The Ultimate Writing and Creativity Center is a writing program that is designed to motivate students to create and complete innovative writing tasks. The program contains four components to help the students in their writing task: the Writing Idea Lands, the Word Processor, the Picture Place, and the Presentation Theater. Each of these components is filled with ideas to spark the imagination of the student. To help the students navigate throughout the program is a character, Penny, a pen, which when clicked offers helpful writing tips. The Ultimate Writing & Creativity Center offers the students a creative way to approach the writing process. The program takes the student through pre-writing, drafting, revising and presenting. The students can add pictures, sound, music, and animation to their writing.

The Ultimate Writing & Creativity Center is a well-designed program for the targeted age group. The program reflects the parts of writing process, starting from brainstorming to publication of work as a final product. In addition to publishing work, students can present their work using the Presentation Theater. The program contains no ethnic or gender biases and should appeal to a wide range of students.

The program is easy to install and use. In a classroom setting, the students should be able to navigate through the program smoothly with little guidance from the teacher. The program contains many different navigational systems. There are link buttons to the writing land, the word processor, the picture place, the Presentation Theater, and the main menu. There are also help icons, the writing tips buttons, and Pen--all of which can be clicked on to get specific kinds of help. The word processor contains a tool bar with icons that link specific menus that assist in the preparation of a document. The program contains outstanding graphics, sound, and animation. These features are motivational and enhance the learning process. For example, the Writing Ideas Place has striking graphics to motivate the writer while also offering assistance to get started on a writing project.

The Ultimate Writing & Creative Center makes good use of the computer. The program allows the students to work on the writing process, offering helpful tips and writing ideas. The program allows students to see the benefits of using multimedia (sounds, graphics, and animation) to supplement their writing. The students have an opportunity to construct many different types of writing. They are encouraged and taught to work through the different stages of the writing process as well as to work with supplemental graphics, music, sounds, and animation. The students ultimately can present their work in the component of the program known as the Presentation Theater. The program also makes excellent use of color, and ideally students should be able to print their work with a colored printer.

The Ultimate Writing & Creativity Center truly empowers students. There are many decisions that the students can make about their writing throughout the program. They can decide what they want to write and how the layout will look, and they also decide how to present their work. The program enables students to see their improvement and accomplishments and to develop confidence as writers. The students’ finished writing products can be saved and printed; the final results should make students feel proud of their work. The program can be used independently or by a small group doing a writing project, such as a collaborative story.

The teacher should demonstrate the program to the whole class using a projection system. Students in the younger grades will need guidance and should start by using only some parts of the program. The teacher might want to make a chart of the key navigational buttons, which younger children can look at it if they have a question. The teacher’s guide gives suggestions for several mini lessons to help students get acquainted with the software. The teacher can track and assess student work either by printing their work and keeping a writing portfolio or by looking at saved files to see progress over a period of time.

This program is an excellent supplement to a writing program for children in grades two through five. The program adheres to many of the National Standards for English Language Arts. The program is good for individual writing assignments or a small- group project. It is possible that a whole class might be able to work on a single project, such each student contributing a poem to a poetry anthology.

This program is highly beneficial to learning and supports teaching writing as a process. It offers more than word processing. The Writing Idea Land helps students with the early stages of writing, and the Presentation Theater supports the final publication of work as a performance. The program encourages students to be imaginative and to think about the stages in the writing process. Seeing their work published in a creative format should motivate students and build their confidence as writers.

The Ultimate Writing & Creative Center is an outstanding educational program that truly motivates and encourages students to use their imagination and develop their writing skills. The teaching guide is excellent and offers many suggestions for classroom implementation and student writing projects.