Learning to write is a lifelong pursuit. Students learn the basics of writing at school, but like anything, practice makes perfect. As a parent, you may not always be equipped with the tools or time to help your child with their writing. That is where online writing programs come in. Below are seven writing programs which will develop your child’s writing skills, encourage a passion for writing, and lead to academic success.
Route2Write is an affordable online writing program for students studying English Language Arts who want to supplement their school learning with high-quality live interactive classes from certified instructors on a range of different writing types. Route2Write covers the main modes of discourse (informative, descriptive, persuasive, and narrative writing,) and also includes a poetry unit to encourage students to experiment with reading and writing poetry. In each unit, essential skills are taught, building up to a final piece of writing in which students can practise their newly-learned skills.
The curriculum is completely self-paced, meaning students can complete a lesson whenever they are free (each lesson is approximately 20 minutes long.) Furthermore, detailed marking and feedback is provided for students who sign up for the marking add-on. For a true classroom experience, weekly live classes with a certified instructor are also available.
There are currently no options for homeschooled students, making this more appropriate for students who would like to supplement their English Language Arts studies.
Time4Learning is an online program full of interactive activities covering topics such as math, science, and language arts. Their writing program is created by certified teachers and comes in three tiers of difficulties to assist a range of abilities (basic, intermediate, and advanced.) In addition, homeschooling courses are available, helping parents plan a schedule for a homeschooling year.
Time4Learning offers competitive pricing at just $24.95 USD for PreK - Grade 8, and $34.95 for Grade 9 - 12. Also, you can purchase risk-free thanks to a 14-day money back guarantee.
Although Time4Learning offers some great homeschooling options, there are no live teachers available. Parents are provided with answer keys to check students’ answers. Further, it is not a program that is built for in-class learning.
Allowing teachers, parents, and students to create and share their own story stories, StoryJumper is a great place for students to develop their reading and writing. This can be a great tool to improve reading comprehension and, most importantly, make reading fun!
StoryJumper provides students with a platform to create or retell their own stories and add audio and visual elements, giving them a final product they can share with others. This can be done independently or collaboratively with an adult.
Students can explore their creativity with StoryJumper, but it does not offer much structure in terms of progression. This is something that must be monitored by parents. Further, there are no live classes available for students to receive support.
It is not uncommon for students to find poetry challenging, unimportant, and even boring. Magnetic Poetry breaks down the barriers of poetry, allowing students to develop their poetry writing skills in a fun, relaxed setting.
The concept is simple: students are given a blank canvas and some words with which they can create a poem of any form, of any length, and about any topic. This kind of interactive, fun task gives students the opportunity to express themselves creatively in a way that poetry in school may not.
Magnetic Poetry is a fantastic way to gamify poetry, but it has its limitations. It will not provide students with any real teaching due to a lack of lesson plans and live classes. Consider using Magnetic Poetry as a starter or plenary as part of a larger poetry lesson.
Does your child lack inspiration when it comes to writing? When putting pen to paper, many students get stuck at the first hurdle, leading to them feeling demotivated and unexcited about writing. Story Starters is a fantastic way to help students break through these challenges by giving them ideas to push them in the right direction.
This interactive site gives students a random format (e.g. fairytale, description,) protagonist, and situation. From there, they can begin writing on the website. Once complete, students can print or download their work to add to their collection of writing.
Story Starters is a fun way of giving students writing prompts, but it is little more than that. If your child is not familiar with the planning or writing of different types of texts, they may find themselves stuck at the very next stage due to a lack of planning help or live instruction. Nevertheless, your child will love this interactive prompt generator!
Originating as a tutoring centre in San Francisco, 826 National and their online platform, 826 Digital, is now a global network which encourages students to develop their writing as a means to channel creativity, explore identity, and achieve academic success.
A well established program, 826 provides a range of free resources for students of all grades from short writing prompts to lessons to develop writing skills.
826 is a vast bank of writing resources, but it lacks support from instructors. For example there are no live classes integrated into the platform. Students must be somewhat independent when it comes to their learning. Failing that, they will need the assistance of a parent or teacher.
Offering a range of materials from engaging online activities to set lesson plans, ReadWriteThink is a collection of free resources on topics frequently taught in schools.
ReadWriteThink’s extensive collection of resources are available for students from K-12. Along with writing tasks and lesson plans, they offer other fun classroom resources such as a calendar containing important dates in literary history to broaden students’ knowledge of literature.
Lacking any form of online instructor or self-paced lesson plans, ReadWriteThink is directed towards educators and afterschool professionals, meaning that students alone will not benefit from this online tool. Due to this, it is not appropriate for homeschool use or as a supplement to learning.
