During a recent DocsPlus demonstration, someone asked me whether DocsPlus could support the school’s ‘threefold improvement plan’ by:

1. Providing access to literacy support for students across the whole school
   
   
2. Using DocsPlus as a student’s normal way of working
   
   
3. Using DocsPlus for a student’s access arrangements in exams

And the answer is, yes!

Here’s how:

Provide access to literacy support for students across the whole school

All students in secondary schools can use DocsPlus as, at its core, it is an intelligent word processor that can be of benefit to students of all abilities and ages.

Students benefit from access to DocsPlus in lessons in numerous ways, including:

• Accessing texts using the DocReader
  
  
• Planning their writing with WorkSpace
  
  
• Using Wordbars to easily include genre/topic specific vocabulary
  
  
• Accessing DocsPlus’ spell checker, speech feedback and Predictor to help construct and check their writing

Having day-to-day use of DocsPlus ensures that students are fully familiar with how the word processor and its integrated features function. By the time students require access arrangements for their formal examinations, they could have up to 3 years’ experience and expertise using DocsPlus as their normal way of working!

Use DocsPlus as students' normal way of working

To qualify for exam access arrangements, schools need ample evidence (for JCQ’s regulations) that demonstrate how the arrangements in place for the exam match how the student would normally work in the classroom.

With DocsPlus, teachers will have months’ – even years’ – worth of evidence that prove the student has completed their tasks/assignments with access to a word processor that replicates the ‘scribe’ or ‘reader’ role within an exam scenario.

DocReader

Using the DocReader, students can access texts they may have struggled to read previously. The DocReader will read the text aloud, providing them with equal access to worksheets, exam papers and more. The Dual View feature means students can access the Word Processor and the DocReader at the same time, enabling them to answer questions or create work whilst still being able to see the questions or content.

WorkSpace

Students can use a WorkSpace to organise and structure their ideas, preparing them for writing. Using this visual organising tool, students can express and arrange their ideas to help when writing coherently and with a clear theme. They can be used in lessons to prepare for essay writing or for revision preparation, including creating a revision planner to help them organise their thoughts and feel a little more in control of the situation. When students add Voice Notes to a WorkSpace, they expand on their ideas and capture their thoughts without being distracted or held back by the mechanics of writing - especially if they struggle to express themselves in written form. You can export the WorkSpace and turn it into a Wordbar!

Wordbars

Wordbars give students instant access to the specific words and phrases they need for their given topic. The different types of Wordbars can support students when using and subject-specific vocabulary and with structuring their writing. Teachers can set Wordbars across curriculum areas, which greatly benefits students who experience significant literacy barriers. They are a useful tool for revision as students could write practise answers with key vocabulary readily available. You can print them out to make them portable, and students can read the key vocabulary on their way to school in the car or on the bus!

Word Processor

At the heart of DocsPlus, is the Word Processor. With realistic speech feedback, an intelligent Predictor which suggests words based on the context and a Spell Check tool, students can make review and informed decisions, enabling them to focus on what they are trying to write and encourages them to use a wider range of vocabulary. You can toggle on and off any of these tools to ensure students' exam access arrangements and normal way of working in lessons match.

Use DocsPlus for students' access arrangements in exams

If a student qualifies for additional access arrangements in exams (access to a word processor, human reader, or human scribe), they can use DocsPlus.

The benefits for students using DocsPlus as opposed to a human scribe or reader are significant:

• Increased independence
  Using DocsPlus gives control back to the student during their exams. Because human readers are often allocated at a 1:2 ratio, students often have to wait until the reader finishes helping another student before receiving support. This can happen numerous times throughout an exam, but with DocsPlus, the power is with the student to listen to the text as frequently, and as many times, as they choose, when they choose.
  
  
• Increased confidence
  Students don’t second guess themselves when using DocsPlus. Using human scribes or readers can add an instinctive element of ‘judgement’ for the student – ‘I can’t ask them to read it again’, ‘They will know if I’m getting it wrong, so I won’t put anything’… Using DocsPlus removes this added pressure and allows students to focus entirely on answering their exam to the best of their ability.
  
  
• Increased clarity
  DocsPlus provides the opportunity for students to re-write or re-read as frequently as necessary to complete their exam to their full potential. Using a human scribe or reader can limit students’ responses as it is time-consuming to ask an ‘external resource’ to re-word or re-phrase their ideas multiple times.

More on using DocsPlus as students' normal way of working

If you would like to know more about using DocsPlus as students' normal way of working and to support students in their exams:

• Read our informative Technology in Exams Q&A.
  
  
• Visit the exam access page on our website which includes a 30-minute webinar recording on Using DocsPlus for exam access
  
  
• Book an exam support meeting with our expert team to ensure your DocsPlus setup is exam-ready.
  

For any other questions about using DocsPlus to support learning in your secondary school, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with our friendly team at info@cricksoft.com!

Are you using Google Workspace for Education?

If so, you may be aware of the ‘app access control settings’ feature, which enables you to control which third-party apps your users can sign into with their Google Workspace for Education Account, and the data those apps can request.

As a data protection measure, Google has announced that starting from October 23rd, 2023, users designated as under 18 won't be able to access third-party apps you haven't confirmed access settings for.

So, to ensure that your students’ access to the Clicker Apps isn’t interrupted, the Google Workplace Administrator for your organisation’s account will need to review your current settings in the Admin console before this date, and check that you have set each Clicker App to ‘Trust’.

If you’re not sure how to do this, Google has put together a handy video and step-by-step guide here.

A lot of the time, we can forget the most important part of the lesson: reflection.

This period is often found during the plenary aspect of a lesson once the main activity has been completed. However, due to time restraints, a plenary can sometimes be forgotten, and the children are expected to move to the next task of the day.

This was something I struggled with when I used to teach year 4. Having to stick to the compulsory 55 minutes per lesson, which needed to include engaging starter activities and enough time for everyone to understand and complete the objective, meant that plenaries were something that I couldn’t always plan for.

The great thing about Clicker is that we can utilise activity sets in several ways to create plenary opportunities. Lesson-appropriate activities only take a couple of minutes to plan and create but enable children to reflect on what they have learnt.

