ICT for Cambridge Secondary 1 English

ICT is a valuable classroom resource for the development of students’ knowledge and
understanding of English language and literature when managed effectively and selected
appropriately for the age group and the requirements of the lower secondary curriculum.
There is a range of media, aspects, approaches and opportunities available for the
teaching, learning and reinforcement of English skills at this level.

Aspects
• Online activities, e.g. grammar and punctuation practice exercises, vocabulary
gap-filling, quizzes to assess learning of language rules and recall of literary texts
• Interactive whiteboard activities, e.g. highlighting key words in bold, evaluating text,
annotating text
• Research websites, e.g. finding topic-based information, finding examples of generic
devices or types of language use, looking up meanings of words and synonyms,
comparing newspaper headlines and reports on the same event
• Databases, e.g. organising research material, compiling alphabetical lists of new
vocabulary
• Word processing, e.g. sequencing text blocks, highlighting summary points, editing and
correcting, making columns, making matching exercises
• Design/publishing software, e.g. creating facsimile layouts, creating diagrams to
illustrate a text, making word puzzles (crosswords, wordsearches and grids), comparing
different ways of organising the same text
• Text manipulation software, e.g. reorganising text according to various criteria,
word clouds
• Mind-mapping software, e.g. planning, sequencing
• Visual material, e.g. slideshows as a stimulus for discussion or writing, pictures for
narrative sequencing, pictures for description or as a stimulus for stories
• Audio material, e.g. recorded material as models (radio news bulletins, advertisements,
speeches), listening recall activities, poems read aloud, song lyrics, music as a stimulus
for writing
• Video material, e.g. models of TV chat shows or interviews, TV news bulletins as a
stimulus for narrative or research, short silent cartoons for studying comic narrative
or adding voice-over script
• Film material, e.g. trailers for identifying techniques for adding interest, film clips for
comparison, critical reviewing, analysing narrative devices and stages
• Sound recording, e.g. simulating radio interviews or discussions, monologue
performances, selecting music as an introduction to reading a text
• Video recording, e.g. judging group dramas, simulating TV news broadcasts or press
conferences, making promotional videos
• Blogs, e.g. expressing personal views, sharing information

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 ICT for Cambridge Secondary 1 English

Resources
The following websites are suitable for use with Secondary 1 students.

Teaching resources
www.englishplus.com
Grammar slammer. There is a charge to download the software, but a free trial is
available.
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
A website with hundreds of language-based ‘how to’ guides and quizzes which use
higher-level texts as their base. It is a free online application.
http://hotpot.uvic.ca
Hot Potatoes, available as a free download, is a utility which enables you to author six
different types of interactive activity:
• quiz
• match
• cloze
• mix
• crossword
• sequence
www.inspiration.com/inspiration
Inspiration is a concept mapping tool which enables you to set up frameworks such as
brainstorms, storyboards or mind maps for students to complete (or they can create them
from scratch themselves). The website requires a subscription, but a free trial is available.
www.wordle.net
Wordle is a free application which allows students to generate a ‘word-cloud’ out of text
which you can supply.
www.teachit.co.uk
Teachit has a very large collection of teaching resources for English teaching throughout
the secondary age range. A sample of them are free; the remainder require a subscription.
www.chalkface.com
Chalkface has a large collection of lesson plans and resources; some are free, others have
to be paid for.
www.english-to-go.com
English-to-Go has a large collection of lesson plans and resources; there are some free
samples, but most have to be paid for.
www.webenglishteacher.com
Web English Teacher is a free American website with links to various articles and activities.
www.tes.co.uk/english-secondary-teaching-resources/
The Times Educational Supplement (TES) website has a very extensive set of teaching
resources, including the materials formerly hosted on the www.english-teaching.co.uk site.
These are free but registration is required.

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 ICT for Cambridge Secondary 1 English

http://www.english-online.org.uk
English Online offers a range of free word games and stimulus material.
www.onestopenglish.com
One Stop English is a subscription website containing a number of lesson plans and
resources for English teaching.
www.learnthings.co.uk
Learnthings is the subscription website of The Guardian Teacher Network. It is free to
sign up.
www.shmoop.com
This is a free site maintained by US graduate students. It contains study guides to a wide
range of literary texts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scruples_(game)
This gives information on ‘A Question of Scruples’ board game which may be played in
class, or teachers can make their own cards with a moral dilemma on each.

Stories, poems and other texts

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/stories-poems
This site has multicultural short stories and poems, many of them well known, suitable for
secondary English students.
www.bibliomania.com
This site has many literary and non-fiction texts in a range of genres.
www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories
This site has the texts of a large number of short stories, including an extensive collection
for children.
http://flavorwire.com/349534/awesome-storyboards-from-15-of-your-favorite-films
This site has film storyboards with extracts from original books.
www.poemhunter.com
Poemhunter is a free website with links to nearly 800,000 online poems, which may be
searched for by author, title or theme.
http://poetryfoundationghana.org
This site has the texts of poems written by African poets and gives information about them.
www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/proverbs.html
Phrase Finder includes a list of 600 English proverbs, many of which have explanatory
notes attached.

Video clips
www.bbc.co.uk/videonation
This site has a large collection of video extracts as a stimulus for discussion.
www.youtube.com
YouTube is a video-sharing website, including videos of poets reading their work, drama
and film excerpts and other stimulus material.

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 ICT for Cambridge Secondary 1 English

Newspaper and magazine websites

www.thepaperboy.com
This is a free gateway to thousands of newspapers around the world. Front pages of
newspapers for every country can be viewed in real time and headlines compared.
www.TheMagazineBoy.com
Sister website to Paperboy, this site allows access to international magazines.
www.onlinenewspapers.com/
This is a free online newspaper directory site.
www.guardiancentury.co.uk
This website gives access to hundreds of news stories from the Guardian newspaper
archive, organised by date.

Biography
www.bl.uk/learning/index.html
This site has a collection of British library pictures, biographies, and written and spoken
records of historical events.
Three other useful sites for biographical research are:
www.biography.com
www.biographyonline.net
http://en.wikipedia.org

© Cambridge University Press 2014 Cambridge Checkpoint English 9: A World View 4