BOULDER, Colo., & UPPER SADDLE RIVER, N.J. -- Workbooks from Prentice Hall and Web-based Literacy Tools From Pearson Knowledge Technologies Offer Middle School Students Powerful Tools for Building Reading, Writing Skills

Pearson Knowledge Technologies (PKT) and Pearson Prentice Hall today announced the bundling of two powerful literacy tools: Prentice Hall's "Literacy Skill Builder Series" workbooks for sixth- through eighth-grade students reading below grade level, and WriteToLearn(TM), a Web-based learning tool that helps students develop writing and reading comprehension skills. The package is geared toward students who are taking summer school classes to improve literacy skills.

"Summer is an important time for students who struggle with reading to build their literacy skills," said Peter McCarthy, vice president/general manager, special markets group, Pearson Prentice Hall School Division. "By pairing our literacy workbook series with WriteToLearn, we're giving teachers and students a set of multimedia learning tools for developing literacy skills."

Prentice Hall's "Literacy Skill Builder Series" workbooks are targeted to students in grades six through eight and feature text appropriate to students reading below grade level; small, manageable units for students to master skills; and vocabulary-building exercises. Developed by Pearson Knowledge Technologies, WriteToLearn works in tandem with the exercises. With WriteToLearn, students use a Web-based interface to practice essay writing and summarization skills, and their efforts are measured by Pearson's state-of-the-art Knowledge Analysis Technologies(TM) (KAT) engine, which automatically evaluates the meaning of text by examining whole passages. Students receive immediate, specific feedback on their work, allowing them to improve their writing and summaries by completing multiple drafts without hours of teacher assistance and grading.

"The best readers are strong writers and are able to extract the important information necessary to write a summary," said Lynn Streeter, president, Pearson Knowledge Technologies. "The combination of Prentice Hall's 'Literacy Skill Builder Series' curriculum and WriteToLearn's guided writing practice will help students practice those skills and go back to school in the fall with improved reading comprehension and writing abilities."