As I read Donald Leu's previous column, I found myself wondering about the many possible uses for the Internet in the classroom and the emerging forms of literacy brought about by its many dynamic virtual environments. I thought about the many new possibilities for communication that were mentioned and noticed that many of these new communication forms (e.g., chat sessions, e-mail) involved writing. I reflected back on Leu's statements about "standing on the cusp" between traditional and new forms of literacy and realized that today's students would use written communication for purposes both traditional (e.g., letters) and new (e.g., listservs). This realization impressed upon me the need for developing writing-centered literacy experiences that help students develop traditional and electronic literacy skills.

The more I thought about it, the more I considered the practical concerns of using virtual environments like the World Wide Web (WWW) to facilitate the teaching of traditional literacy and new forms of electronic literacy. Although the wealth of information on the WWW provides great potential for incorporating rich information resources into writing-centered literacy activities, the sheer enormity of the WWW's seemingly limitless boundaries makes locating appropriate information quite time consuming. In addition, once individual sites are chosen, they must be carefully analyzed to make sure that information contained within is conducive to instructional goals and students' level of language use.

One way to reduce this burden is to share information. Even though many informal and formal networks exist for exchanging ideas, I decided to put together a larger, more comprehensive list of Web sites and suggest some possibilities for their use to assist you in creating writing-centered literacy experiences for your students, experiences that promote both traditional and electronic literacy skills.

I divided the WWW sites presented here into four major categories: Teacher Resources, Student Writing Resources, Interactive Writing, and Student Publishing. The Teacher Resources category includes sites that contain instructional resources for you (e.g., writing-centered lesson plans), and the Student Writing Resources category includes sites that serve as online writing resources for your students (e.g., online grammar handbooks). The Interactive Writing category contains sites that facilitate communication through written discourse (e.g., responding to online stories through e-mail or online forums). The final category, Student Publishing, provides sites where your students may submit their work for publication (e.g., e-zines).

Looking for writing-centered activity ideas? Trying to locate useful writing resources for your students? Many sites on the WWW contain examples of writing-centered unit plans and lesson plans as well as ideas for individual activities. These sites also contain links to student resources such as online journals, e-zines, and online grammar handbooks. Extract ideas and resources directly from these sites for use in your activities or create new lesson plans and activities from the information you read.

Want your class to participate in an Internet writing project? Have an Internet project of your own to publicize? If so, then visit Education Place. Here, there is a section called Project Center, where teachers from all over the United States list projects that incorporate the use of the Internet. Join with another classroom in one of the collaborative writing projects listed or submit one of your own. This site also allows you to do a subject-specific, grade-specific search for writing-centered literacy activities, and it provides additional links to sites like The Alliance for Computers and Writing, a site designed for teachers interested in using computer technology in the writing classroom.

Browsing for a single site with links to student writing resources? Try the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction's Education Resource List. This site contains a section of links devoted exclusively to language arts, featuring an online magazine and journals, online grammar handbooks, and sites with language arts lesson plans. Bookmark this site and use its resources as you develop writing activities. For example, scan the lesson plan resources to consider methods that will help you reach lesson objectives most effectively and print out online grammar articles on usage and style for students to read.

Searching for writing-centered activity ideas? Check out Outta Ray's Head. This site contains lesson plans for blending art and writing, a 16-week unit that culminates in an electronically published autobiography, and writing error diagnostic exercises. Many of the lesson plans listed here include a rationale for their use as well as corresponding handouts and evaluations. Borrow the lesson plans as is or adapt individual activities within these plans to a unit you have created with a similar theme (e.g., writing an autobiography).

Seeking a site with resources for students on current events? Then try the Florida Center for Instructional Technology. Here, there is a section with links to the most popular online news sources such as Cable News Network, The Nando Times, and USA Today. Have your students compare and contrast the ways each of these sources covers a single event or have them track coverage of a single story over a period of days as a way of illustrating elements of journalistic writing style. This site also includes a handy format guide for electronic citations as well as links to additional curriculum resources, where writing activities such as "creating a wagon train" and "creating creature feature stories" are described.

Are you looking for lesson plans? AskERIC is a site not to be missed. View actual writing-centered lesson plans by clicking on the "Search the Collection" link at the top of the first web page you see, and then type in a keyword (e.g., writing). This site also includes lesson plans for writing with computers, creative writing, autobiographical writing, poetry, and creating comic strips, as well as many others. Gather lesson plans from AskERIC on a particular genre of writing (e.g., poetry) and create a mini-unit by combining several different lesson plans.

