AletaToki, LLC is a private publishing house, producing works exclusively by gifted scholars ages eight to nineteen. AletaToki's annual edition of collected essays integrates gifted talent with mainstream issues and current events, providing a public forum for profoundly intelligent students to voice their opinions on any topic of personal interest.
The purpose of the poetry contest is to bring recognition to poets both young and old. In addition to the winning poems, other poems of high merit are accepted to be published in a hard bound anthology. There is no entry fee and no required purchase in order to become published.
"The United States depends on knowledgeable and thoughtful students--the next generation of leaders--to build peace with freedom and justice among nations and peoples. In the belief that questions about peace, justice, freedom, and security are vital to civic education, the United States Institute of Peace established the National Peace Essay Contest to expand educational opportunities for young Americans."
Power of the Pen™ is a non-profit educational writing program which targets 7th and 8th grade students in Ohio. At three levels of competition (District, Regional, and State), students participate in three rounds of impromptu writing and receive instant feedback from judges.
An award given to a student whose essay shows "outstanding academic promise at the secondary level."
Every year in connection with the Library of Congress, River of Words conducts an international poetry and art contest designed to help children explore the natural and cultural history of their local watersheds.
Students who are between the ages of 5-19 may submit an entry form, and eight grand prizes winners receive an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.D. to attend an awards ceremony at the Library of Congress.
"The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have provided an avenue for young artists and writers, in grades 7–12, to receive recognition and rewards for their creative achievements since 1923. By acknowledging the visions and voices of emerging artists and writers, The Awards have helped nurture eight decades of promising talent by providing recognition, cash awards and college scholarships."
Since 1986, the National High School Essay Contest on the United Nations has inspired students to engage global issues and the work of the U.N. Each year, UNA-USA publishes a topic and question of particular importance to the international community. The purpose of the Essay Contest is not to summarize or evaluate the work of scholars, thinkers, government officials or authors. Instead, UNA-USA asks students to use these resources to structure their own arguments and reach their own conclusions.
The Youth Writing Festivals at Calvin College are for young people in grades 1-12. They include a writing contest and workshops for young writers featuring established authors and illustrators.
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a writing event that happens every November where the challenge is to complete an entire novel in just 30 days. Participants begin writing November 1 and finish by November 30. The Young Writers Program (YWP) allows 17-and-under participants to set reasonable, yet challenging, individual word-count goals.
This organization provides teenagers a communication outlet for addressing important issues in their lives. It helps them develop their reading, writing, thinking, and reflection skills by: training teens in journalism, publishing a number of teen-written publications and providing a public forum. There are a number of resources for educators related to reading and writing, and many of the articles are gifted-related.
Youth Speaks is one of the top youth poetry, spoken word and creative writing programs in the country. It provides teens an excellent opportunity to share and compare their writing; some of their events include poetry slams, festivals and reading slams. Other features include a free after-school workshop, press resources, and a merchandise section. An underlying mission of Youth Speaks is to give teens the tools they need to apply their voices in creating social change.
The Hudson Valley Writers' Center, Inc. is a non-profit organization with a mission to promote the appreciation of literary excellence and to stimulate and nurture the creation of literary works in all sectors of the population. It offers classes for professional and amateur writers, presents public readings by well-known and emerging prose writers and poets, does outreach work in several community sites, and publishes at least one book of poetry each year.
Twin sisters Jessica and Danielle Dunn, explore practical writing tips and an up-to-date listing of print and online markets that publish student work. Tips include freelance publishing, writing camps/workshops as well as rights and copyright informatiion.
Allosaurus connects the past to the present through history, science & reading comprehension. Allosaurus provides books in science, history, writing and social science.
Written by Barbara Newhall Follett, Harold Grier McCurdy and Helen Follett, this book is about Barbara, the daughter of two authors, who was a homeschooled writing prodigy. This book chronicles her literary development as a child and adolescence, as well as her mysterious disappearance in young adulthood.
This book focuses on encrypting and deciphering texts and includes several methods of cryptography, such as transcription, substitution, transposition, and lots more. Historical events are included for these purposes along with codes that were really used.
