Scribo 3.0

Quick Introduction to

the new Writing Check

About Scribo 3.0

A series of quick introductory videos are provided below. Because a number of issues suggest this is a "beta" version of Scribo 3.0, the videos are one-take recordings using Screencastify. Once the software settles into a more mature version, the approaches and videos below will be updated. To learn more about the change to Scribo 3, see the note or view the presentation slides.

The Writing Check

The Scribo Writing Check is a text analysis tool that students can use independently or as part of an assigned task. With it, students get immediate feedback on their writing. Many people see the Writing Check as "Grammarly on steroids" because it performs basic grammar and spell-checking, but includes more features. Click the image on the left or this link to watch a video explanation.

Students can access it two ways:

self-initiative for using with any writing task
as a teacher-assigned activity

What students encounter varies slightly so this is shown below.

Student-initiated Use for Any Writing Task

Basic Approach

Scribo3_WritingCheck_Basic.mp4

Step: Improve Grammar & Spelling

"Grammar"
"Spelling"
"Writing Clarity"

Step: Improve Vocabulary

"Repeated Words"

Check for Correctness

Rationale for Use:

Across the diocese, “Punctuation” and “Sentence Structure” were the lowest 1-3 criteria in NAPLAN Writing 2022.
Feedback is immediate, easy to access and consistently accurate.
Improving these aspects can develop students’ writing skills and lessen teacher marking responsibilities.

Other Possibilities to Explore

Scribo3_WritingCheck_Beyond.mp4

Features Explored

Steps: Improve Sentences
Library: Cohesives, Parts of Speech
Right-Mouse: Rewrite Sentence
(Scribot Chat?)

The video highlights some of the analyses that seem most useful.

Other Features

Considerations:

Scribo 3.0 attempts to provide prioritised feedback based on characteristics of the text. The vary of such "adaptive" feedback is open to debate, however, it does mean that students will see different "Steps" and sub menus depending on what they have written.
This means that a common approach based on set analysis is not possible. Thus, once past the "Basic Approach" above, students (and their teachers) will have to explore and evaluate the feedback.

Teacher-assigned Writing Activity

Scribo3_CreateActivity.mp4

Choose what works for you

Create a Writing Activity

Before students can encounter a teacher-assigned Writing Check, the writing Activity must be set and assigned. Literatu wants to make creating Scribo writing activities as easy as possible for busy teachers. There are three main ways and they are shown in the video. You can

Create New Activity
Use an existing Activity
Be Prompted by Presto Learning Chat

Basic Approach

See the screen animation full size

Differences from the Self-initiated Check:

Currently one slight variation exists in Scribo 3.0 depending on whether students use the Writing Check based on self-initiative or a teacher-assignment.

Explore Library > Cohesives for teacher-assigned Writing Checks lists the repeated Cohesives. This is very helpful
It's hoped Scribo 3.0 is updated so that students see the same Cohesives analytics when they choose to use the Check on their own.

Beyond Basics - How Teacher Guidance Promotes Quality Writing

Focusing on Word Choice

Scribo3_WordClouds_PoS.mp4

WordClouds > Wordsmith

Learning Intentions:

Students are guided to reflect on their word choice based on sophisticated examples drawn anonymously from their peers' texts.
Students "Explore Library > Parts of Speech" to revise a particular category in their texts (e.g., choose active verbs, precise nouns, revealing adjectives, emotive adverbs, etc.).

Focusing on Sentences - Correctness

Scribo3_Developing_Sentences.mp4

If the "Improve Sentence" Step includes…

Fragments, Long Sentences, Hard to Read, Combine Simple Sentences.

Issue: Scribo 3's approach to being "Adaptive" means that students will see or not see some or all of these submenus.

Developing Sentences

Explicit Teaching:

If a teacher is comfortable leading mini lessons on sentence structure, these issues are often highlighted by the Writing Check:

Subject-verb agreement
Fragment or run-on sentences
Comma use with conjunctions

Note: some of these issues will likely be addressed in the Grammar check. As practice, you can assign students some of the Presto Learning activities on Sentences.

Focusing on Sentences - Combining Sentences (Conjunctions)

Create Compound sentences with “FANBOYS” conjunctions and a comma (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So)

"Combine Sentences"

Explicit Teaching:

If a teacher is comfortable leading mini lessons on sentence combining, Improve Sentences and the Cohesive Explorer can (with teacher guidance) help students master two straight-forward approaches:

Create Complex sentences with subordinating conjunctions. See this video on sentence types.

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