The first example of a great plenary builder is a Talk Set. Sometimes, we can over-rely on children physically writing their ideas on paper, rather than communicating with peers. Building a Talk Set allows children to share their ideas verbally, without you worrying about, “how will I show their progression if they haven’t put it on paper?” Because what’s great about Talk Sets, is that you can record ideas on the activity itself, so you don’t need to worry about losing them! Children can truly reflect and share ideas within their recordings, consolidating their understanding. This is a great way to round off a lesson.

The second example is a Connect Set. Although these are very useful for the main activities to support writing, using one at the end of a lesson would allow you to see if the children have understood the concepts covered, like fronted adverbials and expanding sentences. They could work in groups using whiteboards or even use an interactive whiteboard to create some sentences of their own.

You could even get the children to share some of their own ideas from the work they have completed in the lesson.

Plenaries are an integral part of the lesson: they allow us to consolidate understandings and reflect upon what we have learnt. They don’t have to be time consuming or overthought either; a simple retrieval activity or voice note recording can be the difference between all children demonstrating their knowledge at the end of the lesson versus only those who flourish with pen and paper.

Free ‘How to adopt Rosenshine’s 10 Principles with Clicker’ PDF!

Using plenaries is one of many pedagogical choices teachers employ in their classroom. For other examples of how Clicker can support teaching practices, our ‘How to adopt Rosenshine’s 10 Principles with Clicker’ PDF is full of handy tips and tricks to keep your children learning and engaged using Clicker.

Plenaries are an integral part of the lesson: they allow us to consolidate understandings and reflect upon what we have learnt. They don’t have to be time consuming or overthought either; a simple retrieval activity or voice note recording can be the difference between all children demonstrating their knowledge at the end of the lesson versus only those who flourish with pen and paper.

Free ‘How to adopt Rosenshine’s 10 Principles with Clicker’ PDF!

Using plenaries is one of many pedagogical choices teachers employ in their classroom. For other examples of how Clicker can support teaching practices, our ‘How to adopt Rosenshine’s 10 Principles with Clicker’ PDF is full of handy tips and tricks to keep your children learning and engaged using Clicker.

Getting students to write confidently within a range of non-fiction genres is no easy task. But our set of WorkSpace planners for DocsPlus on LearningGrids could be just what you’re looking for if you have students starting out or struggling with writing non-fiction text types. The planners are designed to help students organise what they want to say, within a framework that is adapted to the specific writing genre. What’s more, you can use our WorkSpace planners on Win/Mac and iPad/Chromebook, so your students can have access to this fantastic tool wherever they are in school.

Let’s begin by looking at the Discussion Planner. The framework is clearly set out to encourage the thought process involved – students are guided to list their title, key points on both sides (for and against) and a conclusion.

Once the ideas have been added – you might even want to use Voice Notes so students can record key ideas and prompts – the next stage in the process can begin.

Simply by clicking on the export tool, students can use their work as direct support for their own writing. They can send their planner to the document as an image or as text. They can even create a supportive Wordbar (a bank of key words/phrases) with the text from their planner.

This introductory video to WorkSpace is a brilliant tool to understand how to best support your students’ plan and organise their writing.

There is also a Discussion Frame Wordbar available on LearningGrids, which supports students writing an argument or discussion text on any topic, providing them with a writing frame, general words and phrases, link words and phrases, and a tab to add topic-specific vocabulary.

Find these resources – as well as a range of other planners and frames for different non-fiction genres, including explanation, procedure, report and recount – by typing ‘Planner’ into LearningGrids. And if you have any questions at all, our friendly team are here to answer them - email us at info@cricksoft.com or call us on 01604 671691!

We recently ran a webinar focusing on approaches you can take to introduce Clicker to pupils. I’ve gathered some of the ideas we shared here.

Before introducing Clicker to pupils

First, we discussed some things to consider before introducing Clicker to your pupils:

• Topic selection – introducing Clicker to learners with a topic they’re already familiar with can reduce cognitive load, allowing learners to focus on getting to grips with new features and applying vocabulary they have used recently.
  
  
• Clicker Sets selection – picking an appropriate Clicker Set for the child’s ability and the learning objectives can help to ensure success and build their confidence with the software. For example, this could be offering a Connect Set to a child who needs a scaffold to support their writing or a Clicker Board to provide visual support to a child struggling to organise their ideas.
  
  
• Concepts – Which features and concepts in Clicker do you want to introduce to learners first? Whether it’s strategies for using the speech support, Voice Notes or the Predictor, many of these features are available across our resources, making it easier for learners to move between resources confidently.
  
  
• Saving and sharing – what systems do you have in place for saving and sharing files in your school? Has Clicker been set up to make it as easy as possible to share files between devices?
  
  
• Training resources – To ensure introducing Clicker to learners goes as smoothly as possible, teachers and teaching assistants should be familiar with the features you’re planning to use. A bespoke training session or our free training resources can help staff feel confident to use Clicker in their classrooms.

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Clicker Books

Clicker Books can be a great starting point for introducing children to Clicker. They offer a simple way to introduce learners to the speech support available throughout Clicker, embedding this feature early in their experience with the software.

We have a fantastic selection of ready-to-use Clicker Books available in LearningGrids to suit a wide range of ages and needs. They can be easily edited to meet your learners’ specific requirements.

Clicker Books can also be used flexibly in the classroom. They could be used to introduce a topic, such as life cycles, to a whole class on the interactive whiteboard, giving the teacher an opportunity to model their use, or for supporting learners in researching a topic independently.

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Clicker Board

We also looked at Clicker Boards. Mind mapping is likely to be a concept that children are already familiar with, so using a Clicker Board to facilitate this can easily lead into using Clicker more widely.

Similarly to Clicker Books, Clicker Boards can be used with the whole class to support group discussions and gather ideas, giving teachers another opportunity to model key features.

Using a Clicker Board provides access to other support tools common throughout Clicker such as the speech support, Predictor, and Voice Notes. So, if these are features you’d like to encourage children to use, Clicker Board is a great place to start.

The range of Clicker Boards available through LearningGrids covers a wide range of activities from sequencing, to Venn diagrams, to story planning, making them easy to incorporate into your existing planning.

