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:
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.
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
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!
Earlier this year, a BBC news item “Writing a Book in a Day” highlighted the work of a South African based charity called Book Dash that creates and publishes books for free, with the aim of enabling all children to “own a hundred books by the age of five”.
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?
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.
Last year, I shared some information about the great Clicker resources Call Scotland created with the Scottish Book Trust. As I said, each November, Bookbug gives every Primary 1 pupil in Scotland a free bag of books and resources to inspire a love of stories and encourage reading for pleasure.
Our curriculum team also created some additional resource ideas to support children who are just starting school that I thought I’d share. These are linked to one of this year’s featured stories – the beautifully illustrated Arlo the Lion Who Couldn’t Sleep by Catherine Rayner.
The message of the story is one of gentle mindfulness. Arlo is exhausted but he simply cannot get to sleep. Luckily, a little owl teaches him some tricks to help him drift off to a peaceful sleep.
Use Clicker Board to get children thinking about what we might do when we can’t sleep.
Create a Sentence Set to help children retell the story in simple steps. Use the pictures in a Talk Set to retell the story orally.
When Arlo can’t sleep, he uses adjectives with the adverb ‘too’ to explain what is making it difficult for him to sleep. Use a Connect Set to recreate these sentences.
Or look at adjectives – like “tired” in the text – which can be replaced by powerful or wow words like “exhausted”.
Collect a handy selection of key vocabulary from the story, which children can use in their own writing – don’t forget, with Clicker you can use Picturize to illustrate your Word Banks too!
Clicker is such a versatile program that can be used across the school – and with children presenting so many differing needs after disruption to learning, a program like Clicker, which can be so uniquely personalised to their individual requirements, is a fantastic investment.
Dictation (speech-to-text) is a helpful tool that allows learners to get their ideas onto paper quickly. It can help them write content such as documents, essays, and emails by using voice narration, rather than physically typing them out. Many platforms have powerful, built-in dictation features which can be used in Clicker / DocsPlus.
Windows dictation
To initiate Windows dictation, click inside the Document (or any other text field) and press the Windows logo + H keys together on your physical keyboard. Alternatively, if you are using the Windows on-screen keyboard, click the Microphone key.
If it’s your first-time using Windows dictation, you will be asked to enable it in your Settings app first.
You should then see a box appear that turns from Initializing… to Listening…, meaning you are ready to start narrating your text. To stop, press Windows logo + H again, click the dictation icon, or wait 10 seconds.
For more information on Windows dictation, please see Microsoft’s support article.
Mac dictation
To enable Mac dictation, click the top-left Apple menu and go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Dictation to switch dictation to On.
To initiate Mac dictation, click inside the Document in Clicker 8 / DocsPlus, and then press the Control key twice. To stop, press Control twice again, or click Done.
For more information on Mac dictation, please see Apple’s support article.
iPad dictation
To initiate iPad dictation within Clicker Writer / DocsPlus, tap the green Keyboard tool to switch to the on-screen keyboard and then tap the Dictate (microphone) key.
If this is the first time you are using dictation in the app, tap OK on the following two prompts to give the app permission to use your microphone for dictating text.
For more information on how you can control the access apps have to your iPad’s hardware features, please see Apple’s support article.
Chromebook dictation
While Chromebooks do have a dictation feature, it’s not currently possible to use this within Clicker Writer / DocsPlus. Our developers are hard at work to implement this in a free update, which will be coming soon.
If you need any assistance with dictation in Clicker / DocsPlus, or any element of our software, please don’t hesitate to contact us at support@cricksoft.com, by filling in this short form or calling us on 01604 671691.
As schools close for the summer break, there is an air of anticipation of how we can all use this time not just to reflect and refresh, but to keep developing minds working and growing.
Let’s help children to feel calm and settled, and most importantly inspired and ready to face all the challenges of the new academic year.
