LINC has recently added new software that helps struggling students and students with disabilities learn the writing process. Draft:Builder, from Don Johnston, Inc., is an organizational tool that gets to the core of the writing process, helps students organize notes for writing, learn the writing process and create high-quality first drafts.

To produce a first draft when writing, students need to gather, organize and synthesize information. This complex, multi-level process causes struggling students and students with disabilities to become disorganized and frustrated. Draft:Builder gives students a framework for organizing thoughts and information so they can more easily develop detailed first drafts that are ready for editing and revising.

Draft:Builder gets writers off to a successful start because it has built-in speech and a talking spell checker that help students write with correct conventions. Teacher-made and standard templates help students write in different genres, and the bibliographer feature helps students use standard research formats when working on research papers.

Draft:Builder is an organizational tool for students who write with a switch, on-screen keyboard or alternate keyboard; require assistance to manipulate reference materials and take notes; are frustrated, reluctant writers; struggle with handwriting, spelling, comprehension and abstract thinking; need to write within the curriculum and work independently; and need to pass writing standards.

Don Johnston has also introducedBuildAbility, a learning tool for students who are visual communicators, have difficulty expressing ideas in writing alone, and are motivated by creating multi-media presentations. BuildAbility is easy to use. The Click-to-Create toolbar lets students build a page without using menus, create the story in the exact sequence desired, preview and edit at any time with a click of the mouse. Students who struggle with writing canít always find inspiring ways to express themselves. They may struggle with finding the right word, penmanship and sentence structure. With BuildAbility, students express themselves with more than just wordsóthey combine animated drawings, graphics, text, speech and sounds to create original multi-media stories. BuildAbilityís exclusive Drawmation let students create engaging images that are built in front of their eyes. Students create class presentations, electronic books to share or great stories to self-select and read over and over again! The BuildAbility Player lets students show their work to parents and lets teachers share successful activities with each other.

Don Johnston, Inc. are also the makers of Inspiration, the visual learning tool that inspires students to organize their thinking, and Kidspiration, software that supports early reading and writing success. Both are available in the LINC loan library.