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Primary Writer

Mindprint Rating

Tags

ELA: Writing Study Skills & Tools Elementary School iOS App

Skills

Expressive Language Visual Discrimination

Mindprint Expert Review

Pros

  • Students will appreciate the colorful background choices and the ease with which they can share their writing.
  • The font used is the best choice to reinforce proper handwriting and to help students self-correct their work.
  • Students can easily print or share their stories.

Considerations

  • There is no grammar check to help students.
  • Stories can not be saved but must be emailed or printed from within the app then deleted to begin a new story.
  • This is essentially a word processing app, not a teaching app.

Mindprint Expert Review

Primary Writer is a cute app to encourage elementary school students to write sentences or stories. The app is a child-friendly word processing program that enables children to pick a colorful background for their written work and then save, email or print their story. Additional backgrounds are available as in-app purchases but really are not necessary. Parents can choose to turn on/off autocorrect and spellcheck, although the program does not correct grammar. The only font available is the very simple print used in handwriting workbooks which provides students the visual clarity to see and correct their own spelling and grammar.

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

Manufacturer Description

Primary Writer is an app for kids (or the kid at heart) who like to write. Write your story, choose your paper's background and further customize the look with color and other choices.

When you're done, you can email the pdf version of your creation to your friends or relatives. If you have access to an AirPrint printing device, you can print it out directly from your iPad.