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Writing grids

The three types of writing grids; Sentence Sets, Connect Sets, and Word Banks, could also be a good option for introducing Clicker to your learners.

All three writing grid resources function similarly, so you can easily support multiple ability levels while reinforcing similar concepts. By introducing learners to using right-click or SoundShift to listen to vocabulary offered in the grid and then clicking to use that vocabulary in their writing, they’ll be able to start using any of the three writing grids independently.

Teachers can make use of these resources as starter or plenary activities displayed for the whole class to see and model their use at the same time.

Access to Analytics alongside the writing grids gives teachers clear data on how children are producing their writing and an insight into the impact Clicker has on children’s literacy.

Want to find out more? Book a meeting with your Clicker Partnership Consultant to get some additional hints and tips.

Recently, we ran a training webinar focusing on how Clicker can be used in the Early Years.

We had lots of interest in different literacy topics, including vocabulary building activities, speaking and listening activities, and sentence building. As a former EYFS teacher, it was great to see how many resources there are available within LearningGrids that can be used in an Early Years setting! We explored Little Red Riding Hood as an example, but there are thousands more ready-made resources, linked to many other stories, themes and topics.

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Vocabulary building

For vocabulary building, we started by looking at the Look and Read Matching Set. This resource is a great way to introduce learners to the key language they are likely to encounter in the story. Children can rehearse vocabulary by matching an image from the story to the corresponding word. This is a brilliant activity for children to complete independently after a teaching input, it’s such an engaging way for them to consolidate new learning!

Next, we looked at Clicker Books. These on-screen, speech supported books empower pupils of all abilities to read more independently. We began by exploring the Little Red Riding Hood Read a Book, which provides a more detailed version of the story combining images and text to engage your learners. To make this activity more accessible, children also have the option to hear the story read aloud.

We then looked at the Read it Yourself book. These books are designed for children to read the text themselves, using a simplified version of the story to encourage independence when reading. For additional support, this resource can be edited to include a read button so children can use Clicker to read the story to them. I always enjoyed nurturing a love of reading in my classroom, and Clicker Books are a great way of encouraging this! They make reading fun for your learners and allow them to access a range of books independently.

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Speaking and listening

Next, we looked at how Clicker can be used to develop speaking and listening skills. We began by looking at the Little Red Riding Hood Keywords activity. Children can listen to core vocabulary from the story and record themselves saying these words aloud.

Once learners are familiar with the key vocabulary and plot of the story, they can use this Tell the Story Talk Set to orally retell Little Red Riding Hood. This resource includes images from the story in sequence, learners simply click a picture and record their ideas using the microphone button.  When finished, children can listen to all the recordings to hear the story retold in their own words. This resource can be completed individually, in groups, or as a whole class!

Finally, we explored Clicker Boards. With this Describe the Characters activity, children can create profile mind maps of characters from the story. Children can type key descriptive words into text boxes and further expand on their ideas by recording a voice note. I would have enjoyed using this as a whole class activity with my Reception class, the children can contribute ideas whilst the teacher collates them on the whiteboard. This board can then be turned into a word bank to support learners further with their writing!

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Sentence Building

For sentence building skills, we began by looking at the Clicker Sets available to support children of all writing abilities. First, we looked at this Sentence Set, which helps children to build a simple sentence word by word. This resource provides children with all the words needed to build their first sentence, with the words displayed in a random order. Learners click each word to bring it into the document and build their sentence whilst developing their understanding of sentence structure and word order.

If children come to a word or phrase they cannot decode, they can use the speech feedback to hear it read aloud. Once the sentence is finished and a period is added in, Clicker reads the sentence back to the children so they can listen out for any errors. For additional support when using the Sentence Set, children can look at the complete sentence to understand the correct sentence structure before having another go.

Next we explored a Connect Set to support children with retelling the story of Little Red Riding Hood. This resource provides children with a scaffold to support the writing process and encourages them to independently experiment with a wider choice of vocabulary and sentence structures. This activity contains images from the story, so learners can choose when and how they want to illustrate their writing.

It was fantastic to be able to share these ideas with so many of our customers. If you’d like more information on how you can use Clicker to support your learners in Early Years, you can:

• Watch our tutorials or book a meeting.
  
  
• Explore LearningGrids for resources on nursery rhymes, sentence patterns, positional language and thousands more!

If you’re using Clicker on a Chromebook, take a look at the image below. Does this appear when you open a Clicker App?

Yes? Then keep reading so you know how to make opening your Clicker Apps as smooth as possible!

Due to Google’s security policies, the Google account login window needs to appear every time a Clicker App is opened, and that’s classed as a ‘pop-up’. All you need to do is a small settings ‘tweak’ to allow, or ‘enable’, pop-ups, because we require the Google login for licensing.

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How to enable pop-ups

Pop-ups can be enabled by clicking the “Pop-up blocked” icon on the right of the address bar and selecting “Always allow”:

If the "Pop-up blocked” icon doesn’t appear, or if you want this to apply to all users, please send your IT Support the instructions below.

1. Sign in to the Google Admin Console (admin.google.com) as an administrator. On the left pane, go to Devices > Chrome > Settings > Users & browsers.

2. Select the correct organizational unit containing the users who need to have pop-ups unblocked on the Clicker Apps. We recommend unblocking them for all users.
   
3. Type pop-ups in the Search or add a filter field.

4. Under Content, you will find a section named Pop-ups. Under Allow pop-ups on these sites, enter:
   
   https://clickerwriter.apps.cricksoft.com
   https://clickerbooks.apps.cricksoft.com
   https://clickertalk.apps.cricksoft.com

5. Once you’ve entered the web addresses, click Save in the upper-right corner.

As always, if you ever need technical support, our friendly team are here to help! Please fill in our contact support form with any queries.

With any scheme or technology that you implement in school, you want to know it’s having a positive impact on learning and you’re getting value for money.

Here are some of the aspects of your pupils’ writing that Clicker can improve and how you can use the software to monitor and track their progress.

Vocabulary

By using appropriate writing grids and the Predictor, children can confidently use a wider range of topic specific and more advanced vocabulary in their writing.

In Analytics, you can track their use of vocabulary by seeing which words were typed, chosen from Clicker Sets or the Predictor. By delving further into Analytics, you can even see whether children listened to the words for confirmation before adding them into the Document.

