Language+Arts

National Postal Museum has developed curriculum guides that explore stamps and postal history, and encourage students to write letters. Topics include historic letters and stamps from American wars; stamps and other countries, history, and art; the place of letter writing in American history; letter writing for advanced English learners; and letter writing between students and older adults (using cultural landmarks in the community). (National Postal Museum, Smithsonian Institution) [] Poetry Everywhere provides 10 videos, as well as essays and lessons, to help students explore the power of language and build reading and writing skills. The videos feature seminal voices of poetry,past and present, from Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson to Seamus Heaney, Marie Howe, and Yusef Komunyakaa. (Teachers'Domain, Multiple Agencies) []

=An Open Letter to Ninth Graders= Preparing our students, long before they become our students. By Patrick Sullivan []

This is a very valuable site for young writers. It has endless lists of ideas to generate stories. It also a good example of effective brainstorming. []