K-12 Language Arts
Reading Sites

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FROM:LIMONY-SNICKET -http://www.lemonysnicket.com/
LANGUAGE ARTS RESOURCES, LESSONS AND INTERACTIVE SITES
General Language Arts 
(& Combination) Sites
Reading Sites 
(Books, Lessons, Literature)
Writing Sites 
(Grammar, Poetry)
 Some Sites are repeated

Reading Sites

ACCELERATED READER POWER POINT PRESENTATION - http://www.teachnet.com/lesson/langarts/arppt.html
From Teachnet for the new Accelerated Reader Teacher.

ACCELERATED READER QUIZ TITLE SEARCH - http://www.renlearn.com/store/quiz_home.asp
If your school or classroom is using the Accelerated Reading Program and you need an updated listing of books that have tests written for them that are available to purchase, this is the site to visit.  Just type in the title or the author and up pops the information you seek!  But be sure you don't order the test unless you want to --

ACCELERATED READER QUIZZES WRITTEN BY TEACHERS - http://www.cyberspaces.net/Nixon/AR/
This is an archival site of tests posted to testtrading@coollist.com. To join the testtrading list, go to Coollist. Tests are posted alphabetically by title. Last updated November, 2001. Also check out Book Adventure - http://www.bookadventure.com/

AESOPFABLES.COM - http://www.aesopfables.com/
Has the entire text of 655 of Aesop's fables and 127 fairy tales from Hans Christian Andersen. Try Selected Fables which includes eighty-six Aesop fables with their morals listed.  Look for the Real Audio logo in the lower right-hand corner of some of the story pages to hear the fable read.  Lesson plans are  included.

AESOP'S FABLES - http://www.umass.edu/aesop/
You need Flash 4 Player or above to view this site.  University of Massachusetts professor Copper Giloth asks his students to illustrate or animate an Aesop fable, along with their own modern retelling of the story. This collection of nearly forty fables is the best of that student work dating back to 1994.  This fun site is a must-see, and is a great place to start before creating your own fables.  Check out "The Jay and The Peacock."

ANTHOLOGY OF MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE - http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/
Essays, articles and sources on Chaucer, Gawain, Langland, Julian, Kempe, Malory, Everyman, as well as Lyrics and Plays ? I love the layout, it's an indispensable resource.

sARTHUR'S DRAMATIC PLAY ACTIVITIES - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/arthur/teachers/activities/dramatic.html
Marc Brown offers this short list of activities teachers can use with their students to promote creative expression and movement in conjunction with the Arthur series of books; includes Flea, Fly, Flamingo, Pencil Power and The Beat Goes On.

AUTHOR PAGE - http://www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/askauthor/
Internet Public Library's short list of author biographies and links to author sites; great for drawing kids in and helping them feel like they are rubbing elbows with the true professionals.....nice lead-in to Writing Workshop in your class.

BOOK ADVENTURE - http://www.bookadventure.com/
A FREE reading motivation program for kids in grades K-8. Students create their own book lits from over 6,000 titles, take multiple choice quizzes on the books they've red offline, and earn poits and prizes for their literary successes. This means you must register and sign up for the program created by the Sylvan Learning Foundation.

BOOK UNITS PREK-12TH GRADE - http://www.bibliocat.org/
This is a collection of lessons, units, activities for books for preschool to twelfth grade.  The titles are in alphabetical order.  There is also a generic novel study lesson

BOOKWORM: GREAT BOOKS FOR KIDS 6-12 - http://www.kidsreads.com/
Bookworm is chock full of book reviews, reading lists, author interviews, and author mailing addresses (some email, some street).  In addition to coverage on popular series books for a variety of reading levels (such as Madeline and Redwall), Bookworm organizes its reviews by genre and reading level.  Mysteries, Gardening, and Math are just a sample of the more than sixty reading lists.

CAROL HURST'S LITERATURE SITE - http://www.carolhurst.com/index.html
This is a collection of book reviews for kids, ideas of ways to use them in the classroom and a collection of books and activities about particular subjects, curriculum ideas, themes and professional topics.