Over time, children will need the speech support less frequently, include vocabulary that they first used with Clicker Sets and have the confidence to use this vocabulary in their writing outside of Clicker as well.

Length of writing

Clicker can have a dramatic effect on the amount of work children can produce and how quickly they can produce it.

With access to planning tools, such as Voice Notes (voice recordings) and Clicker Boards (mind maps), children can plan their writing in the way that suits them best and will find it easier to stay on track during writing tasks as they can refer back to their ideas (as opposed to having to remember them as they write). With point and click access to key vocabulary, your class can spend more time concentrating on their writing content and sentence structure, and less time focusing on spelling individual words, which can often interrupt their thought process and the flow of their writing. This should encourage your pupils to write longer sentences as their ideas won’t be forgotten, and barriers to writing longer sentences (like spelling) are removed.

To monitor Clicker’s positive impact, you can track the average length of their writing over time through Analytics. By choosing Statistics in the Analytics ribbon, you can see the total number of words in a Document, the average sentence length and the number of paragraphs. This makes it quick and easy for you to track the progress your pupils are making!

Spelling and grammar errors

Clicker can help learners check their work more effectively and correct mistakes more easily.

The speech feedback that reads out sentences when they’re completed helps learners to identify misspelled words, even if the misspelling is a different correct word (for example, writing ‘sow’ instead of ‘saw’). Learners can also use the speech feedback to be sure their sentence makes sense. Using speech feedback alongside the Predictor and the Spell Check helps learners to correct their work more independently. For learners who need further help with aspects of grammar, we have a wide selection of Clicker Sets focusing on different grammar rules and homophones.

In Analytics, you can easily see where the Predictor and Spell Check were used in a Document. By selecting the tabs, you can see whether the child listened to the options provided before making a choice or correction.

Independence

Clicker supports learners in writing and correcting more independently, reducing the amount of help they require from an adult.

Pupils can use LearningGrids resources to research or refer to curriculum content independently. A recent Clicker success story included a lovely example of this:

“In ‘Choosing Time’ the pupils can decide what they’d like to do, and this one child really wanted to use Clicker to write about plants. This isn’t something we’ve covered in class, but she just went off to LearningGrids and found some writing sets on the subject and presented me with this whole page of writing about the different parts of a plant, how to look after them etc, it was amazing. They can just pick Clicker up and roll with it.”

Rather than needing to check the correct option in the Spell Check with an adult, learners can listen to the options provided with the speech feedback. They can also record their tasks or ideas into Voice Notes in the Document to refer to when they need a reminder of the task they’re completing. Pupils can structure their work before starting to write with Voice Notes or a Clicker Board, and using a Word Bank ensures learners always have point and click access to key subject vocabulary.

As Clicker boosts the class’s independence when writing, teachers will find that they can spend more time with each pupil as those who usually rely on teacher help to complete a task will require less adult support. 

Alternate methods of recording

Finally, for learners who struggle to record their knowledge in writing, Clicker offers multiple options for alternate methods of recording.

Children can use Voice Notes to record their understanding orally before attempting to write it up. They could use the video recording function in Clicker Books to record their explanations as a movie book. Or they could use a Talk Set with pictures as a stimulus to express their knowledge.

By using Clicker’s alternative methods to record pupils’ understanding, teachers are able to track the learning progress of the children who struggle to demonstrate this in their writing. Talk Sets and recording functions also enable teachers to easily capture the voice of the child for speaking and listening evidence.

If you’d like to discuss using Clicker in your school in more detail, you can book a meeting with your Partnership Consultant. Otherwise, for further information you can always visit our:

• Clicker Basics training
• Clicker tutorials
• Clicker success stories
• Training webinars

We’ve got another exciting development to share with you this week…

Previously, the Clicker Board feature was only available to Windows/Mac users, but now it is also available within our Clicker Writer app for iPad and Chromebook!

Clicker Board is an incredible planning tool that helps pupils prepare for writing. Pupils can add text, images, and sounds to their planning whilst accessing all of Clicker’s support features including realistic speech feedback, word prediction and a talking spell checker.

Clicker Board now provides Clicker Writer users with many intuitive features that make planning an accessible task for all pupils, including:

Visual and audio support

Clicker Board utilises text, image and sound to ensure that every learner can plan their work in the way that suits them best. Images can be chosen from over 4500 curriculum pictures in the CrickPix library, or users can create their own using the painting tools. For strong verbal communicators, Voice Notes can be added to Clicker Boards to ensure they can capture their ideas, too.

Plans transform into structured writing support

When your pupils have completed their board, they can transform it into a word or picture bank that will sit at the bottom of the document as they are writing, providing instant touch access to key words, phrases and/or images. The bank intuitively mimics the structure of their board – which helps pupils to organise their written paragraphs and transfer their ideas to the page in a logical order.

Click here for a quick video demonstration!

Clicker’s integrated support features

All of Clicker’s support features are available while pupils create their Clicker Board. They can listen back to their text with the speech tool, use the predictor tool to help find the right word, and correct any spelling errors with the help of the talking spell checker.

Free access for current subscribers

Clicker Board is available now in Clicker Writer for all our current Clicker subscribers – simply update Clicker on your device(s) and Clicker Board will be ready to go!

If you require any further guidance, our support team will be happy to help.

Don’t have Clicker yet?

If you would like to explore how Clicker can raise literacy attainment and enjoyment across your school, we offer free 15-minute consultations where we’ll discuss your pupils’ specific learning challenges and objectives, and how Clicker can help.

You can choose the date and time that works best for you here.

We’ve also got lots more information about Clicker Writer and the complete Clicker package on our website.

For our support blog this week, we are continuing to explore the most asked questions that the Support Team receive from Clicker users. Today we are going to look at how you can make your own picture libraries available to use within Clicker for Windows/Mac.

Whether used for visual stimulation, talking points, or to aid understanding, pictures are a valuable tool for supporting literacy development, so…

Clicker’s ‘Picturize’ button enables you to instantly add pictures to cells in any Clicker Set, including Sentence Sets, Connect Sets, Word Banks, and to whole passages of text within a document. You can choose from over 4500 Clicker curriculum pictures, but you may wish to incorporate your own images and photos too. Here’s how:

1. Begin by creating a folder on your computer (choose somewhere it won’t be easily deleted).
   To create a folder, right-click and choose New, then Folder
   
2. Place all images you would like to be used in Picturize inside this folder. Make sure they are named after the word you would like them to represent.

