Sherri Johnston's List: Literacy

Free online collection of stories and poems in MP3 format. Download files from iTunes U, play MP3 files on computer, view text as a webpage or print out text. Excellent for students who need additional reading supports.

Classics (Alice in Wonderland), fairy tales and some new stories written for this site are among the audio stories that are available. One new audio story is posted each week. The narrator, Natasha, has a delightful voice. The text is available but it is NOT presented in a child-friendly format (e.g. a book with pages to turn). Users can register to receive the story of the week. Can be used with ipods.\n\n

This site allows users to select from a wide variety of artists work to feature in thier stories. Stories can be saved and shared. Stories can be written in other languages and saved, but they can't be officially published yet.

A free tool that you register for. It removes the clutter from a webpage so it is easier to read (no ads, pop-ups, etc.) Ideal for kids who would benefit from a cleaner page that would be easier to read.

A simple concordance tool that provides synonyms (nouns, verbs), words that sound kind of like the word you are looking up and rhymes. Application for elementary students for word games, to use as a reference or for students who want to enhance their writing with strong synonyms.

An amazing collection of writing lessons, prompts and resources created as part of the Northern Nevada Writing Project. Based on the six traits, there are writing fixes, reading connections, cross-curricular writing, primary ideas all the way up to Grade 12.

Need some word games, spelling activities, or want a word of the day feed, this dictionary website can provide that. The new word spelling-robot game was a challenge and could be played using a SmartBoard. Nice rhyming feature.

This is a creative site - users can make a card, make a story or make a movie with cute animations, scene choices, and personalized elements. Available in multiple languages. Excellent for differentiation.

Great new app that was recommended to me. Great potential for young students and possible applications for French Immersion or other second language students. Key premise is that students are shown an image and then have 30 seconds to record their voice as they add to the story. Finished product becomes an iBook that others can listen to.

Researchers - short videos highlighting recent thinking from research. For example, John Hattie talks about why peer reading and allowing students to fix their own errors is so important rather than waiting for teacher to help (French titles - English videos)