Writable

What do we like about Writable?

Teachers can activate extra scaffolds such as opening sentences or paragraphs and prefilled graphic organisers for select pupils, and all students can toggle on voice instructions for each writing prompt. Students can also use video, audio, or image responses to answer queries. Students learning English in Spanish can switch the navigation menu between English and Spanish.

What skills does it improve?

It assists students by structuring the process and professors by allowing them to monitor their students' progress as writers, revisers, and reviewers. This emphasis on students as critics, rather than just authors and revisers, is noteworthy. While composing and revising one's work are vital aspects of the writing process, research shows that peer criticism is just as important. With its Practice Peer Review assignments and the way that offering input is integrated and assessed alongside drafting and revision, Writable supports this focus. 

What age is it appropriate for?

The age appropriate for using the app is for the students in grades 3 to 12. 

Is Writable free?

Writable can be tried for free for teachers. 

Is Writable easy to use?

Demonstrates the importance of procedure to kids. Aids students in giving and receiving peer feedback. This is a well-organized tool for teaching writing and review that emphasises process over product.

How will students benefit?

Teachers can administer the class through the dashboard and provide feedback to students throughout their writing journey as students practise writing in response to prompts and participate in peer review cycles. The dashboard displays information about individual students as well as the entire class, with categories, skills, standards, and even checklists and rubrics available for further exploration. Teachers are alerted to students who require additional assistance and practice. Teachers can also collaborate as grade- and content-level teams to align assessments by employing exemplars at various writing levels.

How will teachers benefit?

Teachers oversee the peer review and revision process and are available to offer further feedback and support. Students utilise the rubric to help them evaluate the work, allocate stars and provide written criticism throughout the anonymous peer review process. The criticism is sent to the writers, who incorporate it, and then the writing is returned to the reviewers for another look. In addition, teachers can assign peer feedback ratings.

How will parents benefit?

The structuring of each phase of the writing, revision, and feedback process, as well as how it supports the assessment of both writing and feedback, is Writable's greatest strength.

What can writable improve on?

Because everything is customizable, expect a lot of planning ahead of time to get everything just right.

How much does Writable cost?

Writable costs $8 per student. 

Final thoughts

RevisionAid, a new tool from Writable, analyses writing and gives automated, customised comments, adding yet another layer to the review process. Students receive recommendations with colour-coded stars that categorise the type of feedback when they press a button in the writing area. When assigning a writing prompt or assignment, teachers enable RevisionAid and then evaluate the data in the dashboard reports. Recording and embedding video, offering video and audio feedback, printable reading passages, differentiated prompts for any task, and additional grading flexibility over multisection assignments are all new features that enable virtual and hybrid learning