TOP PICKS | 18 TOOLS
Publishing Opportunities for Students
Top Picks
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Book Creator
Magically easy way to create and publish digital books and multimedia
Bottom line: This is a top-quality creation tool that lets students of many ages and abilities publish their own digital books.

Smithsonian: TweenTribune
News site features human interest articles with useful classroom tools
Bottom line: This is a helpful and well-designed supplemental resource for reading development, but not necessarily a go-to news site.

Storybird
Social storytelling site helps kids create, publish storybooks
Bottom line: A great fit for teachers looking to develop students' writing and digital citizenship skills through storybook creation.

StoryJumper
Free storybook creation site has great support for classrooms
Bottom line: Reliable storytelling tool gives students solid tools to create, collaborate, and share work including real, printed books.

Scratch
Creative sandbox opens the door to coding in any subject area
Bottom line: Scratch draws students of all types into coding and lays a foundation for future learning.

Edublogs
Encourage student expression and maintain digital portfolios with easy-to-use blog creator
Bottom line: Edublogs is a fantastic platform for any teacher committed to providing consistent opportunities for creation and reflection.

StoriumEdu
Collaborative writing game inspires purposeful storytelling
Bottom line: With some planning and customization, this unique card game can motivate thoughtful and sustained creative writing in your classroom.

LitPick
YA review site gives students a real-world, although ad-driven, outlet
Bottom line: LitPick is a decent place for YA lovers to discover and discuss books, but the site is in need of a refresh and features a lot of promotion/ads.

NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program
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.

Hypothes.is
Browser extension adds layer of annotation and discussion to the web
Bottom line: Free, user-friendly tool opens up the web to in-context annotation and discussion.

KQED Learn
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.

Textadventures.co.uk
Play or design text adventures, but creation can get technical
Bottom line: Text adventures can be a blast to play and make, but the Quest game-making tool, while offering some decent support, can be tough to use effectively without coding experience.

The Learning Network
High-powered news site offers daily resource to process current events
Bottom line: Driven by a trusted news organization with its finger on the pulse of the world, this free resource can be a reliable source of activities and ideas for current event discussions.

Underlined
Major publisher's writing platform has some potential
Bottom line: If the community ever takes shape, this could be a good publishing platform, but there are better, less commercial options.

Wattpad
With an authentic audience, kids can write, read, and comment
Bottom line: With the appropriate safeguards in place, a terrific tool for connecting kids with authentic audiences.

Youth Voices
Aging online community hosts authentic student writing
Bottom line: With some patience and understanding, this could be a good space for supporting healthy student expression.

Teen Ink
Get kids writing, publishing, critiquing in this valuable network
Bottom line: Teens will find a wealth of information and many opportunities to further interest in writing and the creative arts.

Write the World
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.