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Students Can Study Forensic Science, Biology and History While Building Writing and Reading Comprehension Skills With WriteToLearn 5.1

Teacher Guide for Integrating Pearson's Web-Based Learning Tool Into Classroom Curriculum Added

SAN ANTONIO - June 30, 2008 - When students go back to school this fall, they can learn about forensic science, biology and history while building their writing and reading comprehension skills, with today's announcement of WriteToLearn™ 5.1 at the 2008 National Educational Computing Conference. The newest update to Pearson's award-winning Web-based learning tool for developing writing and reading comprehension skills includes an expansion of its content library to include passages from popular high school textbooks, improved essay feedback and new resources to help teachers integrate WriteToLearn into classroom lessons.

With WriteToLearn, students practice essay writing and summarization skills, and their efforts are measured by Pearson's state-of-the-art Knowledge Analysis Technologies™ (KAT) engine. The KAT engine is a unique, automated assessment technology that evaluates the meaning of text by examining whole passages, not just grammatical correctness or spelling.

"Today's students need to continue to develop critical writing and reading comprehension skills in the upper grades," said Lynn Streeter, president of the Knowledge Technologies group of Pearson. "With its new high school history and science passages, enhanced essay feedback and curriculum guide, WriteToLearn now gives teachers an even more powerful tool for helping students build literacy skills while learning subject-area content."

WriteToLearn's library of content for summarizing continues to grow with the addition of hundreds of high school level reading activities in history, biology and forensic science from widely adopted Prentice Hall titles, such as "Exploring Life," by Neil Campbell, Brad Williamson and Robin Heyden; "World History," by Elisabeth Gaynor Ellis and Anthony Esler; and "Forensic Science: Who Did it?" by Clarence Cocroft.

When students use the essay writing component of WriteToLearn 5.1, they will now receive even more practical feedback to help them improve their writing. Annotated sample essays included in WriteToLearn give students examples of successful essays, helping them to gain a deeper understanding of how to increase their scores for each of six traits of writing - ideas, organization, conventions, sentence fluency, word choice and voice.

To support its use across the curriculum, Pearson developed a new curriculum guide for WriteToLearn. The guide provides practical, hands-on ideas for integrating WriteToLearn into classroom instruction, allowing students to learn subject-area content while building their writing and reading comprehension skills.

All schools and districts with current WriteToLearn accounts will receive the updates free of charge when they are available in August 2008. More information about WriteToLearn is available at www.WriteToLearn.net.

About Pearson
Pearson is the global leader in educational publishing, assessment, information and services, helping people of all ages to learn at their own pace, in their own way. For students preK-12, Pearson provides effective and innovative curriculum products in all available media, educational assessment and measurement for students and teachers, student information systems, and teacher professional development and certification programs. The company's respected brands include Summary Street®, WriteToLearn, Scott Foresman, Prentice Hall, AGS, PowerSchool, SuccessMaker, TeacherVision and many others. Pearson's comprehensive offerings help inform targeted instruction and intervention so that success is within reach of every student. Pearson's other primary businesses include the Financial Times Group and the Penguin Group.

For more information, press only:
Lisa Wolfe, L. Wolfe Communications, 773-227-1049, lwolfe@lwolfe.com