1. Inside Clicker, head to the top Options ribbon tab, then Pictures.
   
2. Click the Picturize tab.
   
3. Click the + icon in the bottom-right corner.
   
4. Choose Browse, then find the folder you created and click OK.
   
5. Either leave the Label as it is or change it. This doesn’t affect anything, other than what it’s displayed as.
   
6. You should now see the newly added folder in the Get pictures from: list. Click the folder, then click the  arrow to move it up the list.
   
   The higher it is up the list, the more it is prioritised. For example, if CrickPix2 has an image for “dog” and you also have an image for “dog”, as long as your folder is higher up the list, your image will be used.

After following these steps, Picturize will automatically select the newly added pictures.  

Remember, if you ever need our support, we’re just a phone call or a click away:

Call: 01604 671691 or visit: technical support

We’re extremely pleased to announce that Clicker is a Bett Awards finalist in the ‘Primary – Digital Learning Product – Literacy and Language’ category.

The Bett Awards are a global celebration of the inspiring creativity and innovation that can be found throughout technology for education. This is the first year that Bett have included a literacy and language category, so we are very excited to be on the shortlist.

Over the years, Clicker has won nine Bett Awards – we really hope that this will be our chance to get into double figures. Last year, our founders John and Ann Crick were the proud recipients of Bett’s ‘Outstanding Achievement Award’.

Having been at the forefront of inclusive software development for more than a quarter of a century, John and Ann continue to help new generations of learners to experience feelings of pride and success in their writing. Their commitment to universal design and helping every child become a better, more confident writer has empowered young writers in thousands of schools around the world.  

The winner for the ‘Primary – Digital Learning Product – Literacy and Language’ category will be announced during the Bett Show in March, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed until then!

We have thoroughly enjoyed supporting KidsAid over the last year through a range of fundraising activities.

Our mission was to help KidsAid refurnish and resource the therapy rooms that play such an important role in the support they provide for local children and their families.

Over the year, we have raised £2,565 for KidsAid with some memorable moments along the way – including our colleague, Celia, abseiling the National Lift Tower (a whopping 418ft!) to help our fundraising mission.

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In December, we were lucky enough to visit KidsAid and see the incredible progress that’s been made with their therapy rooms over the year. They are looking brilliant!

BEFORE

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AFTER

KidsAid recently shared the following on their website:

Our Partnership with Crick Software
With the support of Crick Software, we are excited to share that we have refurnished our therapy rooms and purchased new toys, creative materials, and therapy resources.

John and Ann Crick are passionate about helping young people in need and have made the decision to partner with KidsAid for another year! We are excited to continue working with them and could not be more grateful for their continued support.

We are also delighted to continue working with KidsAid in 2023 and are excited to support their fantastic work within the local community for another year!

We connected with Book Dash to enquire about supporting the resources through Clicker on LearningGrids – and received an enthusiastic response from Director Dorette Louw, confirming that we could indeed use any of the books, ending her email with the words: “We adore seeing what happens to our stories once they’re out in the world!”

A huge appeal of the stories is the range of diverse representation. So we eagerly got to work looking through the available titles (there are hundreds!) and seeing which might work well with Clicker.

The stories – all beautifully illustrated and unique – are mostly aimed at early readers and include wordless picture books too.

The first two of these books have now been published on LearningGrids:

• How Do You Sleep?
• Goldfish Genius

How Do You Sleep?

This story is beautiful, and the images are really engaging and appealing to young children.

The Reading Book has strong repetition and the graphics are so much fun – my personal favourite is definitely the owl page … and yes baby owls really do sleep on their faces! When creating the book, we could have used the images without the text, but we wanted to stay as faithful as possible to the original, especially as we felt the layout of the text was such an important design feature.

As well as making the book available for readers online, we also wanted to offer additional supporting activities where possible and relevant. For this story, we have created a Make a Book activity (where children can write about the story using beginnings/middles/endings).

There’s also a Sentence, Connect, and Talk Set to enable differentiated levels of response according to individual needs. A Board Set allows children to organise ideas about how the animals in the story sleep and about how they sleep.

Goldfish Genius

Another fun title, and one of Book Dash’s wordless stories. To distinguish this from our usual "Read a Book" sets, we called the stimulus story book a "Picture Book". Wordless picture books like this are important early reading resources as they help children learn to infer what is happening in the story – since there no words, they have to figure out the story using the pictures and their imagination. This is vital in helping to develop not only comprehension but also an overall understanding of story structure and plot.

To support this story, we also have a Make a Book activity, a Talk Set and a Clicker Board so children can record – through writing, captions or speaking – their own interpretation of what is happening in the text-free story.

We hope to add more Book Dash stories and supporting resources to LearningGrids in the future. We are so grateful for this opportunity and super excited to share a more diverse range of stories and characters in our Story Corner category on LearningGrids.

There has been a (much–needed) focus on developing early language skills recently. Through my research, I discovered that experts are talking about the power of nursery rhymes. Did you know that a child who knows eight nursery rhymes in their early years will be among the higher achievers in reading and spelling when they are eight years old? This inspired us to create nursery rhyme resources for LearningGrids! Let’s look at how the new Incy Wincy Spider sets could help your learners.

Reading a short nursery rhyme gives children a bite-sized activity that can offer even the reluctant reader a sense of success. The repetition and patterns in language help children to hear the phonemes and syllables in words, building the foundations for reading and spelling. In the Incy Wincy Spider - Read a Book, each page focuses on a line of the rhyme with a picture to illustrate the text. The last page shows the sequence of the pictures and the complete rhyme. There is also a button so that children can hear the rhyme sung - this is great for encouraging children to sing along, improving word memory and articulation.

We have created a range of related resources to encourage children to associate the spoken rhyme with the written words. With the Incy Wincy Spider - Make a Book One, children write each line to correspond with the picture on the page. The word banks offer the beginning, middle and end segments of each line. To support children to explore rhythm, rhyme and structure of the verse, use the Connect Set - it shows the beginnings and endings of each line, all on one grid.

