| Why Can’t Our Students Write a Simple Essay? FableVision Offers Answer with Release of ESSAY EXPRESS™ Essay Writing Software FableVision and The Institute for Learning and Development/Research ILD Continue Partnership to Help All Students “Make Their Mark”
“We’ve seen the sometimes tragic results when students feel like failures and give up,” explains RILD Co-Founder Dr. Meltzer, who is also adjunct associate professor at Tufts University Dept of Child Study and an associate in education at Harvard University. Dr. Meltzer adds, “There are just too many students progressing through the educational system without the help they deserve to show what they know or to be able to adequately express themselves.”
“I write for a living and love it,” shares FableVision CEO Peter H. Reynolds, an award-winning author of children’s books, “but teaching the skill of being able to articulate one’s thinking, support and defend one’s own views seems to be one of the toughest challenges - the ‘holy grail’ of education – but ESSAY EXPRESS™ is packed with strategies that will last a life-time, and change lives in the process.”
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FableVision, Inc. About
Research Institute for Learning & Development (Research
ILD) More information is available about FableVision at www.fablevision.com. More information about the Research Institute for Learning & Development is available at http://researchild.org/ |
BOSTON,
MA - Writing a coherent essay is a daunting challenge for many
students, even at the college level, and with essay writing
as part of standardized testing – even for mathematics,
the nightmare has only increased for many students. To address
the issue, Boston-based educational media firm and publisher
FableVision has announced the official release
of the new ESSAY EXPRESS™ software product.
Following the success of the award-winning Brain Cogs®
software, ESSAY EXPRESS™ is the second
collaboration between Lexington-based Research Institute
for Learning and Development (Research ILD) and FableVision.
Based upon years of research by the internationally-acclaimed
founders of Research ILD, Dr. Lynn Meltzer
and Dr. Bethany Roditi, the new software leverages
Research ILD’s same research-based BrainCogs®
Cognitive Strategy System to develop meta-cognitive
strategies for all students to be successful in the classroom
and beyond. 
And
the problem is only getting worse. Increasingly essay writing
is becoming critical in view of the standards-based testing
nationwide, and many students with a broad range of learning
profiles struggle to show what they know on essay tests, especially
when a time limit is introduced. Dr. Bethany Roditi points out,
“Teachers know that doors of opportunity are slamming
in the face of their students who can’t write, but they
simply don’t have the proper resources to deal with the
challenge - but we set out to change that with ESSAY EXPRESS™.”
The
team of researchers, clinicians, and learning therapists at
The Research Institute for Learning & Development have spent
over a decade researching and field-testing mega-cognitive strategies
that support effective essay writing. Once again, the research
group teamed with FableVision to scale those strategies in the
ESSAY EXPRESS™ software application. The new program is
based on the original award-winning BrainCogs® software,
which provides general meta-cognition strategies to support
successful learning, studying and mostly non-essay test-taking.
“Getting kids excited about essay writing is not easy,
but once again we used FableVision’s broadcast sensibilities,
completely original rock music, quirky humor and interactive
activities in ESSAY EXPRESS™ to make them tune in, stay
tuned in – and coming back for more.” says Paul
Reynolds, President of FableVision. 
Developed
with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, the ESSAY
EXPRESS™ software provides about four to six hours of
self-paced learning and practice. The software also spotlights
the on-going saga of The Rotten Green Peppers, a dysfunctional
rock band who are hired to write rock videos that teach kids
about essay writing strategies. With step-by-step, narrated
introductions to nine cognitive strategies that support the
essay writing process, ESSAY EXPRESS™ also offers an interactive
notebook, student performance tracking system, and option for
completely customizable teacher essay questions. Additional
features include many lesson plan extension activities, reproducibles
and additional bonus multimedia materials that provide even
more learner support for both short and longer essay writing.
For more information on ESSAY EXPRESS™, call 1-888-240-3437
or explore 
Founded in 1996 by Peter and Paul Reynolds, FableVision is dedicated
to serving children by creating "stories that matter, stories
that move" for educators, families, museums, publishers
and broadcasters. The FableVision team includes a diverse group
of educators, writers, animators, instructional designers, research
partners, programmers, interactive media specialists and university
professors. FableVision serves the needs of the educational
marketplace with its own range of products including award winning
Stationery Studio®, Brain Cogs® and the North Star Classroom
Curriculum Resources aimed at helping all children reach their
true potential, as well as through collaboration with other
publishers such as Houghton Mifflin, Scott-Foresman, Scholastic,
and Pearson Education.
Research ILD is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating
pathways to success for all learners by leveraging research
and technology to develop and disseminate research-based multi-media
educational materials. The organization’s goal is to help
children, adolescents, and adults with learning and attention
differences to develop persistence and resilience and to attain
success in school and in life. To achieve these goals, the Research
ILD team focuses on changing the culture of classrooms for all
learners and training teachers and parents to teach effective
learning strategies and to foster resilience, positive self-concept,
and strong effort in all students. The Institute develops, evaluates,
and promotes strategies for successful learning and effective
teaching through research, program development, dissemination
of instructional materials, teacher training, professional development
and scholarship support for educational services.
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