This morning I received an email from a reader who was looking for some recommendations for websites that her students can use to learn and practice new vocabulary words. I have made a couple of lists on this topic in the past but it's been a while since I updated them and a couple of the items in those lists have gone offline. Therefore, I put together a new list of the websites that I recommend.

For some students the hardest part of starting a creative writing assignment is generating an idea to write about. Here are seven good sources of writing prompts that you can share with your students.

"Shaun Tan's picture books have won numerous awards and been adapted to theater and animated film. His stunning wordless graphic novel The Arrival depicts the immigrant experience with unforgettable emotional impact. Get to know this illustrator from Perth, Australia by watching our November 2007 video interview. Learn how he got his start as a children's book illustrator, how he developed his ideas for The Arrival, and what inspired his vision for the book. Tan also describes the meaning behind a few key drawings in The Arrival, and offers advice for young artists."

For some students the hardest part of starting a creative writing assignment is generating an idea to write about. Here are seven good sources of writing prompts that you can share with your students.

"Students will create their own message in their alphabet"

The Arrival is a migrant story told as a series of wordless images that might seem to come from a long forgotten time. A man leaves his wife and child in an impoverished town, seeking better prospects in an unknown country on the other side of a vast ocean. He eventually finds himself in a bewildering city of foreign customs, peculiar animals, curious floating objects and indecipherable languages. With nothing more than a suitcase and a handful of currency, the immigrant must find a place to live, food to eat and some kind of gainful employment. He is helped along the way by sympathetic strangers, each carrying their own unspoken history: stories of struggle and survival in a world of incomprehensible violence, upheaval and hope.

Sofia and her friend Mareka are watching Professor Julius Sumner Miller's television science show, Why is it so? Janice arrives and meets Sofia's mother and grandmother. She needs Sofia to translate the conversation and Sofia deliberately tells each party the wrong translation

Some activity ideas for Shaun Tan the arrival as well as other picture story books. 

Excerpts from Red Leap Theatre's production of THE ARRIVAL by Shaun Tan Premiered Civic Theatre, March 2009 Developed with the assistance of Auckland Festival's Watch This Space Programme and Creative New Zealand For more information see www.redleaptheatre.co.nz

We asked Shaun some questions about why he decided to produce Sketches from a Nameless Land, the companion title to The Arrival. Here he talks about the book as a manifesto for the art of illustration. For more information on The Arrival and Sketches from a Nameless Land, see www.thearrival.com.au

We asked Shaun some questions about why he decided to produce Sketches from a Nameless Land, the companion title to The Arrival. Here he talks about the way The Arrival mirrors a multicultural society as well as the background characters of the city. For more information on The Arrival and Sketches from a Nameless Land, see www.thearrival.com.au

Academy Award winner, illustrator and author Shaun Tan takes you through the creative process in the privacy of his studio. Shaun Tan's award winning animation 'The Lost Thing' screened with a live music score at the 2011 GRAPHIC Festival on August 20 in the Concert Hall.

Using Shaun Tan's book the Arrival in the classroom. Free lesson plans and ideas to incorporate Shaun Tan's book "the Arrival" into your classroom.

Some great information and teaching ideas for the collaborative work by Shaun Tan and John Marsden

Some interesting background information.

Some interesting resources here for the arrival. Quotes, newspaper articles including a podcast about the author. 

Scholastic stuff on the arrival. Teachers information

Some great images of the shaun tan arrival