"Figment is a community where you can share your writing, connect with other readers, and discover new stories and authors. Whatever you're into, from sonnets to mysteries, from sci-fi stories to cell phone novels, you can find it all here."

Bookwink's mission is to inspire kids to read. Through podcasting and web video, we hope to connect kids in Grades 3 through 8 with books that will make them excited about reading. The videos are approximately 3 minutes long and are updated monthly. Each video booktalk is about a different topic, and additional read-alikes can be found on the Bookwink website. You can look for books by subject, grade level, author or title. We are constantly updating the book lists with our newest favorite books.

"The most dreaded word in school reading for students: book reports. Teachers assign them, viewing them as a necessary component of assessing reading comprehension. Book reports can be a contributing factor to 'readicide'. "Read-i-cide n: The systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools." http://stenhouse.com/html/readicide.htm. So, how can we as teachers continue to monitor our students understanding of reading material without killing the love of reading? Enter technology. Technology can help bring some excitement and creativity to the traditional book report while still displaying students understanding of reading."

"Using art to understand stories In our read-aloud lesson, enjoy the unifying message of All the World, a Caldecott honor book written by Liz Garton Scanlon and beautifully illustrated by Marla Frazee. It offers a lovely message of peace for this holiday season. "

Written from a first-person perspective, some argue that the poem chronicles its narrator's rapid descent into madness, paranoia, and the macabre after a strange encounter with a ghoulish raven. His brooding melancholy is the result of losing a beloved "Lenore," whom we presume is dead because, after all, this is Poe we're talking about. In short, we're dealing with a moody, recently bereaved protagonist who loses his marbles after experiencing a supernatural visitation. If that's not a recipe for a Shakespearean tragedy of the highest order, we don't know Hamlet. And, with that, we present the story of Shakespeare's Hamlet, to the beat of Poe's "The Raven"

"Choose one of the following communication types and then customize your scoring guide by checking ONLY the traits and elements you want to use at this time. Click on each keyword for descriptors. For more detailed information on these scoring guides and further resources, see Overview of Digital Media Scoring Guides. "

"Communication skills are critical for today's students. Reading, writing and the ability to tell a story set the stage for success. The Hub, a new TV destination dedicated to bringing kids and families together, is partnering with Discovery Education to support teachers in this important endeavor. Here you'll find inspiration to engage and inspire your budding writers. Meet the artists, editors and writers that bring good stories to life-and watch your students' communication skills soar!"

"Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. You can: * Download the files to your Mp3 player and listen on the go, * Listen to the Mp3 files on your computer, * View the text on a webpage and read along as you listen, * Print out the stories and poems to make your own book." An abstract, citation, playing time, and word count are given for each of the passages. Many of the passages also have a related reading strategy identified. Each reading passage can also be downloaded as a PDF and printed for use as a read-along or as supplemental reading material for your classroom.

Student made book trailers for Printz Award winners.

"Whilst looking at the some publishers websites I saw a few different book trailers. They were interesting but there was nothing there that I believed our students weren't capable of creating some just as good." This wiki gives suggestions, rationale, and resources for having students create their own book trailers.

Creekview High School Library shares their great resources for using Kindle. Documents include: Kindle checkout and permission form, request form for e-books, and various tracking forms.

"This is a new version of the original 50+ Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story that was created in 2007. As of Oct 24, 2010 5:18 pm there are 65 Ways! If you are a person that likes watching DVD extras or seeing "The Making of..." I have a story for you, the History of 50+Ways... In this new version, I have made more places for you to directly add to the site, including your own story examples, sources of media, and advice for others you might be interested in a tool you used. See How to Contribute for more details."

"With this interactive tool, teens can create printed social networking or magazine/newspaper profiles for themselves, peers or family members whom they have interviewed, or fictional characters from books they have read. Featuring components of popular online social networking applications, this tool engages teens and provides a means for adults to talk about safe, responsible online behavior, such as having an awareness of who could be seeing online profiles and limiting highly personal information."

About five months ago, I posted about the possibility of using Goodreads.com in the classroom in a post titled Goodreads: Another Classroom Resource Possibility. Once you're on Goodreads, it's addictive, similar in social networking terms to things like Facebook and Myspace. However, Goodreads is focused solely around literature experiences. What I did was set up a private classroom group under my profile, and set up accounts for my students. I monitor their accounts closely because they're registered under e-mail accounts that I control in the classroom (I did this through epals.com, they offer free e-mail for classrooms that can be teacher monitored).