Express Literacy - One way of bridging the gap between boys and girls

LAUNCHING at BETT 2004, a new tool for teachers called Express Literacy promises to accelerate young children's learning by using pictures and symbols to help them learn to read. This complete tool for teachers is the result of a collaboration between merged companies Logotron and Widgit (both on stand SN10) and draws on the companies' expertise in the field of educational software. As boys typically perform less well in academic subjects, one theory is that the use of ICT, a medium they traditionally excel in, could be one way of bridging the performance gap between boys and girls.

Girls have always been keener readers than boys but Express Literacy's alternative approach to literacy means that boys and girls learn to read without even being aware of it.

The tools in Express Literacy that make early years literacy more accessible include:

• writing frames
• onscreen vocabulary grids
• free and closed activity responses
• computer synthesised speech
• visual symbol feedback for the 1000 high and medium frequency core vocabulary words
• a pictorial spell checker
• a large bank of high quality screen based literacy activities
• powerful authoring tools which allow teachers to re-purpose existing, or create their own, literacy activities
• pupil management tools.

One of the most prominent elements of Express Literacy is its content of pictorial symbols. With a visual wordlist of the most important 1000 high and medium frequency words with their associated pictorial symbols, Express Literacy works by automatically displaying symbols associated with words as the words are typed in. This is perfect for beginners who are learning to read and write - it gives them extra visual support as they learn the skills of recognising and decoding important core vocabulary. Seeing a word accompanied by a symbol can reassure the reader on the meaning of the word and thus increase reading confidence and independence.

The English speech feedback in Express Literacy allows pupils to listen to their own writing, to help check the sense of what they have written. Express Literacy also allows each word in a document to be highlighted as it is spoken, helping early readers keep track of exactly what they are reading.

Gerry Daish, Logotron's Marketing Director commented:
"Logotron is delighted to announce the arrival of Express Literacy at the BETT show in January. Express Literacy is the first product to combine the respective software know-how of both Widgit and Logotron. Designed for early years literacy learning this innovative software utilizes symbols and synthesised speech in a variety of interesting ways."

The software also includes Literacy Resources designed to save teachers time. Activities include: traditional tales, poetry & verse, Cloze procedures, comprehension, plays, writing frames, sentence builders and phonic activities. Activities feature free responses or fixed answers, where the responses can be marked and stored for checking later by the teacher.

The resources included in Express Literacy allow teachers to adapt any of the included activities or create new activities of their own using the versatile templates and built in authoring tools. Also handy in Express Literacy are the tools for managing pupils and their work. Teachers can add names of pupils, allocate activities to named pupils, print records of their work, delete pupils and delete completed work from the computer.
Express Literacy can be configured to automatically print out an activity each time a pupil completes their assigned work, for inclusion in records of achievement. These automatic printouts contain the pupil's name, to make the sorting process easier for teachers.

Express Literacy is available for £49 for a single user copy with significant reductions offered for additional licences. For further information please contact the Logotron School Sales Team on: 01223 425558 extension 795, or email them at sales@logo.com or visit the Express Literacy catalogue entry on logo.com.