Do you have students who have lots of ideas, but struggle to get them down on paper?

They may be great listeners who are eager to answer questions and contribute insightfully to classroom discussions, but written tasks don’t capture what they know and want to share.   

This is a common issue for learners who struggle with writing. It’s not that they don’t understand the lessons or lack ideas, it’s simply that the mechanics of writing make it hard for them to express themselves.

Clicker supports struggling writers by removing some of the cognitive load of writing, enabling them to focus on what they want to say.

Here are some of the tools you and your learners can use to transfer their ideas from brain to page.

Voice Notes to capture ideas in the moment

When a learner is talking enthusiastically about a topic, they can capture those ideas in the moment with a Voice Note. It’s easy to record a Voice Note by simply clicking the microphone icon in the Clicker Document toolbar. Once the recording is finished, a speech bubble icon is added to the Document.

Recording ideas like this helps learners to hold on to their thinking. They can listen to the recording as many times as they need to while writing, reducing the pressure on memory. This also gives students the opportunity to rehearse their sentences before typing them. They can think about what they want to say first, and then focus on spelling, punctuation, and capital letters once they have decided what they want to convey.

Up to six color-coded Voice Notes can be added to a Document, which can guide learners through longer pieces of writing. Teachers can also record Voice Notes for learners to remind them of ideas they discussed previously, or key things they need to remember as they build their piece of writing.

Organize ideas with Clicker Board

Your learner may have lots of ideas about a topic but not know how to put them together into a coherent structure.

If a learner is working on a complex piece of writing, or needs to follow a specific format, they can organize their ideas using a Clicker Board.

Clicker Board is a visual planning tool to help pupils prepare for writing. Students can create their own Clicker Boards and arrange them in a way that makes sense to them or use a pre-made writing planner from LearningGrids to help them stick to a specific outline.

The Writing Frames & Planners category for instance, is full of Clicker Boards that are specifically designed to help learners structure writing for specific purposes such as advertisements, persuasion, and reports.

This way of planning means learners can record their ideas in whatever order they have them in and then move them around into a logical order later. Voice Notes and images can also be added to a Clicker Board, making it even easier to capture and arrange ideas.[

Once a learner is ready to move from planning to writing, they can access their Clicker Board in the Document as a diagram, an outline, or convert it into a supportive Word Bank.

Keep writing momentum going with the Predictor

Once your learner has captured their ideas and organized them into a logical structure, it’s time to start writing.

Having ideas recorded and a plan to follow may give learners an initial boost, but it’s still common for them to get stuck during the task. How can we encourage them to move forwards independently, rather than immediately asking an adult to help?

The Predictor is an excellent tool that helps learners carry on writing when they start to feel unsure.

As a learner types, it offers suggestions for the next word in the sentence, meaning they don’t have to pause to try and think of what to say next.

Unlike most predictors, Clicker’s Predictor offers ‘sounds-like’ suggestions. As seen in the example below, this means that learners receive relevant suggestions even if they don’t know the accurate opening spelling patterns of a word.

You can also increase the level of support from the Predictor with pictures and speech feedback.

If a learner has started writing, but isn’t sure what to add next, or if they’re about to start and feel intimidated by the empty page, the Predictor gives them the intuitive nudge they need to keep going.

Give point-and-click access to relevant vocabulary with Word Banks

Providing a Word Bank removes the pressure of trying to remember specific vocabulary or spell tricky words. It can also be a great tool to prompt thinking and spark ideas.

You can create custom Word Banks for specific topics or lesson objectives or explore the extensive collection of pre-made options on LearningGrids.

Proof and check work with speech feedback

Learners who have trouble with writing often find it difficult to check their own work.

In Clicker, learners can listen to their writing read aloud in a clear, realistic voice. This helps them identify errors such as misspelled words, missing punctuation, or sentences that are confusing or too long. This is a fantastic way to encourage learners to self-correct and proactively review how their writing is taking shape.  

Sometimes issues with written work can stem from not reviewing it throughout the writing process, so having support with proofing and checking is a great way to help learners improve their writing without relying on adult support.  

‘‘I can get all of the things that are inside of me out, I can write now, and I couldn’t before.”

This is what a student at Chapel Allerton Primary School in the UK had to say about her experience using Clicker.

With the right support in place, every child can be a writer.

If you would like to learn more about how Clicker helps learners achieve writing success, you can read these blog posts:

• Quick wins with Clicker’s writing support tools
  
  
• LearningGrids: Reading and writing resources for adaptive teaching
  
  
• A writing journey with Clicker’s writing grids

A student is working on blending the sounds in the word dog. The reading specialist says each sound, asks the student to blend “in their head,” and then waits for a response.

The student understands the task, but demonstrating it is harder. Some students struggle to respond quickly. Others find pointing, speaking, or navigating a device more demanding than the reading itself. And for many learners with complex profiles - including those with autism, sensory or motor differences, or communication challenges - every response option carries its own trade off.

Spoken responses may not clearly show what the student knows. Picture choices can invite guessing. Navigating a device can become more of a motor task than a reading task.

Moments like this appear often when teaching emergent readers with complex communication or learning needs. The literacy goal is clear. Demonstrating it is not always straightforward.

Emergent or conventional? The question that influences everything.

In Comprehensive Literacy for All (CLFA) classrooms, one of the most important instructional questions is whether a student is currently an emergent or conventional reader. The answer shapes everything, from the texts students encounter to the kinds of writing and word work they experience each day.

Many students with complex learning profiles - students with autism, intellectual disabilities, complex bodies, or communication challenges - remain emergent readers longer than their peers. For these students, literacy instruction must create the conditions that enable reading and writing to develop.

When “prove it” gets in the way of reading

Special education teams need evidence that students can blend and decode. At the same time, they must honor different ways students communicate and respond without adding so much scaffolding that the literacy skill itself becomes hard to see. The Science of Reading has helped bring phonics, decoding, and structured literacy back into focus.

But for teams working to implement CLFA, these expectations raise new questions when students have complex communication or learning needs.

• How do we assess phonics and blending when students cannot easily demonstrate their thinking aloud, in writing, or through quick motor responses?
  
  
• How do we build inner voice without turning communication supports into a test-answer routine?
  
  
• What do we do with core programs like UFLI and their decodable passages when students interact with text in different ways?
  

As special education teams work to build CLFA-aligned systems, they are trying to balance all of this by supporting inner voice, respecting the different ways students communicate and respond, and still meeting phonics and assessment expectations.

In practice, this means designing literacy lessons where students explore the same rich texts as their classmates but access them in ways that match their communication and learning styles. Tools like Clicker can help make this possible by giving students flexible ways to access text and express their ideas.

In our “CLFA book collection” webinar, Rose Racicot and Barb Lark demonstrate this approach. Rose is an occupational therapist and assistive technology expert, and Barb is an experienced speech-language pathologist. Together, they show how to pair the CLFA book collection with Clicker and how it works in real classrooms.

Why inner voice matters for complex learners

Inner voice is especially important for students with complex communication or learning needs, including those who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). Some learners know their letter sounds for years but still struggle to blend and read words. Often, they have not yet built a strong internal voice to “hold” those sounds. When adults regularly say the sounds and words for students, it can unintentionally slow the development of that internal processing.

Karen Erickson, co-author of Literacy for All, calls inner voice a tool that helps readers hold words in memory. When a student's inner voice is weak or not used, they may recognize individual words or follow along when someone reads aloud. However, they may struggle to read silently and understand on their own. For students with complex communication needs - including those who rely on AAC - learning how to use an inner voice is an important step in moving beyond early word reading.

During the webinar, Barb revisited a core CLFA principle that aligns with this research:

“Emergent literacy is highly dependent upon the nature, frequency and accessibility and interpretability of experiences with print… and the experiences really need to carry a high level of meaning for each individual student in order for it to be at its most successful.”

Inner voice grows when students have many meaningful experiences. They need easy-to-understand text that connects to what they care about. That is why the CLFA book collection centers on rich shared reading, shared writing, alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness, and self‑selected reading - not rapid‑fire “What word is this?” probes.

This shift moves the focus toward daily conditions that make blending possible. Students have regular and valuable print experiences every day. Over time, repeated exposure helps students recognize words more automatically. This helps them develop their inner voice and gain confidence in understanding connected text.

When demonstrating reading becomes the hardest part

Another challenge appears when literacy activities become focused on how students respond rather than what they know. In some phonics lessons, the process of responding- whether through speaking, selecting a picture, navigating a device, or writing - can be so demanding that the focus shifts away from the literacy skill entirely. This is not only a challenge for students who use AAC. It applies to many emergent readers with complex learning needs: students whose motor demands are high, whose processing speed differs from their peers, or whose attention is consumed by the mechanics of the response.

The webinar addresses this directly. When we looked at the CLFA activity plan for The Jacket I Wear in the Snow, Barb explained that her planning documents are “idea ticklers,” not test scripts. They focus on shared reading, shared writing, predictable chart writing, and extension activities like cooking or sequencing. These tasks invite real communication, including comments, connections, and questions.

Rose added, “Clicker provides a unique way to provide choices for accessibility… to scaffold all these different writing options… so that every student in a classroom - a diverse group of students - can access that content.”​

For special education leaders, this approach has clear implications:

• Use flexible tools first for authentic reading and writing experiences: shared writing, independent writing, and composing with support.
  
  
• Use low-tech options such as small picture arrays, Elkonin boxes, or silent pointing when you need clean decoding data.

Are they emergent or conventional? It’s an important distinction

Many special educators also ask how to adapt UFLI decodable passages for students who engage with text differently. CLFA invites a different starting point: is this learner primarily emergent or conventional right now?

In the webinar, Barb showed how the CLFA book collection differentiates support:​

• Emergent learners start with shared reading and shared writing, rich oral language, alphabet and phonological awareness, and lots of “looking at and listening to” books, even when they are older students.
  
  
• Learners who are becoming conventional readers get more guided reading, word study, self‑directed reading, and writing, but they still benefit from shared reading.

Barb told the story of a sixth‑grade student with a complex body and sensory profile. This student used partner‑assisted scanning and was just starting eye gaze. Her goal for the year was “to learn to read and write.” She is an emergent learner, but her age does not cut her off from full CLFA instruction.​

Many practitioners are moving from a “can’t do yet” mindset to a “can do with the right supports” mindset. Instead of deciding if a student isn’t ready for inner voice or certain comprehension tasks because of age or a developmental label, they look at what the student can do with print, language, and communication in real situations and build from there.

For SPED directors, this is a systems question. Do your assessments, schedules, and staffing patterns leave room for older emergent learners to get strong emergent instruction? Or are these students being pushed into conventional routines too early because of grade level or program structure?

What districts can control: the conditions that make literacy possible

CLFA also names conditions for learning. These include:

• enough time
  
  
• comprehensive instruction
  
  
• knowledgeable adults
  
  
• accessible ways to communicate and respond
  
  
• personal connection to the curriculum
  
  
• repetition with variety
  
  
• cognitive engagement and clarity
  
  
• encouragement of risk‑taking
  
  
• high expectations.

These are factors districts can manage with schedules, materials, coaching, and staffing to make comprehensive literacy possible for complex learners.

