Writing, Journaling, and Blogging Websites for Students
It's critical for students to learn to write clearly, communicate effectively, and express themselves. In today's classrooms, it's especially important that students practice these skills in authentic digital contexts that help them become good digital citizens who can contribute ethically, critically, and responsibly in online communities. Students, however, can find it hard to write what they mean, or they might find writing flat-out frustrating and boring. To help, we've curated some of the best student-friendly tools for writing, journaling, and blogging. These websites will help students get practice writing informally in settings that aren't too daunting. Since reading is key to writing, many of these websites also connect students with writing from other young people or articles aimed at classrooms. Look out for a few tools on this list that also help students collaborate with peers and share their work privately or publicly.
Collaborative writing platform has the potential to motivate
Bottom Line: There's creativity possibility in this tool's unique brand of collaborative and competitive writing, but teachers should take care to keep things positive.
Wildly engaging contest turns students into novelists in 30 days
Bottom Line: A thoughtful adaptation of the famous and fun grown-up novel writing contest, NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program is brimming with advice and encouragement as well as classroom support.
Civic discussion site encourages media literacy and deep thinking
Bottom Line: This platform features excellent videos students will enjoy discussing, but teachers will need to prep students to make quality contributions.
Global community helps young writers write, revise, think, and grow
Bottom Line: With interest-based writing prompts and thoughtful feedback from peers and pros, this is a great tool for writing for authentic audiences.
