• Most scanners have software provided with them that allows them to "read" words and copy them to a word processor screen - (often called OCR). Exploit this amazing feature in school, by "scanning" Literacy Hour Texts into your favourite word processor, allowing you to quickly edit, modify or rearrange the words ready for indepependent work or for printing out in a new format for group work. - This is so useful and is ideal for preparing text for the activities listed further down this page.
• Do you know that if you rent your photocopier, you are often charged for every copy you make. If you have a laser printer in school, you can save several pounds a month by using it to print out "scanned in" Literacy Hour text using the above technique.- Remember, unlike a photocopy, you can highlight words, annotate, add pictures, rearrange the words, etc.
• If you want a really good activity for using a spreadsheet why not get a 'with it' group of children to calculate the relative cost per copy of using a laser printer compared to the photocopier.

Do you have a TV in school? - Whole Class teaching with ICT is simple! MEGATIP!

• When the computers were built for Ambleside, I made sure that a "TV card" was installed in some (ATI All in Wonder Pro). For an extra £20 you can connect the computer directly into any TV via the video inputs (The computer monitor display remain unaffected for the teacher/child to use!) The quality is not quite as high as a computer monitor, but it is perfect for CD-ROMS, browsing the Internet with a class and demonstrating how to use programs. Once you have used a CD-ROM through a TV in front of a class you will be converted - they are interactive, full of sounds and actions and easy to navigate - far beyond what you could achieve with a video tape.
• A TV card also allows you to view TV pictures and programmes and capture video for video conferencing - I simply can't understand why it is not a feature of every computer specified for school.
• If you have a laptop (such as those supplied by BECTa) it is likely to have a small phono socket labelled "video" - use this to plug your Laptop into a TV to achieve a similar result - Voila! - YOU are back in charge of ICT and "teaching from the front" not over the shoulder of a couple of kids huddled around your single PC in class!

Use Microsoft Powerpoint as a teaching tool. (This great tip was sent in by Sheila King, a teacher - Thanks!)

• Use the Powerpoint software that comes with Microsoft Office to create your own talking storybooks to display on computer screens in your school. Powerpoint is easy to use presentation software (if you are stuck, click it's help button!) that has a powerful set of 'wizards' that make creating an interactive multimedia presentation as easy as filling in a few boxes on the screen.
• If you have the excellent free 'SuperOffice 5.1' software from Sun Microsystems you will find it has a very similar program.
• A story made using Powerpoint only costs the time taken to write the story and it can then be freely distributed throughout the school. Powerpoint presentations can also be used for any subject. For example, a presentation on the fire at Crystal Palace could be set up for pupils to go through and answer questionnaires.
• Once you have mastered the skills of creating a series of screens combining text, pictures and sound, introduce children to the program and have them use it to produce reports on their classwork, stories, etc.
• Use Powerpoint to deliver the QCA unit of work on creating multimedia presentations.
• Later versions of Powerpoint can export a presentation as a series of webpages - Let the world share your work!

Independent working activities for Literacy Hour - (They have virtually ignored ICT in the N.L.S. guidelines but why should we?):

• Rearrange the words in a story or phrase on a word processor (an extract from the class book is ideal) and have children use "cut" and "paste" techniques to put it into the correct order. After they have printed it they can load up the original for another child to do. (A good idea is to save the original mixed up text onto a floppy disk and "write protect" the disk by moving the little plastic slider to leave an open hole - this prevents children saving a correct version over your "mixed up" original.)
• Adapt the above idea by rearranging the lines of a poem or a set of instructions.
• Create a word processed set of sentences and phrases with simple adjectives and get the children to use the "thesaurus" function of the word processor to replace the simple adjectives and verbs with those of a higher quality. "MS Word" features and excellent thesaurus built in. Colour code the preprepared text so that you can get the children to focus on particular words.
• Change the content of a piece of text by getting the children to use the "search and replace" function to seek out and change names and change gender such as "him" and swap them for "her" - "before" - "after", etc.
• Give the children a short story or Literacy Hour text on screen and have them change the tense by editing the words.
• Put a selection of word ending (rimes) on the screen and have a child/group type in as many words as possible then print them out. At the end of the week, when all children have had a go, reveal the winning group!
• Prepare a piece of writing with no punctuation and capital letters and have a child insert all the correct punctuation and print out the finished page.
• Adapt the above idea to explore the use of apostrophes.
• Produce a section of dialogue without punctuation. Have children separate out the lines and add speech marks. Spoken lines could be made italic. Extend the activity to playscript construction - introducing actions in brackets.... (Typing furiously)
• If you have a colour printer, save a copy of a story and have the children highlight and colour code the various word types - eg. adjectives blue, nouns green, etc. E.g:

ADJECTIVE | NOUN | VERB | ADVERB | PREPOSITION

"The gigantic craft rose slowly above the clouds."

• If you only have a B&W printer - get the children to make the selected words italic, bold or underlined.
• Create simple phrases and sentences on a word processor and have children edit them together with appropriate joining words and connectives.
• Explore poetry / text presentation by using the formatting and text colouring function of a word processor. E.g:

A
tree.
Leaves
gather light.
Roots clutch the
S
O
I
L
wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

or:

growing - shrink

• Use an art program to explore ways of enhancing a poem or phrase: Click here for some great examples.
• If you've got an Internet connection have the children extend their poetry or study of cinquains, tankas and haiku by using the superb Online Rhyming Dictionary which can be found at: http://www.link.cs.cmu.edu/dougb/rhyme-doc.html This superb site will generate dozens of perfect and near perfect rhymes for virtually any word. Even better it organises them by the number of syallables - perfect for rhythm / syllabic poem styles such as Haiku, Tankas and Cinqauins..
• Use the "letter wizard" of a word processor such as MS Word to 'model' the construction of a word-processed letter.
• Microsoft Publisher features many easy to use templates - have a child / group use them to create, simple newsletters, menus, posters, cards and leaflets.

Well that's it for now! - Pop back sometime and I might have added some more.

If you have a great idea for using ICT in simple but effective ways why not mail them to me: mark@mountains.freeserve.co.uk - I'll put them up and make sure you get all the credit!

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