I teach Phonics every morning. My group is currently on Phase 5 phonemes, and we are about to move onto split-digraphs. The children are very excited about this, and are speeding through the last remaining sounds so that we can progress onto the 'Year 2 work'. My group is comprised of 11, higher-ability children, and our lessons are half an hour long. We occupy a large table just outside the main classroom The school has a very set teaching structure for Phonics, almost a script, and Powerpoints which follow a strict progression. Each lesson begins with a review of the previous work, introduction of a new or alternative phoneme, practice reading and writing that phoneme, word writing, and finally a few 'tricky words' to memorise. The powerpoints have been created by the English subject lead, and I display these from a laptop. This consistency does seem to help the children to learn new sounds - they all chant along 'We have learnt the /igh/ soung - i-g-h'. I would be interested to use interactive games in Phonics lessons, or possibly try assessment using tech. I know that my FPP school follows a more interactive strategy for Phonics, and so I will make sure to observe this when I move placements. I have previously taught Phonics within an EYFS setting, using the Jolly Phonics scheme. This lends itself to integration of Computing, and I downloaded the app to support my teaching. The scheme includes songs, rhymes, video content and associated pictures, and the app can be used on-the-go to support learning. Although I have never used them myself, there are also many other popular apps including Teach Your Monster to Read, Alpha Writer and abcPocketPhonics. As many parents - and increasingly young children - have smart devices, these apps could be used anywhere to aid work in school. There are also several popular online videos, especially Mr Thorne's Youtube Channel, which features the Geraldine the Giraffe videos. Geraldine, a hand puppet, teaches Phonics in a series of videos following Letters and Sounds. I have heard from other trainees and staff that these are very popular in some schools, and the videos are quite entertaining - I have even watched a few at home!
With the ever-changing world of tech continuing to mark inroads into teaching, it will be interesting to see how early reading and writing are taught in coming years. I will ensure that I ultimately cater my teaching to my students. No approach suits every student, something that I am definitely learning on GPP. Recommended Links Jolly Phonics Onine - www.jollylearning.co.uk Teach Your Monster to Read - www.teachyourmonstertoread.com Mr Thorne - www.youtube.com/channel/UC7sW4j8p7k9D_qRRMUsGqyw
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Today I solo-taught my first Computing lesson, and focused on e-safety. I adapted a plan that I saw online to create a story based around George, a young hippo who receives a tablet for his birthday but runs into some issues with pop-ups, social media and unkind messages from strangers within a game. The core message running through the lesson was that children should always tell an adult if they are unsure about the internet, or encounter any problems. After listening to the story and discussing the content with their talk partners, the children drew the adult they would ask for help, and some also wrote about this. I was very pleased with this lesson. The children loved the story and were rapt with attention throughout. I brought in a hippo plush toy, and this 'visit from George' helped to bring the story and message to life. Telling the children that George was very shy and nervous about coming to school helped with behaviour management; the class were quiet and conscientious when moving around the room. I employed the technique of encouraging the children to speak to George about his experiences, rather than to me. This seemed to help them to link their experiences with his story, and we got some really interesting work out of the session. The inclusion of a song - 'Before you click, click, click; you've got to think, think, think; and tell somebody quick, quick quick!' helped to consolidate the message, and all children were able to contribute and explain their thinking during the plenary. I was surprised to discover that not all children had used the internet before. Experience ranged from avid Playstation gamers who play online, to four children who claimed to have never used the internet. Most children had some limited experience of the internet, with Cbeebies iPlayer and Youtube as the most recognised and discussed websites. Some mentioned their awareness of social media through parents or siblings. The children do not yet use the tablets or school computers to access educational content online, although this is in the long term planning for next term. I have included below some of my story slides, and some examples of the children's responses. These will expand from the gallery when clicked. Adults that the children picked included parents, the class teacher, the teaching assistant, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles - and myself! There are two other students in my School Direct alliance, and we agreed at the start of GPP that it would be interesting to compare the teaching and learning of computing across our three primary schools. We have been placed in fairly different schools, despite their close proximity in inner-city Manchester. My school (A) is a single-form entry RC primary, whilst the others are CofE (School B) and non-faith (School C). Both of the other schools are two-form entry, and I know from discusion with both students that their schools place a greater emphasis on Computing in the curriculum. Interestingly, School C is my school for FPP, so it has been very interesting to get a taste of my next placement. The other students both conducted an interview with their Computing subject lead, and have posted the responses on their individual blogs. The link to my interview (School A) can be found here. and I have posted the interviews with Schools B and C below. The three interviews provide an interesting