CHAUCER METAPAGE - http://www.unc.edu/depts/chaucer/index.html
For teachers and students trying to understand Chaucer, or for those trying to get a feel for life in 14th and 15th Century England, visit this site to read about Chaucer's work, hear the work read aloud, and figure out the meanings of Olde English words found in his work.

CHILDHOOD READING - http://childhoodreading.com/
Childhood Reading is a pretty mix of fairy tales, fables and poetry accompanied by original early-twentieth century illustrations.  The illustrated tales are indexed by both author and illustrator. It has simple design and great artwork.

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE ACTIVITIES - http://www.marcias-lesson-links.com/ChildrensLit.html
Listed by grade level with great lists of books to read (elementary and middle school)

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE WEB GUIDE - http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/index.html
Books, awards, authors, resources, lessons and ideas for the classroom -very comprehensive and it's quick and easy to load and use.  Good lessons!

DOWNLOAD BOOKS - http://www.1stbooks.com/
Download 100s of free books from over 3,000 titles free directly to your computer.  There may be a book you would like to have..  Just go to free books for great classics.  For some reason, this may be slow loading.

ENCOURAGING THE YOUNG READER: GRADES 3 THROUGH 6: - http://www.ed.gov/Family/RWN/Activ97/young.html
Activities from the Department of Education to encourage young readers to further develop their  reading skills.

ENGLISH COMPANION.COM  - http://www.Englishcompanion.com/
Created by teacher/author Jim Burke, this site is designed to help  English teachers find materials and ideas they can use in the classroom. Included are links to daily poems, words, and history; literary and  grant resources; links to English conversation sites; and tools for teachers
ENGLISH LANGUAGE LESSONS - http://www.english-to-go.com/
This site has a lesson a week (reading and for English as a Second Language Learners), ready to teach.  The lesson changes weekly but you can join the listserv.

FIRST GRADE ACTIVITIES - http://www.ed.gov/pubs/CompactforReading/table1.html
First grade reading activities in reading and literacy skills.  Check it out!!

FORMS OF POETRY FOR CHILDREN - http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/poeform.htm
Mother Goose, Poems set to music, Limericks, Free Verse, Haiku, Cinquain, Narrative and other forms poetry - links to many places and helpful to the teacher, with a place to submit student poems.

FRY READABILITY SCALE - http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/fry/fry.html
This page gives the directions for use of the Fry Readability Scale.  You can judge the readability of any text using the chart that follows.

HAIKU FOR PEOPLE - http://www.toyomasu.com/haiku
How to write Haiku, its history and examples are on this page, with links to poems both classical and written by people.

HARRY POTTER INTERACTIVE CROSSWORD PUZZLE: - http://www.surfnetkids.com/games/harrypotter-cw.htm
This is a page with a crossword puzzle.  Click on any word then read the clue and fill it in.  Interesting.

THE HERO'S JOURNEY - http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/smc/journey/
Simulation to explore the classic mythical hero and create your own stories - wonderful concept nicely done.

I KNOW THAT: PHONICS  - http://www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=L2_LanguageArts
Interactive worksheets where the word search puzzles actually pronounce and spell each word as you find it!  Phonics is all about the learning of sounds, and this site has plenty of sound.  It is colorful, fun and has lots of variety, even though it is not complete yet. As you finish each game, you earn certificates that can be printed or e-mailed to friends,  family and teachers.

INTERACTIVE MATH AND READING LESSONS - http://www.myschoolhouse.com
Free interactive reading, spelling and math lessons for grades 1-6. Each lesson is skill specific, the lessons are completed online and scored online.  The student attempts the lesson until he/she has 100% mastery.  A free reporting system is available as well.

K-12 ENGLISH - http://www.ceismc.gatech.edu/busyt/eng.shtml
English references and Search Tools, Books-on-Line, Shakespeare, Writers, Writing and a plethora of other stuff for every grade level.