This book by Nancy Peterson brings a new perspective to teaching kids writing—one that helps parents encourage and cultivate a child's creative insights and love of words through the writing process. The author introduces parents to the characteristics of the gifted writer, provides them with tips to include writing in day-to-day activities, and leads them through the process of setting up writing workshops within the home. Along the way, stories and insights from published writers and examples of children's written musings show how the budding writer can be encouraged in his or her self-expression. Click here to read a review of this book.
Forty-two writers were brave and generous enough to send Paul Mandelbaum their childhood manuscripts, which he compiled in this book. Each of the chapters cludes a brief introduction to the author, the juvenilia with commentary by writer and editor linking the childhood and adult work, photographs of the author (then and now) and, in some cases, reproductions of the original manuscripts and drawings. It includes John Updike, Amy Tan, and Michael Crichton.
Designed by an educator who has taught grammar and writing from middle school through the first year of college, this workbook emphasizes practice. It contains six separate topics: parts of speech, sentence structure, word usage, case, agreement, and style. Each page presents a brief lesson followed by related exercises. It has been widely field-tested as practical and effective.
This book by Majorie Frank is a resource writing book for teachers, or homeschool parents, etc. who are trying to teach children how to write. It contains activities to inspire young writers to write, revise and edit. There are many ideas on assessing student growth.
This book is a unique creative writing program that gives even the youngest writers a chance to express themselves. Featuring five distinct levels, or Miles, this program accompanies children from their first attempts at writing to comfortably writing on their own.
This series is the nation's leading instructional guide to legible italic handwriting. Developed at Portland State College in Portland, Oregon, the series teaches students to write quickly, accurately, and aesthetically in both italic manuscript and italic cursive.
The book demystifies the research process and provides tools students need to shape their research into substantive, well-written products that communicate with readers. Combining research with compelling writing is challenging for upper elementary and middle school students, but when done well, reports embody the passion that every student brings to the subject she or he loves.
This curriculum guide offers instruction on how to interrelate words, illustration, and design through simple book making activities. Starting with the concertina book, Paul Johnson demonstrates that the creation of simple books is a powerful (and fun!) medium for developing writing skills.
In Seize the Story: A Handbook for Teens Who Like to Write, Victoria Hanley, award-winning author of young adult fiction, spills the secrets for bringing action, adventure, humor, and drama to stories. All of the elements of fiction, from creating believable dialogue to exciting plots, are laid out clearly and illustrated with examples taken straight from story excerpts by excellent writers. The book is packed with writing exercises designed to encourage teens to tell the stories that are theirs alone.
This book offers a compelling insight into cryptography and codes, from ancient texts through computer encryption. The engaging history reveals the role codes have played in warfare, politics, and royal intrigue. It is particularly relevant for today's world where corporations use encryption to keep their secrets from their competitors and regulators, and ordinary people need encryption to protect their privacy.
This multi-sensory grammar teaching program provides full instruction in the fundamentals of English grammar for the elementary and early middle school grade levels. Particularly recommended for twice-exceptional gifted children, especially those with dyslexia and other language learning disabilities. Advanced Winston Grammar kit is available for the junior high and high school grades.
This book is a valuable resource guide on how to write almost anything, from business letters and term papers to plays, poetry, and clear directions. The book can be used as a reference manual or as a writing curriculum guide. Highly recommended, many homeschooling families report sending their children off to college with this manual in tow! Great Source also publishes elementary and high school versions of the book, but the middle school version listed here is the most versatile.
This book describes several very bright young writers between the ages of 10 and 15; contains examples of their work; and provides information about how an adult writer mentored them.
This workbook helps elementary age writers refine their sentence and paragraph writing. It contains reproducible pages, which provide practice in the basic components of writing including excercises to help students write more complex sentences, use figurative language, organize writing and thoughts, and more.
This book provides short, targeted, very creative writing composition activities designed to teach specific skills and genres of writing.