Chapter 2 of CLFA “breaks down the critical and crucial components to enable successful comprehensive literacy instruction” and notes that most of these are adult-dependent, some are system‑dependent, and many require mindset shifts for practitioners.​

Our webinar gives concrete pictures of what these conditions look like when they are in place:​

• Significant time allocation. Barb’s activity plans expect multiple readings of the same book, shared writing across five days, and repeated chances to revisit vocabulary and ideas in different ways.
  
  
• Flexible means of access and interaction. Rose shows how features like switch access, recorded speech, interactive books, and talking word processors let students with different motor and sensory needs work with the same texts.
  
  
• Cognitive clarity and knowledgeable others. The session names emergent vs conventional, connects CLFA strategies to UDL, and shows where Clicker Sets and Clicker Analytics fit into district goals and data systems.

Without these conditions, literacy instruction can narrow over time - drifting toward easier tasks, compliance responses, and missed opportunities for the genuine reading and writing development that complex learners deserve.

Where to go from here

If any of these situations feel familiar, the blending task that turns into a motor test, the decodable passage that overwhelms a student who engages with text differently, the tension between inner voice and adult modeling- you are not alone.

You also do not have to solve these problems by yourself or start from zero.

In the CLFA + Clicker webinar, you and your team will see:​

• CLFA’s core beliefs and conditions for learning in action across a range of complex learner profiles.
  
  
• Concrete examples of shared reading, predictable chart writing, and book‑based routines for both emergent and conventional learners using Clicker.
  
  
• How tools like Clicker Books, Talk, Writer, and Analytics can support expression, access, and data - without turning any one tool into a “test answer machine.”

If you are ready to move beyond “Can this student tap the right symbol?” and toward “Are we giving this student the conditions, tools, and time they need to become a reader and writer?”, here is a next step:

Watch the webinar with your team. Bring one real student or classroom to mind. As you watch, note each time you think, “This would solve that problem we keep talking about.” Then use CLFA’s conditions for learning as your checklist for what needs to change in your system next.​

Watch the webinar now:

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Clicker resources be used across different devices and platforms?

Yes. Clicker Sets run across Windows, Mac, Chromebook, and iPad.

Can teachers digitize books to use with Clicker for students with disabilities?

Yes. Under the Chafee Amendment, educators can digitize copyrighted books for accessibility if the student has an IEP or 504 plan and owns the physical copy. Many teams also use Creative Commons images or the Crick resource library when building digital versions.

Does Clicker support alternative access methods like switches or eye gaze?

Yes. Clicker supports a range of accessibility options including switch access, eye gaze systems, and other adapted inputs. On computers, these settings can integrate with dedicated eye-gaze devices or external bars connected to a laptop or tablet.

What kind of data can Clicker Analytics provide for educators?

Clicker Analytics shows how students produced a piece of writing, including which supports were used, which word grids were accessed, and where speech support helped. Teachers can also add notes to document instructional observations and share insights across multidisciplinary teams.

How can teams start using Clicker with CLFA resources?

Many districts begin with the CLFA book collection activity plans and use Clicker to support shared reading, predictable chart writing, and scaffolded writing tasks. Teams can adapt supports depending on whether students are emergent or conventional readers.

Is there a way to try Clicker before purchasing?

Yes. Schools can participate in a 90-day Clicker Pilot Program, which includes training and implementation support so teams can evaluate how it works in their classrooms.

Helping students move beyond simple sentences can be a challenge - especially in early writing. Many students can form a complete sentence but adding detail and creating vivid imagery is a bigger step. Today, I wanted to take a closer look at a simple but powerful resource on LearningGrids: the Expanding Sentences Connect Set. It’s a flexible activity that helps students explore how small changes can transform their writing.

Why I chose this Clicker Set

Expanding Sentences is straightforward - but highly effective. It gives students an accessible way to experiment with language and see immediate results.

This Connect Set:

• Helps students see how adding detail transforms their writing
  
  
• Strengthens understanding of sentence structure and parts of speech
  
  
• Encourages creativity with no single “right answer”
  
  
• Can be easily adapted to meet a wide range of student needs

This activity is ideal for early elementary students or any learners who are developing confidence with sentence structure and descriptive language.

How I would use the resource

Each grid in the Expanding Sentences set starts with a simple sentence and provides students with descriptive words and phrases to build upon it. While students can use the set independently, I find it especially powerful as a whole-class teaching tool.

I would begin by writing a simple sentence from the grid, for example: “A dog barked.” Then, I’d temporarily hide the Clicker Grid and ask: What makes this a sentence? What do we need for it to be complete? We’d identify the subject and predicate, confirming that it is a complete sentence. But I’d ask: Is it interesting? Does it tell us very much?

Next, I’d reintroduce the Clicker Grid and explore how we can expand the sentence by adding descriptive language, such as adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases.

Together, we might create sentences like: “A tiny dog barked ferociously at the children.” or “A huge stray dog barked mournfully for food.”

We’d then compare these to the original sentence: What’s different? What new details do we have? What picture do these sentences create in your mind? This discussion helps students see that while the structure remains the same, the added detail makes the writing far more engaging and meaningful.

Students can then continue independently, using the other grids to create a range of descriptive sentences. I might challenge them to create sentences that paint very different pictures from the same starting point.

How I might adapt the activity

One of the strengths of this resource is how easily it can be adjusted to suit different learners.

Simplify the task

For some students, I would reduce the number of options. For example, I might remove the adverbs cluster in Edit Mode. This way students could just focus on adding an adjective to describe the subject and expanding the predicate with a prepositional phrase. This keeps the task manageable while still building key skills.

Encourage student-generated language

It’s important that students know they’re not limited to the grid. For example, a student might select: “A heavy package arrived…” and then add their own idea, such as: “…in the classroom.” This reinforces that the grid is a support - not a limit.

Increase interaction and engagement

To deepen engagement, I might replace grid options with parts of speech labels. I could ask students to suggest their own adjectives or prepositional phrases. This turns the activity into a more collaborative and language-rich experience.

By the end of the lesson, students should see how including detail in their sentences and using descriptive language makes their writing more interesting and brings it to life for their readers.

Explore more

Try out the Expanding Sentences Connect Set with your class.

You might also find these helpful:

• Quick wins with Clicker’s writing support tools
  
  
• Early elementary writing with Clicker
  
  

I had the opportunity to travel across Washington, meeting with an incredible range of school districts that are using, or piloting, Clicker. From hands-on trainings with long-time Clicker users to conversations with teams just beginning their Clicker journeys, one thing was undeniably clear…

…when tools are flexible, accessible, and respectful of teacher time, they truly make an impact.

The following points are my biggest takeaways from learning directly from educators in Washington:

What current Clicker users are telling us

Quick, flexible editing matters

Staff repeatedly highlighted how Clicker gives them the flexibility to respond in the moment - adapting support on the fly as lessons unfold.

Some of the most useful strategies discussed include:

• Turning a Clicker Board into a Word Bank - as can be seen in the example below, giving students immediate access to relevant vocabulary that they fed into lessons and topics

👉 Turn a Clicker Board into a Word Bank

• Creating Sentence Sets as students talk through ideas - when teachers do this, instruction can follow student thinking in real time

👉 Create and edit a Sentence Set

• Using Shift + Click to edit pre-made LearningGrids - staff especially love having a ready-made starting point that can be quickly personalized to fit exactly what’s needed

 👉 Free Clicker teaching resources

These small efficiencies make a big difference, supporting engagement without interrupting the flow of teaching.

Global access is key to creating a truly inclusive technology ecosystem

All districts need to start somewhere, and sometimes somewhere is small with just a few users.

While some districts begin with Clicker licenses assigned to individual users, educators were clear: for inclusive technology like Clicker to work seamlessly, we need to build towards every student having access.

When everyone can participate without barriers:

• Lessons run more smoothly
  
  
• Everyone feels included
  
  
• Training and technical support are simplified
  
  
• Teachers spend less time customizing for just one student
  
  
• Students remain engaged and independent

Equitable, classroom-wide access directly supports student success.

What we learned from school districts piloting Clicker

Limited budgets require meaningful data

With funding tighter than ever, districts told us they need evidence that Clicker works before committing to a purchase. That's where our Clicker Pilot Program plays a particularly critical role.

What districts receive:

• A free 90-day pilot of Clicker
  
  
• Access across platforms (iPad, Chromebook, Windows/Mac)
  
  
• Ongoing guidance and collaboration from our team
  

Throughout the pilot, we collaborate with districts to collect:

• Meaningful usage data
  
  
• Educator feedback
  
  
• Student impact testimonials

This makes purchasing decisions clearer, more confident, and data-informed.

Longer pilots lead to better decisions

Short trials can provide a snapshot of how a tool could help, but meaningful change in classrooms takes time. Districts told us emphatically that our 90-day pilot period was key to properly embedding the software and measuring its impact.

A 90-day pilot supported by our team allows time to:

• Optimize rollout and setup, while ensuring there’s still space to properly explore and evaluate Clicker in the classroom
  
  
• Build confidence and familiarity across staff
  
  
• Use Clicker in a range of real classroom situations, not just initial activities
  
  
• Gather meaningful “before,” “during,” and “after” evidence of student progress and engagement

Final reflections

My time in Washington reinforced what we hear often: educators want tools that are powerful yet simple, flexible yet reliable, and always centered on student success.

I’m grateful to the districts who welcomed me into their schools to collaborate, share honest feedback, and continue to help shape Clicker’s future. Their insights ensure we keep building solutions that truly support both teachers and students.

If you use Clicker to support learning in your classroom, you already know how powerful it can be for encouraging writing, boosting confidence, and giving every student a voice. But like any robust tool, sometimes you just need a quick walkthrough, a visual example, or a friendly guide to help you use it to its fullest.

That’s exactly why I created Clicker Corner - a series of short, practical videos designed to help educators feel confident and fully supported when using Clicker with students.

What is Clicker Corner?

Clicker Corner is a growing library of quick, easy-to-follow videos that show you how to make the most of Clicker.

Each video focuses on a specific feature, strategy, or practical use for the classroom.

Whether you're brand new to Clicker or you’ve been using it for years, Clicker Corner gives you clear, approachable guidance you can apply immediately.

Think of it as your go-to spot for:

• Step-by-step guidance on key features
  
  
• Practical examples of how to use Clicker with students
  
  
• Tips and tricks you may not have discovered yet
  
  
• Inspiration for integrating Clicker into everyday lessons

Who are these videos for?

• Teachers who want to get more comfortable with Clicker
  
  
• Special educators and interventionists looking for accessible tools
  
  
• Technology specialists supporting staff
  
  
• Anyone who wants practical, classroom-ready ideas

Whether you're differentiating instruction, creating personalized writing supports, or helping students bridge from supported to independent writing, you’ll find something helpful inside Clicker Corner.

Start exploring Clicker Corner today

If you haven’t watched the Clicker Corner videos yet, now’s the perfect time to jump in. Each one is designed to make your life easier and your students’ learning stronger.

Using Clicker to build ELL literacy proficiency

Use Clicker to improve ELL students’ ELA foundational skills and oral communication.