KIDSBOOKSHELF - http://www.kidsbookshelf.com
A children's literature Website for kids, parents, and teachers offering book reviews, writing contests, recipes, crafts, games, an author/illustrator spotlight, links to other great sites, print and color pages, and links for teachers. They also accept stories, book reviews, and artwork from kids as well as articles and ideas from parents.

KIDS CLICK - http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!/
A web search for Kids by librarians, includes topics like Weird & Mysterious, the Arts, Math and Science and Literature.

KIDSREADS.COM: A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS - http://www.kidsreads.com/series/series-lemony-snicket-author.asp
Start your Lemony Snicket adventure with four short video clips narrated by Daniel Handler (an "associate" of Mr. Snicket) urging you not to read "A Series of Unfortunate Events" and to keepthe books out of the hands of children.  You'll also enjoy the character sketches of Violet, Klaus,Sonny and Count Olaf written by Snicket himself, and his answers to Frequently Asked Questions.
LANGUAGE ARTS - http://www.bibliocat.org/
A site with links to literature, poetry, writing and spelling sites.  For example, you will find a site with 12 different versions of the Cinderella Story, creative writing techniques for writing Cinquains and Diamentes, sites about Emily Dickenson, etc.   Try it, it is interesting.

LANGUAGE ARTS LESSON PLANS K-12 - http://www.col-ed.org/cur/lang.html#lang1
Some neat lesson plans from Columbia Education Center.

LAURA CANDLER'S FILE CABINET - http://home.att.net/~teaching/filecab.htm
In the file drawers, you will find all sorts of activity sheets and blackline masters created for the classroom. All of them are in PDF format, so you will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader plug-in to view and print the files.

LAURA INGALLS WILDER'S CYBERGUIDE - http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/little/littletg.html

LEGENDS - http://www.legends.dm.net/
History, literature, and lore presented with the promise of guided access to primary source material and up-to-date scholarship, personal essays and extended reviews, and historical surveys and thoughtful commentary.

LEMONY SNICKET - http://www.lemonysnicket.com/
"Attention: please run for your life.  You have undoubtedly reached this Web site by mistake." That's how the official Lemony Snicket site begins. If you get past all the warnings, you'll find excerpts from each of the books, a free screensaver, an author bio, a bio of illustrator Brett Helquist, and a handful of games.  There are word search puzzles, but the Count Olaf Word Search is the one word search puzzle you should never see.

LINKS TO LITERATURE - http://www.linkstoliterature.com/
Links to Literature is a new site that allows teachers and students to find literature resources on the web faster and easier than other search methods. It contains 9,000+ carefully annotated and organized links, which are browsable by author.

MAGIC TALES OF MEXICO - http://www.g-world.org/magictales/
Nine stories with English and Spanish side by side.

MIDLINK MAGAZINE - http://longwood.cs.ucf.edu/~MidLink/index.html
An online, digital magazine for kids by kids, invites submissions from classrooms around the world.  Project announcements elp you plan your curriculum.

MONSTER MOTEL - http://www.kidsonthenet.org.uk/motel/
Enter the creepy house at this address and be ready to scour the place for monsters! Children are invited to read about monsters other kids have created and then try their hand at making and writing about their own.

MOTHER GOOSE REBUS RHYMES - http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Rhymes.html
In these Mother Goose Rhymes, some words are icons, letting the young children ages 1-6 click on them as they read along.

NANCY DREW - http://www.MysteryNet.com/nancydrew/
In 1930, an American heroine was born -- a teenage detective named Nancy Drew. In the nearly seven decades that have since passed, Nancy has matured from sixteen to eighteen years old while solving over 350 mysteries. The site features an interactive mystery, chapters from selected books, a Shockwave game, discussion board and Nancy Drew lesson plans.
NEWBERY AND CALDECOTT  MEDALS - http://www.ala.org/alsc/newbery.html
The Newbery Medal, named for eighteenth century British bookseller John Newbery, is given annually to the author of an exceptional contribution to children's literature. The Caldecott Medal, named in honor of nineteenth century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott, is awarded each year to the illustrator of an outstanding picture book.  Both are bestowed by a division of the American Library Association. This ALA site features current year 2000 winners, as well as lists of past recipients.  You'll find the link to the Caldecott pages near the bottom of the Newbery page, and vice versa.

