Huge list of online links to Writing Project Sites

Thanks goes to Bud Hunt (Blogger, Bud the Teacher) for compiling a remarkable list of writing project sites. This is from his delicious social bookmarking account.

http://del.icio.us/budtheteacher/writingproject

An interesting evening of web surfing dedicated to writing instruction awaits!

Enjoy!

~ Dennis

New 6-Traits Board Game From NWREL

Pirates, Treasure, Adventure, and …Word Choice?

Your students will love learning about the traits of good writing as they sail the high seas in this action-packed, pirate-themed board game. Doubloon Island: The Traits of Good Writing Board Game is the fun way to teach students about the six traits and how they contribute to good writing.

• Accommodates two to eight players
• Can be played in 40 minutes
• Easy to learn, fun to play
• Helps build vocabulary
• Teaches kids fun facts about oceanography, geography, and pirates
• Game is set up so teachers can develop their own questions and game cards
• Applicable for grades five through nine (three through four with adult assistance)

Available from the NWREL At:

http://www.nwrel.org/pirate/

Pass the word? Help make it a 6-traits online summer!

Please forward this announcement to teachers in your district.

This summer teachers from around the nation and the world will join online to exchange ideas and share best practices. The conversations are rich. The community is real. If you've never taken an online class before... this is the one to start with!

Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6 Traits

EDUC 744 920 Elementary (Gr. K-4) - 3 gr. cr. begins June 16, 2008 EDUC 744 909 Middle/High School (Gr. 5-12) - 3 gr. cr. begins June 16, 2008

Learn to teach and assess writing with the 6-Traits of writing (voice, ideas, word choice, organization, sentence fluency and conventions). Learn to use the 6-Traits with the writing process to teach revision strategies. Help learners meet higher standards and improve test
scores.

Earn graduate credits via online courses that support your professional development goals for licensure renewal, salary advancement and advanced certification.

Sign up soon to reserve your spot! Registration closes this week! to allow time for assigning user names, passwords and ordering/shipping the textbook.Classes are TOTALLY ONLINE. You may participate from your home or school computer. Registration is limited to 20 participants per section.

Syllabus and other details: http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/traits.shtml REGISTER ONLINE or REGISTER BY FAX Fax: (715) 232-3385

For more details e-mail Dennis O'Connor: oconnord@uwstout.edu

Free Writing & Research Curriculum from Intel

FREE GOLD:

• Intel® Education: Technology Literacy This is an online curriculum for writing and research using technology tools. It's about how to write research using the net. Aimed at middle school students, this work could be used for beginning research methods in graduate school. Superb instructional design. A hidden gem. Brilliant!
  (tags: e-learning curriculum writing writing-process)

6-Traits Video (Schools brew writing videos)

• traits Writing - Page 1 - Blinkx Video Results Blinkx video is a search engine dedicated to just video. They claim to have 18 million hours of video in the search index. A few minutes of all that video is dedicated to 6-traits writing. Fun and worth a look!
  
  (tags: 6-traits video)


• writing process - Page 1 - Blinkx Video Results Writing process video, these are student produced. your kids should get a kick out of them!
  
  (tags: writing writing-process video)

Crafting Writers, K–6 (Full text online)

Crafting Writers K-6
Elizabeth Hale
Year: 2008
Media: 272 pp/paper
ISBN: 978-157110-739-8
Grade Range: K-6

Here's another online full text preview from Stenhouse Publishing.

The book is available via PDF download, a chapter at a time.

Here is the table of contents:

Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Specific Craft
Chapter 3: Gathering Craft
Chapter 4: Categories of Specific Craft
Chapter 5: Crafting with Punctuation
Chapter 6: Primary Writing
Chapter 7: Teaching Craft Lessons
Chapter 8: Researching Strengths in a Conference
Chapter 9: Researching Next Steps in a Conference
Chapter 10: Teaching the Conference
Chapter 11: Group Conferring and Other Management Techniques
Chapter 12: Assessment
Final Thoughts
Appendix A: Additional Mini-Lessons on Craft
Appendix B: Mini-Lessons for Independence in Memoir Writing
Appendix C: Mini-Lessons for Independence in Nonfiction Writing
Appendix D: Mini-Lessons for Independence in Poetry Writing
Appendix E: Forms for Researching Craft
Appendix F: Guided Practice in Researching Craft
Appendix G: List of Specific Craft Presented in Chapters 4, 5, and 6
References
Index

If you use it, buy it! Reward a writer and teacher's hard work!

Free Tools for Thinking, Researching, Writing

Intel is creating great tools for educators. You'll find real treasures on their education website.

Here's a link to Intel's Thinking Tools:

http://www.intel.com/education/tools/index.htm?iid=teach+tools

Here is the Education Site Map that provides access to all of their resources:

http://www.intel.com/education/site_support/contents.htm

Bookmark these pages if nothing else. This is an amazing free resource.

I recently reviewed Intel's Technology Literacy Curriculum for alignment to ISTE NETS-S standards.

http://www.intel.com/education/technologyliteracy/

If you're looking for a carefully designed curriculum to teach research and writing skills, this is it. Again this is a free resource. In my opinion it is more than detailed enough to work at the college level. These could be the basis for a very strong semester of instruction.

The curriculum was written for kids 11 -15 years old. Don't let the Technology Literacy title throw you. This is about how to research and write using online and traditional sources.

Dennis