Vicky's Primary Transition Class:

Using PixWriter to Support Early Writing Development for Struggling Students

Vicky taught a primary transition classroom that offered students an extra year between kindergarten and first grade. She was interested in helping her students develop their writing skills. At a STAR Cycle team meeting, one of the other teachers suggested using PixWriter, a word processing program that uses graphics to give struggling and emergent writers visual support/feedback as they compose. It is possible for the user to type just as he or she would on an ordinary word processor. As the word appears on the screen, a corresponding picture pops up above the word. It also speaks the word out loud.

One of the most important features of PixWriter is that it allows teachers to create "set-ups" for students. Simply by typing words on the keyboard, an array of buttons with the words and symbols is created at the bottom of the screen. This allows students to create stories just by selecting these buttons (somewhat like a digital communication board). Teachers can save a variety of set-ups for different students and subjects. Vicky liked this process and wanted to try it in her classroom.

With help from the STAR Tech project team, Vicky was able to create five connected activities that spanned several days. On the first day, she asked the students to brainstorm what they knew about the ocean. She wrote their ideas on the board and then placed the ideas on sticky notes as had been suggested at the team meeting. The second activity involved having students form sentences using word cards. Each card had a word and a picture or icon on it. The students arranged the words/pictures into a sentence and pasted them onto a blank piece of paper.

In the third activity, the students typed the sentences using PixWriter with picture cues (see example). Building on this, in the fourth activity they used Kid Pix to compose sentences without pictures. Finally, in the fifth activity, the students wrote their own sentences (at least two), retrieving sticky notes with key words and referring to the word card. Vicki was delighted with the results. Every student was able to compose at least two sentences into a meaningful text.

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