GoWrite is a research driven app for students to learn about then practice writing. Students Learn about sentences, Practice composing sentences, then combine sentences into a Paragraph.
GoWrite capitalizes on over a decade of research showing that students with intellectual disability, autism, and complex communication needs can learn to write when provided predictable writing routines (sentence frames, story frames), response prompting, and technology supports (e.g., Pennington et al., 2011, 2014, 2018a, 2018b, 2018c, 2021). In 2018, Pennington and colleagues published a series of studies on teaching sentence writing skills to students with autism and intellectual disability. They demonstrated that, when combined as a teaching package, these procedures were effective in teaching students to write sentences and in many cases, generalize their new writing skills in different contexts.
Following this discovery, Pennington partnered with Attainment Company, Inc. to develop the first GoWrite prototype. In this prototype, the development team combined this powerful teaching package with an engaging digital platform to support educators in delivering high quality sentence writing instruction. The potential effectiveness of the GoWrite package is supported by two recent research investigations (Carpenter et al., 2020; Pennington et al., 2021) and its procedures are consistent with those in the existing research literature on teaching writing to students with complex needs (McClure et al., In Press; Pennington & Carpenter, 2019).
There are four modules that students can explore in GoWrite: Learn, Practice, Classes, & Paragraph. In the Learn module, there is an Assessment (for pre- and posttest) and Find the Sentence (with examples and non-examples) and Complete the Sentence activities. In the Practice module, students practice writing 5-10 iterations of the same sentence structure with different content. Simply select or customize the sentence to Practice. Practice activities give the first five sentences with zero-time delay instruction, then ten write-the sentences.
In Classes, write sentences about reading, math, social studies, science, or any topic in the I learned about sentence. Select or customize the content for writing about classes.
Lastly, in Paragraph, students write a three to five sentence paragraph, combining sentences learned in Practice or Classes.
As writing is a form of communication, its instruction should not be limited to a single daily activity. We have designed GoWrite with sentence frames that are applicable to a wide range of content areas (e.g., I learned about). When students are taught to use these frames to write about different content (e.g., I learned about trees; I learned about robots), they can learn the frame and apply it to new content (e.g., I learned about Black Lives Matter). GoWrite is designed such that students can practice and learn sentence frames in a repeated practice or mass trialed format, or write sentences throughout the instructional day. Further, GoWrite can be implemented in multiple instructional arrangements. Students can use GoWrite during independent work or center rotations to learn basic sentence frames, or during small or large group lessons to write about their learning and experiences. Teachers can provide students their own digital device and unique account or use a single device to display GoWrite for small groups of students.
The NEW! Implementation Guide provides an overview of how to use the GoWrite App for student success. Also included is a complete chart of images and words for Classes sentence frames used in GoWrite.
A Student Workbook is provided for students to practice and reinforce the same sentence frames that are offered in the GoWrite App. Starting with identifying a sentence versus a non-sentence and ending with free paragraph writing, the GoWrite Student Workbook allows additional opportunities for students to master various sentence types.
Some students may be non-traditional writers and need additional supports. A Writing Kit of pencil grips, finger spacers, triangular pencils, and adapted paper is included with the Curriculum Plus to provide accommodations for these writers.
The GoWrite Curriculum Plus includes the GoWrite App, Implementation Guide<,strong>, 10 Student Workbooks, and 1 Writing Kit.
| Subject | English Language Arts |
|---|---|
| Age Group | Age Neutral |
| Author | Robert Pennington, PhD |
| Copyright | 2025 |
