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Literacy
& Drama Links |
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General Literacy Sites
Communication (Speaking & Listening)
Books: Books On-Line to read for free!
General Literature Sites
About Books and Stories
Favourite Authors
Sites for
and about Young Writers
Poetry
Reading
Structural (Word & Sentence level)
Drama |
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General Literacy Sites |
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BrainPop English 
BrainPop is an American education site for
schoolchildren. It has information and short cartoon
movies. You can join for a fee and get unlimited
access or get a limited daily access for free.
The Children's Literature Web Guide
An excellent resource. Discussion boards, Reviews, References and
loads of links.
DfEE Standards Site: Literacy
The home page for Literacy in the Primary National Strategy.
EnglishEdu
 
A site especially for teachers of upper secondary
English. There are all sorts of things here but not
too much as yet, as the site is new and growing
(2006). Access to the site and its resources is free
and they welcome contributions from teachers.
English Resources
A very useful collection of freely downloadable resources for the
full age range, primary - A Level and a useful links page.
eTeachers' Portal
A sister site to Kids on the Net which provides
support, advice and encouragement for using the
internet to support children's writing. This site
came out of the Writers for the Future project (see
below)
Freesearch
A simple on line dictionary that
claims to contain around 150,000 terms with examples and related
words.
FRET - Free Resources for English Teaching
This site has now become a membership site with a membership fee.
The F part of FRET is not quite so true anymore. There is still a
small selection of free resources. If they are the sort of thing you
like then the £20 joining fee will be worth spending.
Hamilton Trust Save Our Sundays
Weekly plans for Literacy (and Maths, too) with support materials.
This is a really useful site.
Handwriting for Windows
Kber sell a very useful piece of software that allows you to print
using fonts that look like the sort of handwriting that we want our
children to learn and use. We don't usually recommend commercial
sites but so many people have told us how useful this is that we
felt it worth stretching a point.
Lancashire Grid for Learning Literacy Activities and Resources
Just what it says on the packet! This site is packed full of useful
stuff for anyone teaching Literacy to children between the ages of 3
and 16. There is a useful collection of files for use with TextEase.
Learn-a-lot
This Canadian site sells books and games for teaching basic literacy
skills. There is also a useful links page
My Home Library
The prime objective of this site is to provide freely downloadable
bookplates, many of them designed by leading children's book
illustrators. Many of them are in monochrome so that children can
colour them as they like. The author Anne Fine is involved in this
site and has written book reviews for children of varying ages.
There is an area where children can submit their own book reviews
and a page explaining the history of bookplates.
Mr Jennings' Resources and plans
Exactly what it says - a useful site. This link will take you to "Mr
Jennings" website - follow the links to Teachers' Resources.
The National Centre for Language and Literacy
Useful organisation, useful website. NCLL is based
in (appropriately) Reading There are resources,
courses, authors to visit schools and more..
National
Literacy Trust
NLT an independent charity
dedicated to building a literate nation and this is their website.
Worth a look.
National Reading Campaign
Just what it says. This is part of the National Literacy Trust.
Persuade Star
A free online tool to help pupils write persuasive essays.
Children's writing an then be downloaded. Teachers must register
(free). Could be useful.
The Pirate Ring
A useful site if you are preparing a unit of work
about pirates. Lots of links to sites (of varying
quality and probity) all on the subject of these
colourful characters.
Pitara
This is a site for kids which is based in India. It is full of
interesting stuff with an Indian perspective. In particular there is
a very useful section of Indian folktales and stories and poems.
Teaching Ideas for English
Lots of really useful downloadable from this excellent site. (Opens
on the Reading page but links to other Literacy pages).
Teachit's
Free Literacy Resources
A collection of free resources for teachers of
English.
Teddy
Travels 
Columbus Bear has been on a world tour. You can read his diary, see
his photos and his scrapbook. The site has linked Art and Literacy
activities for KS2 children. This is a nicely presented site which
children will find very interesting.
Web
Worksheet Wizard
Create online worksheets for your children. I haven't actually tried
it myself, but it looks like it could be useful.
WWWebster Dictionary
Online dictionary and thesaurus from Merriam-Webster, the premier
American dictionary publishers.
Visual Literacy
Here's a great idea from Gary Chapman at Pennington Infant School (Lymington,
Hants). A week's worth of planned literacy hours using artworks
rather than text. The lessons here are aimed at infants but the
ideas would be useful with KS2, too.
