Practical ways Clicker can simplify adaptive teaching
Table of contents
When we speak to teachers and school leaders about what they need from educational tools, one theme comes up again and again: “We need digital tools that make it easy to adapt learning for every child.”
Printed resources simply aren’t sustainable or accessible enough. Teachers often tell us they don’t have enough time to create multiple versions of every worksheet or scaffold. Plus, learners don’t like being singled out as the one who needs something ‘different'.
That’s where inclusive digital tools like Clicker can be a game changer.
Every pupil works in the same environment, but with the level of support that they need to succeed.
Let’s explore how Clicker can help you meet the varied needs of your cohort within the same lesson.
A universal, inclusive word processor
Often, when a child is identified as having a writing challenge, they are given a specialised tool. But everyone else in their class uses a standard word processor.
However, this approach can create an unnecessary divide. It also means that many children who don’t meet the threshold for targeted support miss out on beneficial tools.
The recent SEND white paper highlights the importance of an inclusive universal offer. Clicker supports this by enabling all learners to access scaffolds at the level they need, without waiting for formal intervention.
Here are some examples of the writing support tools available in Clicker, and how they can benefit learners at different stages of writing development.
The Predictor
The Predictor suggests words that are likely to come next in a sentence. The suggestions are based on both what a pupil has already written and the letters they are typing. It recognises phonetic spelling attempts, and learners can confirm their word choice using an audio or picture prompt.
This tool can be particularly beneficial for learners with significant spelling struggles or a diagnosis of dyslexia. It reduces the pressure associated with getting every word correct and supports connections between words and concepts. With the Predictor, learners can attempt more challenging spellings independently, knowing that support will kick in when needed.
At the same time, it can give more confident writers a meaningful boost by:
- Helping them overcome the blank page barrier at the start of a task.
- Maintaining writing momentum by removing the need to pause for spelling or word recall.
- Prompting learners to think more carefully about their word choices as they review suggestions and determine which is most appropriate.
Since every learner is different, you can adjust the Predictor settings to offer more or less support where needed.
Speech feedback
In Clicker, each time a sentence is completed, it is automatically read aloud in a clear child’s voice.
Hearing written work read back is a great way to proofread and review work independently.
We know that learners who struggle with writing often find it difficult to check their own work. Hearing it read back means they can identify errors such as misspelt words or missing punctuation, without relying on reading and spelling skills they’re still developing (or asking an adult for help). If a learner needs more support they can listen to each word or even each letter read aloud as they type, for instant feedback.
And of course, even your most confident writers will benefit from this level of support. Often, when we read back text we have written ourselves, we fill in the gaps or mentally correct errors whilst reading because we know what we meant to say. Listening to the text read out exactly as written is an excellent tool for precise and accurate proofreading and can help take written work from good to excellent.
Voice Notes
Pupils can add up to six colour-coded Voice Notes into a Clicker Document. If a learner isn’t confident writing a sentence, they can rehearse it verbally first. This way they can capture their ideas in the moment without the mechanics of writing distracting them.
Teachers can also use Voice Notes to record model sentences or helpful prompts for learners to follow as they write.
Across all stages of writing development, learners can get a helpful boost from the supportive features of an inclusive word processor like Clicker.
Additionally, many of these tools can be switched off if a learner would benefit from increased independence.
One lesson, multiple levels of support
How can teachers ensure that every learner can access the same core topic information at a level that is accessible to them?
That’s exactly the problem that LearningGrids, our extensive library of curriculum-focused resources, is designed to solve.
As digital resources, they are easy to edit and adjust as needed, and adaptability is baked into the creation process.
Let’s take a look at how an adaptive teaching lesson might work with the topic of pollution.
Three-level books
Many of the topics we cover on LearningGrids include our three-level book collection. Three-level books are designed to enable learners at different stages of reading development to learn about the same key topic at the right level for them.
Here is how they could function in our example lesson:
Pollution and Our Planet - Read It Yourself: In this Clicker Book, children read a simple text about the causes and impacts of air, water, and land pollution. There is one sentence per page, making this level ideal for any of your learners who are just starting to read independently and need to practise decoding and basic comprehension.
Pollution and Our Planet - Read in Steps: In this book, there are multiple sentences per page. Children are still working with simple text about the causes and impacts of air, water, and land pollution, but with slightly more detail and context. There are multiple sentences on each page.You can assign this version to any learners who need to practise breaking down complex information at their own pace.
Pollution and Our Planet - Read a Book: This level offers the most complex text and is tailored for your more confident readers. The book explores three main types of pollution in greater depth and challenges learners to use their comprehension skills to understand and interpret the extended information.
Additionally, you can use the speech feedback function to make the most in-depth resource accessible to everyone. Using this tool means that the whole class can work on the same resource with the same level of detail.
All three levels provide the same core content, thoughtfully adapted to different reading abilities. In one classroom, each pupil can work on the version that best suits their needs alongside their peers.
There’s no need to go searching online for alternative texts or to spend valuable time creating different scaffolded versions of topic materials.
Writing grids
Once pupils have obtained the core knowledge from the Clicker Books, our writing grids provide distinct levels of support for when it’s time for learners to summarise their knowledge in written work.
In our example topic of pollution, learners who are building an understanding of the concept of a sentence can work with the Pollution and Our Planet Sentence Set. Sentence Sets provide a high level of scaffolding for writing. As seen in the example below, each grid contains all of the words needed to create a simple sentence about the topic.
If you have learners who are beginning to experiment with word choices within sentences, they can write with the Pollution and Our Planet - Definitions Connect Set. This resource offers a lighter scaffold whilst still providing all of the necessary words to build accurate sentences.
In this example, it can also act as a quick assessment, as pupils can demonstrate that they have understood the topic by selecting the correct words to follow the sentence starter at the top of the grid.
Finally, you can encourage your most confident writers to use more complex vocabulary by having them use a Word Bank. Word Banks provide point-and-click access to topic keywords. In our example lesson, a learner can confidently use words like ‘microplastics’ or ‘environment’ that they might otherwise have avoided because of anxiety around spelling.
An adaptive writing lesson is achieved without printing, cutting, and creating new resources for every child. Additionally, if you feel that a task is too easy or too difficult, you can swap to a better-suited activity or a different level of the topic book in the moment.
Behind the writing: data that shapes next steps
Collecting data and evidence on what support learners need, and if the support is working, can be very time-consuming in a large class. This is especially true if you’re working primarily with paper assignments. With Clicker, you can gather this data quickly and easily.
The Clicker Analytics tool provides insights into how a child has put together a piece of writing. It will show if they used the Spell Check and Predictor, added words from Clicker Sets, or wrote words themselves. You can see their original spelling attempts and data on how long they spent writing and how much they wrote.
Reviewing this data after a writing session can inform decisions about writing support. For example, if a child frequently misspells certain words, you can provide them with a Word Bank to target them. Or if a child had a Word Bank open, but didn’t use it, you can see that they may be ready to write independently.
You can also review this data to assess writing progress long-term, by comparing metrics from different points in the school year.
With Clicker, every learner can work in the same tool and still receive the support they need.
The digital resources and data collection make it quick and simple to adapt to learning and collect evidence that the adaptations are working.
When every pupil has the right tools in place, you can uphold high academic standards, with the knowledge that every learner has the support they need to meet them.
If you would like to learn more about inclusive and adaptive learning with Clicker, you can read these blog posts:
