WriteToLearn 5.0 Debuts With Even More Powerful Capabilities for
Helping Students Build Writing and Reading Comprehension Skills
Text-to-Speech, English-Spanish Translation Added to Pearson's
Award-Winning Web-based Learning Tool
BOULDER, Colo. - March 11, 2008 - Pearson today
launched an update of its award-winning Web-based learning tool for
developing writing and reading comprehension skills. WriteToLearn™
5.0 debuted with new capabilities that make it an even more powerful
tool for helping students build literacy skills.
With WriteToLearn, students practice essay writing and summarization
skills, and their efforts are measured by Pearson's state-of-the-art
Knowledge Analysis Technologies™ (KAT) engine. The KAT engine is a
unique automated assessment technology that evaluates the meaning of
text by examining whole passages, not just grammatical correctness or
spelling.
With the new text-to-speech capabilities in WriteToLearn 5.0, students
can have the hundreds of reading passages in WriteToLearn read aloud to
them, a particularly useful feature for struggling readers or English
language learners. Using the added dictionary and spot word translation
ability in WriteToLearn 5.0, students can also instantly retrieve the
dictionary definition or Spanish translation of any word in a reading
passage.
The new teacher comment feature in WriteToLearn 5.0 takes the assessment
tool to the next level, providing students with direct feedback from
their teacher. Teachers can easily add a comment on an essay or summary,
and students can view them when they review the essay or summary
scoreboard. In addition to the teacher comments, the essay and summary
scoreboards give students scores for copying, spelling, redundancy,
irrelevancy and grammar. The essay scoreboard also includes scores for
each of six traits of writing - ideas, organization, conventions,
sentence fluency, word choice and voice.
Earlier this school year, language arts teacher Michael Jenkins started
using WriteToLearn with his students at Estancia Middle School in New
Mexico and is already seeing changes.
"Lights are going on, and they're excited about learning," he
said. "When I say it's time to go to the computer lab, they jump up
and go, and I have no problem keeping them on task." He added that
during a recent visit, Estancia's superintendent was surprised to see
that the students were so immersed in WriteToLearn that they didn't even
notice when the dismissal bell was about to ring.
For those students who lack skills to write well with pencil and paper,
WriteToLearn is leveling the playing field, Jenkins said. "One
young man had struggled to get his ideas on paper, but when I put him on
WriteToLearn, he became a different person."
All schools and districts with current WriteToLearn accounts will
receive the updates free of charge during March and April. More
information about WriteToLearn is available at
www.WriteToLearn.net.
About Pearson
Pearson is the global leader in educational publishing, assessment,
information and services, helping people of all ages to learn at their
own pace, in their own way. For students preK-12, Pearson provides
effective and innovative curriculum products in all available media,
educational assessment and measurement for students and teachers,
student information systems, and teacher professional development and
certification programs. The company's respected brands include Summary
Street®, WriteToLearn, Scott Foresman, Prentice Hall, AGS,
PowerSchool, SuccessMaker, TeacherVision and many others. Pearson's
comprehensive offerings help inform targeted instruction and
intervention so that success is within reach of every student. Pearson's
other primary businesses include the Financial Times Group and the
Penguin Group.
For more information, press only:
Lisa Wolfe, L. Wolfe Communications, 773-325-9935, lwolfe@lwolfe.com
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