The Incy Wincy Spider Clicker Board helps children recognise that nursery rhymes are short stories and have an order to their events. On the Board, children sequence the lines of the rhyme by moving the text alongside the corresponding picture (or they could drag a line from the text cell to the picture). To create a more challenging task, you can jumble up the picture cells too! Using the microphone, children can add a recording to complete their presentation of the nursery rhyme.

Another fun activity related to nursery rhymes is creating word families or rhyming strings. Using the Incy Wincy Spider – Rhyming Strings Talk Set, encourage children to record a string of rhyming words for each of the pictures - these could include real and nonsense words because the focus is on hearing the rhyme, rather than spelling the word. Children will have fun listening back to their own and others’ wordplay!

We hope the Incy Wincy Spider and Hey Diddle Diddle resources enhance your learners enjoyment of language and learning. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Humpty Dumpty and The Kookaburra Song rhymes are coming soon to LearningGrids!

With the new school year well underway, Support has been super busy with enquiries regarding managing apps licenses. So, let’s look at what it’s all about!

How do I manage them?

The Apps Subscription Manager function allows authorised individuals to manage the allocation of licenses that are used on iPads and Chromebooks. Whether allocating licenses for the first time, keeping track of current licenses or reallocating licenses, this tool keeps it simple!

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Who can access the portal?

Those identified as Subscription Managers that also have an existing Google/Apple account.

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What’s the benefit?

Schools are always busy, so it’s important that you can log in and manage your licenses at a time that suits you. We are always happy to help of course, but here are some simple instructions if you choose to manage your licenses yourself.  

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Where to start?

1. Sign into apps.cricksoft.com with your Google Account or Apple ID.
2. Click the subscription's Manage button to see a list of activated iPads/Chromebook users.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to:
   • add Chromebook users
   • add iPads
   • remove current Chromebook users / iPads

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Is adding a Subscription Manager complicated?

No, simply provide the existing Google or Apple account of those you wish to add along with your Organization ID. These can be submitted to us by emailing support@cricksoft.com or using our support form. You will then receive an email confirming your request has been actioned.

REMEMBER:

Don’t forget, if you have a Flexi-license subscription, all Chromebook users should be licensed automatically (the apps should launch with no messages). If this isn’t happening, please contact Support to provide us with your Google domain.

If you need any advice or assistance with managing your subscription, or any element of our software and apps, please don’t hesitate to contact us at support@cricksoft.com or call us on 01604 671691.

It’s believed that the theory applies to children as much as it does adults. So researchers looked into SDT and its impact on pupil motivation, and the findings were positive!

When reading about SDT, it took me back to my teaching days as the findings were so relatable. In my classroom, it was often the pupils who could work independently, understood the task well or had personal interest in the topic that remained on task throughout the lesson. Whereas some of the pupils who needed extra support, or who simply ‘didn’t like writing’, seemed to be expert procrastinators. I’m sure you’ve also had a child who somehow sharpened their pencil 20 times in one hour!

Reading about this theory piqued my interest as the more I read, the more I realised that Clicker is a great tool for empowering SDT in the classroom.

So, here are the ways that I would structure Clicker into my Literacy lessons to boost the self-determination of all my learners.

Autonomy

Autonomy is the ability for a child to take control of their learning. A perfect task to encourage autonomy is editing. It’s a chance for children to improve their work and make it the best it can possibly be before their teacher takes it in.

As a child-friendly literacy tool, editing is intuitive in Clicker. Pupils can check the sense of their sentences easily as they write. Whenever they insert a full stop, Clicker will read their sentence back to them. This gives children the opportunity to edit their sentence before they move on as they are more likely to recognise an error or improvement!

To correct any mistakes, the children can simply remove and change words, so no need to re-write reams of work due to ‘spacing issues’! I know that children in my class used to avoid editing because it often created extra work. This doesn’t happen with Clicker!

Competence

Competence is a judgement of how successfully a task is completed. My experience is that children often mistake confidence for competence, and they would commonly avoid a task out of fear of failing. However, I knew that with the right support I could alleviate this fear and their feeling of competence would excel!

Clicker removes common barriers to writing – hand ache, letter formation and working memory to name but a few. It empowers the writer and builds their self-belief by clearly demonstrating progress. This would look different for each child and year group, but most children can acknowledge when they’ve included new vocabulary and written more, or longer, sentences.

I would also use Clicker Analytics - detailed, tangible data that demonstrates the progress a child is making in their writing. Sharing a child’s progress with them is a confidence-instilling tool that I’ve utilised many times over the years and is the perfect way to help a child recognise their competence.

Relatedness

Relatedness is the connection pupils feel with one another as a class. Whole-class projects or shared writing is an excellent way to encourage the feeling of relatedness. Having a common goal that they can celebrate together when they achieve it encourages children to remain on task.

Although Clicker is commonly used on individual devices, it can be utilised brilliantly by teachers on their interactive board for whole class teaching and learning.

For example, writing a class book together would provide many opportunities to foster relatedness. I would allocate sections of the story to groups of children and collect a class Word Bank using everyone’s ideas. Then, I’d save the Word Bank on Clicker for the children using the software and print it out for the children who aren’t using Clicker. I would combine their written sections to create a story in a Clicker Book. This could be printed and handed out to each child to celebrate their whole-class success!

There are many other ways that Clicker can be used to encourage SDT’s principles in the classroom. Make sure you keep checking out LearningGrids and stay up-to-date with our new resources. And, as always, we’d love to hear the ways you’re using Clicker in your classroom!

Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a celebration of life and death and takes place on November 1st and 2nd each year in Mexico. The holiday has roots back to rituals honouring the dead in Ancient Mesoamerica.

In our recent Mexico Clicker Sets on LearningGrids, we explore this tradition, as well as other cultural and geographical features of the country. The collection of resources includes Read a Book and Read It Yourself Clicker Books and a range of related speaking and writing activities.

Depending on the needed level of support, children can use the Sentence Set, Connect Set, or Word Bank to help them write about Mexico.

