Clicker®

Wendy Male
Thornhill Primary Southampton

I teach in a resourced provision for 7-to-11-year-olds attached to a mainstream school which caters for children with learning difficulties. I also support SEN children within the mainstream. I use Clicker 5 extensively with the children and Planet Wobble as their main literacy text.  They get great support with their reading from Planet Wobble and are able to work independently to practise and develop their learning in a very purposeful way.

In terms of their ICT skills, we start by using Picture Dictionary to introduce Clicker to the children and get them used to left- and right-'clicking' and what they mean.  This then gives them a greater degree of independence when using Clicker. 

We also use all of the Clicker Find Out and Write About series which matches our curriculum and use this to enable the children to research independently and write on topic themes.  I tend to use this with the older children to enable them to access the topic-based curriculum.  It is great as they are able to develop independent research skills and the linked writing grids support their writing. 

"I have written a series of grids...
which match the sequence of phonics teaching"I have written a series of grids using the new feature of Clicker 5 – the drop-down picture and word menus, which match the sequence of phonics teaching. The CVC words chosen only contain the phonemes that the children have learnt to date. Individualised learning can take place as the children are able to work at their own level focusing on different phonemes/words according to their own needs.  I have then developed these into sentences using the same target phonemes, both with visually and orally modelled sentences to develop their writing.

The great thing about Clicker is that it gives me the flexibility to support all of my children at an appropriate level.  Each child accessing our resource provision is supported by personalised learning, targeted to his or her individual needs.

I have also trained all the LSAs in the school in creating Clicker grids and they are beginning to write their own word-bank grids to support children’s writing. This means that our mainstream children are also benefiting.

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