Karen Vitek's List: ELA Resources

" Resources for Authors: Story idea generator, random conflicts, word count meters, readability, half title generator, example word count meters, and cliche buster"

" Look, we can't grade the essays for you, but we can reduce the repetitive, inefficient manual labor involved — and in doing so we open up a new world of invaluable student data."

"At ereadingworksheets.com, I provide teachers, parents, and motivated students with the best available reading worksheets, resources, and activities available on the web absolutely free of cost."

" On this page you will find our complete list of high quality reading comprehension worksheets created for students in grade levels K-12. Our worksheets elicit the use of critical thinking skills at every level. While some questions ask the reader to peruse the passage for particular details, most questions involve the use of deductive reasoning, conclusion making, logical inference, sequential analysis, tonal awareness, and an understanding of scope. These materials are highly effective in supplementing the education of verbal reasoning and critical thinking skills on behalf of the reader. What is more, these materials are applicable for students of all ages and ability levels. Many of the resources found on this page are available in online quiz form at our sister site, ReadTheory. Scroll down to view them all! "

Grammar Ninja is an educational web game that resulted from my high school Independant Study in Videogame Design. You are a Grammar Ninja who must find parts of speech by throwing ninja stars at words. Correct answers allow you to continue, while wrong answers literally explode. It's great fun. Download the Grammar Ninja Sentence Creator to create your own sentences.

"Arcade + Academics = Fun Learning!
Engage and motivate students with multiplayer educational games. Play the games for free, and with Arcademics Plus you can track student performance, tailor game content, and analyze problems. "

" Here you'll be able to play competitively against 73,827 other players from around the world. We've retained many of the same basic rules as the popular board game in this online variant, but with a few key twists in terms of scoring and letter distribution. What's more, users who opt to register an account will have all their games tracked and scored in our ongoing competitions. The top players will be listed in our Wordtwist hall of fame. "

" The Fun Way to Build Vocabulary Skills!"

Includes links to vocabulary games by grade level.

Games for practicing parts of speech, and parts of the sentence.
There is also a link to word games.

Various types of games including writing games and make your own games based on popular literature.

"These games will help middle school students explore writing and word meanings as well as encourage critical thinking in reading. The games are from such sites as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a large international learning company, Beacon Learning Center, Merriam-Webster, and the Adult Literacy Media Alliance. If you have similar games to share, add them in the "comments" section on the bottom of this page."

"Figment is a community where you can share your writing, connect with other readers, and discover new stories and authors. Whatever you're into, from sonnets to mysteries, from sci-fi stories to cell phone novels, you can find it all here."

"BoomWriter is a supremely engaging creative writing website that has students reading, writing and assessing content in ways they’ve never done before!"

"Not only are students provided with informational text resources, but they are also invited to join in the conversation about what’s going on in the world by submitting comments to articles or responding to opinion questions (for students 13 and older). This provides teachers with another avenue for helping students develop digital citizenship skills. Comments made by students are moderated to check for appropriateness before they’re posted."

" ReadWorks provides over 500 non-fiction reading passages, each with 5 multiple choice questions that test your students' reading comprehension. If you'd like to see a sample reading passage, please click here. If you would like to print or download a specific reading passage for use in your classroom, please login now! "

"A free online Talking Dictionary of English Pronunciation"

Twurdy uses text analysis software to "read" each page before it is displayed in the results. Then Twurdy gives each page a readability level. Twurdy then shows the readability level of the page along with a color coded system to help users determine how easy the page will be to understand.

This site is dedicated to making kids readers for life. It is sponsored by James Patterson, author.

Can't find a good book to read? Check out the lists and information about books by your interests at this site.

"Play the BiblioBouts online game to learn the process of finding high quality information while you complete your assignments."

" The following online teacher's guides are available for the films listed below. These guides will help you use the film in the classroom. You'll find discussion questions, activities and investigations, and plenty of writing and other exercises. "