Want something more than just educational resources and activity ideas? If so, then go to EdWeb . This site contains a resource page with links to chat forums, online interactive projects, and lesson plans, but it also offers something more -- insightful articles and online discussions that explore the implications of using technology in the classroom. In addition, this site includes a historical sketch about WWW development and information on possibilities for its potential role in the classroom. If you want to read about what others are doing with computers in the classroom or wish to participate in online discussions about the role of the WWW in education, these opportunities exist as well. Exchange activity ideas with teachers through online discussions or seek advice on difficult issues such as student access to sexually explicit material.

Looking for information about timely cyberspace issues such as netiquette and Internet child safety? Pay a visit to these interesting sites: The Net: User Guidelines and Netiquette, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and Classroom Connect. The Net: User Guidelines and Netiquette site has information about appropriate user actions when using e-mail, telnet, ftp, chat areas, and the WWW, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) site includes links to NCMEC publications. These publications give advice on ways for children to avoid criminal victimization and exploitation while online. Visit the Classroom Connect site and participate in one of the "Connected Classroom Conferences." These online conferences focus on K to 12 instructional issues such as integrating the Internet in the classroom, approaches to Internet staff development, and Internet safety. Sign up to be an online presenter or simply participate in the discussion.

Combined, these sites provide great sources for an online writing research project. Ask your students to come up with a list of questions in relation to Netiquette or child safety. Then have them visit these sites and other related sites, collecting information to answer their questions. Next, tell students to write about what they learned and to cite resources using the methods described at the Classroom Connect site.

Want to incorporate online student resources into your writing-centered activities? Check out some of these sites, which contain online grammar handbooks, dictionaries, thesauruses, and HTML style guides. These sites offer young writers an opportunity to consult with not just one, but many, online reference materials.

Need a helpful resource for student HTML authoring? The HTML Writer's Guild is a great resource for students who are creating their own Web pages. This site contains an archives section with articles written about site management, importing graphics, and HTML development tools (e.g., HTML editors). Informational links about searching the WWW, Web page design, and downloading Web development tools are also accessible here. A resource section has links to online HTML style guides and specification manuals. To help your students become familiar with the development features of an HTML editor, have them practice using several editors before they create a Web site of their own.

Interested in providing additional editing assistance for your students? Visit the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Writers' Workshop . This site includes a writing techniques handbook with information on analyzing audience, writing summaries, and taking essay exams. Also available is an online grammar handbook, a good information resource for students' editing of parts of speech, phrases, clauses, and usage. Additionally, this site contains links to both American Psychological Association and Modern Language Association style manuals. Bookmark this site and have your students use it as a resource during the editing phase of the writing process; they can easily move between one of these sites and a word processing program, rechecking their draft as needed.

Looking for resources that provide feedback on student writing? Check out Inkspot, another helpful resource for young writers. This site includes an electronic bulletin board for posting writing-related questions or for locating peer-critique partners. To extend your students' feedback opportunities beyond the walls of the classroom, ask them to find an online peer-critique partner and exchange works in progress. This site also contains information about joining an online writing group and improving writing techniques; it even provides links to online style manuals.

Searching for online grammar resources for your students? Then bookmark these helpful sites: The Hypertext Webster Interface, the Roget's Thesaurus Search Form, the Columbia Guide to Online Style, and Ask Miss Grammar. The Webster site gives your students greater capabilities than the spellcheck features on most word processing programs because definitions are provided in conjunction with each word sought, while the Roget's site gives them a more detailed listing of related parts of speech and provides links between related terms. The Columbia citations guide offers your students quick, easy access to citation examples for http, ftp, Telnet, and other Internet domains. Bookmark this site and have your students use it as a reference resource for citing information from the Internet. Also, the Ask Miss Grammar site provides students with a resource where they can e-mail grammar experts with their language questions, seek advice from authors, or read grammar articles such as "Problematic Pronouns" and "Ten Tips for Effective E-mail."

Interested in expanding the boundaries of your classroom by giving your students a chance to interact with others online? Try using the WWW as an interactive writing resource. These sites give students opportunities to seek advice from other authors, contribute to collaborative hypertext stories, and build relationships with other students outside of the classroom.