The Oak National Academy (who provide free video lessons to support primary and secondary schools) have created a summer learning support guide.
As part of this, they have identified priority units and lessons in key curriculum subjects, so it’s a great way for children to consolidate or fill gaps in knowledge and understanding. You might find our growing bank of free LearningGrids resources invaluable for additional follow-up activities. We’ve put this guide together with a few ideas to keep children engaged in learning.
Struggling to get them started on a creative writing task? Get them planning their thoughts and ideas with one of our storyboards, analysing a character from a favourite tv show or even writing about their favourite footballer or edge-of-the-seat football match (there may be one or two this summer!).
Keep it fun and relaxed, don’t let it become a battle. Explore our LearningGrids library to find something that excites the child or children you are working with.
For the past few years, we’ve nominated various charities to be our charity of the year. For 2021, we are proud to be working with Filling in the Blanks. Filling in the Blanks is a fantastic organisation based in Norwalk, Connecticut which provides food bags to thousands of children who suffer from food insecurity.
For these children, weekends, summers and snow days are scary times as they may not know where their next meal is coming from – and the COVID pandemic has only escalated these fears. Filling in the Blanks delivers food bags to schools before the weekend as well as during summer break (including summer camps) to ensure that children have nutritious meals even when they’re not at school.
Since its founding in 2013, the organisation has gone from strength to strength, growing from a small operation in the founders’ homes to occupying a warehouse with 5000 square foot of space with volunteers who store and process the food bags that go to schools today.
We have lots of fundraising ideas for the next few months, including:
- A Virtual Food Drive.
- This is an ongoing effort in which we can either purchase a selection of food items Filling in the Blanks needs or donate cash directly.
- A Virtual 5K – April 25th to April 30th.
- Traditionally, the 5K event would have been organised so everyone ran the same route, but to be COVID-safe, this year we can run, walk, or cycle anywhere. This should be a fantastic opportunity for both our UK and US teams to take part and raise funds.
- Golf outing – May 18th.
- A sponsored round of golf around the prestigious GlenArbor Golf Club in New York.
- Various opportunities to volunteer.
- We know that our team members in the US office are very keen to get hands on with Filling in the Blanks’ work and make up some food bags.
- Holiday Backpack Drive.
- Over the holidays, Filling in the Blanks provides sturdy backpacks to every child who receives their food bags. They also fill these backpacks with holiday-appropriate food (like pancake mix), an age-appropriate book and toy, hats, gloves, socks, and a dental kit. This is another opportunity for us be directly involved by volunteering our time to help fill the backpacks.
- Kindness Note.
- These are handwritten notes that are added to the Weekend Meals Bags – a personal note of encouragement that can make a big difference to the children receiving them.
We also have some seasonal events planned for Halloween and Christmas. Keep an eye on our social media channels for announcements regarding these.
If you want to find out more about the work of this brilliant charity, please visit their website.
At the start of a new year, many of us look for ways to lead healthier lives and we often encourage children to do the same. There are a variety of resources on LearningGrids to encourage children to talk, read and write about the importance of making healthy choices.
Our Keeping Healthy – Read a Book is a great resource for introducing the importance of good hygiene, sleep, regular exercise and a healthy diet. The related Talk, Make a Book, Connect, Sentence and Word Bank sets enable children to record their understanding of how to lead healthy lives. We have also recently published Washing Hands – Read a Book with linked resources to support children in writing about another way to help keep themselves and others healthy.
Brushing My Teeth – Read a Book focuses on good dental hygiene. The Clicker Book is supported by Sentence and Connect sets so that children can write about a simple tooth brushing routine. Older children can read about the location and function of different types of teeth in the Find Out About Teeth Custom Set. Search for teeth on LearningGrids for more related resources.
Our Human Body 1/2/3 differentiated Find Out and Write About activities encourage children to read and write about how other parts of the body work. For more independent writers, there are also Word Banks such as Human Health and Development to support writing about healthy growth and development.
