Help nudge emerging writers the right way with Clicker

“…Every student I've ever tried Clicker with, but especially students who shut down with writing and are frustrated by writing, I can always engage them. This is a very engaging tool.” - Rose Racicot, Assistive Technology Specialist and Occupational Therapist 

How can we guide students to build well-formed and well-connected sentences? 

On October 16, 2024, Rose Racicot and I led Clicker's second webinar of our fall series. The session showed how Clicker's supportive word processor can assist teachers in strengthening students' written expression. 

We explored: 

• Strategies to support a full range of diverse learners and thinkers so they can fully participate in their general education classrooms. 

• Practical tools within Clicker to help students organize their thoughts into structured sentences. 

• Real-world examples of how educators are using Clicker to scaffold the writing process and foster sentence-building skills. 

1. Supporting neurodiverse learners in general education classrooms 

Clicker helps scaffold sentence-building for students at all learning levels. Its visual and auditory support helps multilingual learners and students with dyslexia, attention deficit disorders (ADD/ADHD), and autism. Sentence building requires both visual and auditory processing, so Clicker layers in students' needed scaffolds to build sentences at their own pace, all within an inclusive classroom setting. 

Clicker provides speech feedback throughout the entire word processor. Immediate auditory reinforcement is especially useful for students with ADD/ADHD because it helps them stay focused and engaged throughout writing tasks. For multilingual learners, hearing text read aloud reinforces language learning which makes sentence-building both a literacy and language development tool. 

Clicker also offers errorless writing so students — particularly those with dyslexia or autism—can construct sentences confidently without the fear of mistakes. Teachers can customize activities like Sentence Sets and Connect Sets in a way that makes the most sense for students. Everyone progresses at their own pace while working on the same classroom content. 

2. Clicker’s helpful tools for organizing writing 

Sentence Set 

Sentence Sets are designed for emerging writers who need support constructing sentences. These sets guide students step-by-step through sentence building by providing word banks, visual cues, and auditory feedback. 

How it helps 

Students select words and phrases from a grid to complete sentences. It offers a low-pressure, errorless writing experience for students who struggle with writing. Teachers can customize the sets to match individual students' levels, from simple word selection to more complex sentence construction. 

Connect Set

Connect Sets offer a more advanced level of scaffolding. It helps students form more complex sentences by connecting parts of sentences like subjects, verbs, and objects. This tool builds on the foundation set by Sentence Sets but offers more choices and greater flexibility. 

How it helps

The Connect Set presents parts of a sentence (e.g., subject, verb, object) in clusters. Students choose how to connect these parts to create a sentence. It provides color-coding for parts of speech and picture support to help reinforce understanding. 

Talk Set

Talk Sets help students verbalize their ideas before translating them into writing. Students record voice notes, which can later be used to help structure their written sentences. 

How it helps

This tool is valuable for students with strong verbal skills but struggle to write down their thoughts. By allowing them to express their ideas verbally first, Talk Sets reduce the cognitive load of writing and help students focus on sentence-building when they are ready. 

Matching Set

Matching Sets are used for vocabulary development and concept reinforcement by allowing students to match pictures, words, or sounds to reinforce learning. This tool provides errorless practice in an engaging, interactive format. 

How it helps

Matching Sets are a hands-on way for students to practice recognizing and connecting concepts. It reinforces vocabulary or sentence-building skills in a low-pressure, fun environment. The errorless design means that students can keep trying until they find the correct match which builds confidence without frustration. 

3. Use cases and real-life examples

During the webinar, Rose and I shared powerful stories from educators who have seen firsthand how Clicker has supported their students. Rose reported how one teacher described a student with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy who used switch access to build sentences. Clicker's accessibility helped the student to express thoughts and emotions confidently, despite their physical limitations.  

Rose also shared how reluctant writers, who once shut down at the thought of writing, began to feel more confident with Clicker's errorless writing tools. Students were able to construct sentences without fear or friction, which kept them engaged and open to learning more. Clicker's scaffolding makes sentence building approachable and encouraging for every learner and every ability. 

Make writing less abstract and more low-stakes for measurable student growth

There's so much invisible thinking that goes into the writing process. Clicker turns that invisible thinking into something concrete to give students the structure they need to get started.  

It reduces writing frustration in those early stages with customizable Sentence Sets, speech feedback, and visual scaffolds–whatever students need to start, push on, and finish. The less friction we create in those beginning stages of learning to write, the more we empower confident, excited writers who are eager to express their ideas. 

Clicker gives students the tools they need to make progress with their writing, one sentence at a time.