The book by Ben Reynolds contains specific lesson plans, student assignments, and criteria and suggestions for evaluation of student work. The book contains the complete content of the first writing courses for verbally talented youth designed by the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins University in the early 1980's. This course was designed originally for 7th grade students who scored 430 or above on the verbal section of the SAT.
This series by Dave Marks is a complete writing program using a process approach to writing and composition assuring continuity and control. It has been written specifically for homeschoolers. The author has created manuals for the parent and/or student to use, depending on the level, suggesting the typical number of days to spend on each assignment. The author has also created manuals to teach fiction and interpersonal relationship skills, as well as to evaluate writing.
Grades 4-8 will gain insight from this book offering practical questions to facilitate Socratic-style discussions and explorations of literary concepts found within poems. Author, Susan Lipson, provides 25 original poems as prompts for students to use as inspiration for their own poetry and prose.
This book introduces a method for writing that is more "right-brained" or gestalt. There is extensive material in this volume about how to use mindmapping and how to translate mindmaps into excellent writing.
Cicada is a literary magazine for teens and young adults who appreciate terrific writing. Its 128 pages of fiction and poetry provide reading that is thought-provoking, entertaining and often humorous. Cicada also publishes fiction and poetry by its teen readers, who contribute their own unique perspective.
Creative Kids magazine is the nation’s largest magazine by and for kids. The magazine bursts with games, stories, and opinions all by and for kids ages 8–14.
From The Window is a non-commercial Internet magazine (with readership in 105 countries) inviting contributions in journalism, poetry, travelogues and experiential writing from people in all walks of life and all parts of the globe.
Merlyn's Pen magazine is a well-known, respected name in education circles, garnering positive press in media outlets Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, Booklist, and English Journal. The magazine was awarded placement on the New York State Recommended Reading List for high school students along with New Yorker and Time.
Edited by and for girls ages 8 to 14, New Moon is the ground-breaking, imaginative, ad-free magazine that girls, parents and teachers love. (Winner of 6 Parents' Choice Gold Awards.) Girl contributors from around the world give voice to their dreams and intellect through fiction, poetry, artwork, letters, and articles on different cultures and enterprises. New Moon is an international, multicultural magazine which connects girls and celebrates diversity by providing a place for girls to express themselves and communicate with other girls around the world.
Stone Soup is a magazine that contains stories, letters, book reviews, art and poems created by kids. You can also submit your own.
The Concord Review recognizes and publishes exemplary history essays by high school students in the English-speaking world. The Concord Review remains the only quarterly journal in the world to publish the academic work of secondary students.
This is the nation's only college of liberal arts and sciences designed for high school-age students. Most students enter Simon's Rock after completing the 10th or 11th grade, and follow programs leading to the Associate in Arts and Bachelor of Arts degrees in liberal arts. Also available from Simon's Rock:
Acceleration to Excellence Program offering merit based scholarships; and, Summer Young Writers Workshop offering summer writing classes.
This distance learning program through EPGY offers English courses from the fourth-grade level through the Advanced Placement level. Students are placed into English Expository Writing courses based on age and standardized test scores.
The Writer to Writer seminar encourages creative writing by high school students through interaction with professional writers in fiction, poetry, screenwriting, journalism, and other forms. Since 1984, the seminar has been offered as an annual week-long summer event, drawing students from throughout Oregon, but primarily from the Portland metro area.
This website -- the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University -- now contains more than 1 Gigabyte of writing-related material, with new material being added almost every month. The web site contains hypertext workshops and subject tutorials on writing research papers, resumes, and cover letters, huge collections of links to help users find information on the Internet, PowerPoint presentations about all aspects of writing that can be downloaded for use in classes or individual study, and a voluminous quantity of web pages that cover all aspects of writing – from cover letters to commas.
Athena's Advanced Academy offers fast-paced and exciting online humanities classes for gifted students, including literature and vocabulary, writing and grammar, and history classes for those ready for fourth, fifth, and sixth grade classes.
This distance learning program is designed for independent learning and offers students in 6th through 12th grades Honors level and AP courses for high school credit.