Use the Exercise and Pulse Rates Talk Set for an active way to investigate the effects of exercise on the body. Children talk about the different exercises and predict what changes might happen to the body after the exercise, and then they record the pulse rate and body changes that actually happen. The Pulse Rate Investigation Word Bank supports learners in writing up the investigation and their findings.
There are also a lot of resources on LearningGrids that focus on food and healthy eating, such as the Food Groups and Food A - Z Word Banks. The Food and Nutrition-Sorting Connect Set encourages children to sort foods into how nutritionally valuable they are. For an engaging way to encourage children to explore the impact of unhealthy snacks and whether they should be allowed in schools, read the Clicker Book Junk Food – Viewpoints. Children consider the different viewpoints on the Junk Food - For or Against Clicker Board. Their completed mind map, along with the Junk Food – Persuasive Writing Word Bank, can be used to plan a speech or to structure a piece of persuasive writing.
As you know, a healthy lifestyle also includes a focus on mental wellbeing. We have many resources in the Feelings category to encourage children to be aware of their feelings and to talk or write about them. Browse the Our Bodies or Keeping Healthy categories on LearningGrids for many more resources available to support learning about being healthy.
Safer Internet Day takes place every February. It’s an important event celebrated in countries around the world. And never has safe internet use seemed more important than right now with so many of us using technology to work, learn and socialise through online connections. To mark this year’s event – on February 9th – we have teamed up with Childnet to put together some resources to help children learn about staying safe online. Childnet works across the world to help make the internet a great and safe place for children.
Our new resources on LearningGrids are designed to work alongside Childnet’s SMART Adventure animations: The Adventures of Kara, Winston and the Smart Crew. They focus on SMART rules, which have been proven to be effective in helping younger children understand the importance of keeping safe online. During their travels, Kara and Winston use the internet, mobile phones, social networking pages and chat, to negotiate and find their way through the adventure. On their journey, they interact with a real-life SMART crew who give advice to help Kara and Winston stay safe.
There are a range of differentiated Clicker resources which accompany the SMART Adventure animations, designed to support children in thinking about e-safety issues.
- There are five Clicker Books covering each chapter of the adventure story. These are simplified on-screen talking book versions of the animations, designed to reinforce the key e-safety SMART rule messages. Children can also create an oral retelling of the books to demonstrate their understanding.
- In addition to these, a collection of differentiated activities – including speaking, sentence building, scaffolded writing and word banks – enable children to write about e-safety SMART rules which help them make safe online decisions.
Find all our Safer Internet Day resources on LearningGrids and let’s keep young people working (and playing) online safely.
You may remember last year I shared a wonderful story about Jane, a student with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working with for almost 14 years! This time, I’m excited to share her latest Clicker success. Jane has been diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy and faces many challenges which have impacted her ability to attend school and access the curriculum. Last year, she was fully included in a general education high school setting for the first time, with the support of a team who assisted her in implementing AAC/AT strategies across the curriculum, including Clicker. She recently wrote a speech for her public speaking class using Clicker, with the support of a Word Bank and a handful of sentence starters. This time last year, she was learning to create 7-9-word sentences using Clicker Sentence Sets. What incredible progress this young lady has made in one school year! You can watch her read (or read for yourself) her compelling speech aloud, sharing her future dreams and aspirations below.
After college, my dream job is at WildBrain. WildBrain is a company that does kids’ TV shows in Canada. I think being an animator is cool because then you can design characters over there for TV shows for kids and do a lot of drawings on the computer. When I turn 17, I would like to learn French because in Canada they speak French or English, it depends what part of Canada you’re in. But also, for next year my goal for my job, besides French, I want to work at a party store when I turn 17. Well there a lot of ideas that I want to do for next year.