Predictable chart writing with Clicker

Predictable chart writing is a collaborative learning activity where a group of students share the writing experience. Clicker makes predictable chart writing more accessible to all learners.

Supporting students with pictures in Clicker

Clicker offers a variety of picture support options including our popular Picturize tool that adds images instantly to the Document and Clicker Sets!

Explore more Clicker Corner videos here!

Introduction

The Clicker Friends series on LearningGrids was designed to provide engaging educational content to support young learners. Each story in the Clicker Friends collection is carefully crafted to encourage reading, writing, and discussion, making it an invaluable resource for teachers and learners alike. You can find the series in the Story Corner section on the LearningGrids website.

Recently, we have undertaken a comprehensive update of the Clicker Friends series to ensure consistency and maximize the learning potential of every story. These updates introduce a cohesive set of resources and activities for each tale, allowing children to explore, respond, and create with confidence. Whether it’s reading a book, building sentences, or engaging in interactive tasks, Clicker Friends provides a rich and supportive environment for literacy development.

In this blog, we’ll explore the refreshed Clicker Friends series and how you can use it to inspire and motivate your learners.

Clicker Friends

Our Clicker Friends collection is based around eight friends and their everyday activities. The characters are:

Billy	Freddie	Lizzie	Maisie
Mary	Robbie	Sally	Tommy

The stories are based on themes of seasonal activities (Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving) or everyday activities that most young children can relate to (going to the park, playing in the playground, going to the beach).

The first Clicker Friends story was published almost 15 years ago.

Earlier stories were created on older versions of Clicker. This meant that some of the stories had different supporting activities.

We have now ensured that all the stories have the same resources available to support students’ learning. This helps users feel confident and familiar with the stories, as they know what to expect.

There are currently 11 stories in Story Corner/Clicker Friends:

• A Day at the Zoo
  
  
• Christmas Time
  
  
• Thanksgiving Traditions
  
  
• A Day at School
  
  
• A Day at the Beach
  
  
• The Show
  
  
• At the Playground
  
  
• A Trip to the Park
  
  
• The Halloween Party
  
  
• The Easter Egg Hunt
  
  
• The Toy Store

The outline of resources to support each story now looks like this:

Read a Book

This is the stimulus story for the family of resources. It follows a simple pattern: there is a page for each child and the activity they are doing. In the simplest stories, there is just one sentence on the page.

A Day at the Zoo simple present tense verb “likes” – always the same verb but a different noun (animal)	Christmas Time simple present tense different verbs each time
A Day at School continuous present tense “is reading,” “is writing,” etc.	Thanksgiving Traditions simple present tense different verbs each time

A Day at the Beach simple past tense ”splashed,” “collected”	The Show simple past tense “sold,” “juggled”

After this, we add some very small steps of progression in the complexity of the sentences – for example, adding simple prepositions or conjunctions.

At the Playground prepositions in each sentence: “down the slide,” “up the net,” “across the bridge”	A Trip to the Park introducing conjunction “and”: “Mary and Billy rode their bikes”

The Halloween Party 2 sentences – simple past tense + adjective in 2nd sentence “Billy carved a pumpkin. The pumpkin was big.”	The Easter Egg Hunt 2 sentences – simple past tense + preposition in 1st sentence and adjective (color) in 2nd sentence “Tommy found an egg behind the shed. The egg was green.”	The Toy Store present tense – the same verbs throughout “is buying/wants,” but a different noun (toy) and verb (to fly, to make), and introducing pronouns (he/she)

Sentence Set

Based on text from the book, we offer a simple sentence building activity with a pop-up (View & Remember) model users can access by clicking the button.

This model allows students to:

• look,
  
  
• cover (hide the model),
  
  
• write,
  
  
• and check (open the model again to check against their writing – and check by hearing their sentence read back when they add a period).

Of course, teachers can also easily change the sentence model offered to provide adapted levels of support:

• None - no model is provided.
  
  
• View & Copy - the model is always visible.
  
  
• Listen - the model is spoken when    is clicked.

Connect Set

Again, based on text from the book, this activity asks children to write by selecting from clusters of words. While there is some progression (depending on the text), we have deliberately kept these very simple.

Sometimes, we give a starter and a choice of endings:

Sometimes, we offer a starter, a choice of middles, and an ending.

Some of these will focus on choosing the correct verb:

Some will focus on choosing the correct preposition:

In the Toy Shop story, we ask the children to create two sentences by selecting the appropriate beginnings, middles, and endings:

Talk Set

A Talk About set using pictures from the book. This is an open-ended activity, so children can approach it at their own level.

They might choose to retell the story they read or focus on particular aspects such as adjectives, verbs, or prepositions.

Matching Set

This is a picture matching activity with a listening focus. A simple sentence from the story is offered as a sound target. Students then choose the matching story picture from the selection.

Make a Book

This activity offers a front cover with a picture and an empty text box for students to add their name as the author. Within the book itself, there is just a single page. Providing just one page means that children can add as many (or as few) pages as they like rather than having a predetermined set number of pages to fill.

The activity book page has an empty picture cell, and students can add a story picture from the picture bank:

There is also an empty text box where children can write independently or use the supporting Word Banks to help them write:

All of the Make a Book resources offer vocabulary support in the pop-up Word Banks. The first tab has the story character names. The next tabs are determined by the complexity and content of the story text. For example, there might be (as in the Halloween Party example below) tabs with Verbs, Adjectives, and Nouns to support students in building text to accompany the pictures (e.g. Billy/carved/a big/pumpkin):

Word Bank

The Word Banks provide key vocabulary for writing about the story. They have two topic grids under the headings: Characters and Story Words. For example:

Clicker Board

The aim of our Clicker Boards is to get children thinking about very basic sentence components. Each board features a picture from the story as the stimulus. Students are asked to think of key components to create a sentence. First, they think about Who? - the “naming part” (subject) of the sentence. Then, they think about Doing what? - the “telling part” (predicate) that gives information about what is happening.

This is designed as an open-ended activity, so children may choose to construct simple or more complex sentences about the pictures. They are not restricted to the text they have read in the story.

So, for the picture below, this looks like:

Who?	Doing what?
Lizzie and Freddie	flew a kite
The children	played
Freddie	ran on the grass

The Board also has a sentence cell to allow children to write (or use the Voice Note to record) the complete sentence (e.g. Lizzie and Freddie flew a kite.).

For all of our Clicker Friends stories, see the Clicker Friends section in Story Corner on LearningGrids, or simply search for Clicker Friends.

We have a whole host of equally engaging stories to explore in our Story Corner category – from Traditional Stories and Fables & World Stories to Myths & Legends. You can also find stories by award-winning children’s author and illustrator, Pete Williamson in our Daisy & Friends section. There are even some Decodable Stories for children who are learning to read through phonics.

If you have any questions about these or any of our LearningGrids resources, please email our Customer Experience team via training@cricksoft.com, or schedule in a free customer care meeting to explore them in more detail.

Clicker is designed as a supportive tool to empower students throughout the writing process. Recently, I’ve been showing teachers the benefits of using Clicker Boards as a versatile planning tool. 

Our latest improvements to Clicker Board in Clicker Writer provide further scaffolds for students to call upon whenever they choose. In this blog, I’ve used a teaching context from my time as a classroom teacher to demonstrate those scaffolds.

Each year we wrote non-chronological reports about natural disasters. Gathering the ideas and language we had developed prior to writing independently helped make students’ written outcomes successful.

Here’s how Clicker Boards can support that success.

Clicker’s scaffolds

Students can call upon all of Clicker’s support features to add ideas to their Clicker Board. They can use Clicker’s intelligent, phonetic Predictor to quickly write ideas, or use the “Dictate” button on the on-screen keyboard to add ideas by speaking. As in all areas of Clicker, students can right-click or use sound shift to have the contents of their Clicker Board read back in their chosen high-quality voice.

Send to Document

Referencing a plan while engaged in the act of writing is a skill that requires teaching. In Clicker Writer, students can easily send each Clicker Board to their Document. This provides them with an accessible visual reminder of all the ideas they have developed before formulating them into a coherent piece of writing.

Send Voice Notes from your Clicker Board

When students talk through their ideas, it often results in richer idea generation. These thoughts can easily be captured in Voice Notes on a Clicker Board. When it comes to constructing the full text, students can send these Voice Notes to the Document. While writing, they can easily hear the ideas they were formulating orally in planning sessions.

Make a Word Bank

With my classes, I always dedicated significant time to gathering vocabulary from a wide variety of texts before planning our writing. Anyone who has been to our recent CPD Days will have heard me eulogizing the benefits of turning Words Walls into Clicker Word Banks. I know this is something that teachers often do with their planning – you can see me do this with one of my history plans here. 

Clicker Boards give this power to students. They can add all the vocabulary they know they want to use to their Clicker Board and then turn this into a Word Bank to quickly access while they are writing. As with all Clicker Sets, students can hear the vocabulary read back and click to send it to the Document.

Pictures and symbols

Clicker’s Picturize feature is powerful when used by both teachers and students. Use Picturize to instantly add artist-drawn pictures from the CrickPix library or from the 10,000 Widgit Symbols included in Clicker. Teachers can add visuals to stimulate planning ideas or students can Picturize their plan – this puts the power of the visual support in the hands of the learner. Of course, you can also browse pictures or add a photograph.

LearningGrids

Our regularly updated bank of over 4,000 resources on LearningGrids provides a great starting point for inspiration on how you can use Clicker with the students in your classrooms. This includes resources that encourage students to use Clicker Boards as more than a planning tool. For example, try some of our sequencing activities or character profiles. Choose a Clicker Board from here as a starting point or use one of the premade Clicker Board layouts when you select “New Clicker Board.”

How to update

All updates are available to current Clicker Writer subscribers.

On Chromebook, the app will update automatically. iPads with automatic updates turned on will see the new features instantly; if not, update Clicker Writer via the App Store.

If you have any other questions about using Clicker Writer

• We have a range of tutorials to help with using the app.
  
  
• For technical questions and any issues updating the app, you can contact our technical support team.

When I first joined Crick Software, I asked lots of students and teachers what they liked most about using Clicker. I was particularly interested to hear what features people find most useful to support writing.

You won’t be surprised to hear that I got different answers from almost everyone I spoke to. Some chose speech feedback, others opted for the child-friendly Predictor or Spell Check. One theme that shone through, however, was the fact that students liked being able to call on the scaffold they needed, whenever they want.

Clicker’s Word Pool allows users to personalize several of these support tools, making Clicker even more suited to each individual user. This feature has been popular in Clicker Desktop and is now included in the Clicker Writer App.

Add common misspellings

Clicker’s Predictor and Spell Check tools are both intelligent and phonetic – try the “alefent / elephant test” and read my blog about how much more child-friendly these tools are in Clicker than in your standard word processor. 

With the latest update of Clicker Writer, you can add common misspellings to the Word Pool to personalize this feature. A student may have a specific word they struggle with, or you might want to add common misspellings of subject specific-vocabulary. Go to the “Suggestions” tab in “Settings” to quickly add the misspellings you want the Word Pool to pick up on.

Once added, the Predictor and Spell Check will be able to recognize these common misspellings and suggest the correct word.

