance Student Writing, Submission forms (students can submit their own writing for peer review), Sample Writings, Teacher and Student Resources.

• Interactive Six-Trait Writing Process - Includes trait explanations/descriptors, rubrics for scoring, examples. Exercises provided here will give students and teachers a chance to read sample writings, rate them, and compare their ratings with those of others.

• Six Trait Assessment for Beginning Writers This is an excellent site that provides information for teachers in primary grades. This site includes a primary continuum as well as writing criteria for the six traits.

• Six Trait Lessons - A great site that infuses technology. Many of the lessons created for this site use computers.

• Six Trait Writing Assessment - Rubrics, primary anchor papers, literature and more...

• Six Trait Writing Lesson ideas - downloadable word documents - lessons for each of the six traits designated by grade level.

• Applying the Six Trait Writing Model - Bellingham School District's slide show on six trait writing.

• What is Six Trait Writing - Includes lesson plans, kids corner and each of the traits.

• From Start to Finish - Rewriting & the Six Traits of Effective Writing - professional development modules created by Jamie McKenzie. Questions to ask about the Six Traits in student language.

• Modes and Forms of Writing: First Steps - Descriptive | Narrative | Expository | Persuasive

• Free Posters - Six Trait Writing

• Six Trait Writing Assessment - Includes six trait rubrics, anchor papers, student editing checklists, and writing resources

• Six Trait Writing Descriptors - Includes descriptors for all grade levels for each trait with downloadable lesson plans.

• Frequently Asked Questions About Six Trait Model of Good Writing (Anchorage School District) - What are the Six Traits? Why support the use of six writing model? What types of writing will be on the High School Qualifying Exam and Benchmark Exams? How can teachers get training in the Six Trait Model

• A Handbook for Parents of Six-Trait Writing Students

Picture Books and Six Trait Writing

• Picture Books for Six-Trait Writing - An Excellent Resource

• Six Trait Writing List - A bibliography of picture books by trait - an excellent resource for the trait of organization

• Using Picture Books to Teach the Traits - an annotated bibliography of children's literature that will serve both students and teachers as models of good literature for narrative writing. Bibliography includes author, title, summary, writing trait(s), curriculum connection and character trait.

• Six Trait Book List - lists of books by trait

Writing for Purpose - Publishing

• KidNews - KidNews is a free news and writing service for students and teachers around the world. Anyone may use stories from the service and anyone may submit stories.
• Children's Express - Children's Express is a news service produced by kids reporting on the issues that affect their lives. Well written News Stories might serve as a springboard for discussion. Students can also participate in online polls and forums, submit story ideas, or report and file stories.
• Collab-O-Write - Collab-O-Write was created as part of the Thinkquest 1996 contest. We were chosen as one of the 34 finalists to attend the awards ceremony in Washington D.C.
• KidPub - KidPub is a site where kids are able to write their own short stories and publish them. Its a fantastic opportunity for budding authors.
• World of Reading - Share a book - kid written book reviews - a place to submit book reviews
• MidLink Magazine - MidLink Magazine is an electronic magazine for kids in the middle grades. Students and classrooms are invited to participate in a variety of online projects and activities.
• The Write Site - An interactive language arts and journalism project for middle schools.
• The Write Site - Designed for Ohio middle school language arts students, The Write Site curriculum has students take the role of reporters and editors to research, write and publish their own newspaper. The site includes outlines, handouts, exercises, information about how to write and more.
• Highwired.Net - Highwired offers free web publishing tools and hosting so high school students can publish online versions of school newspapers and information about student activities.

Writing and Technology Research

• Critical Issues : Using Technology to Enhance Engaged Learning for At-Risk Students
• enGauge - North Central Regional Educational Laboratory - Research and Best Practices
• Using Technology to Enhance the Writing Processes of Students with Learning Disabilities

Grammar Guides - Dictionaries

• A Writing Student's Page - practical resources for students including dictionaries, citing sources, online libraries, writing centers
• Guide to Grammar and Writing - Includes quizzes, powerpoint presentations
• The Grammar Handbook - Writers' Workshop
• The Grammar Gorillas
• Grammar Safari - This interesting site takes the study of language into the 'jungle' of real-world usage. The 'Grammar Safari' activities are suggestions for hunting and collecting examples of specific words as they are used in documents accessible to anyone on the WWW.
• The Grammar Lady - The Grammar Lady contains Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's), Spelling Rules, Question of the Week, and a Grammar Hotline.
• Online English Grammar - Beautifully organized - a great resource for teachers and students.
• Roget's Thesaurus - A great tool for writers - searching online...
• Research-It! - A great resource for various types of dictionaries. Also included is an extensive thesaurus, language translators, library references for biographical information as well as quotations. You can also find geographical tools such as maps and the CIA Factbook. This searchable database is a great reference site.
• Research Papers - This sites a great starting point for students who are using the Web to do research and then write term papers. It offers 'topic ideas, and assistance for school related research projects.
• Visual Thesaurus - The Visual Thesaurus is an interesting way to explore English language synonyms. Words how up as a 'spatial map of linguistic associations,' with clickable words that encourage you to follow threads.

Vocabulary

• Focusing on Words - This advanced English-vocabulary language site is here as a guide by your side so you can experience the wonder of words and the English language. As a distance learner (of any age), you can enjoy words and their fascinating histories and enhance your English-language skills.
• Vocabulary.COM - Participate in these FREE vocabulary puzzles to enhance vocabulary mastery. Earn your diploma at VOCAB U. Teachers have endorsed this site which enriches classroom curriculum. These exercises help prepare for SSAT®, PSAT®, GED®, SAT® and ACT® tests, and they supplement personal vocabulary acquisition, are used in home-schooling and ESL programs.
• Word Play - Word Play links to fun word sites that could be used for enrichment, recreation or reference.
• Etymology - In this game, you'll be presented with 10 randomly selected word origin or word definition puzzles to solve; in each case the word or phrase is highlighted in bold, and a number of possible answers will be presented.
• One Look Dictionary - Dictionary word count equals 2262030 words in 475 dictionaries now indexed... a searchable database.
• Visual Thesaurus - The Visual Thesaurus is an interesting way to explore English language synonyms. Words how up as a 'spatial map of linguistic associations,' with clickable words that encourage you to follow threads.

Assessment

• Exploring Intersections of Technology and Writing Assessment

Professional Organizations/Conferences

• NCTE Notes, News and Lessons - NCTE 2000 - Milwaukee, WI
• NCTE Teaching Ideas on Reading/Language Arts
• National Writing Project - The mission of the National Writing Project (NWP) is to improve the teaching of writing and improve learning in the nation's schools.