Edmonds School District

Co:Writer Quick Links

Step-by-Step Written Instructions.

Overview of Co:Writer Chrome Extension on the Chromebook

Co:Writer helps give you the words and phrases you’re intending as you type — even if your grammar and spelling are way off. Just type a letter or two and Co:Writer “predicts words and phrases in real time.” Co:Writer Universal can be used when writing emails, accessing websites, blogs and Google Drive. It can be particularly beneficial when using the “Topic Dictionaries”, a feature of Co:Writer.

Adding Co:Writer Extension to Chrome - Initial Setup and Activation

Have your student log into a chromebook with his/her usual username and password.
On the desktop, tap on the Launcher (found in bottom left-hand corner).
In Launcher, look for the Web Store (shopping bag withe Chrome icon). If you do not see it, type “web store” in the search box to find it.
In the search box of the Web Store type “CoWriter” and then hit Enter.
On the next screen, find Co:Writer Universal (Extension) and click on “Add to Chrome”.

Note: Do not confuse this with the Co:Writer Universal Chrome App!

Once you have clicked on “add to chrome” a popup may appear, asking again if you want to add the extension. Click “Add extension”.
Once the extension has been added, a message will appear indicating Co:Writer has been added.
You can now close out of the Web Store and activate Co:Writer.

To activate Co:Writer for the first time, open a Google Doc. To the right of the address bar, near other extensions, click on the Co:Writer icon, which looks like a thought bubble.

At this point, if the thought cloud is gray with a red or orange dot, students may be required to Sign In with the same credentials that they used to sign into the chromebook. If this is the case, click on the Co:Writer icon and select “sign in” from the drop down menu. Choose “Sign in with Google” and select the student’s district account.

After the above steps, the icon should be solid blue.

Clicking on the icon provides a drop down menu that looks like this:

If the blue slider is greyed out, click on it to make it blue. This is how the extension is toggled on/off.

Note: Occasionally, with Chrome OS updates, students can become logged out. In this case, students just need to click on the icon in the address bar and sign in again.

You can always check extensions that have been added to a particular Google account by 1) signing into Chrome, then 2) going to chrome://extensions (or the three dots at right top corner> More Tools > Extensions). On this page, extensions can be activated or deactivated.

Activating & Setting Preferences in Co:Writer

After adding Co:Writer to Chrome, the Co:Writer icon (thought bubble) will initially be dark gray in color. This is to indicate that it is not active - either because the user must sign in OR because they have turned it off with the slider button.

To activate for the first time, click on the Co:Writer icon. It may be gray with red dot. The screen will then open up to the activation page. When it opens, click on “Sign in with Google”, then enter the student’s name or simply lick on it, if it appears among the list of options, and click “Allow” (if required).

Note: If working on a student chromebook where the student is signed in, it may offer the student’s account upfront. If working on another device, such as a home computer, the student may need to enter their credentials.

Now that the student is signed in, Co:Writer will now be activated and the browser will return to the Google Doc that was previously opened, per these instructions. The Co:Writer icon should now turn from dark gray to purple or blue.

Before starting to use Co:Writer, set-up student preferences by clicking on the Co:Writer icon and then clicking “Options”. In this area, you can select from a variety of options to customize the tool.

Setting Preferences

You can create specific preferences for your students using Co:Writer Universal. Within the Options page, pictured below, you can customize settings.

(Note: The appearance of this menu may be different due to updates!)

Set-up the size of the word prediction box by moving slider (line between “A” and “A”) either right or left. When you do this, a sample will automatically appear showing you the size of the box at each point on the scale.
Change the number of guesses that will appear in the word prediction to any number from 1 to 9.
Adjust the volume, the rate at which each word and sentence is read aloud (very slow to very fast), and the pitch of the voice.
Select the simplicity or complexity of the words that appear in the word prediction box by clicking on the “Main Dictionary” to select the level of vocabulary you want for your student.
Typically, for beginner writers, select “Beginning”. For 3rd grade and up, the Intermediate Dictionary works best (12,000 words).
Create a Topic Dictionary or several Dictionaries (See instructions under "Using Topic Dictionaries”).
Once you have finished setting up a student in the Options page of Co:Writer, do not click on “Sign Out”. Instead, click on the “x” in the Co:Writer extension tab at the top of the screen.

