General info for parents/students
What is Wordshark Online?
Wordshark is a games-based product for learning spellings and for reading skills. Wordshark was the first of it's kind when it first came out, 25 years ago! The latest edition is 'Wordshark Online', re-written and in the cloud!
Why is using Wordshark important?
As we all know, literacy skills are important all through life and parental engagement has an huge impact on student learning. So, it's really important and worthwhile to support your child using Wordshark; talk about the words they are learning (listed in 'my play words'), and talk to them about their favourite games too. Remind and encourage them to sign in and play for about 15-20 minutes for as many days as possible each week to make real progress. Click here for tips on making homework more enjoyable! The school is paying for a subscription to Wordshark so take advantage of this resource!
What to expect...
- Normally you are invited to take the 'Shark challenge' - this helps Wordshark to decide where you should start in the program. Taking the Shark challenge is important because starting at the right point in Wordshark will make learning more effective and maintain your motivation! You can take a break from the Shark Challenge if you like and come back to finish it later. Sometimes your teacher will decide where you should start in Wordshark in which case you won't need to take the Shark Challenge.
- Then Wordshark will suggest some words to learn in 'Supershark' (automatic progression mode). You can choose which games to play.
- Your teacher/s might also set you work. For example, in the image below, the student has clicked on 'My set work'. You can also see the blue 'Supershark' button that you can click back to.
How long to spend on Wordshark
Here
are some examples of ways to use Wordshark, for how long/often, and how to manage the time. These are guidelines but if you use Wordshark even more, that's even better!
- Example
1: you could use Wordshark for 15 minutes for each
session (3 times a week or more.)
- Example
2: you could aim for at least 3 games
per session (3 times a week or more.)
- Example
3: Alternatively, the minutes can reflect the age, so a 7 year
old would do around 7 minutes, either every day or maybe Monday to Friday.
- Example
4: If you have been given Set Work, (there will be a date you need to finish the work by), you could ask your teacher/tutor how many lists you have been given to learn. This can help you manage your time better.
It may be more fun to have a chart , including days that you are going to use Wordshark etc, to tick after each session.
So, how do I log in?
The school or tutor will give you:
- A URL address to the login page that's unique to your school/tutor name (for example https://onwordshark.com/stmargarets)
- Username (login) (for example, vjulie381)
- Passcode (for example 56928)
For an easy way to reach your login page each time you use Wordshark, you could set up a shortcut
Related Articles
Letter to parents
Example letters to send to parents: Schools: Dear Parents We are pleased to let you know that your child will be given access to Wordshark Online from home. Wordshark is a computer program with a long track record of helping students improve their ...Removing (archiving) students
Remove (archive) students Sign in as an administrator or teacher Select 'Groups & Users' Select 'Manage Students' Select one student at a time. Note: it doesn't matter if the student is in more than one group, but let other teachers know if they ...Sending student login details to parents/students so they can log in from home
This article explains how you email the login details to your students (via parents) in order for them to access Wordshark from home. Step 1. Download and copy the student login details From the main menu, select Groups and Users Lower right of the ...Providing encouragement to students
Of course, a major short term incentive should be to confidently read books, comics etc and to be able to write - skills also needed for tests/exams. Parental involvement can be key especially if time isn't normally allocated to Wordshark during the ...For students/parents: logging in (username and passcode)
Where can I find my ‘Username’ and ‘Passcode’? Your unique Username and Passcode will have been given to you by your school/teacher. This information might have been given to you as a print-out/in a letter, emailed to you, via a school-home ...
Still need help?
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