David Wray
David Wray is professor of Literacy Education at Warwick University.
His site has a useful Ideas & Resources section containing ideas on
Thinking about Audience, Creating a Literary Environment, Technical
Writing Skills and a range of sample Writing Frames.
Writing Frames
Intended for use in secondary History, these
might be useful in a range of writing tasks at KS2 -
4.
Writing Frames for the Literacy Strategy
A great collection of writing frames from
publishers, McGraw Hill. |
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Communication (Speaking and Listening) |
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BT Education
Programme
Excellent! Lots of free resources, all around the topic of
communication in its varying forms. You have to join (don't worry,
it's free). There is also a section for children, which includes
games and activities.
Talk Dog
A great new site from the BT Education Programme. Talk Dog is a
cartoon character, The site is designed to be used either on screen
at home or on an interactive white board in school. There are
sections for teachers and for parents as well as downloadable
resources to support the activities. The site is structured into 6
sections: All About Communicating, Describing, Listening, Finding
Out More, Understanding and Being Fair. Each section has both
onscreen activities and starters for activities away from the
computer. |
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Books: including Books On-Line to read for free! |
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Aesop's Fables
More than 655 of Aesop's fables on screen. Listed with title and
moral. Click and find the whole story often illustrated and many
with audio readings. Aesop with an American accent!
The Book People
Good site offering every book you could want at very low prices. You
can subscribe to their bulletin list to receive the latest titles,
special offers and competitions.
BIBLIOMANIA, The Network Library
A very quick, well laid-out site for works of reference, poetry,
non-fiction and fiction and an excellent way to get at those classic
novels after the shops close!
Bibliomania - Fiction Library - Contents
This sites includes works by Shakespeare, Joyce, Dickens, Wilde,
Austen and Kipling and many classic writers. These need to be read
on-line.
Big Books from MAPE
Several illustrated big books to read online. Ideal for use with a
data projector or for a group around the computer. The stories can
be downloaded for use offline.
Children's Storybooks Online
A nice collection of online story books for a range of ages. They
seem to have been produced especially for this site, mainly written
by Carol Moore. Attractively presented.
Cool Reads
This is a site dedicated to publishing book reviews
by 10-15 year olds. The reviews are categorised by
genre and there are more than 2500 at the time of
this review.
Dorling Kindersley
for Schools
Well known publisher. Some free resources, including a very useful
clip art collection.
Fairrosa Cyber
Library
A tremendous site with all sorts of literacy goodies, from classics
to read on line through information about children's authors and
illustrators to articles and reviews. A fascinating section on Lewis
Carroll.
Fairytale Land
Lots of resources and ideas, from Lancashire Grid
for Learning, to support literacy work with KS1
children around the theme of fairy tales
Kidspace Story Hour
A collection of children's stories from a variety of authors. Most
are picture book-like but some for slightly older children. Quite
colourful and fun but rather American.
Lil'Fingers
A number of simple stories, simply illustrated, for toddlers to read
with an adult. Particularly useful to recommend to parents.
The Many Roads To Japan
You can download the whole text of this book (about 20000 words) and
support materials to go with it. It is a text aimed at low
intermediate and above ESL/EFL students and tells the story of a
young man who refused to fight in Vietnam and the life journey which
brings him to settle in Japan. The author, Robert W. Norris, is an
associate professor at Fukuoka International University in Japan.
North Star
An on-line story for young children. About 50 pages each with a
picture and a few words. Choose English / Spanish Boy / girl main
character. Some will love the story, others will hate it. Make your
own mind up.
On-Line Books
News, features and archives....... look out for Charles Lamb's
commentaries on Tales of Shakespeare for a quick synopsis of all the
plots.
Tiger Aki Stories Early years and
This kidsafe site has animated storybooks based on the character
Tiger Aki. Also, educational games e.g. that encourage children to
tell the time, solve puzzles etc. Aimed atr 2-7 year olds.
Puffin Books UK
Explore the house in this site. Stories for the fog of the bathroom,
comfort in the bedroom or browse the living room full of an alphabet
of pocket biographies of authors
Tales to be Told
An online task for a group of pupils to use the internet to
investigate folk tales.
