Word Processing
3.2 - Creating
Activity 1
Rewriting a Fairytale Outline
The first activity is all about editing and correcting text. Pupils will play around with a simple fairytale outline, changing some words and phrases to alter the story. Whilst doing so, they will play with text colour, size and font and also use spellcheck to correct all the (hopefully deliberate) mistakes left by you in the original.
Prepare:
- Write a one paragraph synopsis of a well known fairytale (or even better, a Mabinogion story such as Blodeuwedd).
- Make sure there are some spelling mistakes in your work.
Activity Tasks:
- Pupils should open their own copy of your synopsis of a fairytale (either making a copy of a Word 365 document or by having you share a copy of a Google Doc with them using Google Classroom).
- Show them how to spot spelling mistakes (the red line) and correct them (right click usually brings up suggested correct spellings).
- Remind them that spellcheck isn't perfect. The wrong homophone will not be picked out.
- Pupils alter the tale in an interesting or funny way, for example have Goldilocks meet the three zebras, Red Riding Hood eaten by the Wolf or Blodeuwedd made from bits of food instead of flowers.
- Ask them to highlight any words they've changed by changing the font, colour and size of the text.
- Pupils add images relating to their amended tale from the web, and practice resizing them from the corners (to ensure they're not distorted).
- Then, they save their work to a specific folder, giving it an appropriate filename.
- Finally, pupils should print their work to a specified printer.
Remember
- Discuss how we use word processing for tasks that:
- Will contain mostly text.
- Are likely to be printed out.
- Remind them of the difference between Caps Lock and Shift and what the End and Home buttons do (if on a Windows machine)
- Teach them how the Tab button shifts text along the line
- If they don't already know, discuss the difference between saving on the computer (locally) on the server (network) and in the cloud. Maybe even take them to see the school server so they appreciate what it actually is.
Activity 2
Create a Glossary
This simple task can be repeated often (with a different text) to help introduce new, subject-specific vocabulary. Pupils create a glossary of keywords by using the dictionary and thesaurus tools which are built in to Word or Google Docs.
Prepare:
- Find or write a piece of text about your new topic. It must contain a number of your topic keywords (most of them more than once).
Activity Tasks:
- Share the text with pupils so that they all have their own copy (either by having them open your version and then 'Save As' in Word, by using 'Make a Copy' in Google Docs or by sharing a copy each through Google Classroom).
- Ask pupils to read the text in pairs, changing the colour of any words of which they are unsure of the meaning.
- Ask for examples of words pupils have highlighted, making a class list of keywords.
- Pupils must use the 'Find' function to find all examples of the keywords in the class list. They can colour them in a different colour.
- They should then right click the words and select the Dictionary and Thesaurus options (Word) or Define option (Google Docs) to find the definition of that word and a list of synonyms.
- At the bottom of the page they should make a Glossary, explaining the meaning of each keyword in their own words and including a couple of synonyms.
Creating a Glossary in Google Docs
Remember
- Focus on the important skills here - highlighting and changing font colour, using the Find tool, using the dictionary and thesaurus tools.
- Not all work has to be printed out. Discuss with your pupils if this work should be printed out or just saved in their server/cloud folder.