Don’t forget, users can always hear suggestions in the Predictor and Spell Check using right-click.

Correct pronunciation

Text-to-speech has been in Clicker since some of the earliest versions and has always been one of the most loved scaffolds. Having writing read back to students lets them quickly spot errors and check their work. Occasionally, a word won’t be pronounced as you’d expect – especially with subject-specific vocabulary. You can enter the phonetic pronunciation into the Word Pool to quickly improve the power of speech feedback.

Name recognition

We know how important name recognition is and we regularly widen our name database in Clicker’s dictionary to prevent that red squiggly line appearing. You can use the Word Pool to add any child’s name that isn't yet included.

Prevent unwanted speech

Occasionally, students will ask Clicker to speak a word that you’d prefer it didn't. To account for this, you can add these to the Word Pool and choose another word to be spoken instead. In my experience this is rare, but it is good to have a quick solution if you need it!

Get students involved

Use Clicker’s Word Pool to empower your Clicker users further. Talk to your students about words they would find useful to be added to the Word Pool. This encourages self-reflection about where they are making a common spelling error or where they are taking advantage of speech feedback. Use the Word Pool to make Clicker’s scaffolds even more powerful.

If you have any other questions about using Clicker Writer

• We have a range of tutorials to help with using the app.
  
  
• For technical questions and any issues updating the app, you can contact our technical support team.

In this blog post, I will outline a few quick and simple things you can do with the writing support tools in Clicker to help your students write. Everything in this blog post is easy to implement, with minimal preparation and maximum impact in the classroom. However, if you have any questions about any of the tips, we’re more than happy to help.

Whether you're supporting emerging writers, encouraging reluctant learners, or aiming to boost writing confidence across the board, these practical tips will help you get the most out of Clicker right away.

Let’s explore how Clicker can become a powerful tool to help develop students’ writing skills, one step at a time.

Voice Notes

Using Voice Notes, students can record their own audio notes before they write, in three quick clicks!

Students can rehearse their sentences and capture their initial thoughts and ideas before they begin writing.

• Students can listen to their Voice Notes as many times as they need.
  
  
• Voice Notes can bridge the gap between thinking and writing.
  
  
• They also help to develop oral language skills. Students can explain their reasoning aloud, which is also a huge benefit for English language learners.

Educators can also use Voice Notes. They can:

• Pre-record instructions, broken down into smaller steps, to help learners break their tasks into manageable steps.
  
  
• Leave personalized audio feedback on student work, quickly and informally, without adding to teacher workload.
  
  
• Show modeled thinking, as this can be pre-recorded into the document for students to access.

Voice Notes are easy and simple to use, not just for staff but for students too!

Here is how you can access Voice Notes:

Predictor

Clicker’s built in Predictor suggests words even before your student has begun to type, offering writing support for students who struggle with “blank page syndrome” or find it difficult to get started and maintain momentum with their written tasks.

The Predictor is an intuitive tool to boost children’s confidence and independence, helping them to see their thoughts correctly turned into writing without waiting for adult support. It also suggests a wider range of more advanced and varied vocabulary to support vocabulary development.

Additionally, the Predictor works alongside any open writing grids, such as Word Banks, to suggest vocabulary that is relevant to the topic or subject students are writing about.

Here is how you can turn the Predictor on and off:

LearningGrids

Clicker's LearningGrids is a valuable lesson resource tool for teachers and students.

LearningGrids is our bank of thousands of ready-made resources tailored to different subjects, topics, and ability levels across the curriculum. All designed by our in-house curriculum team, these resources are high-quality and closely aligned with curriculum needs. They are regularly updated and expanded, ensuring fresh, relevant content is always available to save teachers’ time.

Here are some of the resources you can assign to learners to give them a quick writing boost:

• Word Banks: When using a Word Bank, the learner has point-and-click access to the key words from the topic at the bottom of their document. This means they can use those words without having to worry about spelling or word recall.
  
  
• Sentence Sets: Each grid in a Sentence Set contains all the words a learner will need to build a sentence. This support helps to develop early writing skills like left-to-right directionality and capital letter use.
  
  
• Connect Sets: A Connect Set provides learners with clusters of words and phrases to help them build a coherent piece of text.

For students, LearningGrids provides structured support that increases confidence and independence when reading and writing.

Talk Sets

Talk Sets are a great way to support the development of speaking and listening skills.

These picture-based resources can be used to create three different types of activity to support children where they are:

• Listen and Say: The learner listens to a recording of new words and then practices saying them with the Sound Recorder.
  
  
• Talk About: The learner can click on an image to record their thoughts and understanding of the topic.
  
  
• Tell the Story: The learner has a series of images that follow a sequence, and they can record themselves talking about each one to tell the story from start to finish.

Talk Sets are particularly effective for those who struggle to express themselves in written form, and for English language learners. Students can record their knowledge or opinions easily and quickly. Talk Sets take away the pressure of writing and help children to express what they know!

Here is how to record into a Talk Set:

Clicker Boards

Clicker Boards are a powerful tool for gathering students’ ideas and thoughts before writing. They help learners to organize their thinking and prepare for writing tasks through an easy-to-use mind mapping or planning tool.

With a Clicker Board displayed on your interactive whiteboard, students can share their ideas while you collect them in the moment and build a visual bank of inspiration for them to draw on. 

You can also add Voice Notes to your Boards, helping to turn thinking into writing.

Here is how you can add information to a Clicker Board:

Once you have collected vocabulary and ideas, you can turn your Board into a Word Bank to support and guide the writing process in the Document. By organizing key words and phrases in one place, young writers are better equipped to translate their ideas into coherent, well-structured text.

Here is how you can turn a Clicker Board into a Word Bank:

Additional resources

Find out more about how Clicker can support students in the classroom:

• LearningGrids: Reading and writing resources for adaptive teaching
  
  
• Clicker for whole class teaching
  
  
• On-demand webinars: Free recordings of our fantastic webinars. Explore how Clicker can support a variety of learners, needs, and settings.

Weather is something we all experience. It's familiar, universal, and suitable for all ages. It can also be a fantastic tool to get children thinking, talking, and writing. Since students already understand what it feels like to be cold, wet, or hot, educators can use these everyday experiences to engage learners without needing to explain complex concepts.

To support this, LearningGrids offers a wide range of ready-made weather resources. The sets are designed to help you personalize learning, promote independence, and nurture writing success.

Introduce the topic of weather with a Clicker Book

Clicker Books are a great starting point for a literacy lesson. Simply choose your topic and select the level of difficulty that works best for your learners.

Teddy’s Weather - Read a Book 

This book introduces weather vocabulary through simple, repetitive sentence structures. Each page names a type of weather and shares how Teddy responds to it. This makes it ideal for young readers and English language learners. The related writing sets reinforce the sentence patterns to support overlearning. They also help boost early writers’ confidence in sentence writing, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Weather and Climate - Read a Book

This book contains longer and more complex passages, which are ideal for older students. The book provides clear explanations of key vocabulary and concepts, such as the difference between weather and climate and what a meteorologist does. You can use the related sets to help learners communicate their understanding through writing.

Engage learners with interactive activities

We have published lots of activities that focus on the topic of weather and offer scaffolded writing support for learners of different abilities.

Weather Symbols – Look and Read

This Matching Set features recognizable weather icons with labels. To complete the activity, students need to select the word from the list to match the weather shown in the main image. This helps learners with the recognition and reading of simple weather words. In “Edit Mode,” the difficulty of the task can be easily adjusted to suit different learning levels.

Good and Bad Weather

Explore the positive and negative sides of different weather conditions using this Talk Set and Clicker Board. Each set includes a graphic to spark ideas and provides varied ways to record discussions and research findings. Students can capture their thoughts orally or in writing. Additionally, you can turn their Clicker Board ideas into a Word Bank for added scaffolding to support independent writing tasks.

Today’s Weather

This Connect Set offers a great short task for the start of each day. This activity can be especially engaging for neurodivergent children who often benefit from structured routines. The resource reinforces days, months, and common weather vocabulary. Sharing the student’s completed sentences on your interactive whiteboard is a great way to celebrate success and give your reluctant writers a positive start to the day.

Build up topic-specific vocabulary

Building strong vocabulary skills boosts confidence and helps learners express their ideas. You can help students acquire the necessary vocabulary with the help of resources like the ones below.

Weather Words

Ideal for writing story settings or comparing different weather types, this simple Word Bank includes key words for each type of weather. In “Edit Mode,” a sentence starter could be added to offer more scaffolding and support literacy development.

Describe the Weather

Building on this, these differentiated Word Banks are designed for more confident writers. They include familiar vocabulary alongside more expressive language, such as” sludgy” and “scorching,” to inspire writers to be more adventurous with their word choices.

Shades of Meaning

To enhance vocabulary development further, encourage learners to consider word intensity by using one of these Clicker Boards alongside the Word Banks above. This task can expand students’ word choices and improve the quality of their writing.

You can explore the full Weather & Climate category on LearningGrids.

If you want to learn more about the resources we offer on LearningGrids, you can read our blogs:

• LearningGrids: Reading and writing resources for adaptive teaching
  
  
• Farm Animals: Adaptable resources to meet learners’ needs
  
  
• Adapting Clicker LearningGrids resources with Widgit Symbols

In 2005, we introduced Clicker’s Predictor. At the time, it was a real game-changer for students. Many of us now use word prediction every day, but Clicker’s Predictor is quite different from the suggestions we’re used to getting from our phones or word processors.

Intelligent, phonetic prediction

Learners who struggle with spelling will know that most predictors aren’t particularly effective. This is especially true if you don’t know the accurate opening spelling patterns of a word, which isn't always easy in a language like English.

Clicker’s Predictor offers “sounds-like” suggestions. I’ve seen posts on social media describe the below as “the elephant test”. Try typing the word “elephant” with various spellings and see what suggestions you are offered.

I also often use the example of students writing about Natural Disasters – a subject I enjoyed teaching when I was a class teacher.

Try this sentence with a variety of spellings:

A tsunami is caused by an earthquake under the ocean.

Speech feedback in the Predictor

Conventional word prediction relies on the user being able to quickly read the suggested words, but Clicker has several solutions to help struggling readers.

Users can right-click or use Sound Shift to hear any word read aloud from the Predictor, meaning they know exactly which word they are adding to the Document.

Visuals in the Predictor

You can support students further by adding visuals to the Predictor. Turn on “Picturize the Predictor” in settings and choose which library you wish to use. Don’t forget, Clicker now includes 10,000 Widgit Symbols.

With this feature, students get a great visual reminder of the word they are adding to their Document.

Boost the Predictor with subject-specific vocabulary

This feature lets you customize the Predictor for the lesson you are teaching, encouraging students to use subject-specific vocabulary in their writing. Sticking with the natural disasters example, you probably want the Predictor to offer vocabulary such as “volcano” or “hurricane” much sooner than in other contexts.

To boost these suggestions, open a Word Bank, either from LearningGrids, or create one using the vocabulary that you have been teaching in class. When a Word Bank is open, the Predictor will automatically “boost” these words.