Or you can provide children with an alternative means of expression by using the Talk Set, where they can record information about Mexico. Don’t forget that you can increase the number of recorders for each picture to allow children to record their ideas in bite-sized chunks. They can then listen to all their recordings on the start page – great for class presentations!

Be sure to visit LearningGrids for more Mexico resources, including a Word Bank and Clicker Board about the ancient Mayan site Chichén Itzá.

When our students find something difficult, or lack interest in it, or have an inbuilt fear of doing badly or indeed, failing; a very common anticipatory reaction is to avoid it. Constant struggles to achieve, despite working harder than others, often results in a wide range of avoidance strategies such as attendance issues; behaviour issues and limiting the fear of failure by choosing the simplest, most straightforward option.

Common transition pressures for SEND students

For students with SEND, this is often seen during and after transition to secondary school where there are so many challenges to their security - routines; expectations; new people; new spaces; new sensory inputs and an overarching thought that they are in ‘big’ school; they are ‘grownup’, and more is expected of them. So much pressure!

Let us add to this picture the pedagogical tendency to ‘chunk’ information and output expectations in order to make learning more accessible. Whilst this has clearly been shown to be effective in many learning activities, it does make it more difficult when we require students to extend and create a longer piece of work, with a level of independence. Of course we can scaffold and support via a different ‘chunking’ technique to introduce extended writing, however this does remain an area where many struggle – and this is evidenced for example by some Universities and Colleges offering induction courses in research techniques, essay writing and effective editing.

Why independent extended writing is important for all learners

So why is the ability to produce extended pieces of writing independently important? Elizabeth Bowling’s blog, ‘Beautiful Writing across the curriculum’ suggests:

“We know that clear and confident written expression is key to both academic success and success in later life. Jennifer Webb expresses it brilliantly when she says that “those that can successfully communicate have the power to change things and to show their worth”, and those that can’t are effectively disenfranchised from society (Teach Like a Writer: 2020). Written communication is necessary for self-expression, self-esteem and social empowerment.”

In all four modes of communication i.e., listening, speaking, reading and writing, our students may be challenged and yet success in learning and life is often influenced by and dependent on ability in these. Consequently, it is really important to support our students with literacy challenges, of whatever form, to understand why extended writing is going to be useful for them and then, use strategies to make success achievable for them.

The expectations for extended writing tasks

What do we mean by extended writing? UNSW in Sydney offers an explanation of why they use extended writing tasks and what they consist of:

“Extended writing tasks are text-based assignments that involve:
research and critical reading from multiple sources of information and ideas, and
the development of a sustained and well-substantiated argument or point of view.
These tasks are usually set to be undertaken within extended time frames. Students must engage in high-level reasoning and problem-solving as they generate their own creative response to the problem posed. With extended writing tasks, students can engage in deep learning, gain insights into multi-structural connections and relationships among concepts, and develop critical and creative reasoning skills.”

Three considerations for SEND learners when completing extended writing

So, extended writing is a complex structure of writing creation and production which ultimately should be produced by the student themselves. Of course, for our students there are three considerations:

• Firstly, ‘chunking’ of the various elements that will combine to form the final written version is important as the task as a whole will seem overwhelming. However, the end result should always remain in sight.
  
• Secondly, using assistive technology is perfectly acceptable and can support the precise needs of the individual student. It is not cheating. (I am not scribing this on a wax tablet with a stick and hopefully, the built-in spellchecker is doing its work!)
  
• Thirdly, if we make this activity accessible and achievable then our students will actively engage with it and instead of being a task that causes anxiety, our hope is that enjoyable engagement, and greater output, will result.

Overcoming barriers to extended writing with DocsPlus

So, if we are using technology, how can we support our students to understand and use the building blocks, then create their own piece of extended writing? There are many options available luckily, however I am going to focus on using the excellent DocsPlus by Crick Software. The reason for this is that it is a one-stop shop and within one software solution, many elements can be supported and made accessible, thus reducing the need to move between solutions. For a student who struggles with cognitive transitions, this supportive learning landscape offers safety.

Barrier to writing		How DocsPlus can help…
Unsure about how they will tackle the task	Anxiety is often caused both by the task itself and the workflow to respond to it.	DocsPlus offers a clear, structured working environment which is predictable and consistent.
Understanding the task	To achieve in extended writing, it is vital to understand and answer the question. Many lose marks for not linking their answer to the set task.	Copy the question into DocsPlus and listen to it as often as you need to. Break down any sub sections as these can be used for structuring the answer.
Difficulty getting started	The key to getting started is simply having something to say, therefore the curation and research part of an extended writing task is crucial.	Use the integrated DocReader in DocsPlus to quickly read and highlight key points. Voice Notes can be used for easy thought collection.
Organisation and sequencing ideas	Getting this in place supports workflow when writing a logical response to the question. This reduces anxiety as it is then clear what has to be written and in what order. Poor working memory is supported by multimodal information chunked so that each section can be quickly referred to when needed.	Use WorkSpace to add ideas which can include text, pictures and even Voice Notes. These can then be moved around and organised, perhaps linked to the sub sections of a task question. Everything in WorkSpace will transform in a single click to Wordbars for writing support.
Spelling	Great anxiety about poor spelling often leads to choosing simpler vocabulary and avoiding richer or more complex words.	Use the integrated word predictor and grids with core and task specific vocabulary. Finally, utilise the customisable spell checker.
Writing fatigue	For students with literacy barriers, extended writing tasks demand a huge amount of cognitive energy and it can become overwhelming. It is helpful to be able to take a break and return with all the planning and writing in place and accessible.	Chunk the learning process through DocsPlus features, including: WorkSpace for planning, Voice Notes for easy note taking, and structured writing frames to aid writing for a specific topic or sequence.
Editing work	This is often problematic and when rereading work the tendency is to skip ahead and thus miss mistakes. Being able to hear the text read and follow along makes it much easier to spot errors.	Use DocsPlus’ Text-to-Speech output to have your writing read back to you. Adjust font type/size to ensure easy reading.
Illegible handwriting	Many students have poor handwriting, which can lead to both an unwillingness to produce written work by hand, and if they do, an inability to read what they have written.	Clear print output gives a legible end-product to be proud of.
Fear of failure	By working in a structured way, using an organised, stepped approach, small successes can be achieved to foster a positive attitude to complete the whole task.	WorkSpace offers a safety net of ideas and structures allowing reassurance and guidance at any point in the process. Output is clear, easy to read and ‘looks good’.
Accessibility	For those who require additional accessibility support, DocsPlus offers a range of options that are ready to use.	DocsPlus’ comprehensive range of proven multisensory accessibility options include: iPad use, SuperKeys, switch, eye-gaze and touch screen.

