by Paul Oh

Looking to motivate your students to write? Or for ways to meet the requirements of the Composition strand of the English and Language Arts frameworks? Consider the Internet as a potential answer. There are numerous sites available that give students the ultimate in an authentic audience, that final step in the writing process. Here are a few of those sites, and what you will find there:

Kidscribe! (http://web2.iadfw.net/def/) is a bilingual site (Spanish/English) that allows students from all over the world to post their writing, and read the writing of others. It is the brainchild of a former bilingual education teacher in Texas who currently serves as the Education Coordinator for the Texas Memorial Museum in Austin.

A site I've used in the past is ePALS (http://www.epals.com/), which is an email exchange site. Nearly 75,000 classrooms from 191 countries have profiles posted here. Browse for just the right companions - comparable grade level, number of students, interests. Mail comes to an ePALS mailbox that you set up when you register, free of charge, at the site.

cbc4kids is a terrific site, generally, published by the Canadian Broadcasting Service. Within cbc4kids is the Writer's Corner, which publishes fiction, non-fiction and poetry each week. You can find the Writer's Corner at http://www.cbc4kids.cbc.ca/general/words/writers-corner/.

For older students, a non-profit site called TeenLit.com (http://www.teenlit.com/teenwork/teenwrit.htm), operated by two secondary teachers in Michigan, publishes all kinds of writing by adolescents, including poetry, essays, short stories and book reviews. An archive at the site extends back three years, so it's possible to see, for example, writing by students that focuses on the September 11 terrorist attack, written soon after the event. Interestingly, the site's two publishers say they are conducting research through the site on the effectiveness of the Internet in promoting teen literacy.

Finally, if you'd like to involve your students in a longer-term, directed project, consider the Monster Exchange (http://www.monsterexchange.org/), which promotes clearer, more precise language in writing by having students first draw a monster, then write directions that will allow someone to replicate that drawing. The directions are then traded with another class, and the original and final drawings are posted. Be forewarned, however, that you must be familiar with your school or district's Internet Use Policy before you post your students' work.

In general, it is a good rule of thumb to have permission from parents before posting student work. Then, if you do post, include only first names. You might consider asking your school technology resource teacher about appropriate protocol for identifying students online before diving in to any of these sites.

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