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Developing
Tray |
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Contact: 2Simple
Software Email: sales@2simple.com |
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Developing
Tray |
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Contact: 2Simple
Software Email: sales@2simple.com |
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Program evaluation Simon says: Over
the last 25 years in the educational computing field, certain names and
products have become classics – as popular and powerful now as when they
first burst on the scene. Mike Matson and Granny’s Garden spring readily
to mind, with Granny still going strong after nearly a quarter of a century.
The power of Granny was the focus and structure it provided for children’s
exploratory talk. Around the same time as Granny (the early to mid-Eighties) another program appeared which again provided a structure within which children’s reading, and talk about language (meta-language), was facilitated: this was Developing Tray, initially developed by Bob Moy in the late 70s when an advisory teacher with the ILEA. Tray was essentially content-free – teachers could use their own texts with the program, thus increasing its relevance and power. It should have become a classic (and for a short while, it did) but, as PCs began to take over from Beebs, a version of Developing Tray for the PC wasn't readily available - until now, around 20 years after the original hit the classroom. Is it as good as the original? Well, it's actually better, having been developed to take advantage of modern Windows technology without losing any of the features which made it such a powerful and innovative piece of language and literacy software in the 80s. Like most good ideas, the basic idea is wonderfully simple: take a text; remove some or all letters; then ask students to recreate the text by predicting letters and words. If students work in pairs or threes (and they should), then the program can promote oracy as well as literacy. And the language skills it demands are higher level skills involving hypothesizing, predicting, exploring and collaborating. Originally, I used Tray with E2L students, now I use it with any student who is experiencing greater or lesser reading difficulties. I've found it particularly effective with less confident, shy students who don't usually contribute to classroom discussion. I watched and listened to two such students recently, gradually coming out of their protective silences and gently arguing about what a missing letter or word must be. Marvellous. It's software which encourages collaboration. To make progress, students soon discover the strategies they have at their disposal: context, word length, punctuation, syntax. Students are carefully supported so that they never need lose heart because the text is too difficult and they don't know what to try next. If stuck they can use some of their accumulated points to "buy" a letter. In the early stages this can be a useful strategy, but the fact that the letters cost points stops students simply completing the text by buying all of the letters and saying, "I've done it!" This rarely happens. In fact you'll hear students saying, "No. Don't buy any more, we'll lose points." The Developing Tray Editor module allows very easy use of any text. It's as simple as pasting the text in and then using a wizard to customise the text to suit your students. At the hardest level, students could be presented with a blank screen with no letters at all. Tray can be used in any subject and with any age group. It's wonderful to hear the sensible discussion which goes on round the computer as Tray is running. A website accompanies the program: http://www.devtray.co.uk/ This has additional texts to download, to supplement the 60 texts already available in the program. This is a magnificent updating of an already wonderful program which should be part of all schools' software library. Highly recommended. |
Program Details 2Simple say:
Developing Tray is a piece of software that can successfully be used with a wide variety of ages and abilities, from infant to adult. The program gets its name from the fact that the text evolves in much the same way that a negative comes into focus in a photographers developing tray.
Developing Tray is a tool to develop good reading strategies. Use
Developing Tray to develop any text from limited clues by predicting words
and phrases. Developing
Tray is a powerful aid to developing reading strategies. The process of
predicting the text from the limited clues available calls upon the skills
essential to a good reader. If used in a group, the discussion provoked
broadens the language experience to include listening and talking as well
as reading and writing. Single
£29.00 |
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