Ode To The Spellchecker

This resource, along with related interactive learning games, was originally published at http://www.what2learn.com/world_cup_2010/

In this exercise students will create an accurate document suitable for publication.

Learning aims:

To recognize the problems in being over-reliant on spellcheckers
To learn how to present text in columns
To develop understanding of how to position graphics and text to create an effective layout.

Lesson outline:

To help students understand that spellcheckers cannot be trusted begin by showing the presentation ‘ode to the spellchecker’. After discussion of the presentation students should be given a copy of the ‘word processing instructions’ sheet and directed to open an electronic copy of the document ‘Ronaldinho fails to make the cut’. They should begin by trying to find the fifteen mistakes in the document – by highlighting the errors (none of which will be highlighted by spellchecker) they will be able to keep count of the number they have found. A whole-class focus on what the mistakes are should follow. Students should then follow all instructions on the rest of the worksheet.