Screen+Cast+Number+1

media type="file" key="Final Screen Cast 1.mp4" width="714" height="714"

Seven Things to Know About My Interactive 1) The Letter Generator tool is designed to help students learn to identify all the essential parts of a business or friendly letter, and then generate letters by typing information into letter templates. A sample letter is included, and students can learn about the parts of a letter by reading descriptions of each part.

2) This interactive can be used from kindergarten to twelfth grade: lesson plans where this interactive can be implemented are featured for all age groups varying in technicality and difficulty. Use of the interactive helps students of all ages explore and better their writing skills from punctuation to sentence fluency and word choice in addition to helping students identify the parts of friendly and business letters. That being said, some sort of background knowledge of the parts of a letter, the types of a letter, basic writing skills, and (for older students) the concept of introductory, middle, and conclusion paragraphs.

3) Once students have become familiar with letter formats, they are prompted to write their own letter. Students follow the steps and fill in specific fields in the template (for example, heading, salutation, closing, signature, and so on). They may even add a decorative border and postscript to the friendly letter. The finished letter can be saved, e-mailed, or printed.

4) This useful tool provides step-by-step instructions for familiarizing users with the necessary elements of written correspondence, and can serve as an excellent practice method for composing and proofreading both formal and informal letters. The actual separating of the parts of a letter can help students better understand and then concentrate on each part individually instead of getting overwhelmed at the task ahead. The Universal Design for Learning objective: represents information in multiple formats and media is addressed. The ability to type the letter versus writing it and then being able to see it on the computer screen presents a different way to format the project. In addition, students who have difficulty with handwriting and fine motor skills may find it much easier to type their letter instead of hand writing it thus addressing the needs of many exceptional learners.

5) Many lesson plans are featured on the website below the interactive. For example, a lesson plan for third to fifth graders features use of the Letter Generator interactive for students to write their own letters to family members, friends, or school staff (Similar to my hypothetical situation used in my screen cast.) and then deliver them or mail them to the person. This letter writing takes place after reading literature (and talking) about correspondence and then writing a letter as a class.

6) A major downside include the lack of spellcheck on the interactive so students can be sure their work is grammatically correct; perhaps copying and pasting into a word processer to check spelling would be advised. In addition, there is no area to seek help within the interactive, so the teacher must be relied upon to read directions and restate them as needed for each individual student. As an educator, I would want to actually use this tool with my class writing a collaborative letter before I have them write their own. I think seeing this demonstrated would help them feel more confident as they fill out each section to create their finished product.

7) After this interactive is used, the file created can be saved to the computer as a pdf file, emailed to someone, or even printed right away. The next step in utilizing the product could be learning to address an envelope and actually sending out the letters. Perhaps penpals could be created through a project like this and the Letter Generator tool could be utilized time and time again for each letter written. This way practicing of writing letters would help build student confidence and competence in this ability.