Literacy Bank 7

www.literacybank7.co.uk

KS3 (Years 7 - 9)

English

Description

Literacy Bank 7 is a large collection of English comprehension and grammar activities aimed at Year 7 pupils and is intended to support language skills within the Framework for Teaching Literacy. The software is easy to use and comprises six activity types: Edit, Identify, Question and Answer, Comprehension, Cloze and Quiz. Selections from these can be identified by the teacher and assigned to individuals or groups so that when they log on to the software their work is ready for them. The activities are short and structured and have been developed in conjunction with the National Literacy Society.

Teachers are able to enter lists of pupils or groups prior to software use, allow students to enter their own names, and change options from the password-controlled teacher's section. The program tracks progress, provides a teacher report and can issue prepared motivational certificates on completion of activities. The activities can also be printed as worksheets.

Supporting Documentation

The accompanying booklet is clearly laid out with colour diagrams and precise instructions. There is also a helpful section on installation, troubleshooting, a summary of educational content and an index. The website www.sherston.com provides additional product information only.

Technical Support

Technical support is available from the website as above, through a technical Help desk contactable via telephone or email. Contact information is also available in the booklet which features clear information about installation, technical hints and tips.

Purpose of the Program

To support the teaching of grammar and literacy in Year 7 through sentence exercises and word exercises which mirror the Literacy Framework requirements. The program enables a teacher to quickly select a range of suitable activities and assign them to students for independent work.

Curriculum Relevance

All the materials are appropriate for the teaching and support of English Language skills at Year 7 and to a certain extent at Years 6 and 8 as well. Sherston state that Literacy 7 'makes it easy for teachers to integrate ICT into their Literacy lessons.' This is true in the sense that the software enables rapid organisation and contains marking and monitoring facilities, but not where ICT is seen as a creative tool for learning within other subjects. Literacy 7 is essentially an activity management tool.

Extent

The exercises are focused on Word Level and Sentence Level Teaching Objectives for Year 7 in the Framework for Teaching English, and can be mapped directly to the Word Level and Sentence Level references in the document.

Appropriateness

The content is appropriate for the age range in terms of language context and visual setting. It is possible to select a range of animated figures from different cultural backgrounds to improve the visual appeal and provide spoken encouragement.

Quality

This program performs well - it's easy to install, easy to understand and runs very smoothly. It is produced with Macromedia Projector which means the fonts sometimes seem slightly fuzzy. I found the animations, whilst well drawn, didn't really add to the program - other than male and female, the voices were the same whichever character was chosen, and I felt on occasion the female voice sounded slightly bored. The production quality for both sets of voices is a little tinny.

One key element that would have been really useful is missing from the program: Whilst it is possible to select particular activities to assign to the students, it is not possible to assign activities to particular groups. Therefore, whether a group or an individual logs on, they will only see one set of activities that the teacher has selected. It would be far better if teachers could assign selections of activities to particular groups or individuals, thus enabling the teacher to quickly organise differentiated work. It would also have been useful if the teacher could quickly see the content of the activities from the teacher's area - to view these you have to log back in as a student and go through them one by one. A summary of the activities is available and this is useful, but it appears as a web page so people with screens set to low resolutions will only be able to see part of it at any one time.

The teacher's area has an option to print out activities as worksheets, although their layout could perhaps be more interesting.

Other than choosing ethnic characters for the animations (and once chosen, the same character appears all the time) there are no options to differentiate font size or background colour.

This program scores well in that it is easy to install and use, the activities dovetail precisely with the requirements of the Year 7 Framework, and there is an efficient and effective monitoring and reporting tool. What is missing is the usual Sherston flair for humour and 'zing' which shines through most of their other products. It is difficult to make grammar interesting, but Year 7 children are not too cool to enjoy the odd cheer or animated nonsense when they are successful - and that's what Literacy 7 needs. As it stands, it is a useful tool for managing a comprehensive collection of electric paper.

Read KS3 Classroom evaluation...

Product Overview

This product is published by Sherston (Tel: 01666 843200)