Writable was always designed to support teaching and learning in all learning environments, and it continues to be our mission to make things as easy as we can for you. The team has been hard at work this summer creating new features and content that continue to support virtual and hybrid learning, and that can help ease the transition between learning inside and outside of the classroom.
You might also notice Writable has had a glow up: how you search, save, and grade assignments has been upgraded. In addition to our Virtual & Hybrid Learning Center, we’ve also created Writable Academy, a place where we can learn together, connect, and collaborate.
New for Back to School 2020:
Video & Audio Lessons
While you’ve always been able to embed a video in any assignment , such as a learning resource from YouTube, now you can record instructional lessons right inside Writable! Adding a video or audio recording to any assignment can help to engage your students, reinforce instructional strategies, and remind of important details.
Learn how to create a video lesson >
Video & Audio Feedback
Feedback is how our students become better writers, and while written feedback is incredibly helpful, creating an individual video or audio message for your students is a great way to support their learning at a distance. Students can replay your messages as many times as they’d like, and you can use this feature to further explain or reinforce your written feedback. Video and audio feedback joins our Feedback Engine, which includes teacher grading, self and anonymous peer review, live feedback, AI-powered on-demand feedback, and originality checking.
Learn how to give audio and video feedback >
Live Feedback for Conferencing
Reach students while they are in the process of writing and revising for instant conferencing with Live Feedback. Not all feedback needs to be structured, which is why this new feature is a helpful and personal addition to our other feedback options. When students are live, working in Writable, you’ll be able to see their word count, click into their live writing, and send a message that they’ll immediately be notified of.
Learn how to give Live Feedback >
Differentiation of Prompts
While some educators may only want to provide a light touch when it comes to customized learning (like editing any part of an assignment to make it perfect for your students, or adding scaffolding), we’ve also added the ability to completely differentiate prompts for different levels of learners. Even if your students are learning at a distance, their learning experience can be customized to their unique needs.
Learn how to differentiate prompts in assignments >
My District Page
With this easy to customize landing page for schools or districts, it’s simple to share assignments, assessments, and rubrics to all teachers. This makes it even easier to run assessments in Writable, and unify literacy instruction by using shared rubrics, checklists, and standards.
Learn how to use the My District page >
Assign to Me
Have you ever wondered what your assignment will look like for your students, or wanted to simply practice writing as a student? Now you can assign any assignment to yourself, write as a student, and practice giving yourself feedback. This feature can also be helpful when teaching live or synchronously, as you can live model an assignment over a screen share.
Learn how to use Assign to Me >
Printable Readings for Offline Learning
We know not all students have consistent access to their own device. When students need access to an assignment offline the readings attached to any assignment can now be easily printed to send to them. To print any reading, simply click the print icon above a reading.
Additional Tech Integrations
In addition to grades, rosters, and assignments syncing with Google Classroom, Schoology, and Canvas, Microsoft Teams and HMH Ed have also been added to the list! Syncing with Schoology has gotten even easier, with the addition of a ‘Login with Schoology’ and ‘Sync Classes with Schoology’ button inside Writable. And as always, students can still write in embedded Google Docs inside Writable (allowing you to use all Writable features with Docs), and everything is exportable to Google Docs or Sheets for easy printing and sharing.
Learn more about using Writable with your LMS >
Submit an Assignment as a Photo or Video
An additional support for mostly offline learning or for elementary students who are still handwriting only, students can submit a picture or video, or record a video within Writable, of their handwritten or multi-media work in Writable. The student’s work can then be given feedback or graded in a teacher’s digital grading stack.
This is just the start of a great year at Writable full of new features, content, and professional learning. We’re excited to have you on this journey with us!
Are you new to Writable or curious to learn more? Create a free teacher account, check out our pricing, schedule a personalized demo, or Join the Writable Educators Facebook Community.
