Middle School Writing

"Common Lit offers a unique resource in the support of literacy and critical thinking. The wonderful collection of free and accessible texts enables students to explore enduring themes." - testimonial from the guy with a cool mustache on the site. CommonLit is a site similar to Newsela in that it is free to access and it is great for literacy building grades 5-12. Check it out, you might really like this one.

Storybird is an online platform (and Chrome app) for storytelling. Students act as authors, pairing their words with site-curated, licensed art. Students can compose text, but they can't upload their own art; they must use Storybird's curated collection in their picture books and illustrated poems.

NoRedInk is a website designed to help students learn and practice essential elements of English grammar and understand important elements of good writing (such as use of evidence). Teachers can create classes, add students, and assign specific skills for student mastery. There's material for just about every possible writing convention students might need help with, ranging from subject-verb agreement and parallelism to compound sentence structure and citation formats.

Grammarly is a writing and grammar checker geared toward helping writers correct and craft their very best work. It can be used on the web, as a Windows or Mac app, or as a Chrome, Safari, Edge, or Firefox browser extension.