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The Write Start Program is a comprehensive, activity based program in which first grade students learn handwriting and writing. In the Write Start program, occupational therapists and teachers collaborate to provide effective instruction for all students and individualized accommodations for students at risk for handwriting problems. I just love the way this approach is evidence based and collaborative.

A variety of templates, tutorials, and graphic organizers introduce and explain the major forms of writing (narrative, persuasive, expository, research, response to literature) and help students develop practical writing skills - from coming up with a topic idea to publishing a polished work. Developed in collaboration with Microsoft for Learning Essentials, these tools offer solid instruction from the popular, research-based Write Source series of writing programs.

Great list put together by Paul Hamilton for apps that support reading and writing. Also click to the main website to see apps that support multiple means of representation, expression, engagement.

Website created by the students who participated in the Freedom Writers class that became a movie. Talk about relevance and writing for a genuine audience! If you're having trouble hooking students on writing, check this out.

This is a narrated tour of the main Web2.0 writing tools currently available. I bookmarked for the excellent content but also as a great example of how to use Flowgram to do a narrated web tour.

Very kid friendly tutorial on paragraph writing using an apple.

There are some very good ideas for implementing UDL principles in teaching writing on this page.

Online program scaffolds writing of science reports.

Help Obama write his inaugural speech. Just for fun...

Very nice online resources for different types of writing. Student and teacher resources.

This is a collection of free, easy-to-read, and accessible books on a wide range of topics. (1000 and growing) Each book can be speech enabled and accessed using multiple interfaces (i.e. switches, alternative keyboards, touch screens, and dedicated AAC devices). The books may be downloaded as slide shows in PowerPoint, Impress, or Flash format.\n\nYou may write your own books using pictures from the huge collection at Flickr or pictures you upload. Some of the books may be inappropriate, so have students select from your favourites.

Drag and drop (or type) words from a word bank onto an image. Would be outstanding for writing Haiku. Reviewed by Kelly Tenkley at iLearn Technology Jan 14, 2009.

Type in a word and you get a list of words that rhyme. Would be great for writing poetry.

Beautiful design and great resources on the new POPEI website that include suggestions for K-3 reading, writing, word work, oral language, and assessment.

Birchland School has been keeping data on the effectiveness of implementing UDL ever since their involvement in the UDL project. They have written up their results for both reading and writing and the results are astounding!

This page has apps organized by category, e.g. Reading, Writing, Science, etc. and also has link to Special Education apps section at the bottom.

Draw a stickman and watch him come to life! Reluctant readers? This should motivate them. Would also make a great idea for a writing activity.

This is a toy for generating word clouds from text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, colours, and layouts. Take a screen shot to save your creation as there isn't a way to export as a jpeg. Wordles would make great title pages or slides and could be a fun class brainstorming activity or a way for kids to practice writing their spelling words.

One-stop shopping for rubrics. This site contains a great rationale for using rubrics, advice on how to write good rubrics, and links to sample rubrics, rubric collections, and rubric generators (Try the Rubistar generator and storage link).

iLearn Technology is one of the best blogs I've seen for teaching educators about integrating technology and computer curriculum into the classroom. Kelly Tenkely presents the latest Web2.0 gadgets but also writes about how she's using them in her grade 5 classroom.