Cursive Writing Wizard Premium - Trace Letters & Words
Mindprint Rating
Tags
Skills
Mindprint Expert Review
Pros
- The settings enable adults to make adjustments to optimize usage for all levels of ability, from beginners to good writers.
- The graphics are cute and engaging and appropriately interspersed with the work to maintain student engagement.
- Both Zane Bloser and D'Nealian fonts are available for practice.
Considerations
- The usage reports are detailed by activity rather than mastery, so adults may have difficulty interpreting a child's level or progress.
- Adults cannot limit the areas a child can use through the settings, so children could spend their time on the squiggles and circles rather than practicing their letters.
Mindprint Expert Review
Cursive Writing Wizard is a superb app to teach students to write cursive letters, numbers and words. The app enables adults to set the type of cursive letters, precision, and a variety of other features so that students can improve their handwriting at a graduated pace. This app has so many features that it is an excellent choice for those just learning to write and need help with lines or starting in over-sized letters to those students hoping to develop precise, beautiful cursive writing. The app provides a good explanation for adults to help children, and the usage reports provide extremely detailed reports on the child's activities. Students can play without the sound, but the sound adds fun, the phonetic pronunciation, and the option for children to record their own voices and hear them played back. The animations are bright and engaging and appear after every task is completed so that writing does not feel monotonous. Overall, this app is a wonderful choice to introduce or perfect cursive writing for students of all ability levels. *Note: This app was originally reviewed for iPhone/iPad. Some differences might apply.
Academic Benefits
Improves academic skills
- Provides sufficient and varied types of practice problems to maximize understanding and generalization of the targeted skill/concept
- Manufacturer claims alignment with Common Core/Known Standards
- Presents educational concepts accurately
- Explains answers so students can learn from mistakes
- Better for teaching the skill to new or struggling learners
- Better for practicing or refreshing the skill
- Skills are practiced through authentic, meaningful problems (not just rote practice)
Fun
Engaging for the Mindprint recommended age range
- Appropriate for a broad age range to use and enjoy
- Subject matter and problems are relevant, interesting and authentic to students
- Visually appealing to children in the target age range
- Provides virtual rewards or incentives after meeting specified goals or objectives
- Provides a "break activity" between academic problem sets
- Offers ongoing, progressive challenge
- Overall - Enjoyable. Given the option, students would choose this option
Easy to Use
Understandable for children in the Mindprint recommended age range
- Has a free or trial version
- Provides teaching guidance for adults to support the child and set appropriate goals
- Provides an age-appropriate tutorial/first time users can work independently
- Student should be able to use independently after first use
- Has a multi-player option to foster in-person collaboration or cooperation
- Multiple users can save a profile
- Student graduates to the next level or topic only after meeting a benchmark
- Can play without sound and not distract others
- Students can save work between sessions
- Can effectively understand and monitor student's progress (email report or in product)
- Provides options to play in languages other than English/Good for ELL
- Presents information in multiple formats (voice over, pictures and text, etc.)
- Overall - Easy to use