Language Arts/Grammar

Links verified 6/23/2016

Letter Writing | Reading | Books and Novels | Reading Comprehension | Teachers

1. Alphabet Book - Garfield the Cat introduces the alphabet. Use these letter booklets to identify letters, identify phoneme, write the letter and more!
2. Authentic American English Pronunciation - ( Fantastic site ) Lessons are available on quite a few topics. Each lesson provides the pattern, gives examples, provided practice (a lot of practice), and ends with a quiz. Each word in the quiz can be pronounced for the student by clicking on the speaker icon. This site would be good for Language Arts or ESL classes.
3. BBC - Interactive Language Arts Lessons at the BBC - Reading, writing and spelling and grammar skills can help you tell a story, share your ideas, write a letter and make sense of instructions.
4. Capitalization and Punctuation - from Grammar Blast
5. Cursive: Lowercase - Alphabet Animation - To see the animation, move your mouse over a letter on this page. (from the site, Handwriting for Kids)
6. Editing - Goofs - Use as whole class activity. Find the goof in the sentence. Answer follows question. [This expired link is available through the Wayback Machine Internet Archive. If the page doesn't load quickly click on Impatient? at the bottom right of the page.]
7. English Basics worksheets - Teaching reinforcement and review, multiple topics
8. English Grammar Online - Explanations and examples of English grammar topics, listed by alphabetically order.
9. English Grammar The Easy Way - This site has a very comprehensive collection of brief grammar explanations for students. A great site if you want some concise support.
10. Grammar Bytes - Interactive site with lessons on comma splices and fused sentences along with irregular verbs.
11. Grammar and Style - Notes from Jack Lynch at the University of Pennsylvania. Example entry on the subject of Boldface; "There's no reason to use boldface in an academic paper; spend your time writing, not fiddling with the word processor."
12. Harcourt Language Site - Many activities to practice grammar skills, vocabulary, and writing. Some activities are online quizzes.
13. Long vowels - Ten colourful poems (this is a UK site) with animation, audio and activities - featuring Daisy the snail, the toad and the goat, and friends.
14. Phonics and Word Study - [ preK-6 ] from Sadlier-Oxford. Use your knowledge of letters, sounds, and words as you try out the games and activities below. Categorized by grade levels
15. Phonics Inventory - The site has an inventory sheet that can be printed and used to assess students' phonics ability (directions included). A very good assessment of student ability. [This expired link is available through the Wayback Machine Internet Archive. If the page doesn't load quickly click on Impatient? at the bottom right of the page.]
16. Power Proofreading from Houghton Mifflin - Help! The power has gone out at HME-TV, and proofreaders are needed to fix TV scripts, memos and other writing at the station. HM has provided a special power screen so your students can help them. ( grades 3-8 )
17. Quia Language Games - Tracy Gefroh Boyd, M. S., CCC-SLP has created many language activities for her Speech and Language site.
18. Sentence Clubhouse - select a type of sentence and make corrections to the samples given
19. Wordblender - make words by choosing a start sound (onset) and an end sound (rime) to blend together
20. Word Game Time - Your destination for the best language arts games and homework help online. Our games are FREE, fun, trustworthy and approved by educators.
21. WyzAnt - many resources to help you with that pesky grammar rule or give you the writing tip you need to make your essay top-notch!

Letter Writing

1. Letter Writing - a Letter Generator to help learn the parts of a letter
2. Letter Writing - Tips for writing letters and a letter templates.

Reading

Reading Strategies and Resources

1. Characters - Select a Character to write about, and then click on that character to start writing your story! You can print the story when you finish. (may be blocked by some state filters)
2. Compass Learning Sample Activities - Grades K-8 sample activities. Scroll to your grade level. Also has Math, Science and Social Studies games.
3. Diamante Poem - Interactive site to create a diamante poem
4. Dolch Phrases - Print these for your students to practice [This expired link is available through the Wayback Machine Internet Archive. If the page doesn't load quickly click on Impatient? at the bottom right of the page.]
5. Five main types of organizers - links showing examples of many types
6. Free Reading - A great site! Free online early literacy program Letter Sounds, Letter Writing, Phonological Awareness, Sounding Out, Word Form, Irregular words, Listening vocabulary, Advanced Phonics [This expired link is available through the Wayback Machine Internet Archive. If the page doesn't load quickly click on Impatient? at the bottom right of the page.]
7. Idioms - Concentration style game.
8. Reading Activities ( from the BBC ) - match games with words, letters and rhyming words
9. Schoolhouse: English and Language Arts - Lesson plans and Internet resources in the areas of Poetry, Reading, and Writing. The site also includes Internet resources in the areas of Literature, Philosophy, and Plays. Schoolhouse also includes links to Standards sites. [This expired link is available through the Wayback Machine Internet Archive. If the page doesn't load quickly click on Impatient? at the bottom right of the page.]
10. The Reading Room - posters to print, games to play, word charts for your classroom and much more! ( grades K-2 )
11. Reading Strategies - Strategies for Reading Comprehension
12. Weaving The Internet Through Your Elementary Literacy Curriculum
13. Word Play - click on a word and watch it play
14. Words and Pictures - These games and activities from the BBC will make learning phonics fun.
15. Word Walls - Everything you need to create a wall of sight words is available here! Pre-primer through Third grade!
16. World Wide Words - Each week you will find at least one short article or extended definition of a word which is too new to appear in most dictionaries

