Reviewed by: Heidi Zabilansky, MSEd.
Special Education Teacher
EO Smith High School
Storrs, CT 06268
hzabilansky@eosmith.org

Carol L. Magliocco, Ph.D., PT
Assistive Technology Consultant
EASTCONN Regional Education Service Center
Hampton, CT. 06247
cmagliocco@eastconn.org

Crick Software, Inc.
Bellevue, WA 98004
Phone 425 467-8260
Fax 425 467-8245
http://www.cricksoft.com

Single copy price $149.00
System Requirements:  Pentium II 130 or greater, 16 MB RAM, 5 MB hard disc space, Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP

Rating A

Wordbar presents as a toolbar that sits at the bottom of the screen and offers point and click access to a variety of words, organized by tabs. Each tab opens a new grid with a different set of words, creating a talking word bank related to the topic tab selected. Wordbar works with any Windows application that accepts text in-put, including word processors, spreadsheets and databases. A screenshot taken from the Crick website helps to illustrate the program features. Note: Selecting the graphic will open a larger, easier to read version.

Wordbar comes with ready-made grid sets organized in 5 curricular areas; geography, history, language arts, literature, and science. One of the ready-made grid sets that these reviewers found particularly useful for students was the writing frames. These grid sets follow the same format for each style of writing; discussion, explanation, persuasion, procedure and recount. Each of these writing frameworks offers appropriate framework sentence starters, general words and then two blank grids for topics and phrases specific to your studentsí tasks. The blank grids can be completed quickly and easily.

In addition to the ready made grids there is a wide range of templates available for use in creating your own grid sets. These can be quickly customized with color, font and the choice of small, large and high contrast display.  Additional grids can be downloaded from the web at www.learninggrids.com. Also on the web is a guide to the use of Wordbar available in a variety of formats including online, animated and unanimated Power Point and in printable PDF format. .

Wordbar provides an easy to use word bank format for students who need text based support for their writing. The use of the tabs to navigate between grids in a set offers ease of use as well as serves to remind students of structure of the grid set, such as the sentence building set with the tabs indicating starters, connectives and endings.