In this example, I have opened the Natural Disasters A-Z Word Bank from LearningGrids, boosting the Predictor with the vocabulary in the Word Bank. This means “volcano” is suggested much sooner than in other contexts. I can add any vocabulary I like to the Word Bank for the Predictor to boost these suggestions and choose whether the Word Bank itself is visible to the user.

Quickly choose a suggestion from the keyboard

To speed up entering words from the Predictor, enable numbers in the predictor panel. When typing, hit the number on the keyboard of the chosen word. This is a great option for faster typers.

More than your usual word prediction

So not all predictors are created equal! Clicker’s phonetic awareness, speech, and symbol support make it far more friendly for users developing their literacy skills. Plus, you can give the Predictor even greater impact by boosting the vocabulary you have been focusing on in class.

Further help and advice

If you have any questions about using the Predictor or any other Clicker feature, we’re here to help!

For technical questions, you can contact our technical support team. For personalized advice on using Clicker with your learners, you can schedule a customer care meeting.

We get a lot of questions about dictation in Clicker and DocsPlus. For many learners, dictating is a great tool for reducing cognitive load in the writing process, especially those who find typing or handwriting challenging.

With all the great feedback we’ve been getting about the new “Dictate to Document” button in Clicker Writer, we wanted to share all the ways that dictation can work with our writing support tools.

Dictation in Clicker Writer

In Clicker Writer, you can find the “Dictate to Document” button in the “Voice Input” drop-down menu. Alternatively, if using the on-screen keyboard, you can click the microphone button to enable dictation.

With either method, students can use the dictate function while also seeing the relevant Clicker Set at the bottom of the screen. This means they can take advantage of the supportive writing grids, even if they struggle with typing.

Dictation in the DocsPlus App

As with Clicker Writer, you can find the dictate button on the on-screen keyboard. Students who are entitled to testing accommodations can use this feature as an alternative to a scribe.

Letting students practice using the function in both normal classroom tasks and in Exam Mode is a great way to ensure that access arrangements align with their normal way of working.

Dictation in Clicker and DocsPlus Desktop

In our desktop products, dictation works alongside the built-in features of the device. In Windows, you can open the “Windows Dictation” dialogue by pressing the Windows logo + H keys together on your physical keyboard.

Alternatively, if you are using the Windows on-screen keyboard, simply click the Microphone key. For further information please see Microsoft’s support article which offers comprehensive advice on using this feature.

On Mac, you open the dictation function by using the Microphone key on the keyboard, or by setting up a keyboard shortcut to enable dictation. Apple’s support article gives further details about how to do this. 

Once dictation has been activated, you will see your text appearing seamlessly in your Clicker or DocsPlus Document as you speak the words.

Pro tip for Desktop Users: Turn off speech feedback in Clicker or DocsPlus desktop settings when not using headphones. This will avoid distracting other learners.

Further help and advice

We're always on hand to offer help and support for using Clicker and DocsPlus effectively throughout your subscription period.

For technical questions, you can contact our technical support team. For personalized advice on using Clicker or DocsPlus with your learners, you can schedule a customer care meeting.

And if you’re wondering how to do something in Clicker or DocsPlus and want a quick answer, you can review our helpful tutorial videos. These are separated into sections for the app and desktop versions: Clicker / DocsPlus.  

We’ve recently published a new group of adaptable Clicker resources on LearningGrids called Farm Animals. The collection is ideal for early readers and writers, as well as English language learners (ELLs), and includes resources with different levels of challenge to suit each student’s needs.

Let’s explore how you can personalize these resources in conjunction with Clicker’s innovative features to offer additional support for your students and help them become independent readers and writers.

Some of the features we will focus on include:

• Differentiated resources
  
  
• Personalized content
  
  
• Additional writing supports

Differentiated resources

We built a tiered set of Farm Animals resources around two Clicker Books: a Read It Yourself book, ideal for pupils beginning to read independently, and a Read a Book for those who are more confident readers.

Each page of the ‘Farm Animals’ Read a Book includes two sentences. The first sentence names the animal. The second sentence tells the reader the location of the animal on the farm using a prepositional phrase. If a student needs the text read aloud, they can click the speaker button on each page.

The Read It Yourself book offers a simplified version of the story. This book focuses on the first sentence from the Read a Book, creating a repetitive structure of “This is a…” to highlight the animal names. The speaker button is not included to encourage students to try to read the book for themselves. They can, however, click on individual words to hear them if needed.

Once you have assigned a student the book most aligned with their current reading level, you can adapt the activity further using Clicker’s in-built features. You could add a microphone button to either of the Clicker Books to provide early readers with an easy way to practice reading the text. The recordings could be used as part of a student’s reading record. ELLs could use the microphone to record the text in their first language. They could then share the completed books with the class.

Personalized content

The Farm Animals collection also includes several writing activities to help students learn the names of animals and develop an understanding of sentence structure.

The Sentence Set enables students to recreate simple sentences from the Read it Yourself book, and students can listen to a spoken model sentence if they need more support.

The Connect Set is a progression from the Sentence Set and mirrors the language in the Read a Book. In this activity, students have an extra challenge as they have to choose the correct animal to complete the sentence.

You can edit any resource from LearningGrids to meet the needs of your students. For instance, if you wanted to use the Connect Set but have it mirror the content of the Read It Yourself book, you can easily change the content and layout in Edit mode. You can even add images to the animal cells in any set using Picturize. This would offer students additional support for completing the activity.

Additional writing supports

As part of the group of Farm Animals resources, we have included a Picture Words Word Bank. You could use the Word Bank before reading the book to introduce the animals. Or you could use it afterwards with more independent writers to encourage them to write their own sentences about them.

The Word Bank could also be used for spelling practice, using a special writing support feature in the Document. In Options/Settings, you can turn on Picturize for the Document. Students can then type the name of the animal into the Document (using the Word Bank as visual support) and if they have written it correctly, the animal will appear, matching the Word Bank.

Another resource that you can enhance with additional writing supports is the Farm Animals Clicker Board.

The activity focuses on making sentences with prepositional phrases. The cells prompt students to plan two parts of the sentence – the subject (the what) and the object of the preposition (the where).

The Board would be a great whole-class activity on an interactive whiteboard or as a task for more independent writers. Students who need additional support can use the Predictor to help them write the words. A Voice Note is also included so that students can record the sentence or practice the sentence before writing.

The bundle of Farm Animals resources also includes Matching and Listen and Say Talk Sets to reinforce the animal names. Plus, a Make a Book activity for students to create their own book about the animals.

Be sure to search for “animals” on LearningGrids or check out the At the Farm Collection for lots of other resources to inspire and support your readers and writers.

For more information on using the adaptable resources on LearningGrids to support your students, you can review the below:

• Adapting Clicker LearningGrids resources with Widgit Symbols
  
  
• Spiders!!! Cross-curricular activities to engage readers and writers
  
  
• LearningGrids: Reading and writing resources for adaptive teaching

We recently announced that Clicker users can now access a library of almost 10,000 Widgit Symbols at no extra cost.

This means that you can use Widgit Symbols alongside our already extensive Crick Picture Library of almost 5,000 images.

In our previous blog on the topic, we covered how you can add the symbols into different areas of Clicker such as the Predictor and different types of writing grids.

This time, we are diving into the different ways you can adapt LearningGrids resources with Widgit Symbols, and how doing so can improve understanding for your learners.

Adapting LearningGrids resources with Widgit Symbols

You can add Widgit Symbols into any of our existing resources using the Picturize tool. To Picturize the entire set, navigate to “Edit Mode” and select the “Add Picture(s)” button, then select the Widgit Symbol library, and check or uncheck the option to ignore high frequency words as required. To add symbols to a cell, simply select the cell you want to add an image to.

Widgit Symbols in:

Sentence Sets

Many of the Sentence Sets on LearningGrids work well with symbols. A great place to start is with the Sentence Patterns resources, as they contain simple, repeated sentence structures. You might want to focus your symbol support on the repeated structures, such as I like/can/am/went/like to. Or you can focus on the element of the sentence pattern that changes, such as the noun, verb, or adjective. Try it with I Like to – Sentence Patterns.

Sentence Sets that focus on adjectives work nicely too, as in the Opposites Sentences Sentence Set:

You can also use symbols to support more complex sentence writing, such as the Above, Behind, Under Sentence Set, and instruction writing, such as our Making Gingerbread Cookies set.

Connect Sets

Some of our Connect Sets already contain images, such as the “I Went - Sentence Patterns” set seen below. You can opt to keep or replace the existing Crick Picture Library images when you Picturize these resources. You might want to use Widgit Symbols in both the main picture cell and the component word cells for consistency.

Alternatively, you can create a “next step” challenge by keeping the photorealistic Crick Picture Library image in the main picture cell and using Widgit Symbols in the component word cells so that learners can practice matching the symbol to the concept.

Generally, the simpler Connect Sets work best with Picturize, as in the examples below, where the symbol-supported word cells contain a word or simple phrase:

• I Like – Sentence Patterns
  
  
• Insects
  
  
• 3-D Shape Hunt
  
  
• Colors Around Us

Word Banks

Word Banks are some of the easiest and quickest resources to adapt using Picturize.

The “Quick Words” sets are a great place to start, as the focus is on keywords. Be mindful of words that can have multiple meanings, as this means they will also have multiple associated symbols. For example: bark – verb/noun, bat – animal/sports equipment, fly – noun/verb. Make sure that the image chosen is correct for the context!

It’s easy to change the image to the correct contextual symbol if needed. Simply select the cell in Edit View and use the picture icon to choose the appropriate symbol.

There is a wide range of possibilities for Word Banks with Picturize – it can be used for lower-level, simple vocabulary from Nursery Rhymes and stories, or for subject-specific topics for upper elementary.

(Top tip: Don’t forget you can apply “Maximize Height” to the cells in the grid to optimize the display size of the symbols.)

Word Banks with symbols are also great for supporting:

1. Storytelling: As in these Quick Words resources for Jack and the Beanstalk and Goldilocks.

2. Instructions: As in these Quick Words resources for Make a Birthday Cake and Brushing Your Teeth.

3. Higher level topics: See the Seasons of an Apple Tree, The Solar System, Biomes, and Rivers Quick Words Word Banks for some good examples of this.

Picture Words

We have a selection of Word Banks called Picture Words, which make use of images from the Crick Picture Library. You may want to adapt some of these with Widgit Symbols.

Here’s an example of an existing resource (Woodland Picture Words) which uses images from the Crick Picture Library – and how it compares to a version with Widgit Symbols. You could even offer these “Picture Words” Word Banks with alternate tabs of photorealistic (i.e. Crick Picture Library) images and symbols.

Clicker Boards

Most of the Clicker Boards we create contain lots of “content-free” cells for tasks such as mind mapping.

However, you can still add Widgit Symbols to Clicker Boards to add additional signposting for the cells that do contain text.

For example, you can add Widgit Symbols to the headings in the Shades of Meaning - Adjectives board so that learners have a clear understanding of concepts like “big” or “good” before they try to come up with more intense synonyms for them.

You can also add symbols to the prompts in Clicker Boards, such as Molly Mouse and Synonyms and Antonyms, to ensure that your learners know exactly what they need to add into the empty cells as they complete the activity.

