Tag Archives: writing

PurpleMash for all Primary Pupils

Posted on by
Reply

Whether it’s inspiring writers or boosting creativity in your children, Purple Mash has very much to offer teachers of children with SEND and it is simple to use and loved by all.

PurpleMash is a suite of online programmes that cover almost every area of the computing curriculum and provide templates and tools for every area of the Primary Curriculum. There are activities to practise basic computing skills, like keyboarding & mouse skills; activities to teach online safety, activities to teach phonics and get children reading, writing, listening and speaking. There are tools for counting, graphing, mind mapping, painting. There are activities for problem solving and learning tables. All the tools are brightly coloured, easy to navigate and use; however if you need it there are videos and PDF guidance for every tool. In the teacher’s area is all the documentation you might need: Schemes of Work with lesson plans, assessment tools, suggested timetables, cross curricular links etc.

There are many activities for different subject areas with template and tasks labelled with a suggested age appropriateness but there are lots of ways of differentiating within tasks.Themed writing projects have sentence starters and word banks to scaffold work for some groups.

It is very easy have access to PurpleMash at home. Teachers can set tasks for children to do in class or at home by using 2Dos.

Minimash is the area for children in the Early Years, which might also be suitable for older children working at P levels. It has themed activities and many games and creative activities like music making and painting as well as delightful figures to colour in.

Serial Mash is a collection of online books for children from 5 to 11 with excellent (subject related) themes. They can be read on screen, (background and text colour and size can all be altered if necessary) or printed out as a PDF. Then a collection of activities testing comprehension, spellings, punctuation and grammar all centered on each chapter. (Most books have a new chapter each week.)

 

 

 

Clicker 7 – a properly ‘Inclusive’ resource

Posted on by
Reply

What is it?

Clicker 7 is a combination of a word-processor and a range of very adaptable, on-screen, grids, sometimes used separately, sometimes in combination, that is installed on desktop computers and laptops.

For learners struggling with literacy, for whatever reason, there are a number of aids to writing, including text to speech, a word-predictor, images or symbols inserted automatically, voice prompts, and word banks. There is also a built-in on-screen keyboard for those who are using switches or eye-gaze.

Further supports for those with SEND include changing the font, font size and colour, background colour and voice of the text to speech.

The same coding underpinning the word banks is also used separately to create on-screen books – both to read and to write – matching exercises, labelling activities, and even speaking and listening activities.

Clicker 7 also includes the Clicker Board, an integral planning tool that can be used to structure work, which can be used with multi-media as well as text.

Who is it for?

Whilst intended for primary aged children, even older students with a range of challenges to learning can use it, as well as those with none. As a word-processor it operates in a similar way to industry standard applications, such as MSWord, but with many of the superfluous functions – such as the mail-merge and the page styles – stripped out.

Pupils who are beginning to write independently will benefit from word grids to build sentences, or to provide key vocabulary, whilst those who are becoming more independent can use the predictor to help with word-finding and spelling, and the screen-reader to let them know if their writing makes sense.

Those with physical disabilities might also benefit from using the predictor to reduce keystrokes, as well as its switch access resource, or its integrated eye-gaze capability.

It offers as much, or as little, support as is needed.

The grids facility can be used separately to create myriad activities, from matching involving text, images and sound, to labelling diagrams, sorting into groups, finding pairs, and writing books.

There are over 3,000 grids that are provided online covering the whole primary curriculum, and more, at http://www.learninggrids.com . The software comes with templates to create your own, along with several thousand images, although you can add your own, too.

How do I use it?

You can find uses for it in all aspects of the curriculum, but especially where pupils need to write. Beyond that you might use it to create a matching activity for young learners to find words and images, or maybe a multi-media mindmap on the interactive whiteboard with everyone involved when starting a new topic. It can be used with the whole class, small groups and targeted individuals.

There are a short training videos for you to learn every aspect of the software  at the Crick  online training videos.

What else is there?

There is very little like it. You can find some of its functionality in other programs, but few that combine them. MSWord, for example, has text to speech. Widgitonline will associate images or symbols with text, and WordQSpeakQ can provide an inline predictor. Powerpoint might let you multi-media to make books and demonstrate understanding, but without the supportive features of Clicker.

Older learners could use DocsPlus which works in a very similar way, but with added features that make it eligible for access in exams, as well as several iPad and Chrome apps.

