Focus on Writing

Content-free Software

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Categories of Software

1. Reinforcement (Drill & Practice Software)

2. Interactive Books (Talking Stories)

3. Content-free Software

4. Exploratory Software

5. Reference Software

6. Assessment Software

7. Access Tools / Software

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3. Content-free Software

• Allows user to enter own content

Benefits

Use in many areas of curriculum

Develop own materials to meet indiviual needs of students

Helps students to overcome barriers to learning

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Content-free Software

Types:

Word Processing Programs

Writing Frames

Talking Word Processing Programs

Word Prediction

Word Bank Planning and Organising

Desktop Publishing / Art & Design Applications

Multimedia Authoring Systems

Presentation

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Word Processing Programs

• Enables user to produce wide range of professional looking products

Benefits:

Writing can help students develop word recognition and reading skills

Highly motivational as students can express themselves without being worried about appearance

Text can be moved, changed and copied easily

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Word Processing Programs

Benefits (cont.):

Facilitates drafting and rewriting processes

Spellchecker allows students to concentrate on content rather than spelling

Picture or graphic can facilitate those with reading difficulties

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Word Processing Programs

Prerequisites:

Basic knowledge of sentence building, sequencing, punctuation, etc.

Basic keyboard skills

Some mouse skills

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Word Processing Programs

Examples include:

Appleworks

Creative Writer

Microsoft Word

Young Writer’s Workshop

My World 2

Write on for Windows

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Word Processing Programs (Writing Frames)

Supports students through the writing process by providing prompts and sentence beginnings

• Highly motivational as students can use frameworks to structure and complete a piece of writing

• Students can concentrate on content

• Written work is relevant to given topic

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Word Processing Programs (Writing Frames)

Examples include:

• I Can Write 2

• The Big Editor

• Frameworks

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Talking Word Processing Programs

• Include an inbuilt speech synthesizer that reads back text

• Can be set to read every letter, word, line, sentence, paragraph or whole screen

Benefits:

Allows students to monitor their work

Auditory feedback assists students in correcting their spelling, grammar, syntax

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Talking Word Processing Programs

Examples include:

Clicker 4

Granada Writer

Inclusive Writer

Textease 2000

Texthelp! Type & Talk

Write Outloud

Writing with Symbols

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Word Prediction

• Run in conjunction with a word processing program and suggests words as text is entered

• When user types first letter of a word, a list of words appear

Benefits

Suggests words so students can concentrate on context rather than spelling

Remembers words that student uses most frequently

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Word Prediction

Examples include:

Co: Writer

Penfriend

Predict IT

PredictAbility

TextHELP! Read and Write

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Word Bank

• Allows the teacher to input lists of words

• Student can hear the word by pointing to it with the mouse

Benefits

Teacher can chose words that individual students have difficulty with

Can input topic words, sentence starters, etc.

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Word Bank

Examples include:

Wordbar

Granada Writer*

Clicker*

Textease 2000*

* Talking word processors that include word banks