Talk Sets and Matching Sets

Adding symbols to Talk Sets and Matching Sets is a great way to help learners make the connection between the concept and the sound of the word.

To do so, you will need to remove the existing images from the set and replace them with Widgit Symbols. A good tip for doing this quickly is to open a related Word Bank that has already been Picturized with symbols. While creating a Talk or Matching Set and adding in the symbols, use the “In Open Clicker Sets” option to select the symbols that appear in the related Word Bank.

Sets with simple vocabulary work best, such as the Talk Sets  I Can – Sentence Patterns and Jack and the Beanstalk – Key Words.

LearningGrids ‘family’ of symbols-adapted resources

Finally, here’s an example of a complete “family” of resources based on the story The Wind and the Sun, which have been adapted with Widgit Symbols. This gives you an idea of the kinds of linked resources your students could be using with the extra layer of signposting and support offered by symbols.

Have a look through thousands of existing resources on LearningGrids to explore the ways this exciting Clicker and Widgit Symbols collaboration can open up new levels of engagement and understanding for your learners.

If you need any assistance updating to the latest versions of Clicker, contact our Technical Support team. If you have any questions about the new tools and features, we’ve introduced, schedule a customer care meeting with a member of our Customer Experience team.

Recently, we met with Gemma Gwilliam, Head of Digital Learning, Education and Innovation for the “Portsmouth: The Digital City” Project in the UK, to gain an insight into the huge impact she has made in developing digital literacy across schools Portsmouth.

Gemma has led a coordinated approach to raising digital confidence among staff and students. This has ensured that tools like Clicker and DocsPlus are embedded into everyday learning rather than treated as add-ons.

Her work has supported teachers and support staff to embrace technology with purpose and enabled students to build the skills they need to thrive in the classroom and beyond.

Here, Gemma shares her top tips for building digital confidence in students, teachers, and the wider school community.

“It’s not an add-on. It’s how we do things now.” - Amy Quade and Nicci Sawdy, class teachers and Assistant Heads of Digital

First, build teacher confidence

When I began working on digital literacy in Portsmouth, it quickly became clear that the main challenge wasn’t the technology, it was the staff confidence. Many didn’t feel comfortable enough in their digital skills to introduce new technologies to the classroom, or to teach the students how to use them. So, we started tackling that confidence gap and quickly saw positive results. One elementary school teacher even told me that they used to avoid technology in their classroom, but now feel confident using it thanks to step-by-step training.

Here’s what worked:

Start with the “why”

Our teachers and support staff are incredibly busy with lots of spinning plates. It was important to them that they understood the purpose behind using digital tools. It isn’t about technology for the sake of it - it’s about independence, inclusion, and better outcomes for learners.  Once we explained the rationale and they understood it, engagement grew!

Even schools without the infrastructure to get started can begin here. Defining your “why” and embedding it into your school development plan ensures digital learning is part of your long-term vision.

Model and demonstrate

Show staff the tools in action so they gain confidence. A quick demo or a colleague modeling new technology in a real lesson makes the hypothetical tangible. It helps teachers to visualize using the technology in their own classroom and bridges the gap between no-tech and purposeful-tech.

Teachers in Portsmouth have used screen sharing to model tasks step-by-step, helping students and other staff members see exactly what the new technology looks like.

For example, we’ve then had staff members visiting different schools based on the way they want to use Clicker. This has included visits focused on oracy, writing, math, and reading.

By sharing knowledge in this way, teachers and support staff can use technology to its full potential. One special education coordinator told me that they have been able to make huge progress with their students now that they have the right digital tools.

Make it part of everyday teaching

The more teachers embed the use of technology in routine lessons, the less daunting it feels. This has a positive impact on the students’ confidence, too. Showing our staff how everyday use benefits them reinforces the message that technology should be purposeful and impactful.

“The project opened a whole new world of opportunities for our staff and children—from cost-saving tools to training that’s been inclusive, practical, and judgment-free.” - Senior Leader on the impact of “Portsmouth: The Digital City” Project

Start small and celebrate little wins

Begin with basic features (don’t overload the staff!) and celebrate each step forward. Recognition of progress motivates people to keep going, and keeps the technology on everyone’s radar for positive reasons.

For example, following our own training with Siân from Crick, we always have first-time users start with a blank page. We then have them use it as a word processor with the accessibility features enabled, including the speech-feedback option.

Next, we move onto the pre-made resources but in a progressive format as we would with our young people. We begin with Sentence Sets, progress to Connect Sets, and then move on to Word Banks.

We also ensure that this training aligns with the outcomes we want for our young people, or the problem we’re trying to solve.

Next, build student confidence

For students, the starting point is often even simpler. Some children need to be taught very basic digital skills before they can make meaningful use of classroom software.

“When I use speech-to-text, it helps me explain my ideas.” - Grade 2 student

Don’t assume any digital skills and teach the basics

It’s easy to assume that your learners already know the basics of using technology, but that isn’t always the case. Begin by teaching students to turn devices on, log in, use a mouse, and open a file.

Once they have that foundation, they can grow and, importantly, they learn how to independently access their devices.

Emma Ramsey at St. Judes Primary introduced a great way to embed digital skills in her school. During morning attendance, her students use laminated Chromebook keyboard sheets so they can practice typing their login details. It’s an innovative way to practice this key skill even if you don’t have access to devices that day. This method worked so well that we shared it with our lower elementary classrooms across the city.

Then embed skills in real learning

Once students have the basics covered, digital skills are often best taught in context. Let students practice them while writing a story, researching a topic, or publishing their work.

Encourage everyday use

Repetition breeds confidence, so give students regular, consistent opportunities to use the same tools across different subjects. Familiarity helps them feel secure using the technology independently and boosts their confidence when it’s time to try something new.

Allow time for exploration

Getting a new piece of technology is very exciting, so children will need time to explore on their own. Don’t expect students to stay entirely on task until they’ve had a chance to “try this” and “press that.” Give students permission to try it out without fear of making mistakes or not meeting a learning objective.

Celebrate success

Acknowledge every achievement - whether it’s a student completing work on a word processor for the first time or writing even more than they thought possible. Those moments are powerful and foster a positive relationship with technology.

Embedding digital skills across a school or trust

Building confidence at an individual level is essential - but it isn’t enough on its own. For digital tools to truly make a difference, schools and districts need a shared vision and commitment.

When only a few teachers or members of staff embrace digital learning, progress is patchy. Students have inconsistent experiences, and staff development remains uneven.  A shared vision is the key to success.

“When everyone is onboard, digital skills become part of the culture - and that’s when I’ve seen real transformation happen.” - Primary School Head Teacher on the transformation they have seen with “Portsmouth: The Digital City” Project

Not sure where to start? Look locally

Schools unsure of how to begin can look at what’s happening in their local community:

• What tech do secondary schools use?
  
  
• What are other elementary schools doing?
  
  
• What digital literacy skills do secondary schools expect students to have when they arrive?

Aligning your digital offer helps reduce the digital divide and ensures smoother transitions for all students as they move through their education.

Here are some other lessons we’ve learned along the way in Portsmouth:

Create a shared vision

Leaders must clearly explain why digital skills matter. This explanation must connect them to priorities like inclusion, independence, and preparing children for the future. Technology for all includes considering parents and carergivers. Around 21% of US adults have low literacy, and it’s likely that a similar proportion of parents and carergivers may struggle with digital tasks. Schools should try to offer continuous digital access to students, especially with homework in mind, to ensure equity and support at home.

Lead by example

When school leaders use digital tools with confidence, staff are much more likely to follow suit.

Build consistency across classrooms

Students should see digital skills being used everywhere - from early phonics to upper elementary project work. That consistency normalizes digital learning and shows students that what they’re learning this year will also be important next year.

Invest in ongoing training

One-off sessions don’t stick. Staff need regular, hands-on training that evolves alongside their needs.

In Portsmouth, we began our Clicker and DocsPlus training as a small group of 15 schools, before expanding across the city. Now into the fourth year of this project, our Clicker Champions for the city are leading their own sessions based on feedback and priorities identified by schools.

For example, in October 2025, one of our leads will be demonstrating how to use Clicker for writing moderation and oracy. Another will be sharing how they use Clicker to support adaptive teaching in lower elementary. We then offer the opportunity to see this in action, deliver personalized training for the staff and school and even team teaching.

Celebrate collective success

Share stories of classes or grade groups who are embedding digital practice. In Portsmouth, celebrating these successes helped spread enthusiasm across schools.

Listen and adapt

When staff and students feel their voices are heard, they’re more willing to engage. Try and keep communication open and listen to whether staff members need more support – especially if it involves making sure that the technology runs smoothly. When tech doesn’t work, lessons become frustrating and teachers lose confidence in using it purposefully.

The results

When digital skills are embedded across a school or district, they stop being “something extra” and become a natural part of teaching and learning. Teachers feel supported, students feel capable, and technology is used to its full potential.

True digital transformation isn’t about devices or software - it’s about people. If we invest in confidence, consistency, and culture, the results are powerful!

Read our success stories:

• Cumberland Infant School
  
  
• Springfield School

Want to explore opportunities to build on your school’s digital literacy?

• Book a discovery call to see how Clicker and DocsPlus can support teachers and students.
  
  
• Read our blog post So, what is assistive technology?

Bridging the gap between kindergarten and 1st grade is an ongoing challenge in many schools, transitioning from the ethos and learning style of a kindergarten classroom into the curriculum demands of 1st grade, without putting too much pressure on the children can be really difficult! This transition period can take time and patience and how you approach this transition will vary depending on the needs of your students and the routines of your classrooms.

To help ease the transition, I have put together the tips below to share some of the ways that Clicker and the ever-expanding bank of resources on LearningGrids can be used to help students adjust to their new school life.

Reduce student anxiety by helping them to picture the classroom

One of the reasons that the transition can be so intimidating for students is that they don’t know what to expect.

A simple way to account for this is to provide students with resources and activities that help them imagine a typical day in class.

The Pam’s School – Read a Book is an excellent place to start. In this Clicker Book, students can read simple sentences about a girl called Pam and her school, supported by corresponding images. This resource can easily be used as a base to create an age-appropriate visual guide for students on what to look out for at their school.

Simply swap out the existing images for photos of key areas and staff in your school and edit the text to help your students learn any names and terminology they will need.

(Top Tip: To ensure that any staff names or school-specific terminology are read back to your students correctly, simply add the correct pronunciation and spelling to the Word Pool.)

Collaborate with former 1st graders

New students will have lots of questions about what to expect from their 1st grade journey, and who better to answer them than those who have already gone through it!

You can create interactive activities which can be shared between the grades using either a Talk Set or a Clicker Board with added Voice Notes.

Have your new 1st graders brainstorm all the questions they have, pop them into your Talk Set or Clicker Board, and then pass the activity over to the former 1st grade class to record their answers.

Not only will this help alleviate some of the anxiety new students may be experiencing, it’s also a great way to consolidate the previous class’s learning and assess how well they understood the lessons and expectations they learned the previous year.

Adapt for ELL students

For English language learners, the new year comes with the added challenge of learning a lot of new vocabulary. There are a number of school-specific activities in the New To English section of LearningGrids, and you can learn more about using Clicker to support ELL students by reading our blog, How to spot growth in English Leaners during the silent period.