THE ON-LINE BOOKS PAGE - http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/
Complete list by title, author, subject, serials, there are over 11,000 listings here.

ONLINE MEDIEVAL AND CLASSICAL LIBRARY - http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/
The Online Medieval and Classical Library (OMACL) is a collection of some of the most important literary works of Classical and Medieval civilization.  Has a searchable database by title, author, genre or language and you can search all the texts in the collection as well for words, phrases, etc.  A great site.
OUTTA RAY'S HEAD - http://home.cogeco.ca/~rayser3/
 A collection of lesson plans with handouts by Ray Saitz and many contributors; all of the lessons have been used and refined in the classroom.  Contents contain literature, writing and poetry.

PHONICS LINK - http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/Phonics_Link/phonics.html
Created to help elementary educators stay informed about the newest research, resources and classroom ideas in phoneme awareness and phonics. Teachers are invited to respond with lesson plans, questions and comments about book club selections.  This is a SCORE site.

PHONEMIC AWARENESS - http://www.esl4kids.net/phonics.html
Ten in-real-life activities to help reinforce the learning of phonics. including Clapping Alphabet Chants ("A says /a/ like apple. A says /a/ /a/ /a/."),  Alphabet I Spy ("I spy something that begins with the letter B.") and Letters in the Sand ("Fill disposable aluminum pie pans with approximately one-half inch of sand or salt. Call a letter or word. Students write the letter or beginning letter in their pans.")

RANDOM HOUSE FOR TEACHERS - http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers
A website for K-12 teachers and librarians with guides for teachers, thematic and interdisciplinary indexes, readers' companions, author and illustrator biographies, and more.

READER'S THEATER PAGE - http://www.aaronshep.com/rt/RTE.html
Aaron Shepard's Reader's Theater page with scripts and a guide for writing your own scripts, how to use them and why they work.

 READERS THEATER SITES - http://www.mrsmcgowan.com/reading/readerstheater.htm
From first grade teacher Marci McGowan, there are lists of places to find readers theater sites, plus at there is an actual Readers Theater about the Easter Bunny's Vacation, ready for use.

THE READ IN! - http://www.readin.org
This is an online literacy project that brings together language arts and telecommunication. The site has lesson plan ideas and suggested reading and writing activities and lots of resources for teachers.  There is a kid's area with word searches, bookmarks and pictures to color. Everything is free but you need to register to join the author chats.

READINGQUEST - MAKING SENSE IN SOCIAL STUDIES - http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/readquest/
A website designed for social studies teachers who wish to more effectively engage their students with the content in their classes.  Contains strategies, directions for comprehension and content reading and printable handouts and masters for transparencies.

THE READING VILLAGE - http://teams.lacoe.edu/reading/cases/cases.html
Reading and language arts teachers will find lesson plans, resources,  discussion groups, and Cyberguides to frequently studied books. Among  the standards included are the California Language Arts Content  Standards, and Governor's Elementary Reading Initiative for California.

SCHOLASTIC - http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/teach.jsp
The Scholastic Site that formerly cost money to enter is now free.  Check out the ready -to-use activity folder, lessons, reading interventions.

SCHOLASTIC:  MYTHS, FOLKTALES,  FAIRY TALES - http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/mff/
This Scholastic project is a multi-grade resource for learning about and writing myths, folktales and fairytales. Grades one to three explore fairy tales and meet two authors who have re-written classic fairy tales: Jon Scieska (author of "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs") and Diane Good (author and illustrator of  "Cinderella: The Dog and her Little Glass Slipper.") Similarly, grades three to six dive into folk tales while grades five through eight learn about myths. There even is an opportunity to submit your own tales for possible publication on the Scholastic site.