Using Word Prediction in Co:Writer

The Word Prediction Box:

Open a google doc. Click on the dark gray Co:Writer icon. It should turn purple (note that when you use it the first time, it may take a little while before it activates).
Start typing in your document. A list of words will appear in the word prediction box.

3. Mouse over (move the cursor) the list and move down the list to hear each word read aloud.

4. To insert a word into the sentence, either click on the word or type the corresponding number on the keyboard.

Try it out - type incorrect spellings, similar the examples below, and watch as the correct spelling of each word is listed in the word prediction box:

The blk jragon flu ovr the gra lfnt. (The black dragon flew over the gray elephant.)
R u hpy to ce me? (Are you happy to see me?—only 6 keystrokes!)
I no hw to nsr the fone. (I know how to answer the phone—less than 8 keystrokes)

For longer words, encourage your student to type in at least 3-4 of the letters before scrolling down the list of words in the prediction box. If a desired word does not appear in the list after 2 attempts, it usually means the second letter (usually the vowel sound) is incorrect. Encourage your student to change the vowel (e.g. if a student wants to insert the word “milk” but types “malc”, have them change the second letter, the vowel).

After a period is added to the end of a sentence, the sentence will be read aloud. You can use Co:Writer to hear a few sentences read aloud at one time by highlighting the sentences you want read aloud, right clicking, and then selecting "speak".

If a student wants to hear two or more sentences read aloud, the easiest way to do this is to have them use Read&Write for Google, which all students have on their chromebooks.

Important: Writing numbers - If a student wants to type a number (e.g. 1925), they will need to select the number keyboard and click on the desired numbers, then click on the letters to return to word prediction.

Speech-to-Text in Co:Writer

To use the speech-to-text feature, simply click the microphone, allow access to the device microphone, and click the microphone again to make it “listen”. Now you can speak to type. Clicking on it again will mute the microphone.

Using the speech-to-text feature of Co:Writer can be very effective after a student has tried to spell a desired word 3-4 times but was unsuccessful at eliciting it in the word prediction box.

Co:Writer Universal: Using Topic Dictionaries

One of the really useful features of Co:Writer Universal is the ability to use its Topic Dictionaries to allow students opportunities to write on almost any subject using the 4 million topics available on Co:Writer.

To create and use a dictionary in Co:Writer:

Right click on the Co:Writer icon and select Options.
Under Topics, in the Search box, type in a topic name (e.g. Egypt). When you do this, a list of subjects related to the topic you have chosen will appear. Click on the subject area you would like to use as your topic dictionary.

Note: The appearance of this menu may be different due to updates!

3. Once a topic is selected, you will see the message, “Creating Topic, please wait…” (Co:Writer creates a topic by pulling the high frequency words related to your topic from the web).

4. Once the process has completed, your topic will be listed under “Topics” and will be “On”, as indicated by the purple slider button. Being “On” means that once you close the options and you start using Co:Writer, words related to the topic you have chosen will show up almost immediately in the prediction box when typing in the first or subsequent letters of a desired word.

Word-by-Word Translation in Co:Writer

Word-by-Word Translation, a newer feature in Co:Writer (added August 2018), can be very useful for English Language Learners.

From Don Johnston (makers of Co:Writer): “Students learning English will tell you that the single most difficult thing for them when writing is not knowing the English equivalent to the words they know in their primary languages. Now in Co:Writer, when they come to a word they don't know in English, they can type the word in their language (27 languages are available) and Co:Writer will translate in real time—right in the sentence. They can also hit the microphone button and speak the words. Co:Writer will translate automatically. This keeps students learning and writing in English for secondary language acquisition, but gives support when they get stuck."

More information can be found at: https://learningtools.donjohnston.com/2018/08/update-in-cowriter-word-by-word-translation/

Report abuse