Beginning Writing Strategies

Nearpod allows for live participation where students are able to use their own devices face-to-face or through a video conferencing app. Teachers are also able to personalize the learning for individual students or small groups; using lessons and activities that meet the students' needs. A third way to use Nearpod is to watch videos and have students discuss key learning opportunities with pre-made questions - no devices required. Nearpod has 100's of premade lessons, videos, and activities to choose from, at every grade level and subject, or teachers are able to create their own lessons. Nearpod has free access to its basic program for teachers and also offers premium options for a fee.

Read & Write for Education includes a number of features to support reading and writing growth. There is a text-to-speech feature that reads what is typed including words, phrases, passages, and whole documents; all with dual highlighting. This program also has text and picture dictionaries that provide definitions and displays images. Read & Write also checks writing for incorrect grammar, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, etc. Audio Maker converts selected text into an audio file and automatically downloads the file. Talk & Type turns the spoken word into text. One thing to note is that Read & Write only offers a 1-month trial and then one must pay a subscription fee.

Book Creator is a program that allows students to create interactive stories, digital portfolios, research journals, poetry books, science reports, instruction manuals, comic adventures, and more. Students are able to illustrate, add photos, stickers, speech bubbles, music, their voice, and more. They are able to switch between edit and read mode with a fully interactive reader that can read in any language. Students can even have the words highlighted as they are read. When students have completed building their books they are able to print their books, publish them online or download their book as an ebook. This program allows 40 books to be created for free and 1000 books to be created for $10/month.

Writing A-Z is a collection of lessons and resources to teach writing to K-6 students and a set of online tools for students to create any form of writing from essays to books complete with illustrations. This program provides teachers with lessons to introduce basic writing elements to emerging writers and more advanced writing skills to developing writers. This product does have a free trial however, it does have a fee after the trial ends.

Reading Kingdom uses the Six Skill Integrated Method which was developed by Dr. Marion Blank (Reading Kingdom - Our Approach PDF, p.3). This method incorporates phonics as well as other skills needed to develop fluent reading and writing. The six skills included are sequencing, writing, sounds, meaning, grammar and comprehension. These skills are incorporated and taught together to help students make sense of reading and writing. Lessons and activities include a clear use of words and sentences. Reading Kingdom adapts to a student's learning needs and provides an academic path that supports their individual growth. It identifies a student's starting point by administering an initial placement test and allows students to progress or skip activities as required. The program is gamified in its use of points, levels, challenges and rewards to keep students engaged and motivated. There is also a reports section that allows teachers to see their students' progress through the program. This program is housed in the United States. There is a one month free trial after which there is a fee for use.