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This site helps people learn languages or improve on the language knowledge that they already have. I was attracted to this site because of the section on Writing Exercises and tried it out. Here is a summary: WRITING EXERCISES-Practice writing on various themes and prompts and get feedback from native speakers. LEVELS: Beginner (a journey or weather, discuss a trip or language course, write dialog for a telephone conversation); Intermediate (writing an e-mail, postcard and letter, describing people and everyday life) or Advanced (everyday topics and expressing opinions) OTHER COURSES; Level Courses, Spanish for the Holidays, Spanish Around the World, Numbers, Listen and Practice, Spanish Idioms, Express Training, Refresher Course, Themes and Situations, etc.

Kids can read and write about current, sometimes quirky and interesting events. On the right side there are topics to choose from, like Health. The articles can also be read in Spanish! You can sign up if you want, but you do not need a login to read the articles.

The new Iowa Core standards call for students to write opinion (K-5) and argument (6-12) essays, and I can see that some of these articles might lend themselves to this type of writing. Appendix A of the English Language Arts standards call for us to "teach the issues" so students learn how to analyze and form opinions.

This is an interesting article about an educational program in California using Write To Learn in a very different way, to immerse ESL students in language learning from a very early age.