More speaking activities with Clicker

Reposted with permission from Crick Software UK Blog

Following on from my last blog on using Clicker speaking activities, here is how a Year Two teacher used the recording facility in Clicker with a group of children in her class. She wanted to increase their confidence in speaking and to encourage them to extend statements beyond single words or sentences.

She started by using the Tell the Story activity in Jack and the Beanstalk from the Clicker Tales series. After reading the story together it was the children’s turn to tell their version. They worked in a group with a teaching assistant, and each child chose a picture to talk about – they rehearsed and then recorded their section of the story, continuing until all the episodes had been covered. They then listened to their whole story using the speech bubble button on the start page, each child waiting in anticipation to hear their recordings.

Jack and the Beanstalk recording activity
The giant counting gold coins

Click on each picture to record and then play all the recordings back in sequence to re-tell the story. Activity from Jack and the Beanstalk in the Clicker Tales series.


Next the children worked in pairs and took photos of episodes in their day which the teacher used to create the same kind of activity, using the Tell the Story wizard in Clicker 6. The strong sequential nature of the events, the picture prompts and the opportunity to rehearse were all very important for the children. The teacher gave them ‘next’/‘then’/‘after that’ prompt cards which added to the cohesion of their final outcome.

Then each child tackled their own Tell the Story activity. Following a sandwich making activity, they used photos of each stage to describe the procedure. They could concentrate on what they wanted to say for each step and move to the next when they were happy with their recording.

The fact that some children chose to repeat some of their recordings showed they were also actively evaluating their performance. The final outcome was a much fuller and more cohesive recount than the children would have achieved without the step by step scaffolding provided in the activity.

Tell the Story activity - making a sandwich
Tell the Story activity - making a sandwich

Use photos in a Tell the Story activity to act as prompts for the child to record each stage.


There are a number of Tell the Story activities available on LearningGrids (search for tell the story) and to see how to set one up, see the 90-second video and pdf instruction sheet at:

www.cricksoft.com/uk/training/clicker-6-training/90-second/quick-wizards.aspx

Ann Crick

Ann Crick - President, Crick Software Ann Crick was a teacher for many years. She has worked with children of all ages and has a wide experience of those with special needs. Her particular interest is literacy and how technology can be used to help develop learning opportunities for children of all abilities. Ann was the literacy co-ordinator at an all age special school and now manages the development of curriculum resources at Crick Software.