Actden
This is an interesting and motivational Canadian site for students.  It has a number of  "dens" including writing and news dens.  In those students can explore and interact with others.  Some of the graphics are excellent - in the "graffiti" section of the gallery for example.  On-line lessons help visitors to make the most of what is offered.

Angst Books  
A relaxed style features throughout this site.  It is aimed at teenagers and contains many reviews of teenage reading.

Ask Jeeves!
This is a great site!  Simply type in a question and "Geeves" does a search of a number of search engines to find your answer.  It's a friendly search engine that is easy to use!  A search of "critical literacy" found some useful information.  Anything can be asked!

Biography Maker
This is a superb site for students wishing to write a biography. It is produced by the wonderful Jamie McKenzie and is easy to use with lots of useful tips.

CanTeach: Children’s Publishing
A list of links to sites where students can publish their literature based work.

The Diary Project 
This is an interesting interactive site for students.  It‘s an ongoing diary where people can write about a chosen issue then have their comment replied to.  Could be motivational for high school students who are reluctant to write.  There is a real audience and real reading. The Diary Project is a multimedia project designed to open up a world wide teen dialogue about the issues faced growing up today. Teenagers are encouraged to write freely and often about anything that is on their mind, just as they would in their own journal.  The goal is to encourage communication amongst teens of all cultures and backgrounds.

Guys Read
A site created by Jon Scieszka, author of The Stinky Cheeseman to support boys’ reading.

Junior Judges Project
This site was developed as a project and offers an online national framework for programs within schools based on the CBCA Shortlist and Notables Announcement. There is no cost for your school to participate.


Email
Book Raps
Book discussion conducted by electronic mail where individual or groups of students discuss a scheduled book. Sometimes an author may also be involved. Past Raps are archived and can be a source of ideas for classroom use. You can visit a Rap without joining to get a taste of the forum. (eg. The Rabbits, A Bridge to Wiseman’s Cove, Goodnight Mr. Tom, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes - past Raps. Coming up: Pagan’s Crusade, Two Weeks with the Queen.

Write to an Author
Check that the site is the author’s site and that the email link is to the author. Many authors that do participate in online communication with readers set up a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page. Make sure students read these first before they communicate. Remember that authors time online cost them money in terms of connection costs and ‘working’ time so make sure that students are responsible with short and relevant communications and that your class does not overload an author.
As you explore author sites take note of the ones that allow students to communicate. Some examples to get you started are:

Class e-pals
Use common literature studies to focus email correspondence with another class.

Epals
The world's largest K-12 Online classroom and electronic penpal network. Great for individual students and classes - available in English, French and Spanish. Bright, colourful and fun.

 

Film Sound Design
Theoretical and practical aspects on narrative sound effects in Film and TV. The Film Sound Design Resource site contents over 100 web pages on film sound design, over 50 linked online articles from the bibliography section and contains analysing terminology and information from leading academic theoreticans and practioners in the film industry.

Funhouse
This is an interactive Western Australian site largely aimed at young people wanting to get their writing published for a wider audience. Writing by young people can be read, some unfinished stories can be worked on and visitors to the site can write to a published author.



Greatest Films
This is a large site full of relevant information for teachers and students. The site includes useful information on film genres.

iNK, Interactive News for Kids
Part of the News Limited site, this section is a useful ‘web-based set of tools which allow you and your students to author, produce and publish your own on-line news publication.’ It guides teachers and students through all the steps needed to produce a publication, using any available technology. The intended end product is publication on the site itself, but parts of the process can be used to create publications for other purposes. The site is easy to use and suitable for students from about grade 5 to grade 12.

Internet Movie Database
This site has information on thousands of films. It has been developed in association with amazon.com and is similar in style and navigability.

KAHooTZ
is a members-only club for kids - no adults allowed! To join KAHooTZ you need to buy a KAHooTZ membership and receive a unique set of KAHooTZ member numbers and passwords.  In KAHooTZ, you're in control. KAHooTZ members create and run KAHooTZ. There's no advertising or anything adult.  A safe site for kids.

Kidlit  
A great opportunity for all students to see their works published on the worldwide web. Submissions are welcome in electronic form, either by email or by output from a word processor. All submissions must be in a PC-compatible format.

Kid Pub
This is huge!   You could spend days reading the vast store (20,000+) of children's stories that have been published on this site.  It is mainly for children but teachers would enjoy the range of young writers represented from around the world. Any young writer can submit and there are some stories by young Australian writers.

Kids on the Net
Books and Authors lead to student book reviews. Students can read these for inspiration then submit their own.

Ozlit Australian Books and Writers
A great site with lots to interest students, teachers and parents. The site is organised into chapters and includes a Books and Writers Database, a section for younger readers, literary sites, research tools, a poetry collection, Book of the Month and multiple links to others sites.

School Intranet
An excellent safe way to publish students’ work that relates to author studies. Issues of privacy, file size etc. are not of major concern.

School Internet
It is important to get parental permission before publishing any student work and make sure that student privacy is assured. Accuracy is important, remember that others may find your site whilst looking for author information. Department guidelines for publishing can be found at: http://www.education.tas.gov.au/deis/forms/

Scholastic — Magic School Bus
Art work relating to books can be sent for publication

Stories on the Web
A place for publishing children’s work — fiction, book reviews and poetry etc.

Teenreads
This is an extensive collection of reviews of books for teenagers. Some include excerpts for students to read.

Yahooligans!
A large American online children's club. Sections for parents and teachers outline the methods used to make this a 'safe' site for children. Many entertaining and educational features!

Young Authors Workshop
This exciting site offers many ideas for young people wanting to write. It has links to ideas for writing, tips for writing, revising, editing and publishing as well as useful teachers' resource pages. Some of the links are particularly useful. One to The Young Writers Club, http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~david/derya/ywc.html for example, gives some excellent opportunities to be part of an online writing community.  Joining is easy and there is access to a great deal of writing by young writers.