Books and Novels

1. Books - Garfield Think-Aloud Series - "Help learners use effective reading strategies purposefully and independently." Teacher materials and student material and assessment options.
2. Book Wizard - Search tool that will create individualized reading lists based on interests, reading ability, and age level.
3. Free Books to print - free samples available
4. Literactive - Free registration, poems, books, worksheets to go along with stories, audio- poems and books can be listened to or read by the student.
5. Literature Based Reading Units - twenty second-grade units with worksheets to print
6. Literature links to foster Critical Thinking - Nine Literature Units for primary level reading books which promote the critical thinking skills of interpretation, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation [This expired link is available through the Wayback Machine Internet Archive. If the page doesn't load quickly click on Impatient? at the bottom right of the page.]
7. Novels; Children's Literature - classified by author
8. Novel Guides - from Classzone; activities and suggestions for novels.
9. Novel Guide-Novel Analysis - literary analysis on the web; an educational supplement for better understanding of classic and contemporary Literature Profiles, Metaphor Analysis, Theme Analyses, and Author Biographies.
10. Novels - Teaching Guides - from Harperchildren; " include general discussion questions and suggestions for reaching across the curriculum: math, science, language arts, music, and social studies."
11. Novels - from ProTeacher; click on the Activities by Title to find resources for a particular book, or click on the other links to find other great resources.
12. Online Children's Stories - There are a lot of stories available on the Internet to read or download. Some of them are from well-known books, others can be found only online.
13. Reading Units - Chapter books with lesson plans, vocabulary assignments and more.
14. ReadPrint - free online library, thousands of free books.

Reading Comprehension

1. Reading Comprehension Stories - For 2nd grade students
   
   
   
   1. Dinosaurs - read and answer questions
   2. Penguins - read and answer questions
   3. Dinosaurs 2 - read and answer questions
   4. Reading Comprehension stories - many short stories to read and answer questions
   5. Reading Comprehension stories - many short stories to read and answer questions [This expired link is available through the Wayback Machine Internet Archive. If the page doesn't load quickly click on Impatient? at the bottom right of the page.]
   6. Reading for Information - many short stories to read and answer questions [This expired link is available through the Wayback Machine Internet Archive. If the page doesn't load quickly click on Impatient? at the bottom right of the page.]
   7. Reading for Meaning - many short stories to read and answer questions [This expired link is available through the Wayback Machine Internet Archive. If the page doesn't load quickly click on Impatient? at the bottom right of the page.]
   8. Sonoran Desert - read and complete art page using information from story
   9. Practice Reading Test - 2nd Grade; read online story and answer questions; print out answer sheet to check at a later time.
2. Reading Comprehension worksheets - This section features all new weekly worksheets, provided free for teachers and parent-teachers to copy and use. They are most appropriate for the upper elementary and middle school years.
3. Reading Worksheets - Reading passages and questions to print ( grades 2&3 )
4. RepeatAfterUs - On-line stories with audio to read to the students or have them read aloud all together.
5. See it, Say it, Write it - Great site for sequencing and non-stove cooking!

For Teachers

1. Calculating Reading Levels
   
   
   1. Tameri Guide - Calculating Reading Levels - Tools for calculating reading levels - a series of methods whose functions are used to determine the reading levels for different student age groups.
   2. Free Online Reading Assessment - Mindplay [This expired link is available through the Wayback Machine Internet Archive. If the page doesn't load quickly click on Impatient? at the bottom right of the page.]
   3. Fry's Readability Graph and Directions - posted by Kathy Schrock with permission of the author [This expired link is available through the Wayback Machine Internet Archive. If the page doesn't load quickly click on Impatient? at the bottom right of the page.]
   4. Readability Tests Interpretation - Learn to interpret the tests.
   5. Reading Competency Test - National Right to Read Foundation
   6. Schonell Reading Test - (This Tripod site may be blocked by some school filters)

Professional Resources

1. The Compact for Reading Guide is a user-friendly handbook designed to walk your family-school compact team through the steps of building and implementing a Compact for Reading. It provides information, strategies, examples, and checklists to help parents, educators, and community members develop effective, workable compacts that can improve your school, increase family involvement, and increase student skills and achievement in reading.
2. Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children - The focus of this report is prevention. The report sketches a picture of the conditions under which reading is most likely to develop easily - conditions that include stimulating preschool environments, excellent reading instruction, and the absence of any of a wide array of risk factors.
3. Starting Out Right (A guide for promoting children's reading success) - Parents want to provide their preschool children with a good start in literacy. A school district tells its teachers to change the way they teach reading. Preschool caregivers want to be sure that the children they care for are ready for school. A mother attending a school meeting hears confusing messages about the best way to teach beginning reading. A corporate executive wants the company to support an after-school tutoring program, but is not sure where to start. This book is for all these people. It is written particularly for parents and others who can influence the education and development of young children, especially policy makers, caregivers, and teachers.

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