What's new

We recognise that in these unprecedented times, access to relevant NZ curriculum based online resources can be difficult to find or expensive. However, Livewire Learning has been in the market for over 10 years, was one of the earliest providers of e-learning technology and content, and is affordable. We also offer tutors, if required.

Contact me for further information.

"We generally really liked it, and I am enjoying the option of marking it on-line. It worked very well to type straight into the space provided, and I have found it very easy to provide feedback.

We would love to access Livewire by this means next year. It would be terrific to be provided, as the teacher, with all of the texts digitally, and then I could upload them one at a time as required. It would remove the perennial problem of girls losing or forgetting to bring their books (always a handful of those students!), and Google Classroom provides a one-stop data collection spot as well. This would be in addition, of course, to their access to the LIvewire website. I like it!" - Mrs Ryan

Accelerate your learning for the exams with self-marking questions and explanations. Click here for our sale prices. Log in here to trial some modules in the Demo folder.

Needing help with ESOL and IELTS? Junior Maths? Or NCEA English, Maths, Physics? One-on-one tutorials are now available with experienced, registered, currently practising teachers. See our eTutor Page for further details.

Student endorsement: Year 11 student, Rachel, writes:
"At the beginning, I didn’t really know what I was doing in English and no matter how hard I tried, I could only get an achieved. Having Neil as my tutor really helped me to achieve Excellence as he took the time to explain to me how to craft my answers and concentrate on the areas of English that I found difficult. Having the tutorials over Skype saved so much time in travelling and fighting traffic woes. I will definitely keep him on!"

Free trial: click on http://my.livewirelearning.co.nz, to create your profile, and view the sample free modules in the Demonstration subject.

Purchase a subject and get a free 30 minute tutorial.

1. Making an Impact in Southland
In a recently competed five month trial, a number of Year 9 students made significant gains in reading comprehension and vocabulary. On average 38% of the students stayed the same, but over 52% showed improvements, some quite dramatic.

The enriched language programme included:

• Regular access to Livewire for comprehension, grammar and vocabulary
• Intentional teaching of language
• Reading mileage
• Spelling
• Vocabulary games

A full report can be found here.

2. Continuing to make a Significant Impact in Wellington 2015 - 2016
Mrs Ryan, a Wellington high school Head of English writes:

The programme continues to have a positive impact on the Unfamiliar Text standard. Our NCEA results were very pleasing in Level 2 with:
- 6% achieving Excellence
- 23% Merit
- 51% Achieved.
That is an 80% pass rate in Unfamiliar Text, as against 66% in Visual Text and 78% in Written Text.

"I put the successes down to the regular weekly practice, using Livewire - it keeps the whole thing manageable for the students, and I use PowerPoint, Kahoot, and specific teaching of the passages and poems in class, as well as the on-line practice through Livewire. Towards the end of the year, I expect the girls to be timing their written responses as exam prep, and it all seems to work well."

3. Parent Feedback on Physics
A mother wrote earlier in the year on the benefit of using some of Livewire's resources:

Our daughter is absolutely thrilled with her NCEA level 3 Physics results. She went from getting three Achieveds in her mock school exam, all of which she studied hard for using her class notes along with those she took on her own from an ESA book, to getting two Merits and an Excellence in her level 3 NCEA Physics exam. The Livewire workbooks were instrumental in making the difference and she achieved it by steadily working through them in the 14 days between receiving them and her NCEA exam, while also studying for her other 4 exams.

The student interface is intentionally designed with a split screen to allow students to refer to the learning notes in order to answer the pop up question in the other part of the screen. We are assessing your understanding not memory. You can select your preferred screen format, change your background colour, adjust screen sizes and hide the navigation panel. Click on Settings in the top right hand corner of the Teaching Notes screen to access this.

Log in with your existing username and password or check out the site for the first time. Go to http://my.livewirelearning.co.nz, create your profile, and view the free modules in the Demonstration subject.

All our questions are graded Achieved, Merit and Excellence which correspond to the 3-4 levels of the SOLO taxonomy: One or Many ideas (uni and multistructural), Relate (relational), Extend (extended abstract).

At Senior Level The questions at the senior levels in the Livewire subjects are designed to prepare students for the knowledge and critical thinking skills required for NCEA and use the appropriate language at each level. For example,
- Achieved: identify, name, describe, What? etc
- Merit: compare, explain, relate, analyse, How? etc
- Excellence: evaluate, reflect, discuss, How well? To what extent? etc

At Junior Level At this level the questions require students to
- use or identify one or many ideas for Achieved level questions
- relate ideas for Merit level questions
- extend their thinking for Excellence level questions.

The type of questions used: text input, multi-choice and multi-select questions, are valid assessment approaches according to the Creating Effective Assessments for Teaching and Learning Using Solo Taxonomy course run by Cognition Education.

Teachers can begin to use the Livewire results to indicate at which levels students are thinking.

The workbooks contain detailed notes in full colour, graded questions, NCEA style exam questions and answers. With the eLearning material together they provide a comprehensive and integrated programme to empower students to learn successfully.

1. Arranging Words - Revised edition workbook
$17.95 a copy.

Arranging Words provides lively colour-coded chapters on punctuation, word classes and sentence structure. Each chapter has the key points in Summary tables, indepth explanations with worked examples, Challenge yourself write-on sections and opportunities to practise on line.

2. Working with Words - Revised edition workbook
$17.95 (RRP) a copy.

Working with Words provides colour-coded chapters on the background to spoken and written language, the history of English, derivations, poetic devices, language features and close reading skills.

Each chapter has the key points in summary tables, in-depth explanations with worked examples, challenge yourself write-on sections and opportunities to practise on line.

Combined offer for schools - Option A
Cost: $39.95 per student. (Normally $66.00)
To take advantage of our offer, order before the 30th of November for 2017. A student gets:

• the 60 page Arranging Words booklet
• the 84 page Working with Words booklet
• TWO YEARS access to eLivewire

Combined offer for schools - Option B
The school leases access to the two PDF versions of the work books which are uploaded onto the school intranet. There is a one off cost for each Year 9 student of $17.95 which provides two year's access.

To order contact Neil at:
editor@livewirelearning.co.nz or editoratlivewirelearning@gmail.com.

3. English NCEA Level 1 and 2

• 1.3 Close Reading of Unfamiliar Text (comprehension passages + NCEA style questions) Updated to the new NZQA format
• 2.3 Close Reading of Unfamiliar Text (comprehension passages + NCEA style questions)

View sample pages

4. Science NCEA Level 1

• 1.1 Mechanics
• 1.5 Acids and Bases
• 1.9 Genetic Variation

View sample pages.

5. Physics NCEA Level 2
Photocopiable PDFs of write-on workbooks are available for:

• 2.3 Waves
• 2.4 Mechanics
• 2.5 Nuclear Physics - Download for free
• 2.6 Electricity and Electromagnetism

6. Physics NCEA Level 3
Photocopiable PDFs of write-on workbooks are available for:

• 3.3 Waves
• 3.4 Mechanics
• 3.5 Modern Physics
• 3.6 Electrical Systems

All Year 12 and 13 material has been realigned to meet the requirements of the new NZQA Achievement Standards.

Livewire Learning is used by tutorial centres throughout New Zealand. Why? Because they find it a useful tool to support the invaluable work they do.