The Word Pool
This is great! It's a UK children's book site owned by author Diana
Kimpton with book reviews, author profiles (including information
about authors who will visit schools), ideas for reluctant readers
and information for children's writers. There is a particular
leaning towards encouraging reluctant readers but there is much much
more. Go! Look! (There is also some useful stuff about Maths books). |
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General Literature Sites |
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Carol
Hurst's Children's Literature Site
A useful American site. Featured books and reviews and more
Fablevision
A media company. Their website contains lots of fun stuff, some of
it Literacy related. Children will enjoy it anyway.
Folklore, Myth and Legend
Online texts and useful weblinks for anyone "doing" traditional
stories..
Legends
Definitive legends from Arthur via Robin Hood to Macbeth and Blackbeard. Poets and
Painters. Links galore. Follow up Blackbeard and visit the current excavation of his ship
in Chesapeake Bay! This is a well designed and attractive site but needs a good reading
level. Useful for background.
Mrs Mad's Bookarama
This is really a book sales site with links to Amazon, but Mrs Mad
reviews loads of children's books and children can write their own
reviews which are included with Mrs Mad's. A fun place for children
to find out more about books.
Reading
Online
An electronic journal of the International Reading Association.
Sebastian Swan
A literacy website designed for Reception and KS1 children and teachers by Kent LEA.
A collection of "Big Books" with supporting materials for teachers.
Children can post comments on the books to Sebastian's Blog. Excellent.
Stories from the Web
Hosted by Stockport LEA this is a must for all interested in reading and writing. Full of
great reads and information about authors. Children can also play games and write their
own stories and reviews. Don't miss it!
Surfing
with the Bard
Shakespeare classroom on the net. Dedicated to helping pupils learn
about and enjoy Shakespeare's works. Fun.
Tales
of Wonder (from around the world)
This is an archive of folk and fairy tales. "The stories in this collection represent
a small sampling of the rich storytelling art that is the common heritage of
humanity."
Telling
Tales
A website dedicated to storytelling with links to performance storytellers, some stories,
ideas for writing stories and examples from readers. Lively site - well worth a look.
Words and Pictures (BBC)
Linked to the children's TV series.
Wordsmith
Join this site and you can have a word-a-day, anagrams or dictionary definitions sent by
email. Or don't join and simply look it up. |
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About Books and Stories |
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Charlotte's Web
An excellent site produced by an American 2nd grade
class. Pictures, chapter summaries, A-Z of names
etc. from the book and much more. Recommended
Narnia
Here is a site linked to the recent Disney film, Chronicles of
Narnia. An impressive website.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Focusing more on the books than the film. Another impressive
website.
The World of Peter Rabbit
A site dedicated to the work of Beatrice Potter. Pages about the characters and about the
author. Wonderful animated potteresque graphics. |
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Favourite Authors |
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The Complete Andersen
A huge collection of Hans Christian Andersen's stories on one site!
Into the
Wardrobe: The C S Lewis Web Site
Judy
Blume's Home Page
This is Judy Blume's own home page. There is lots here for both adults and children who
have read and enjoyed her books.
The
Roald Dahl Home Page
The Official Roald Dahl homepage. Music, graphics and... Information about the man and his
works, information for teachers and a treats (for kids only) section.
Eric Carle
Website
The official Eric Carle website.
The Dickens Page
All sorts of information about the great man.
Anne Fine
The official website about Anne Fine and her books.
Michael Morpurgo's Official Website
Information about the writer and his works.
Philip Pullman
This is Philip Pullman's own website. There is
information about him and his books.
Terry Pratchett
Lots of stuff about the man, his books and
Discworld.
J K Rowling
Kids will love this one both for its content and its
presentation.
UK Children's Books
A guide to the online world of children's
literature. There are lists of dozens of authors,
illustrators, (mostly those currently writing - no
Enid Blyton, for example), publishers and
organisations with links to their websites. This is
an excellent place for children to find out about
their favourite writers. |
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Sites for
and about Young Writers |
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Adventure Island
A collaborative
writing site from Kids on the Net. Adventure Island
is a web-based tool for classes, schools and groups
to create an interactive online island that other
people are able to visit and explore.
Audrey Wood Clubhouse: Fun for Parents
and Children
Audrey Wood is an illustrator of children's books. Her site is colourful and lively and
concentrates of the way books are illustrated. Lots of encouragement and ideas for young
writer/illustrators as well as a collection of activities.
Creative
Writing 4 Kids
Children's author Antony Lishak visits schools encouraging children to be writers. His
site provides a showcase for children to publish their work (There's lots of children's
work here). School's need to register to publish their children's writing.
