These lateral puzzles have been around for many years in one form or another and they are a great way to encourage discussion, thinking and creativity. Also once you know them, you can bring them in at a moment's notice, but before using them make sure you know a few, because just occasionally a student can solve it instantly. They can be displayed on an electronic Whiteboard from the Website or you can use the PDF for printing out and handouts. In a Special needs environment they can help students to think about literal and lateral meanings.

In this exercise two people have to say the same script, but try through body-language to convey different messages. Hilarious and really shows how much people communicate through non-verbal communication.

This presentation provides practical advice on how to deal with students who have Pathological Demand Avoidance Syndrome. It is based on a classroom study and I hope it is helpful.

This project encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning and improve the use of ICT in school. This could be a one-off project in an ICT lesson, a project extension for gifted and talented or something that school council investigates. It also could also be connected to a Digital Leaders project.

This little PowerPoint randomiser whizzes through 20 writing prompts. Press the Up arrow key to stop it and space to space to start it again. You could also choose the prompts for you. For SEN students the visuals are useful to help engage students. Thanks to Writing Prompts Blog for most of the ideas. I have localised and added to the original 15.

I really just put this together to show off just how capable the Mind Mapping Software could be, but I am sure it must be useful for showing tenses. It was originally part of a series of lessons on learning 2 learn and how Mindmaps could be used to help with revision. The resource uses shortened English, because when I made the original materials I was teaching speaking rather than formal written documents. (For the British Council in Kuala Lumpur)

This resource was used in ICT to encourage students to make their own advert, but could easily be adapted for reluctant writers or made into an assembly to show how advertising works. i.e. Selling products people do not want to buy. This resource requires a newer version of PowerPoint or the player.

Shows the many ways that students can interact with PCs. Very useful for Special Needs students who might find it difficult to write or even type.

This little lesson was designed to encourage students to search using keywords and then reference information given. It also shows how keywords can be used to precis information. I hope it's useful.

Word Clouds are a great way to share vocabulary without making an obvious writing frame. Students with SEN can access the vocabulary and other students will appreciate the design. Not only that, but words at different angles make it more interesting to read and encourage dyslexic students to turn words around to visualise letters appropriately. Also different fonts can be used for easy reading. I've shown an example, which can be used for planning a holiday in England. There are also visual prompts included too. The tool Wordle makes it easy to make your own. (Free Website)

This tutorial introduces infographics, which are used widely by communication professionals to share information and in some cases argue their case persuasively. I set this up to encourage year 7's to use Spreadsheets effectively, but this is even more useful for introducing staff to the idea of processing information into digestible chunks especially for Mathematics. Very useful for dyscalculia students.

You might be surprised by what colour combinations students respond to. I have a number of SEN students that find certain colour combinations far easier to read. Great SEN tool to help students find most comfortable colour combinations. This can also be used in ICT to help students think about design combinations for PowerPoint.

To encourage others to understand what a Dyslexic person might be going through. Ideal for raising awareness of the condition and encouraging discussion. If you can't read the mirrored text in Adobe Reader you can just copy and paste it or I have provided text file for easy reference.

I made this for code club, but could easily be used as part of any game making course. It could also be used in English to develop characters for fiction and to encourage reluctant writers.

The link is a great little tool to show how fast somebody can read from Staples. I've also included a printable version from my Website, so that you can share with your class. This could be a nice little starter to lead into a discussion about how to improve reading and how the purpose changes the speed and technique used to read.

Students often have difficulties doing plans for assignments. This lesson shows students 4 types of planning. Venn Diagrams, Lists, MindMaps and Free Text. Surprised that my year 12's really needed this and figured that it needs to be taught from KS2 onwards. (The PDF is provided for Mac users and is the same as the Publisher file)