ReadWriteThink is an online resource for classroom teaching, professional development and parent and after-school educational resources.

You'll find lesson plans, teaching resources and great ideas across all subject areas. But, I really like their student interactives.

You'll find online tools to help students organise and summarize facts and ideas, learn and write acrostic poems, design and illustrate book covers, use a comic creator to produce their own comic strip for a variety of contexts and so much more.

There are essay map creators, drama maps to investigate character, setting, conflict and resolution. There is a K-W-L creator.This tool allows students to create an online K-W-L chart. There is a letter generator and a picture match.
Take a few moments to search the list of resources.. here.

And.. work completed on student interactives can be emailed and saved.

'Written self-expression should not be so infuriatingly difficult to teach.' BraveWriter


The Brave Writer material has been written and produced by a professional writer, editor and home-schooling mum and is designed to enhance the mother-child relationship, rather than build up the sort of stress, resentment and frustration evidenced by many other writing programs. 'What's on paper ought to be a fair and insightful representation of all that goes on in your kid's busy heads.'

As a teacher/tutor/writer and homeschooling mum/grandmother, this material reads well and ticks all the boxes. The focus of the Brave Writer material is less on writing format and structure but rather on the process of writing, establishing the voice of kids and helping parents foster an encouraging writing environment. Brave Writer 'supports and nurtures the homeschooling family in the areas of language arts and writing from grammar school until college with online courses and language arts programs.' 

You'll find Home Study Courses (The Writer's Jungle, Help for High School, Jot It Down) with guidance to effectively teach your kids and provide practical tools and advice, with available ongoing help. Jot It Down is a digital download with practical step-by-step instructions of what to write not just how to write- a year-long language arts program and 10 monthly writing projects. Check out the sample here. Language Arts programs are also available that teach spelling, grammar and punctuation using classic literature. These are available as monthly downloads and are worth checking out here. There are also Online Classes that provide accountability and group interaction to help complete writing projects.

So.. how and where do you start? Well, check out the website and read more about this program and the many quality resources. But it also might be helpful to learn more about how you can develop an encouraging writing lifestyle that both you and your kids enjoy, and there are plenty of free resource ideas on the Brave Writer site.  Check them out here.

Toontastic is a great app to encourage learners to create their own animated adventure using their own recorded voice and adding music for effect. The app presents a storyboard with scenes for Setup, Conflict, Challenge, Climax and Resolution. Captions help the storyteller to understand each scene of the story they are creating and the action and progress through the story. For example, the first scene, Set up, is noted as 'Introduce the characters and story setting'. When Setup is chosen, the scene background can be created with available choices or the child can draw their own background.

Characters are added, again from existing protagonists or by drawing their own. The characters in each scene can be moved and animated to act out the story as the learner tells and records it. The 'microphone records the narrators voice and the character's actions. Background music can also be chosen for each scene and helps the learner to think through the mood of each scene. Arrows lead the storyteller on to the next scene.

Once all the scenes have been created, a story title can be included along with the learner's name as director. The animated story can be played for everyone on the iPad or shared online with ToonTube.

This is a interactive way for learners to create and share their narratives, and will encourage them to continue.