Planning a unit on fiction writing? Want to make it as interactive for your students as possible? Visit the Realist Wonder Society and The Scoop. The Realist Wonder Society touts itself as "a whistle-stop of imagination between way stations of reality." This site contains hypertext stories written in a variety of genres. Students are asked to respond to the online stories if they wish or to add endings of their own. The Scoop offers adventure stories for students to read and invites them to add their own endings as well. Monthly contests are held, and the best endings are chosen from those submitted. Ask your students to add an ending to one of the hypertext stories on these sites and then later have a sharing circle, where groups of students reading the same story summarize what they have read, explain the ending they chose, and give the reasons for their choices.

Interested in a site that explores many wonderful facets of language use? The WordWizard is a must-see. This site includes a link to "Slang Street," a place where students submit definitions of slang terms. Also featured at this site is a discussion area where your students "dress-up" in the style or vocabulary of a given story or author and participate in an online discussion hosted by an expert. Watch for online discussions featuring an author familiar to the class (e.g., Lewis Carroll) and have your students participate by assuming the roles of different characters in a particular work.

Looking to extend the communication networks of your students beyond the walls of the classroom? Pitsco's Keypals is a great place for your students to meet others their age from around the world. This site presents links to other keypal Web sites and listservs, where students, classes, and schools connect with other keypals. Keypal information is categorized according to age, topics of interest, or collaborative project interest. Use keypals as a way to broaden your students' knowledge of other cultures. Have your students locate keypals from cultures other than their own and ask them to start an information exchange with their new friends.

Trying to incorporate purposeful writing into your science or mathematics classroom activities? If so, look to The Mad Scientists and Ask Dr. Math for help. In addition to offering links to other science and math resources, each site offers students an opportunity to interact with real experts in each of these respective fields through e-mail. Ask your students to pose solutions to math and science problems discussed in class and then have them e-mail these questions and solutions to the science or math experts, with a request for feedback on the solutions they proposed.

Interested in student publishing? A number of sites publish students' writing and artwork. Electronic publishing gives your students a chance to display their work for the world to see; it's truly a unique opportunity for them to display their poetry, short stories, or artwork for an audience outside of the classroom.

Browsing for sites that publish student poetry and short stories? Try the Young Author's Magazine Home Page and Candlelight Stories. The Young Author's Magazine Home Page accepts both poetry and short story submissions. Poems are easy to submit. Simply have your students fill out an electronic form, including their name, age, school affiliation, and an 8- to 12-line poem. For short story submissions, send the story as a text file along with an e-mail message. Candlelight Stories also accepts original stories and illustrations from students around the world. An online "Feedback Form" is provided at this site for those interested in submitting their work. Ask your students to submit their poetry, short stories, and artwork on a regular basis and have them inform you when something is accepted. Jot down a note with the site address and send it home when submissions are accepted. This information will keep parents up to date on their children's achievements and maintain positive communication links between school and home.

Searching for publishing opportunities for very young authors? Kids' Space is for you. This site allows students to create a short story featuring pictures provided at the site and submit it for publication. You may want to ask your students to submit stories on a monthly basis as part of an ongoing creative writing project.

Trying to get parents more involved with your writing-centered literacy projects? Consider using Parents and Children Together Online. This electronic magazine offers both students and parents publishing opportunities. Your students are invited to submit original stories for publication, and their parents are asked to submit articles about "issues related to children's reading and writing." Ask interested parents to observe their children's reading and writing practices and then have them write a short piece describing what they learned from these observations, highlighting issues of delight and concern that may be helpful to other parents.

I hope these Web sites and my suggestions for using them demonstrate, in a larger sense, how the WWW helps facilitate the teaching of both traditional and electronic literacy skills. For example, when writing a business letter, if your students consult an online grammar handbook for information about format and style, they will learn traditional skills essential for writing an effective business letter; they will also learn information-retrieval skills necessary for locating information on the WWW. In addition, using e-mail to obtain feedback on this letter from a peer-critique partner allows students to learn traditional grammatical and organizational literacy skills while learning to use e-mail.

Today we live and work in a world where both traditional and newer forms of literacy are prevalent. As we stand on the cusp of both forms of literacy, we gain clearer insights into the importance of teaching literacy skills that will help students within both the traditional and the electronic worlds in which they write. In this way, we prepare them for a world where e-mail is increasingly used for written communication without ignoring the traditional literacy skills that will be necessary should they decide to use an envelope and a piece of paper.

If you enjoyed this column, you might also be interested in the following postings at the ROL site:

• The Benefits and Challenges of a Student-Designed School Website by Maya B. Eagleton
• An Approach to Factual Writing by David Wray and Maureen Lewis
• Additional columns from The Reading Teacher's Exploring Literacy on the Internet department
• Columns from the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy Technology department

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