This online class is a distance learning home study course for parents. Most homeschooling parents already have shelves of writing curricula to use with their kids. What they don't have is a cheat sheet for themselves that trains them how to teach this beast called writing.
The Young Writers Workshop of the University of Virginia, established in 1982, brings together writers with a common purpose: to create a supportive and noncompetitive environment where teenagers can live and work as artists. The faculty, professional authors interested in developing new talent, bring practical experience to the workshop setting. The staff counselors, who are graduates and undergraduates in related fields, broaden our instructional program as assisting workshop teachers and elective course instructors. The administrators, also writers, are dedicated to nurturing the artistic vision.
Aspen Writers' Foundation hosts an annual five-day, day camp called Writing Retreat & Literary Festival in the beautiful Rocky Mountains. This summer program is more than 30 years old and is led by some of the nation's most gifted and engaging writers. ASW provides the ideal venue for anyone with a passion for words by creating opportunities for intimate dialogue with acclaimed authors.
VAMPY is a 3-week residential Summer Program for very bright students who are currently enrolled in grades seven through ten and is designed to provide a balance of educational, cultural, and recreational experiences for high ability young people.
"Young Writers is an intensive two-week workshop for intellectually curious, motivated high-school students who value writing. Our goal is to help students develop their creative and critical abilities with language—to become better, more productive writers and better, more insightful thinkers. For more than ten years, Young Writers has provided a lively, supportive environment where students can stretch their talents, discover new strengths, and challenge themselves in the company of peers who share their interests."
The summer workshops, offered at three college-based sites in June and July (Illinois, Massachusetts & Oregon) are intended for intellectually curious and motivated high school students in grades 9 through 12 who like to write and want to develop greater fluency and confidence in their writing. These two- and three-week workshops offer students the opportunity to work in a range of fiction and nonfiction forms, including poems, narratives, and essays, and to strengthen their writing and thinking skills.
This three-week residential summer writing program for high school students takes place in July at
Simon's Rock College of Bard in Gt. Barrington, Massachusetts. The tuition is about $2,000 and scholarships are available.
Headed by nationally recognized authors, this residential summer program offers intensive, small group workshops in fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry. Participants attend iboth ndividual conferences wtih instructors and public readings of student's writing.
The Read, Write & Type!™ Learning System provides systematic instruction with engaging games and lively graphics to help children learn to read. As children progress through the 40-lesson adventure, they become empowered to tackle the new words they encounter both in their reading and writing. But most of all, Read, Write & Type!™ is fun and easy to use.
Grades 10 & 11; 2 weeks; residential. Open to advanced students who wish to refine their writing in a particular genre.
High school students can enjoy workshops in fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction during this residential summer program. Other highlights include lectures by the university's English faculty.
The Bay Area Writing Project's Young Writers' Camps offer students the time and opportunity to explore their writing interests, discover their strengths and learn more about the craft of writing. The camps provide in-depth writing instruction, structured writing workshop time, flexibility in writing assignments, and daily opportunities to share writing with peers. Through the camps, students discover the conditions and habits needed to do their best writing and grow in their confidence and skill.
Clarion West is an intensive six-week workshop for writers preparing for professional careers in science fiction and fantasy, held annually in Seattle, Washington.
This residential summer program offers seperate workshops in fiction, poetry and playwriting for students at all levels of ability and experience. Idyllwild's 205-acre campus provides an outstanding setting for specific art-centered programs, festivals and performances.
The Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing Workshop is the best known and most highly regarded science fiction writing workshop in the country. Clarion attracts some of the most highly acclaimed science fiction and fantasy authors as teaching writers. Admission to the workshop is based upon the promise of the applicant's writing at its present stage.
This online catalogue offers information regarding training and products for the 6+1 Trait Writing framework, a powerful way to learn and use a common language to refer to characteristics of writing as well as create a common vision of what 'good' writing looks like. Teachers and students can use the 6+1 Trait model to pinpoint areas of strength and weakness as they continue to focus on continued writing improvement.
