17 September 2020Jason Carroll, Global Product Manager
The WriQ score is a recognised writing standard, establishing common expectations in writing assessment and achievement at a state or country level by the end of a designated grade level or year group. By gathering over 80,000 writing samples from students across grade levels and scored then by teachers, the WriQ score provides a meaningful number to help teachers know how well their students are writing by taking into account several useful metrics along with a national norms comparison.
Keep reading to learn how the score is calculated…
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15 September 2020Ruth Scott, Content Specialist
Motivating students to engage in writing instruction can be tough. Creating goals that they can work towards can often help to set them off on the right path for success. In this blog we take a look at some simple tools and tricks that you can share with your students to help them bring out their inner author.
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09 September 2020Amy McDowell, Content Specialist
On August 18 - 20, we hosted a virtual conference called ‘Design and Delivery in the Blending Learning Jungle. Over the course of three days and more than 16 hours of sessions on Writing, STEM and Reading, there was a lot of information for our attendees to take in. With a focus on helping teachers prepare for remote or hybrid learning, many speakers talked about the right technology to engage students. But, through these discussions, another important message emerged: no matter what technology you do (or don’t) use, teachers must ensure that learning remains meaningful.
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25 August 2020Patrick McGrath, Education Technology Strategist
For many years, EdTech tools have served as learning supports for students who require additional attention from teachers or have special educational needs. Far from mainstream, they were implemented to aid teachers already being pulled in multiple directions.
However, as the emphasis is increasingly placed on inclusion and understanding the way individuals learn, we are seeing these same tools flooding into classrooms, with positive results for students across the board.
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20 August 2020Patrick McGrath, Education Technology Strategist
Ask yourself a question: What is the goal of teaching? For each of us as educators we may well have a wide range of answers that together sum up how we approach teaching. Perhaps it’s to prepare students for their future. Or to motivate and inspire the kids in our classes. Or maybe it’s to build their independence. We’re all hoping to create lifelong learners, who look differently at problems, ask questions, communicate effectively and embrace opportunities. These goals are why we do what we do, and these are the goals that have enabled us to work through the challenges we have had in recent months as we shifted our approaches to remote learning. They are also the goals that will carry us through the months and years ahead and will help us adapt our instruction and our pedagogy to provide the very best outcomes for our students.
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20 August 2020Patrick McGrath, Education Technology Strategist
Writing is a beautiful thing. It’s not simply a process of using words in a systematic way. It allows us to communicate our thoughts and feelings, express our opinions, enthuse and excite others or demonstrate knowledge and progress.
Writing provides a means for personal reflection, thinking, creativity, meaning-making and sharing, as well as complementing other modes of communication. It’s our human technology for preserving speech. In the words of Voltaire, ‘writing is the painting of the voice’.
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