Secondary School Use

Secondary School Use

1. Use the Powerpoint presentation - an overview of Wordshark

Click here  (takes 5-10 minutes, at your own pace)


2. Positive introduction of Wordshark to students 

From the main menu select Games & WordLists and choose quite an advanced example word list to show on the IWB. It is important to open ‘My Play Words’ to explore the list (yellow roll-down in centre of screen). Look at any pictures, listen to recordings and use the sliders at the bottom. Students need to be the detective and understand the learning intention i.e. what the list is about. 

Let them know…
1) that they'll be able to choose the games 
2) that the combination of games available might change 
3) how to access Set Work or Free Play (if you're using them)       

Finally, establish what they see as their targets and what success will look like, which days they will practise, and for how long. Say that you will be able to check these if necessary!                       

3. Student journey & suggested use

  1. When they first sign in, each student is given the placement test 'Shark Challenge' (a spelling game)
  2. Shark Challenge then places them in 'Supershark’, automatic progression where they get to choose the games they play. This uses the 'Wordshark Course', a structured sequence of Word lists divided into 44 Units...
  3. Sit down with small groups of the most needy students and look at the  Wordshark Course Summary pdf and ask them where they think they might start work.
  4. Decide if you feel this is realistic for them and if it matches their automatic test placement. If you want to change where they've been placed (or where they are currently in Supershark):
    • Choose the tab 'Set Work' 
    • Then choose the button 'Supershark - Change Level' to reset them to the desired place (as many times as you need to)


Other specific needs & options

For a spelling lesson on an IWB

Introduce a spelling rule on the IWB (finding the relevant list in Wordshark using 'Search'). You might like to create a teacher account for teachers to use on IWBs with no student records in so that if the computer is left unattended for any reason no sensitive material can be accessed. 

 

Subject vocabulary & EAL

Consider printing out the Secondary school subject lists pdf, or access on screen, for students to familiarise themselves with. They will not have automatic access to these so you will need to set some lists that they can work through as set work  – or consider granting them free access i.e. allowing 'Free Play' (the latter incidentally doesn’t involve obligatory spelling tests). 


For EAL, granting Free Play access to the Everyday Vocabulary ‘course’ may help some students with simple vocabulary in English.

 

For larger year group cohort

Keep an eye where individual students are placed in Supershark, (sharing this duty among staff!), and check that all are happy. Use the onscreen group report under Student Progress for this and scroll down the students. 


Personalised lists

Ask students to look at their work and identify the words they have trouble with, then create personalised word lists for them. They can use their own voices to record if wished. 


Table of courses & PDFs of content


  Courses in WordsharkAvailable via
Summary PDF  


 (List titles and examples of what is in each list)

Full PDF 


(List titles plus every word list)

 
 'Wordshark'


Set Work

or

Supershark

or

 Free Play


Wordshark Course Summary pdf  		 
Wordshark Course Standard Word Lists pdf

Teaching notes for Units 1-4 pdf
  Alpha to OmegaSet Work
or Free Play		Alpha to Omega Course Summary pdf   Alpha to Omega Standard Word Lists pdf 
  Everyday Vocabulary
(great for EAL)		Set Work
or Free Play
 Everyday Vocabulary Word lists pdf
  High Frequency words
(HFW)		Set Work 
or Free Play
 High Frequency Word lists pdf  
  National CurriculumSet Work
or Free Play
National Curriculum (Eng.) Course Summary pdf 
 Secondary School subject lists
(useful for KS3)		Set Work 
or Free Play
Secondary school subject lists pdfSecondary subjects Word Lists pdf 
Own word lists
Available viaSuggested UseHow to
Teachers' own word lists Set Work  Ideas for creating own lists  How to create your own lists 
Students' own word lists   Student's own menu    Via student's own menu


       

    More about 'Supershark' games

      • After every third game a reward game is offered as additional motivation.
      • The games build up slowly to introduce the words - the first set of games made available to students will only be related to reading and blending. The second game will often be a choice of just 1 or 2 other specific games, and so on.   
      • The 6th game is one of the 3 spelling ‘check/test’ games - Spell check, Maze spell check, Moving spell check, to find out if the student should move on, or continue with the current list. (If not mastered after several cycles the student will be moved on and an email is sent to the teachers.)
      • 85% success or above is needed before they are allowed to move to the next list.   
      • At the end of each Unit there is a revision test for the whole Unit. At the end of 3 Units there is a test of 12 words drawn from all Units to date.     

     

     

    Read more

    How Wordshark is suitable for Secondary School students: https://www.wordshark.co.uk/wordshark/schools/secondary-schools/

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