Amazon's New Writing Curriculum Helps Students Learn To Write

Amazon acquired a company called TenMarks several years ago, and today it has released a writing curriculum through it for teachers and students. This online curriculum is designed to help teachers guide students through the maze that is learning to write; it involves online activities that can be completed using a smartphone or other connected device.

TenMarks, which features 'an amazon company' on its homepage, is billed as an Amazon K-12 Education effort. In addition to math, the service now offers a writing curriculum for teachers who sign up for the service. The curriculum says it offers 'everything you need to teach writing,' including short writing exercises and lessons that take place via 'text messaging.'

The software is tailored toward a new generation of students who have largely grown up with modern computing devices and smartphone-based messaging. There are, for example, Writing Bursts that involve writing short pieces based on prompts in a way that isn't dissimilar from writing on a mobile app. There are free writing activities, exercises like leaving comments on photos, and more.

TenMarks offers its content to teachers via subscriptions with rates that depend on access. For example, a teacher can get the math and writing essentials bundle for $8/student/month, whereas only one product is half that rate.

Though Amazon is largely known for its online retail and ebook business, the company has been slowly expanding its reach into a variety of markets. The company has projects that include the delivery of fresh foods, it is working on launching modern grocery stores and things similar to them, and it is even working on bringing about a future where items are delivered using drones.