mix of ideas, teaching methods and examples of Computing in schools. All schools have access to a computer room and dedicated timetable slots to teach Computing. School C is the only school that does not explicitly teach Computing in EYFS, although it is also the only school where the Computing lead has formal subject-training. The three have some resources in common, especially through the use of iPads and programs such as Scratch. In terms of E-Safety, School B has a great policy which involves a RAG style rating for each lesson. A low-risk activity, such as using Bee Bots, would be flagged to students as 'Green'. There is little or no E-Safety risk. However, independent research on Google would be rated as 'Red'; students are much more likely to run into unsuitable, inappropriate or dangerous content. School C tries to include an E-Safety element in every lesson, which contrasts the experience in my school, where students study a discrete unit of work on this subject. I prefer the approach of Schools B and C, as this should help students to become more aware of the risks of a variety of different activities using tech, and relate E-Safety to real-life experiences. I very much like School B's policy of using computer games as a hook for boys' reading. I have touched on this issue with my post on Minecraft books, but enjoyed learning about this school's week-long intervention using computer games as a storytelling devices. School C makes innovative use of Google Classroom, a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) which students can visit at home or in school, to access homework, ask questions, submit work and chat to classmates. I can see how this could be an effective way to engage tech-savvy students in upper-KS2, although I am not sure how this could work with younger children. My school is the only school of the three to use Visualisers, which surprised me. I make a great deal of use of these in lessons, especially to model tasks or celebrate the work of individual children. The other schools do have a greater number of resources and apps available, including Espresso code, Kodu, Purple Mash, Tux Sketchup, Kahoot and Plickers. I am excited about using these resources when I am placed in School C. The other two schools also have a greater number of iPads and computers for children to use, which allows greater integration of Computing across the curriculum. It was great to see that all three schools have a committment to teaching the new Computing curriculum, and have a variety of resources abailable. Although all three admitted that some teachers are not confident or trained in all areas of Computing, especially the Computer Science element, all three schools offer CPD and the Subject Lead is exploring new areas. School B - Inner city CofE primary school, two-form entry. Is computing taught throughout the school? If not, why? Where is it taught? Which year groups? Computing is taught from year 1 upwards. It is taught discretely in Reception. Are all three areas taught with the correct time given to each? (50% CS, 20% IT and 30% DL) Yes. Is the Computing lead specifically trained in Computing? Not officially. Self-taught. What resources does the school have? List apps/software and hardware Software: Purple Mash, Matheletics, Google Sketch up, Art Rage, Sculptris and Scratch. Hardware: Graphic Tablet, laptops and Beebots. How does the school deal with e-safety? The school follows a red, amber, green policy. When students are having a computing lesson the teacher will make reference to which colour it signifies. For example, if the teacher were to do a lesson on Bee Bots then it would be green - low level risk. However, if they were to use Matheletics it would be amber, as the students are on the Internet. When they are researching on Google then it is red. This is because the students are more at risk. How is computing integrated with the rest of the curriculum (core and foundation)? e.g. whiteboard use, iPads, ICT design, robots, websites, search engines. Coding and Networking are taught stand-alone, however everything else is taught cross-curricular. Mathletics is used for Maths and is set as homework. How is computing delivered to ensure all students are engaged and targeted? Esp. G&T, additional needs. To encourage boys to write the school had a computing intervention where the students played video games. This was used as a hook to get them thinking about the story in the game. They became immersed in the game and engaged with the activity. The intervention lasted a week and the students used laptops to type their stories. There are many powerful stories in computer games and I think that this is a great idea to link literacy with computing, whilst also encouraging boys to write. In the past the school have had some students who require a laptop due to dyslexia. Another student needed a Dictaphone. Does the school have a clear commitment to computing and its role as a key skill? Yes. The school have computing assessments at the end of the year. Each year group has a success criteria that they are expected to achieve. The school consider computing the next most important subject below Maths and Literacy. What new applications/innovations have been brought in recently? The school are planning to get a 3D printer. This will allow them to achieve a lot of the criteria set on the National Curriculum It will allow the student's to design, code and create. The school also want to use virtual reality in subjects. The coordinator commented that this would be great if the topic is the Stone Age, as the students will be able to immerse themselves into the world and be surrounded by mammoths. This will give them a better understanding for their topic and engage them with the task. It can also be used to help other subjects. Are teachers enthusiastic about IT? Is there a specialist teacher? Are teachers confident? With all three areas (CS, IT and DL)? Teachers are enthusiastic and confident with teaching IT and DL. On the other hand, they are not so confident when it comes to CS, but that is where the computer lead comes in. He