Dragonsville
This stunning
site is an online collaborative writing project
created to provide an environment in which children
can write and develop their writing. It came out of
the Writers for the Future project and has to be
seen to be believed. It is now part of Kids on the
Net.
Kids
on the Net
A superb website dedicated to publishing writing by children all over the world.
Has
stories, poems, opinions and much more as well as clear instructions
to children about how to submit work. Kids will love it. There is a teachers' page with resources, education
news, and links to web sites for the whole curriculum.
The
Neverending Tale
Wonderful idea! This is a collection of choose-your-own-path adventure stories.
If you don't like the options you can add your own so that the
stories grow and develop with time.
Stone Soup
Stone Soup is an American (printed) magazine whose
content is written by children. The site contains
lots of examples of quality children's writing.
Writers for the Future
This project was run at Nottingham Trent University
in 2003-5. It explored innovative ways of writing
using the internet
and provided criteria
for best practice in the emerging genre of new media
writing. Its published book makes interesting
reading and can be downloaded from here as a set of
pdf files. |
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Poetry |
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BBC Poetry
Pages (Then scroll down the page)
All sorts of things about Poetry. Hear poets read their own work (including Tennyson,
himself, reading the Charge of the Light Brigade!), discuss poems with others, help other
people find those elusive half-remembered poems, visual poems. Great Site!
Fizzy Funny Fuzzy
Poems for kids by the poet Gareth Lancaster. The
name tells you all you need to know. There are
hundreds of funny poems, each one illustrated with
an amusing animation and space for reader's
comments. Kids will love it.
Giggle Poetry
Another fun poetry site for kids.
Low Probability of Racoons
Poet Peter Howard's site. Poems (some with sound), animated poetry, poetry for kids, links to poetry
sites and more. Excellent.
Poem Hunter
This is the place to find that poem! The site has 35,461 poems by
5,205 poets that's another 2000 poems and 200 poets since I last
edited this page!) . You can look them up by poet or by alphabetically by
title. This is a really useful site!
Poetry Class
The Poetry Society and the DfES join together to
take the fear out of teaching poetry. There
are lesson plans and ideas, resources, interviews
with poets and more ... Looks good!
Poetry Zone
A site where children can (and do) publish their
poems. There are teachers'' pages too. Well worth a
look.
Teachit's Online Haiku Lesson
Just one of the
resources from Teachit, this page presents you with
a number of words on fridge magnets which can be
rearranged into a haiku. You can ask to see the
original haiku and find out more about haiku. |
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Word Level & Sentence
Level |
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Big Dog's
Grammar
A Bare Bones Guide to English. An American site that could be very useful to those who are
a bit puzzled by grammar. Information, examples and online tests.
Daily Grammar
English grammar and new words. If you register (free) they send a daily email with daily
words and pages for grammar...mind you it's as much for grown ups as children: fascinating
the explanation of the grammar sometimes...
Grammar
Gorillas
Special Needs pupils working on sentence construction will enjoy this playful site, which
employs cute graphics in a game that tests knowledge of grammar terms and improves overall
literacy. The game is helpfully differentiated into Beginners and Advanced stages, with
pupils aiming to feed the Grammar Gorillas by correctly identifying nouns, verbs and other
parts of speech. ( It also has some maths games)
Grammar for Writing
Texts and activities from the DfES booklet made IWB
friendly by Lancashire Grid for Learning.
Grammimes
Paul Hitchcock has come up with a great idea for teaching parts of speech. Paul says,
"Grammimes offers a new practical system for teaching grammar skills within the
classroom. The method supports games and activities that takes the teaching of grammar
away from traditional pen and paper methods". Grammimes are hand signs that
represent parts of speech and can be used in games and activities to add a physical
component to language learning. The site includes information about the parts of speech
and suggestions for many classroom game activities.
Spelling
It Right
Lots of good advice and common sense about spelling. Aimed mainly at
parents and children (and adults who want to improve their spelling,
too), I think that this site would be a really useful resource for
teachers, as well. As well as general advice about how to improve
spelling there are lots of freely downloadable worksheets and
suggestions for suitable books (both for English and American
spellings).
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| Drama |
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Kenneth
Taylor's Drama in Education Site
Lots of links to sites and resources of interest to drama teachers. There is also a
discussion group. |
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Reading |
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Learn to Read at Starfall
An American site to support early phonic reading
development. many children will enjoy this - it's
very colourful. |
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