Dictation software suitable for children. Allows you to "train" the computer to recognize your voice. You can begin using it with just an hour or so of training.
ePALS Classroom Exchange is the world's largest and fastest growing online classroom community, connecting more than 4.5 million users. ePALS helps learners of all ages become active members of the global community by giving them access to tools, resources and each other. Since 1996, ePALS has allowed learners to broaden their horizons, work together and form new friendships. By developing and offering barrier-breaking resources such as the Internet's first built-in webmail language translation, ePALS has allowed people in 191 countries, speaking 136 languages to have meaningful contact with each other. Our safety innovations, such as monitored email and profanity filters, have helped to make ePALS the leading provider of email technology in schools worldwide.
"Teaching more than 6,000 students a year, Gotham Writers' Workshop is the largest and most comprehensive private creative writing school in New York City and online. Ten-week and one-day workshops are offered in more than a dozen forms of writing including fiction writing, screenwriting, nonfiction writing and more. The school also offers private instruction, script and book doctoring services, workshops for teens, and custom workshops for corporations."
Handwriting Without Tears® (HWT) is the easy way to teach pre-printing, printing and cursive! It was developed by Jan Z. Olsen, OTR, an occupational therapist and handwriting specialist. She has more than 25 years of experience helping children and training teachers and therapists. HWT is an inclusive method for teaching children of ALL ability levels. Children love it.
Inspiration Software®, Inc. is a leader in visual thinking and learning that develops and publishes software tools that inspire learners of all ages to brainstorm, organize, plan, and create. With more than 10 million users worldwide, this software is revolutionizing visual learning in education—inspiring students to develop strong thinking and organizational skills and improve their academic performance.
Welcome to Stevenson Learning Skills, the company that publishes the Stevenson Reading Program, Semple Math and other materials for teaching essential skills to students. Our methods are unusual and innovative. We use established techniques like mnemonics (memory aids) and multisensory instruction in imaginative new ways. The materials accommodate common learning problems, such as attention deficits, phonological processing difficulties, memory weakness and sequencing confusion. In addition to publishing, we offer training and consult services. The Stevenson Language Skills Program covers reading, spelling and language arts. Semple Math teaches arithmetic operations, place value, word problems and more. Additional materials for teaching grammar, cursive writing and telling time is also available.
Teen Ink is a monthly print magazine written entirely by teens and distributed to thousands of schools nationwide. Any teen can submit nonfiction, fiction, poetry, art and photos. The online magazine, TeenInk.com, has an archive of 12,000 pieces, all written and created by teen authors and artists, as well as a daily poem, artwork, story, essay, quote, bulletin boards and more than 300 categorized Web resources for teens, such as a summer programs guide and a college guide.
The Critical Thinking Company's products help students achieve better grades and higher test scores through critical thinking exercises in reading, writing, math and science lessons. Students carefully analyze what they are learning, producing deeper understanding. Over time, students who practice critical thinking learn to apply it throughout their education and life.
This CD-ROM offers a fun touch-typing course that uses games and international travel so that the learner is having a good time while learning this necessary skill. An alternative to Mavis Beacon.
This online instructional service provides private writing teachers who help with organizing a full-fledged writing curriculum or as a supplement to virtually any other course of study. Students work at their own pace with their own teacher, and all of the hand-tailored services are guaranteed within 24 hours.
This site provides a voice for young people on the Internet. They publish original creative work by kids ages 7 - 12 in art, writing, games/puzzles and multimedia.
This site lets users register an author account, type a story, and post it online. You can read others' stories, review them and get hints to help you with your stories.
This is the first and original penpal club for kids by kids and we make sure you are safe in here.
This site is home of the young writers' resource webzine. It has articles, resources, workshops and helpful hints for young writers to explore and better their skills.
Named "the world's premier application essay editing service" by The New York Times Learning Network and "one of the best essay services on the Internet" by The Washington Post, EssayEdge has helped more applicants write successful personal statements than any other company in the world. EssayEdge.com provides superior editing and admissions consulting.
This site offers a list of downloadable graphic organizers to help students with the writing process.
This website works from the premise that an essay can have many purposes, but the basic structure is the same no matter what. It provides a plethora of advice and numerous resources on essay writing.