Use visual schedules to help students adjust to their new routine

The new routine will probably be the biggest adjustment for your 1st graders.

At the start of the school year, they will have just come back from summer break, and for many children their last experience of school would have followed a more free form of learning through play approach that allowed them to explore and discover at their own pace. Now there might be the expectation that they have to sit down for hours at a time for more structured lessons.

Regardless of what your daily routine looks like, visual schedules are a great way to help students learn and remember routines, removing the stress of not knowing what comes next and reducing the number of times you have to explain that it’s not lunchtime yet!

To start making visual schedule for your class, search for "visual schedule" on LearningGrids and select the option that works best for your classroom needs, including:

• The Now and Next – Make a Book: You can use this to create a simple schedule for the whole day. Students can have it on hand and independently flip through to the portion of the day they’re curious about.
  
  
• The Visual Schedule: This can be used to display all the activities on one page, or even just the current and next activity if you find that your students get distracted by thinking too far ahead.
  
  
• The Now, Next, Then Connect Set: Assigning this to students will allow them to practice forming sentences with the key words and phrases from the schedule, helping to embed it in their memory while also giving them an opportunity to  practice early sentence structure.

(Top tip: If you want to reuse images in multiple sets, you can select “In Open Clicker Sets” when browsing for images in the Picture menu.)

Start building independence

Getting your new 1st graders to attempt their tasks independently can be a challenge. Many young children seek adult reassurance for anything they find difficult and can find the idea of working things out for themselves peculiar and new.

The Stuck List is a great resource that you can use to remind your students to attempt their work independently before asking for help. You can fill in the spaces ahead of time so students can have the list on hand as an easy reference or use it as the starting point for an activity where the class comes together to brainstorm things they can do before raising their hand.   

Add prompts such as “check the board” or “read the task” to remind students to refer to instructions, “ask your friends” to encourage knowledge sharing between peers, or “try even if you're not sure” to reassure them that being stuck is a normal part of learning. 

Keep track of how your students are handling the changes

The well-being of your students is just as important as their academic success, and they will be feeling all kings of new emotions as they transition into a new classroom/grade. Setting aside some time to allow your students to work through these feelings will play a big role in how they experience their new normal. Resources like the Daily Check-in Connect Set allow students to clearly communicate their feelings with the help of easy-to-understand visual prompts.

You can assign the Daily Check-in set (or whichever resource from the “Feelings and Actions” section of LearningGrids works best) as often as you need to keep track of how your class is coping with the transition into the next phase of their learning and spot any students who might need some extra support.

Find out more about how Clicker can be used to support young learners

• Early reading support with Clicker
  
  
• Clicker - A day in 1st grade
  

And for helpful advice on how to customize LearningGrids resources for your class, visit Clicker tutorials - step-by-step videos for Clicker users.

Educators everywhere are facing the same dilemma:

How do we give every student what they need, when the range of skills in a single classroom feels impossibly wide?

In Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), Tier 1 is designed to serve all students with high-quality, inclusive instruction. When that foundation isn’t solid, everything built on top begins to wobble.

As Dr. Katie Novak, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) expert and author, explains:

“UDL has to be the foundation of a multi-tiered system. It has to be first, best instruction with all students present, and if it’s not, we’re going to be trying to intervention our way out of weak Tier 1. Which is never going to work.”

Clicker is a UDL tool. It helps schools strengthen that “first, best instruction” through Tier 1, and it continues to provide meaningful, scaffolded supports as students move into Tier 2 and Tier 3. Strong intervention is a continuation of strong core instruction.

The real-world tension between idea and possibility

Clicker in small groups: Supporting MTSS without the overwhelm

Theories and frameworks have always been at odds with classroom realities. Educators are told to support students by differentiating. However, the logistics, especially in early literacy, can feel impossible.

You (or your teachers) are juggling wide skill gaps, limited planning time, and curriculum pacing guides that don’t slow down just because your students need more support.

One student is still working on letter sounds. Another is already reading paragraphs. A third needs every word read aloud. And somehow, the expectation is to meet all of those needs simultaneously, without extra hands, time, or tools that make it manageable.

Best practices like differentiation don’t need to be an illusion. Clicker can be used to help students build sentences, engage with phonics-aligned texts, and practice writing in a way that feels accessible and empowering. The tools support their motor needs and their literacy development, without requiring teachers to create an entirely separate curriculum.

It’s a clear example of how MTSS doesn’t need to be work with additional, separate resources. When the right tools are already in place, it simply means better support, which is exactly what the MTSS framework calls for.

MTSS is not a program - it’s a practical way to give kids what they need

If you’ve ever sat in a team meeting wondering what to do next for a student who isn’t making progress, you’ve already felt the need for a better system.

MTSS is that system; it’s a way of organizing how we support students based on real-time data, collaborative decision-making, and instruction that meets student needs. As Dr. Stephanie Stollar put it,

“MTSS is the delivery mechanism for the reading research.”

At its core, MTSS is evidence-based instruction and equity. Most of the time, we look at skill gaps and try to remediate those deficiencies, but as Dr. Sarah Brown explained:

“MTSS is more than just identifying who needs help and giving it.”

Instead, MTSS offers a system-level approach that asks:

• What’s working in Tier 1 instruction?
  
  
• Who needs something more?
  
  
• And how can we deliver that support in a way that’s strategic, sustainable, and helpful?

Here’s a quick overview of what that looks like in practice:

• Tier 1: Core instruction for all students. This is your main block of classroom teaching, ideally high-quality, universally designed, and accessible to the full range of learners.
  
  
• Tier 2: Targeted small-group intervention. For students who need a bit more practice or support in specific areas, delivered a few times per week.
  
  
• Tier 3: Intensive, individualized intervention. For students with more significant needs who benefit from additional targeted intervention.

Clicker supports all three tiers, but the most important takeaway here is not that you or your teachers need more tools. You already have plenty at your disposal. Adding more makes for more complexity, and that’s not the goal. The goal of MTSS is to simplify support. And that starts by using the right tools in smarter, more strategic ways.

Supporting students across the 3 tiers of MTSS

One of Clicker’s strengths is its flexibility. It’s not the star of the show; students are. It’s why Clicker doesn’t have to be reserved for one setting, one student group, or one support tier. In many districts, Clicker is used as whole-class support. And, in others, Clicker is a Tier 2 and Tier 3 support.

Here’s how Clicker aligns with the MTSS framework across all three tiers:

Tier 1: Universal instruction

Clicker strengthens Tier 1 by making core instruction more accessible for every student. Its built-in supports - like word prediction, speech feedback, and customizable writing grids - provide scaffolded supports during whole group instruction, and allows all students to participate meaningfully in grade-level instruction.

For example, teachers can use Clicker’s Sentence Sets and writing grids during whole-group phonics or comprehension lessons. These tools offer just enough structure to support struggling writers while still allowing independence and creativity.

This is what MTSS at Tier 1 is really about. It’s not “everyone gets the same.” It’s “everyone gets what they need in a shared learning space.”

Tier 2: Targeted intervention

Imagine this scene: a second-grade classroom where most students are progressing academically, but a few students still struggle with basic CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) blending. The teacher has been covering more advanced vowel teams in whole-group phonics lessons because that’s what the pacing guide says.

Rather than rushing ahead, the teacher pivots. During Tier 2 small-group time, they use Clicker to target exactly what these students need: custom Word Banks for CVC practice, decodable texts, and short writing prompts that reinforce exactly those sounds.

Tier 3: Intensive intervention

When a student needs additional time for targeted intervention, Clicker meets the need. Educators can adapt Sentence Sets, sentence frames, add Voice Notes, simplify vocabulary, or build custom writing tasks that align with student needs.

Clicker allows educators to document, respond to, and build upon what students can do, right now, in real instructional time.

Data-informed, team-led instruction (not tracking)

MTSS uses multiple data points to help inform student academic deficiencies. Targeted intervention groups are then created based on the need to support academic progression within those identified deficiencies.

Groupings in an MTSS framework are meant to respond to current needs. As new data comes in, groups adjust. And when those groupings are driven by a collaborative team, not a single teacher working in isolation, they become a tool for equity, not exclusion.

Clicker makes it easier to act on those decisions. You can co-create writing supports, share templates across classrooms, and build continuity between classroom instruction and intervention services.

Final thought: MTSS only works when we use what we already have well

At the end of the day, you don’t need 27 new tools or to overhaul a curriculum to provide tiered support. All you need is a system that helps you make the most of the resources already at your fingertips. And a way of seeing frameworks for what they are: guidance to support decision-making.

Clicker bridges the gap between whole-group instruction and individualized supports. Between what your teachers are already doing, and what your students actually need. Between big-picture frameworks like MTSS, and the day-to-day work of small group lessons, targeted scaffolds, and differentiated writing tasks.

Across tiers, across classrooms, and across time, Clicker helps make MTSS real, practical, and sustainable.

We recently published some new Clicker Sets on LearningGrids to support the five-finger retell method. These simple resources help develop important literacy skills and highlight the versatility of Clicker to meet a range of classroom and student needs.  

Let’s have a look at: 

• What the five-finger method is 
  

• How the five-finger retell sets combine with other LearningGrids resources to support literacy 
  

• How Clicker’s flexibility enhances these sets 

What is a five-finger retell? 

The five-finger retell method is a technique that provides a visual (and physical) element to help students summarize the key parts of a story. Each finger of the hand represents a different story component. The technique, and our Clicker Sets, can develop students’ retelling skills and assess their comprehension of a story. 

The technique is often used as an oral activity where the teacher and students use their hand to go through the main parts of a story. Many teachers also encourage this to be a written activity as well. 

How can you use the Clicker Sets? 

To introduce the five-finger retell concept to students, it works best to use a familiar story, such as a simple fairy tale. On LearningGrids we have a range of Clicker Traditional Tales and these work perfectly for introducing this retell method.  

The class can read a Clicker Book, such as Jack and the Beanstalk, all together or in small groups. Then the teacher can go back through the story, drawing students’ attention to the different story elements and using their hand as a prompt. The teacher can then use the Clicker Board to record the groups’ responses – the visual on the board, as well as the headings, reinforce the different story elements again.  

After students have become familiar with the method, the idea is to give students a chance to try it for themselves with another story. Go back to LearningGrids for a different Clicker traditional story, or explore other collections in our Story Corner, such as the Book Dash titles, the Planet Wobble series, or even the Myths & Legends for slightly older students. The books could be read together and students could then do a retell on their own. 

The Clicker Sets that we created provide different options to match the needs and abilities of students. As encouraged in universal design for learning, we offer multiple forms of expression for students. For some students, such as emergent or early writers, it might be more appropriate for them to use the Talk Set to do the retell.  

For other students, more independent writers, they could use the Word Bank with sentence starters. Or they could use the Clicker Board – you could even print out the Clicker Board to do the activity away from the computer if that was needed. 

How does Clicker’s flexibility further benefit students’ learning? 

