If you are finding it a struggle to get students to read, try asking them to write and publish their own books. This not provides obvious opportunities for writing practice, it inspires reading fluency and oral language as students work to perfect their books during the editing process.

Wixie makes it easy to support the writer and publisher in all of us. Built-in authoring, drawing and voice options provide multiple supports for student writing, and Wixie’s sharing options provide a variety of ways to publish the piece so that it will be right for your audience.

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Text and image objects in Wixie can link to external URLs and pages within a project. Linking allows you to connect the viewer or user to more information and provide options for agency that promote curiosity and responsibility for learning.

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One of the more subtle features in Wixie is the difference between the background, paint, and object layers. For example, in the image below, the map is on the background layer, the dotted selection showing Italy is on the paint layer, and the photo of the student is on the objects layer.

The viewer can’t see any difference, but these layers let the designer do different things with the visuals in the project. So what is the difference, and why choose to put items on a specific layer?

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Animation is a powerful way to connect students more deeply with the content they are learning. The popularity of animation, combined with its highly visual nature, appeals to students who don’t respond to more traditional forms of school. This motivates them to push through the hard work of planning, sequencing, teamwork, and both writing and visual communication.

Use these ideas for student-created animations in STEM subjects and beyond.

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Wixie makes it easy to use your favorite picture books to turn your first-grade readers into writers! Read a story aloud to your students and assign a sentence stem they can use to support their writing.

Wixie’s Templates library includes a range of book adaptation activities you can assign to students immediately. You can also use Wixie’s authoring tools to craft your own sentence starters, making the perfect project for your learners.

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