This online curriculum includes lessons and customizable materials for learning handwriting. Learning to write numbers and letters are important tasks for children. Each lesson is featured on its own page, and kids are shown simple steps to write the numbers, letters, and sentences. Kids can trace uppercase and lowercase letters, and blank sheets are provided for kids to practice more before their next lessons.
Make custom handwriting worksheets with text in basic print, denelian and cursive
Headliners UK is a charity which inspires and encourages the personal development of young people through journalism. Young people are trained to research and produce stories on issues important to them for publication and broadcast in national and local newspapers, magazines, television, radio and online.
"Children who paint or write in cursive, but who are unable to write legibly and consistently, in spite of repeated admonitions, require special approaches to the solution of their special difficulties. These are youngsters who are unable to properly form their letters, who have difficulty keeping their letters on the line, who may not seem to understand the relative sizes of letters, who either crowd letters within words together, or who space so poorly that it is almost impossible to determine where one word ends and another begins." Read this article for more information.
This site is designed for kids and adults interested in quality children's literature. It offers an opportunity to see their works published on the Web. This site offers art, poetry, stories, book reviews and contests all for children by children.
This site is a place where where kids can write stories and compose music to post online. Kids' Space aims to foster literacy, artistic expression, and cross-cultural understanding, and break down cultural, religious, ethnic and racial barriers between children of the world by promoting cross-cultural collaboration in creative projects.
Quantum Learning Network has evolved from a small group of educators in the early 1980's to a global organization spanning more than 14 countries. The Quantum Adademy in Oceanside, CA offers programs on Youth Achievement, Teacher Training, College Success and Adult Learning. Achievement skills courses include academic and study strategies, powerful memory and reading techniques, effective writing, thinking and learning, purposeful teaching practices, empowering leadership, and more. QLN also offers a 10-day SuperCamp Summer Program.
Does your child seem lazy, sloppy, and unmotivated? He or she could be suffering from a writing glitch called Dysgraphia, which is easily corrected. Some children have to use so much energy for the writing process that they are reluctant to put pencil to paper for anything!
This article provides gifted teachers advice on planning writing menus.
This article provides an introduction to the key aspects of the research paper genre. True research papers are more than a loose collection of anecdotal memories or a patchwork of data pulled from several books. But while new to most first-year college students, a research paper can be incredibly exciting, rewarding, and even comforting to write because it finally allows you to really get into a subject you care about with both hands while having added security--a proverbial squad car of "back up" to support you while you explore those dark alleyways of future knowledge.
This site provides resources, support materials, activities and assessment to writers, with the goal of building vocabulary and improving English, reading, comprehension and writing skills.
Some people produce characteristic, recurring writing problems as a result of inappropriately applying visual thinking to writing. This paper proposes that the writing problems of such visual thinkers derive from three factors: a lack of words, unfamiliarity with the kind of analysis that leads to the logical sequencing of prose, and difficulty understanding that context must be communicated.
Callirobics (CALLIgraphy and aeROBICS) are a unique concept in handwriting exercises. They consist of repetitive simple writing patterns (straight and curved lines) to music. The music relaxes the participants and adds rhythm to their exercises. With music the exercises become fun instead of tedious penmanship chore. Music also benefits participants who learn better through auditory, instead of visual means.
This is a cost-based online math and reading enrichment program for Pre-K to Grade 5 students. It allows children to work independently with more than 3,000 lessons. Offers progress reports for parents, as well as a free assessment.
This program allows parents and teachers to create custom worksheets to teach handwriting skills. It has both print and cursive options with optional graphics.
Zaner-Bloser is one of the premier publishers of research-based reading, writing, spelling, handwriting and vocabulary programs, all represented on this website through online programs segmented into different grade and ability levels. The company also publishes award-winning programs including Strategies for Writers and Read for Real, Nonfiction Strategies for Reading Results. Zaner-Bloser's mission is to make a significant contribution to the education of children in Pre-Kindergarten through eighth grade by publishing materials of the highest quality. Its handwriting program has been a national institution for several generations.