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 SOFTWARE DESCRIPTION:

The Amazing Writing Machine is an imaginative and exciting writing program that combines fun and educational value. It features a menu in the format of a writing machine, complete with a project picker, which gives the young writer a choice of five different projects: (1) essay, (2) letter, (3) story, (4) poem, and (5) journal. The student can also choose from the main menu whether to write on his own, by choosing the write mode, or edit a pre-written story, poem, letter, journal or essay outline, by choosing the spin mode. In addition, there are four sparkling jewels on the spokes of the project picker, which can be clicked to access eight popular writing genres, including fantasy, adventure, romance and mystery, along with a set of matching rubber stamps for each.

 This program features many unique features that would be enjoyable for students and offers them numerous choices about ways to "design" a writing piece. Students can select a shape in which to place their writing. They can elect to translate their writing into secret code. They may want to have it read back to them by one of the "robot friends". They may even decide to insert a joke, famous quotation, well-known saying, or important fact to "spice up" their writing pieces. An illustration can be chosen from the stamp pad and inserted into a writer’s work. Students who are unsure of what to write about can get great ideas by clicking on the brainstorm icon. By clicking on the word "Goodies", students can access a thesaurus, a spell checker, and most notably, an infosaurus, where they can type in a word and are provided with a choice of words that rhyme with it as well as pertinent information, quotations, questions to think about, or any other information that pertains to the particular word. Finally, there is also an address book, containing the addresses of many famous and important people that students may wish to write to. Because of the wide range of special and unique features that this program offers, it is a highly motivational tool to encourage reluctant writers.

 ACCURACY OF CONTENT:

This program’s content is accurate and complete, with a few exceptions. What is most noticeably missing is tips or information about the writing process itself. It does not take a student through any of the writing stages. It does not have a place for teachers to insert notes about the students’ progress. It does not have a place for students to jot down ideas or a rough draft. It is more of an arena for students to produce a final copy.

This program is equally appropriate for any of the intended age ranges 1-5. It would be helpful to include a "tour guide" that could answer questions and help students navigate through the program.

This program is easy to install and run. Although it could easily be used by students, because of the wide array of special features included, it would take some time and practice before students were able to make best use of the entire program. There is a tutorial included for both primary and intermediate levels, although it only introduces the students to the program and does not feature in depth or step by step instructions for its use.

The menu and icons are very "kid-friendly". For example, to translate their writing to secret codes, the students click on a secret agent character. There is a moving van icon for moving pictures. A storm cloud icon is chosen when students want to brainstorm (gather ideas for writing). A light bulb icon is accessed for words, sentences or ideas to use in writing. The main menu itself is a writing machine that lights up and makes mechanical sounds. All of these technical features serve to make this program very appealing to children. The sound effects further enhance the aesthetic quality and do not distract from the learning process.

This program makes good use of technology. The students produce a product that is totally unique from what they could achieve with paper and pencil and have a lot of fun in the process of writing itself. Its greatest use is as a motivational tool-to inspire the students to want to write, and it achieves this through the terrific ideas and formats for writing that are offered.

Teachers can modify this program by creating a template which automatically opens to the first page, so students can get right to work. This way students are not overwhelmed in the beginning by too many choices.

Because of the wonderful variety of choices that students are given in this program, they are empowered to create a writing piece that is totally their own. Students can also collaborate on a group project, learning from each other how to manipulate the features of this program, and about a particular learning project in which they are engaged.

This program develops thinking skills by giving student opportunities to make decisions about everything from word choices to writing formats. The spin version would be a good tool for ESOL students to use in expanding vocabulary and understanding sentence structure, by giving them choices of words to place into the text.

The teacher can prepare students to work individually with this program by guiding them through the tutorials and providing them with a learning activity or assignment to be used in conjunction with the software.

There are numerous resources included with the software, including excellent lesson plans and blackline masters to be used to support students’ prewriting or draft work. There is also a bonus book, Write All About It, included for extra support. The writing activities included in all the resources span the curriculum and reflect current writing process philosophy. They are interesting and creative materials.

This program can easily be adapted for use by individuals or for group work. An ideal setting would be a computer lab where each student can have his own "creations" folder saved on the hard drive of his/her individual computer. It would also be a good program to offer for independent exploration and enrichment on a classroom computer.

The use of graphics, sound effects and special features on this program make it a fun and captivating writing instrument for students. It could be successful utilized with students from any of the targeted age ranges. Although the number of choices may be overwhelming for some students, it is helpful that the teacher can modify the program in order to skip unnecessary steps that may waste valuable learning time. It is great that students can choose from 5 areas of writing and 8 different genres. This software is an excellent tool for creating a final product for students to showcase.

Although this program was excellent as a supplemental tool and source of motivation, it was clearly lacking in information to help the aspiring writer through the writing process itself. Even though the program is not an end in itself as a teaching tool, it can be a valuable means of support and add creativity when combined with an activity taken from the included lesson plans and teacher materials. This software was meant to enrich, extend, and develop the creativity of young writers.