Some students may need more support than just the sentence starters when they are using the five-finger retell Word Bank. They could easily turn on word prediction to help them with spelling as they are writing. They would also benefit from having access to banks of story- specific key words. For all of the Clicker Traditional Stories and most of the other books in the Story Corner, we provide Word Banks to help students write about those stories.

For instance, you might want to use the Goldilocks and the Three Bears - Quick Words set alongside the five-finger retell sentence starters. Combing grids from both sets gives easy access to students while they are writing their retell. 

As with all resources on LearningGrids, the five-finger retell sets are adaptable to match your needs. For example, some educators use different headings for the five key parts of the story - instead of beginning/middle/end, some use beginning/problem/solution. It is quick and easy to change the headings on the Clicker Board or the starters in the Word Bank.  

Once students are familiar with the main parts of a story, they can use the resources to plan their stories – so instead of five-finger retell, they could become five-finger story planners. 

Be sure to visit LearningGrids for other retell Clicker Sets. Here are some other resources that you might find helpful: 

• Early elementary writing with Clicker blog post 
  

• Early reading support with Clicker blog post 
  

• Using Clicker to build ELL literacy proficiency webinar 

Summary

Silence in early-stage English Language Learners (ELLs) is often misread as disengagement or inability. But it's an important phase of second language acquisition. How we support it determines everything that follows.

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You’ve been notified of a new student joining your classroom. They’re a newcomer:  a person who is brand new to the English language. For the first few weeks, they don’t say a word.

You wonder: 

• Do they understand what’s going on?
  
  
• Are they following along?  
  
  
• Are they trying?
  

The silence can be disorienting, but it’s not a red flag. It’s a very normal, very powerful phase of second language acquisition.

The silent period explained

Dr. Stephen Krashen is a top expert in second language learning. He first introduced the idea of the silent period. Krashen noticed that many children don’t start speaking right away. In fact, they might stay quiet for months after they’ve been exposed to a new language.

His Input Hypothesis says that learners, especially kids, need time. They must listen and understand before they can speak.

This “listen first, speak later” approach mirrors how we acquired our first language. During this time, English learners might seem quiet, but their brains are anything but.

The neuroscience of silence

During the silent period, English learners work hard. They process language, form new neural pathways, and prepare for understanding and speaking. The auditory cortex, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex are very active. They help students understand sounds, recall vocabulary, and maintain focus.

Behind the scenes, it’s intense work. This effort helps students grasp the rhythm, patterns, and meaning of a new language. It’s a cognitive marathon, not a sprint, and one that prepares them to speak when their brains are ready.

What language learning looks like without speaking

When a student isn’t speaking yet, it doesn’t mean they aren’t learning or engaging. It just means we need to know what to look for:

• Gestures, facial expressions, and body language
  
  
• Pointing, matching, or selecting images
  
  
• Responding to classroom routines or tone of voice
  
  
• Using multilingual texts, tech tools, or nonverbal cues
  

These are valid forms of comprehensible output for English learners in the silent period. They are important in the pre-production and early production phases of language learning.

How to support ELLs in the early stages

To support students during the silent period and beyond, here are a few powerful strategies:

• Provide visual scaffolds
  • Use pictures, diagrams, and illustrated vocab to anchor meaning.
    
    
• Allow nonverbal responses
  • Give students choices to show understanding like pointing, matching, sorting, and even nodding yes or no.
    
    
• Incorporate multimodal tasks
  • Combine audio, visuals, text, and interactive elements.
    
    
• Honor their home language
  • Encourage multilingual books, captions, and translation tools.
    
    
• Model language with intention
  • Use clear, simple sentences, and repetitive phrasing with gestures to make meaning stick.
    
    
• Offer low-stakes output
  • Invite students to record voice notes with sentence starters, or build short responses with symbols or word banks.

How Clicker supports English Language Learners, especially in the early stages

Clicker is a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) literacy platform. It helps English learners by providing a platform for comprehensible input (clear, understandable content) and comprehensible output (giving students ways to express themselves). Clicker scaffolds early language learning and gives students the skills they need to succeed in the four language domains:

1. Listening
   
   
2. Speaking
   
   
3. Reading
   
   
4. Writing

During the early stages of learning English, students do best in low-pressure settings. They benefit from visual and auditory help. It's also good for them to have different ways to show their understanding.

Clicker helps all students, whether they're brand new to English or just starting to speak. It gives teachers the power to support students with simple tools. Because Clicker removes language barriers, students gain momentum in their English acquisition.

Here are just a few of the ways Clicker supports multilingual learners

✅ Speech support and text-to-speech modeling

Clicker reads text aloud while highlighting each word as it’s spoken. As a result, students make vital connections between how words look and sound. Text-to-speech supports reading fluency, reinforces directionality, and builds confidence with vocabulary pronunciation.

✅ Picture support to build meaning

Clicker has a picture library with more than 4,500 illustrations. These help with word recognition and understanding grade-level, academic content. Teachers can also upload real-life photos. This way, activities can feel more relevant and connected to students' lives.

✅ Talk Sets for low-stakes speaking practice

Students can record their voices in response to images or prompts, practicing expressive language at their own pace. This is ideal for building oral language fluency in a pressure-free setting. Plus, it's easy to re-record as confidence grows.

✅ Sentence-building activities with built-in scaffolds

Clicker lets teachers customize sentence-building sets with multiple levels of support. Features like Guided Order help students build syntactically correct sentences while reinforcing left-to-right directionality and early grammar patterns.

✅ Ready-made ELL resources on LearningGrids

Clicker’s LearningGrids library has hundreds of standards-aligned free resources. These materials support curriculum goals for English learners. These include:

• Matching Sets and Talk Sets for vocabulary and speaking practice
  
  
• Clicker Books and Sentence Sets for guided reading and writing
  
  
• Connect Sets for more open-ended writing with symbol support

Topics include common environments like School, Home, Neighborhood, Supermarket, and more. Perfect for students who are new to English and need exposure to social language and everyday vocabulary.

Inclusive learning beyond language

Clicker helps meet the social-emotional needs of ELL students. This is especially important for those who have faced trauma or displacement. Resources in the About Me and Feelings & Actions categories provide safe ways for students to express their emotions. They can use emoji charts, Connect Sets, and guided Clicker Books such as When I Feel Worried.

As students gain confidence in English, you’ll find even more resources focused on vocabulary growth, sentence structure (including Colorful Semantics activities), grammar, and mindset-building with resources like Positive Self-Talk and A Mindful Walk.

Clicker is built to support the exact stages Krashen describes. It gives students accessible ways to express themselves.

Are you ready to explore more?

Watch the webinar and download your free ELL support checklist now.

We hosted a webinar featuring an ELL specialist. We explored how Clicker supports ELLs during pre-production and early production stages. The session included practical strategies, product demos, and a Q&A for educators.

Watch the webinar and explore how to:

• Use Clicker’s LearningGrids, Talk Sets, and analytics to monitor language learning and comprehension
  
  
• Support nonverbal expression and gradual language emergence
  
  
• Customize resources to reflect student identity and language needs
  
  

You can also download our quick-reference checklist to deepen your support for multilingual learners.

Silence isn't a setback. It’s a sign of growth. With the right strategies and tools, we can meet English learners where they are and help them take confident steps forward, one word at a time.

Providing students with plenty of valuable opportunities to write is a key element of early elementary teaching. Younger students benefit from having a combination of independent and adult-led activities to help them build on their early writing skills.

Often these activities are planned carefully, but great writing also frequently comes from skilled educators scaffolding a writing opportunity in the moment and creating an environment that fosters a love of writing.

Ensuring that these writing opportunities are engaging for students is vital – giving them chances to enjoy a range of writing styles, genres, and purposes. Some of my go-to early writing activities included:

1. Real life experiences
2. Caption writing
3. Creative writing

Real life experiences

In my classroom, I often found that students were more confident when writing about their own experiences. For example, writing up their weekend news, a recount of a class trip or event, or describing a special occasion.

Clicker’s ready-made resources include a range of scaffolds to support students with writing about their weekend. With speech-supported vocabulary and prompts, children can add their ideas in independently.

Using the Voice Notes tool, students can also talk through their ideas before they start writing. This is perfect for those children who are more confident verbally - they can listen back to their recording as many times as they need throughout the writing process.

LearningGrids also has activities perfect for supporting students when writing about a class trip! In my teaching days, I took many trips to the local farm with children, and we would always do some writing when we got back to school.

The Farm collection in LearningGrids has a wide range of resources with different levels of support that you can use to encourage students to write about their field trip.  

Caption writing

I always found value in keeping some writing tasks short and snappy for early elementary writing. Having activities such as caption writing or labeling built into my planning really helped to develop students’ confidence with their independent writing.

Having a bank of these activities within continuous provision or set up as an independent challenge allowed them to consolidate the skills we’d been practicing as a class or in adult-led groups.

You can recreate simple caption writing in Clicker in a few different ways.  

Adding image support into a writing grid is a great way to provide scaffolding for those students who need a bit more support when writing their captions. They simply need to tap the words to bring them into the document and rebuild the sentence.

You can add your own images or pictures from the CrickPix2 library to any ready-made Clicker resources or any activities you’re making from scratch. This is quick and easy to do, whether you’re planning ahead or adding a picture to encourage some writing in the moment!

In Clicker (Win/Mac) you can insert images into the document in several ways as a prompt for students to write their caption. This also works really nicely as a modeling activity on your interactive whiteboard, encouraging discussion about sentence structure and language choices. Any opportunity to model and reinforce the use of finger spaces and punctuation in early writing is key!

You can use Clicker Books for caption writing too! The Make-a-Book resources allow you to add your own pictures and text to every page. These resources include Clicker’s built-in support tools so students can use the Predictor, spell check, and speech support to help them build their sentence.

Creative writing

Whether students are writing their own story, retelling a story, describing a character, or producing some writing about their favorite book – creative writing always has a way of popping up in an early elementary classroom.

The repetitive language in stories can often be comforting for children when writing, helping them to find confidence with writing their own story by introducing familiar characters and settings.

Clicker has a whole creative writing section on LearningGrids, as well as resources linked to traditional tales and other stories - perfect for early elementary writing.

These activities provide students with endless scaffolds to support them with writing!

Clicker Boards are perfect for planning a story, breaking it down into manageable steps that children can access in a way that suits their learning style best. Whether that’s single words, whole sentences, pictures, or audio. Students can access these on devices or simply print them to have a physical copy.

You can make changes to any Clicker resource, tailoring them to meet the needs of your students. For example, quickly add image support into a Word Bank to make it more accessible for a wider group of students.

Having a writing grid available as a prompt (either on screen or printed!) can help to fuel students’ imagination for the plot of their story. This is just a small sample of the creative writing resources available in LearningGrids.

Conclusion

Clicker is for everyone! There are so many activities to support students with meeting their early elementary writing goals.

Clicker is such a flexible tool that you can build into your early elementary classrooms in the way that suits your environment, planning, and students needs most effectively.

I had very limited access to technology in my previous kindergarten classrooms, but the activities I’ve shown throughout this blog post can all be utilized on an interactive whiteboard or printed to use as a physical activity.

This is just a small sample of ways that Clicker can be used in an early elementary classroom. You might find our recent post Early reading support with Clicker useful, too!