In a recent conversation with a school, science came up as a subject that teachers were keen to discuss. Particularly how children of differing reading/writing abilities can successfully discuss and record the same science investigation.
A useful way to enable all children to show their understanding in science is to use Clicker Talk Sets. The benefit of these sets is that they don’t require any form of writing, as students use the microphone to record their predictions, methods and observations.
A set to look at on LearningGrids is Reversible and Irreversible Changes – Talk, which looks at six materials and how they might be changed. students consider whether the changes shown are permanent, or whether the materials can be returned to their original states.
The activity is open-ended – some children might describe what they can see in the pictures while others might give detailed interpretations of what has happened, and recognize for example that the candle represents both a reversible and an irreversible change. As such the activity is suitable for a range of abilities.
Having recorded their ideas, children could use the set as a prompt for writing. Some students may confidently write from their recordings; however, others may require further support. For those students, Word Banks are a great way to support their writing by providing key words that can be easily inserted into their text with a click or a tap!
LearningGrids also has a range of science investigation Word Banks and Clicker Boards that provide brilliant scaffolding for all students as they develop their knowledge and skills at writing up investigations.
For an overview of the science sets available on LearningGrids, you can explore the ‘Science’ tab or search for your current topic. If you would like any further guidance using Clicker to support your science lessons, you can talk to our friendly Education Consultants! Email us at info@cricksoft.com or call 203 221 2697.
If you are assigning work for students to complete at home, you may be worried that your struggling readers will find it difficult to access worksheets or information sheets independently. DocsPlus offers a solution!
DocsPlus includes an integrated “DocReader” that will read aloud any PDF or Word document. Just open the PDF or document in DocsPlus, highlight the text you need help with, and click the speaker to hear it read to you. See the information video and PDF in our training section to see how it works.
If you save your PowerPoints as PDFs, you can make them accessible for your struggling readers too!
If you want your students to listen as they write, DocsPlus can show a PDF alongside the writing document so they don’t need to keep switching from one to the other – a great way to give your students ongoing support and help them to stay focused on the task.
How to display a PDF beneath the Document in DocsPlus
In the English Literature section of LearningGrids, you will find activities that provide students with support for writing and planning when studying different texts.
As a starting point, look at the DocsPlus set Text Analysis which provides starters and vocabulary to help students to analyze the text they are studying. The set helps them to write about aspects of the text such as the opening and the ending, to offer ideas on the author’s technique, and to help them to introduce evidence into their written response.
For named texts, you will find a range of Wordbars covering characters and themes as well as general vocabulary banks arranged alphabetically. For example, when studying Animal Farm, find useful words to write about Old Major, Napoleon, Snowball, Squealer, Boxer, and Benjamin; when studying Frankenstein, write about the themes of knowledge, ambition, justice, prejudice, loneliness, and revenge.
WorkSpace activities focus on key aspects of the text to get students thinking and organizing their ideas before writing. Find resources which focus on such topics as the relationships between characters, the context of the text, and the significance of the main events. For example, when studying The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, create mind maps about Victorian London, Victorian society, religion, and science and medicine; when studying Pride and Prejudice, consider the different views of marriage by looking at the marriages between Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Collins, Jane Bennet and Mr. Bingley, and Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy.
We continue to add literature resources to LearningGrids, so look out for more coming soon!
We have recently published new DocsPlus sets for two popular literature texts – Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Holes by Louis Sachar.
There are a range of Wordbars for both texts, providing vocabulary to help your students write about the books. So, whether you are writing about Stanley Yelnats or Kissin' Kate Barlow, Jane Eyre or Mr. Rochester (and many others too), there are word banks which offer vocabulary prompts and ideas to help your students as they write.
Tackle themes such as love and marriage, personal discovery, and gender in Jane Eyre; in Holes, write about Green Lake past and present. For both texts, see the general A - Z Wordbars too.
Remember that you can have multiple Wordbars open at once (use the tabs along the bottom of the screen to move between them), giving students access to hundreds of words at a time.
Visit LearningGrids for DocsPlus resources to support many other literature texts.
Write about themes in ‘Jane Eyre’ – just one of the Worbars to support this classic text
Find words to help you to write about the characters in ‘Holes’