Struggling to write… KS3

Posted on by
Reply

You are bound to come across KS 3-5 students who struggle with writing. If they are allowed to type, you can still find out what they have learnt and they will be able to publish their work neatly.

You will want to help them speed up typing: Doorway Online is a good website for practicing typing  http://www.doorwayonline.org.uk/typing/texttype2/ Some practice each day,  will help to build up speed and possibly wrist strength.

Your  pupil could use a voice recorder to make notes about writing s/he is about to do. Or s/he can make voice notes about instructions from a teacher.  Some pupils could use the voice recorder facility on their ‘phone rather than buy any special equipment. Whist we are considering mobile phones, could your student dictate work onto a ‘phone and then email it to the computer?

Read Write TextHelp https://www.texthelp.com/en-gb/products/read-write/  is a possible solution too, £150 for an annual licence. It offers :

  • Hear web pages and documents read aloud to improve reading comprehension, with choice of natural voices
  • Understand unfamiliar words with text and picture dictionaries
  • Develop writing skills with word prediction
  • Support independent student research with valuable study skills tools
  • Offers bilingual support for a growing number of languages

Maybe word processing software that allows the user to type words as well as letters (i.e. has word banks and word predictor) could lessen the amount of typing…. DocsPlus from Cricksoft    http://www.cricksoft.com/uk/docsplus  (This also comes as an app for iPads and for Chromebooks)  (£250 for one computer licence, £30 for an app on iPad or Chromebook)

Also (in the London are)  https://www.lgfl.net/learning-resources/summary-page/wordq-speakq WordQ SpeakQ is free to schools who use the LGFL and, whilst not as “good to look at” as DocsPlus, offers word prediction and topic banks.

Otherwise Speech to Text software may be useful if your student speaks clearly and works in a quiet space s/he could dictate some work onto the computer. Dragon “Naturally Speaking”  http://www.software4students.co.uk/products/dragon-naturally-speaking-13-home-edition costs about £75 and is reviewed well. (WordQ SpeakQ also offers a speech to text tool.)

Most machines with Windows OS will offer speech recognition for controlling the computer and also for dictation.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/14213/windows-how-to-use-speech-recognition

To dictate a document with the Windows 7 speech recognition feature:

  1. Start the speech recognition feature and click on the microphone icon on the speech recognition control to enter listening mode.
  2. Say “Open” followed by the name of the word processing program you will be using.
  3. Start your dictation.

If using Google docs and Chrome, he would be able to use Google Voice

Start voice typing in a document

  1. Check that your microphone works.
  2. Open a document in Google Docs with a Chrome browser.
  3. Click Tools Voice typing. …
  4. When you’re ready to speak, click the microphone.
  5. Speak clearly, at a normal volume and pace.

Workshop on publishing stories with ICT

Posted on by
Reply

 One of the great things about technology is not only that it can support the writing process, but it can also motivate children and young people to write who might otherwise be reluctant. Given the opportunity to create a book that they can not only print out in colour, but also add sounds and animations to on-screen, a lot of learners will engage when getting them to complete the same task with pen and paper would prove tortuous.

For this workshop we had primary and secondary pupils, all of whom could find writing an onerous event, either because of their literacy levels or their behaviour, but all of them created a story of at least four pages, with illustrations. (You can see some of them on our pupils’ work pages, here https://ictandinclusion.edublogs.org/pupils-work/ )

We started by using the Scholastics Story Starters website to generate some initial, original, even rather wacky, ideas. http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/story-starters/

Then we moved on to 2Simple’s 2Createastory to develop these ideas. This provides a simple publishing template, a page with room for an illustration and some text. On printing, four  pages will fold into a book. More than four and the software spreads the pages out so they can be folded and interleaved.

What many of the learners enjoyed was adding sound, particularly their own voices. More than one, who might otherwise be termed a ‘reluctant reader,’ recorded themselves reading their own words on each page.  There was a palable sense of excitement, pride and achievement at the end of the session when they not only had a printed book in their hands, but could also see their work on-screen.

As they finished they were directed onto a second activity using the Mashcams on Purplemash (2Simple’s online service). This, too, is very simple but effective. It provides a number of masks for the pupils to select – astronaut, police officer, Queen Elizabeth, newsreaders and many more –  into which the user inserts their own face using the webcam built in to the machine. Then they can add text and, or, record themselves. It is  a great way for getting imaginations fired up, or for practising empathy. A simple idea, but one that can be implemented quickly, easily, and engagingly because of technology.