Using Clicker 5

Assisted Writing Program

Before you make a grid of your own….

• Click on examples

There are lots of ready made grids here. Why re-invent the wheel?

Go to Numeracy. (Explore all the options when you have time)

Choose Tell the time. Click the arrow to start, then click What’s the time?

Too many options come up for our students

Click Edit ---Edit Mode

In edit mode you get the Edit toolbar.

You can click on a cell to work on it. Choose delete to reduce the options

Drag the cells to where you want them and the board is ready

Click File --Save grid set as—Name—OK.

• Start Teaching time telling

How to Create a New Grid Set

Step by Step

• Double click the desktop icon to open Clicker 5.

• A good idea is to click on Quick Tour to have a look at the features of the program and what it is able to do.

• Click on “Learning Grids”

Click on Create New Grid Set

Click on Sentence Building

Click on “Modelled Sentence Building”

1.Click 5x2. 2.Click Create.

This is a Modeled Sentence Grid.

This is the same board ready to use. (Note the model of the sentence)

The student selects the words from the grid in the order modeled.

(Note picture prompts for interest words)

You Can Edit Grids to set them up as you want them

You can change the appearance of cells to suit your student or topic

To edit cells go to Edit --- Edit ModeUse the tool bar icons to change the cells

Adding or Removing CellsNote the choice of shapes

Want to avoid Boring?

• Change the appearance of grids

• In Edit Mode, click on the Grid icon on the editing toolbar

Choose Appearance Tab & set up your scheme

Click OK

You can choose patterns or textures to suit your mood

Choose your own theme. Be a style Guru!

Build it as you like it.

And there it is!

Adding picturesClick Pictures icon to choose pictures

Choose where the pictures come from:Your pictures; Photos ; Crick libraries

Choose Crick Libraries and category folders appear. Click on Farm and choices appear.

Simply Drag and Drop the pictures into the cells

Click out of Edit Mode and you’re ready to go.

Just click the cells and the word and picture goes into the story. Notice that when I used ‘the’ at the start of a sentence, it capitalised automatically.

Click the Spellcheck icon. Choices will appear.

It works just like any spell checker. Close when finished.

Forcing syntax patterns.Start a new Grid. When you get to this window, choose Forced Order

Forcing Sentence syntax.

Choose your grid size

Then click Create

This grid appears

(I chose 5 X 2)

With forced syntax, the words in each collumn need to be interchangeable

As a word is added to the story, the highlight moves along. Words can only be added in the right order.

Once full stop is clicked it reads, then starts again.

If your student needs to have the text scanned go to Options – User Access

Click Single Switch Auto Scan

This will highlight each cell in turn. When Student hits the switch, the word is added to their story

Once the punctuation is added, the computer reads the sentence aloud.

If you want a sentence building grid without a model, choose a ‘Sentence Building’ grid.

Choose the size of grid you want. (How many boxes?)

More boxes for more able, less for beginners

To add a word to a box, hold down Shift and left click in the box.

A cursor will appear.

Just type in the words you want.Key words often show pictures.

Speech Features

• Add a full stop, Clicker speaks the sentence.• Highlight a section, Clicker will speak it if you

click the speech bubble icon.

• Right click a word in the grid to hear it spoken before writing it.

If You don’t like the speaker’s voice – Change it!

In edit mode click speech. Choose the voice.(Lucy or Graham)

Setting up the speech.

Choose No Speech at all

or Graham

or Lucy

Set the speed of speech

And the pitch

Drag the sliders

Try it out to see how it sounds here

Editing Your Text

You can edit your Clicker Writer Documents in the same way as other word processors. To edit text, first select the text you want to edit. When you have selected some text, you can move, copy or delete it.

The Clicker Writer Toolbar

If this looks familiar, it should. Most of these functions are the same as other word processors

More able writers may not need a Grid

Click View > Hide Grid

The grid will vanish

Open Edit > Edit mode > Pictures > Instant Picture & Library Settings

Make sure there is a tick in this box.

Close all of theses boxes.

Start Writing and Pictures will illustrate key words.

Flashy Options

• You can add animations. They must be in gif format.

Colour code your cells by changing the background colour.

In Edit Mode, right click in a cellChoose properties. Click

This screen lets you re-design the cell.

Click here to change the background colour of the cell

You can have bordered or borderless cells

Click, then type the text for the cell here

Click Choose Picture, then Browse

Once you have clicked choose picture, this is the window you get.

Choose where you want to get the picture from

Choose the picture Click Open Cell Preview

When the slide is as you like it, click Insert

The resulting stories can be impressive!

In the on-screen story, all of the pictures are animated and dance!

Notice how I used the cursor to resize the grid in the previous picture

This is the original, or you can go to view --- hide grid

…and this is what you see. Just the Student’s story

Animated, of course!

Printing the Students’ Work• Click on File……. Print….. And this window will open.

On General tab, click this arrow for a drop- down menu.

Choose your option. It is often better to just print the Writer document unless you want it for evidence for assessment. (When you get to the printer page you will need to choose colour).

Of course, the printer can’t print animation, so will freeze the action at the time of printing.

Click Print

The next window should look familiar. Just print as usual.

Adding Sound and Video to grids and cells for Pazzazz!

• You can record sound into a cell and have it play back when the cell is clicked.

• If the story needs a video to get the student’s message across, these can be imported from files, Internet, and drag and drop from your PC.

Adding Sound.

• Clicker automatically speaks text and highlights words as it speaks them.

• It can be set to speak letters or words as they are written.

• Select one of your sound libraries (Only accepted file types will work).These are MP3, MP2, mpa, wav, aif, aiff, aifc, wma, au, snd, mid, midi.

In Edit Mode, Select “Sounds”

Select your sound file and drag it to the cell you want it in. If it worked it will start to play.

You can insert a hyperlink to a website or email address.

• Highlight the text you want to create a link for.

• Go to Insert

• Click hyperlink

• Fill in the boxes

• Click OK

• You are now linked to the web

Right and Left Click

• Now if you click with the right button, the words are said, but if you click with the left, the music, or other sound effect, starts to play.