Inspire Young Writers Tap into students’ creativity and encourage them to think critically about topics with focused writing activities. These resources promote writing across subject areas and cover everything from grammar basics to fantasy-writing inspiration.
Send-Home Reproducibles for Independent Writing
		Story Prompts: The Strangest Day (PDF)
		Spin-a-Story Writing Prompts Chart (PDF)
		Story Starters for "Many Beginnings" (PDF)
		Keeping the Ball in Play: Moving Past Writer's Block (PDF)
		Active Beginnings (PDF)
		Vocabulary Building: Don't Say... (PDF)
		What a Character! (PDF)
		Developing a Main Character (PDF)
		Writing Humorous Fiction: Planning a Setting (PDF)
		Memoir Writing: Who Am I? (PDF)
		Pre-Writing Exercises for Writing Biographies (PDF)
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Professional Articles
		6+1 Traits for Revison Ruth Culham, the author of 6+1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide, offers a toolbox of skills to give teachers and students a common vision for revision.
		Joan Novelli's Writing Workshop Find fresh twists on writing autobiographies with students, including a pre-writing reproducible.
		Kids' Poems A renowned language arts teacher shares the joy of teaching young children to write — and love — poetry.
		"The Answer to Better Writing? Better Questions!" One of the most effective ways to support children is by looking for questions as they work.
		"Six Strategies to Help Students Master Beginnings and Endings in Their Writing" Here's all you need to get started on helping your students give their writing more punch with dynamite leads and memorable closings.
		"Ten Tips for Teaching the Conventions of Writing" Writing-process expert Donald H. Graves offers his advice for managing the whole process of teaching kids to use the tools of the writing trade.
		"A Sample Mini-Lesson for Teaching Writing Conventions" Here is a sample lesson transcript for teaching writing conventions from master writing teacher Donald H. Graves.
		"Answering Your Questions About Teaching Writing: A Talk With Donald H. Graves" To help answer your questions about teaching writing, Instructor talked with master writing teacher Donald H. Graves from his home in New Hampshire.
		Creating a Productive Writing Environment Can writing really flourish in classrooms that are mutually designed by teachers and children?
		The Tools You Need to Assess Writing To thoughtfully evaluate students' creative writing, you must start where they are and then read beneath the surface. Here's some hands-on help for getting started.
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Lesson Plans and Activities
		Color Your Classroom Students learn how to express their imaginations through writing.
		Writing with Writers Students work with authors and editors in writing workshops designed to develop their writing skills in many genres.
		Write It Online publishing and writing instruction for Teens.
		Annie's Rhyme Time Develop vocabulary and poetry skills with an interactive feature that allows you to write rhyming riddle punch lines. Students can choose from a variety of skill levels.
		Collaborate with popular children's poets Jack Prelutsky, Karla Kuskin, and Jean Marzollo.
		Check out Scholastic resources chosen specifically for teaching poetry to students K and up.
		Internet Field Trip: Create-A-Card Gone are the days of going to the card store and licking stamps. Today, you can find a wide variety of cards right on the Web. Cards can be personalized with a writer's own words and art, then sent for free via e-mail!
		Internet Field Trip: The Colossus Writing Process Take advantage of the World Wide Web to facilitate the writing process. These Web sites offer students an academically rigorous approach equal to those of the best "old" documents many teachers currently use — and sometimes even better.

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