SCI FI & FANTASY - http://www2.lib.uoguelph.ca/resources/bibliographies/science_fiction/
Annotated bibliography with online database for teachers - handy for searching and searching planning

S.C.O.R.E. CYBERGUIDES - http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cyberguide.html
Supplementary, web based units of instruction centered on core works of literature. They are designed for the classroom with one online computer; each CyberGuide contains a student and teacher edition, objectives, a task and a process by which it may be completed, teacher-selected web sites and a rubric .

SIMONSAYS KIDS - http://www.simonsays.com/subs/index.cfm?areaid=183
Touted as the site with the coolest books on the planet, the design is for kids and is sure to lure them into reading.

SONNET CENTRALhttp://www.sonnets.org
An archive of English sonnets with commentary, pictures, and relevant links on the WWW.

SPARKNOTES -http://www.sparknotes.com/
Created by Harvard University students and alumni, SparkNotes is a collection of free online study guides to approximately 100 literature classics. Each SparkNote contains sections on context, characters,  overall summary, chapter-by-chapter summary and commentary, study questions, and a message board for collaborative learning. Grade Level:  High School

STORIES FROM THE WEB - http://www.storiesfromtheweb.org/
English site developed with libraries in mind to help motivate children to respond to literature and produce their own writing; here students can read, critique and write their own stories which can be posted in the Gallery
STORIES TO GROW BY - http://hazel.forest.net/whootie/default.html
This collection of stories and tales from around the world includes a lesson plan and simple questions for each story. You can search the stories or see a complete list with descriptions, age range, and time required to read the story. Children are invited to illustrate selected stories and share their answers to end-of-story questions.

STORY PLACE -http://www.storyplace.org/
In English or Spanish - this digital library site has interactive stories, a reading list, and printable activities. Click on the Preschool or Elementary Library to begin. Click on Other Themes or Otros Temas for additional stories.

STORY TELLING - http://www.bonus.com/bonus/list/n_storytel.html
Traditional and modern stories done in an interactive format; dozens of activities to choose from, from Bonus.com (which opens its page in a separate window so that your students are contained in a safe online environment).  The page does grab your browser so clicking back does not work.

TALES OF WONDER - http://www.darsie.net/talesofwonder/
Richard Darsie presents this great elementary site of multicultural examination of myths and legends from more than a dozen different areas of the globe including unique collections from Siberia and native Americans. Each section contains ta half-dozen or more tales from a region. All the stories are local links so you won't have to worry about hitting dead links with your class.

TEACHER'S DEPOT - http://home.adelphia.net/~lindemarie/
This site has information on books -- from links to lesson plans, information about authors, ideas to go with units and webquests links.  Check it out.  This is a step-by-step manual of how to do this.  Great.

25 IDEAS TO MOTIVATE YOUNG READERS! - http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson035.shtml
Great ideas from Education World (actually Book-It) that are sure to get kids across the grades excited about reading.

UNFORTUNATE EVENTS - http://www.unfortunateevents.com
Join the hunt for Lemony Snicket  by registering with your email address and choosing a user name.  The hunt (created by Egmont Books, the British publisher of the Snicket series) is a collection of Flash arcade games, with high scores saved and posted. In addition to the games, you'll find synopses for the first five books listed under The Terrible Story and postcards to share with friends at Lemony Widgets. .

USING POETRY TO TEACH READING - http://teachersmentor.com/readingk3/using_poetry.html
Part of teaching reading is motivating the children to practice, practice, practice. Using children's poetry is one way to do this. Who can resist the joy of poets such as Jack Prelutsky or the late Shel Silverstein? This site gives step by step diections, by a K-3 teacher.

ALSO SEE INTERACTIVE READING SITES. or  PROJECTS ON LINE  or INNOVATIVE WAYS TO TEACH or WEBQUEST ARCHIVES or go  Back to Table of Contents

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Last Updated August, 2007