is there to support them and guide them if they need it. Does the school have a social media policy for staff? Can you summarise it? All staff are informed to be sensible online and not post anything about the students or the school. The school also remind the parents of this during assemblies, as the parents can come and watch. The teachers ask parents not to post anything on social media. Would you agree that students - • Could understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science including abstraction, logic, and algorithms and data representation? All students are working towards this objective. • Can analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems? All students are working towards this objective. • Can evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems? Yes. • Are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology? Yes. School C - Inner-city, non-faith primary school, two-form entry Is computing taught throughout the school? If not, why? Where is it taught? Which year groups? Yes. From Y1 to Y6. Are all three areas taught with the correct time given to each? (50% CS, 20% IT and 30% DL) Yes, for the most part. However, some aspects are covered faster than others. This is taken into account in the planning and teaching of the curriculum. Is the Computing lead specifically trained in Computing? Computing lead has attended and continues to attend CDP courses and session, as well as continuous independent learning to keep knowledge and skills up to date. What resources does the school have? (List apps/software and hardware) Hardware: Tablets, computers in every classroom (3), laptops, cameras, iPads, interactive whiteboards in every room in school (classrooms, hall, music room, etc.), microbits, lego robotics set, beebots. Espresso code, Kodu, Google classroom, Scratch, Purple Mash, Tux Paint, Music toolkit, Garage band, press. powerp google slides, Lego Wedo, Sketchup, Kahoot, Plickers, to name a few. How does the school deal with e-safety? In every lesson there is an element of how to stay safe. E-safety is also addressed in PSHE and in other lessons involving the use of internet. The school also addresses via emails/letters the e-safety issues that arise outside schoo by making children and parents aware of the dangers and how to help their children stay safe. How is computing integrated with the rest of the curriculum (core and foundation)? e.g. whiteboard use, iPads, ICT design, robots, websites, search engines. IPads and interactive whiteboards are used by all teachers in their lessons. Tablets are available for any teacher to u with children in their lessons, children can complete half-term projects (homework) in google classroom/google slides Each class has a blog which is frequently updated by the class teacher with homework, useful links, photos, etc. How is computing delivered to ensure all students are engaged and targeted? Esp. G&T, additional needs. Extensions and more challenging tasks are planned for G&T and due to vast experience teacher is able to adapt teaching to support highl able pupils. For children who struggle, he uses pair work with a more able pupil or a simpler task (only if really necess Does the school have a clear commitment to computing and its role as a key skill? Absolutely, training is made available for teachers who don't feel confident with school's technology, and resources are available and used in other areas of the curriculum. What new applications/innovations have been brought in recently? Lego robotics set, which was sponsored by local companies to support the school in entering a Lego competition at th end of Dec 2016. Are teachers enthusiastic about IT? Is there a specialist teacher? Are teacher confident? With all three areas (CS, IT and DL)? There is a Specialist Teacher who teaches all computing lessons. Teachers' confidence vary in all areas, but the computing lead is always happy to support any staff who lack confidence. Does the school have a social media policy for staff? Can you summarise it? Yes, basically all information regarding pupils and school must be kept confidential and nothing regarding the school should be shared through social media. Teaching staff do not add any parent, carer or pupil on social media. Would you agree that students: a) can understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation? Yes, most children. b) can analyse problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems? Yes. c) can evaluate and apply information technology, including new or unfamiliar technologies, analytically to solve problems? Yes. c) are responsible, competent, confident and creative users of information and communication technology? Yes, but some find it easier than others. This stage in my GPP placement is proving to be incredibly hectic - I am currently juggling university tasks, school planning, marking and evaluation, day-to-day file admin, the school nativity play, ongoing CPD and preparation for a looming school inspection! However, it was great to see my Year 1 class use the app PicCollage the other day, as part of their work on Diwali. Children use this app throughout the school, from manipulating shapes in EYFS, to producing anti-bullying posters and science displays in KS2. I led the input of this Computing lesson, using the visualiser and an iPad to demonstrate how to open the app, choose a new page and get started. As before, my teacher and I deliberately let the class work it out for themselves, in pairs. This was an effective strategy, and children were helping each other across the classroom. They learned how to use stickers, add texts and images, take their own photos and change the background colour/pattern. Although we may not have learned too much about Diwali in that session, the children quickly became adept and were delighted with their own work. It is fantastic to see them becoming digitally literate, and their apprehension of technology is being increasingly replaced by excitement and curiosity. Images are included with kind permission of the headteacher. |
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