Extended writing is undoubtably a challenging task and yet mastery of this offers success in many areas. A structured, accessible, and most importantly, achievable approach facilitates success, and this achievement will really establish a student’s confidence. The transition to secondary school demands greater depth and content in written tasks and so managing these increased demands in a way which supports rather than inhibits is so important. Technology can not only support this, but with the right choices, provide a student with the tools to use whilst in secondary education but also to take with them to support them in their future.

Carol Allen is an Education Advisor specialising in ICT and inclusion, with decades of teaching experience in both mainstream schools and schools for students with severe, profound and multiple learning difficulties. She was named one of the top ten educators for 2018 in the field of educational technology for her inclusion work. Carol is also a headline speaker and workshop leader at education events across the globe.

We are delighted to share some lovely entries from our Summer Story Share competition!

The whole team have thoroughly enjoyed reading the stories that have been sent in, and we were blown away by the imagination, attention to detail and enthusiasm shown in all of them. Thank you to everyone who entered!   

Let’s take a look at some of the sensational stories you’ve been working on over the summer:

Athena, age 8: The Forest Cat

Athena’s story grabbed our attention from the very first page and we were instantly hooked into whether Katy would get to go to the forest or not with her friend Ginger. We were impressed by Athena’s huge plot twist and were all wondering what would happen next! Thankfully, Athena’s brilliantly detailed writing led us to the resolution. The final cliff hanger was an excellent touch. Well done, Athena.

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Franky, age 9: Jeffery Nibbles and the Secret Garden!!

Franky’s title instantly made us smile – the name Jeffery Nibbles is original and captivating so we were desperate to find out what he got up to. The Curriculum team were really impressed by Franky’s use of images throughout his story – including inserting photographs, using Clicker Paint and the Crick picture library! We had some lovely feedback from Franky’s mum. She shared that Franky really enjoyed creating his Summer Story and his writing confidence has blossomed ready for his return to school. He feels incredibly proud of what he’s created, and we do too! Well done, Franky.

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Jacob, age 7: George and the Wizard School

Jacob has written a brilliantly structured story and has features that show he is a wonderful author! We loved Jacob’s use of fronted adverbials to start his sentences and to add some variety and interest to his work. It made his writing enjoyable and easy to read! Jacob did an excellent job of keeping us on our toes and we thought he wrote a great ending for the mischievous goblin by leaving it in a jar at the top of a castle tower in the form of a toad! Well done, Jacob.

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Marieanne, age 9: If I could go anywhere

Marieanne has masterfully combined fiction with non-fiction in her story If I could go anywhere. We were amazed by her knowledge of India and how she weaved it into a detailed narrative. Our Curriculum team enjoyed If I could go anywhere’s fairy tale atmosphere and that Marieanne included an enticing blurb to set the scene! A great job, Marieanne, well done.

We will be emailing the schools that have won our book token prize draw over the next couple of weeks - many thanks to everyone who entered!

If you’ve ever read your class a nonsense narrative like Julia Donaldson’s Room on a Broom or Dr Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat, you may recall everyone smiling from ear to ear thanks to their silliness, fun and charming rhymes. Stories with catchy wordplay and nonsense plots can safely transport readers into a world of imagination and wit. Research by education specialists shows they can help children develop important communicative and coping skills. They also suggest that sharing nonsense with friends encourages social bonding in the classroom. In a post-pandemic environment, a writing genre that develops communication, coping skills and social bonding could be high on many teachers’ agenda.  

So, my question is: How can Clicker support children when writing nonsense narratives and wordplay to unlock their social and emotional benefits?

Clicker can help transform your class’ imaginative ideas into writing and scaffold the learning for children who “don’t know where to start”. As a teacher, I found planning, writing and sharing original stories to be a daunting process for many children.

So, this is how I would use two of Clicker’s many writing tools to ensure lessons are accessible to every child and remove the learning barriers often associated with story writing.

1. Create and edit a Sentence Set to overcome writer’s block

I would start by building a Sentence Set to support children writing sentences that include wordplay. This could be pre-prepared to encourage independent writing during the lesson, or collaboratively built to capture everyone’s ideas in one place. Sentence Sets provide safe learning boundaries for the nervous writer, and you can easily create personalised learning journeys for each child. For differentiation, you can colour code the sentences to their sentence type. I’ve used blue to show simple sentences, and pink to show a complex sentence!

When creating your Sentence Sets, the possibilities are endless: you could use extracts from your current class book, work together to capture the children’s ideas, or create your own.

I would incorporate nonsense words into my Sentence Sets to ensure all children can confidently write using this element of wordplay. As a result, Clicker’s Sentence Sets enable every child to enjoy nonsense narratives and write sentences that even the BFG would be proud of!

2. Create a Clicker Book to encourage story sharing

After writing their sentences, I would use the next lesson to transform each child’s ideas into a Clicker Book. I love this tool because Clicker’s picture banks always bring the children’s stories to life, and Voice Note recordings can evidence them reading their work, too.

Starting with a blank canvas can be a nerve-wracking experience, so creating a picture bank can help your class fill their books with colour and content, provide a stimulus for writing and build their confidence.

Lastly, I would add a nonsense-filled word bank for my class to use in their Clicker Book. Think crodsquikled, buzzlepop, woozles, wizzles and heffalumps! The word bank can include nonsense words from your Sentence Sets, and you can provide the opportunity for your class to add their own nonsense vocabulary. Just ask them to sound out their unique words and add them to the Clicker Book’s word bank before they start writing. I organised my word bank to encourage accurate syntax, even though the words are nonsense!

The features I’ve explored here are just a small sample of the many easy-to-use tools and resources available in Clicker to support children with story writing. Visit our tutorials for further ideas and don’t forget to share your nonsense wordplay with us!