But I have to decide which job I want depending on what’s appropriate for my age. Also, my family and teachers might have to see all my credits through the years that I’ve been taught, [from] when I was kindergarten through this year. I hope I can have a job when I turn 17, maybe yes maybe no. But my mom still has to decide whether or not I will be able to have a job at that certain age. Also, I might need a car to go to my job next year too. If I drive myself to work then my mom wouldn’t have her car, Vanilla Lightning. I might have to take a bus to work and to school instead of a car because a car costs a lot of money to buy.
Another class that I would like to do next year is Stagecraft Costume Design because every Halloween I love to make my own costume with my Grandma, Marty. Maybe it could be possible to do leadership and decorate the dances and Homecoming games for the rallies too. I have a lot of classes and goals that I need to work on until I work for WildBrain, but it will come very fast soon for next year for my dream job until now I’m still a teen until one more year.
Andrew Simpson is a teacher and AT specialist who writes for Access: technology north’s blog. In his review of Clicker, he comments on the wide array of supportive features the software provides, especially for AT users and educators.
"For those who are unfamiliar with Clicker, it is a child-friendly word processor that’s jam-packed with assistive features to facilitate extended writing and help to develop literacy skills, available on Windows, Mac and iOS. It offers voice feedback, predictive text, symbol support and handy little voice-notes to assist with the writing process and then a whole myriad of ‘Clicker sets’ that can be tailored meet the individual learning needs of each user – more on those later.
In terms of accessibility (which is what I’m here for) it has both EyeGaze and Switch functionality built in and everything about it seems to have been designed with this in mind. We often come across software that is great for ‘standard access’ but that we have to find lots of work-arounds and hacks to make it work for alternative access methods.
From an end-user perspective, there’s an awful lot to be said for a seamless experience and feeling as though the software is for them as much as it is for everyone else (and they don’t need to run two extra bits of software and plug in 3 additional wires to make it work).
Anyone can use Clicker and even if they don’t necessarily need all of the bells and whistles it offers, I think it’s so important that they can.”
You can read the full review here.
Writing informal letters and messages is an important task in everyday life – whatever format we choose to send them in. Making sure the message is clear and getting the tone right for the audience is vital. So, whether it’s pinging a friendly email to a cousin, writing a thank you note to Grandma or inviting a friend to a party, there are two new Clicker resources on LearningGrids which will help children construct an informal letter to a friend or relative.
If you’re just starting out and want to offer a lot of support, use the Connect Set Informal Letter Writing. This provides a clear framework (for the greeting, main body of the message and sign off) that children can use to compose a simple informal message – they can even illustrate the message using their own pictures or from the picture bank provided. This resource really will step them through the letter with lots of support. Use the Informal Letter Frame for children who are able to work more independently but will benefit from a framework to guide them. This Word Bank provides grids of vocabulary to support children in writing the greeting, opening, closing and sign off, with grids of words and phrases to help them compose the main body of the message.
Get your children involved in this meaningful engagement task and have lots of fun with letter writing again – and bring smiles to many happy recipients!
With ‘World Book Day’ coming up, I wanted to direct you to some of the useful resources on LearningGrids that could help your pupils record their ideas in response to a text they have read. These resources will enhance your pupils’ love of reading while helping them to engage with and understand a variety of text types.
We have resources in our new Personal Response category to aid with text response skills. The Clicker Board Book Cover Detective is a flexible resource; it could be used to support a whole class discussion, a paired activity or be used by individuals. Children can insert key words or longer explanations into the blank cells. If you would like a child to verbally record their answers, they can click the Cell icon in the left toolbar and insert a Voice Note for each box.
You can use the Board as it has been created or adapt the focus/subheadings by double-clicking within the cells and changing the text. You might prefer “Favourite Part”, “Genre”, “Plot” or “Problem” subheadings and use these to align to your lesson objectives.
Another useful set is the Book Review Frame Word Bank, which supports learners by offering sentence starters and key vocabulary to help them to structure their review.
Find these resources and more on LearningGrids.
Have fun being reading detectives!