Morag Young and Morag Simpson, Physical Education Lead Officers for Falkirk Council Curriculum Support Team delivered an inservice course to primary teachers from Wallacestone on the Better Movers and Thinkers Programme. This programme is an innovative, exciting and challenging movement and learning programme for Physical Education, that focuses directly on enhancing the links between moving and thinking and how these elements scaffold the development of physical performance and inter-disciplinary learning. This was a practical session and all participants rose to the challenge! Initial feedback was extremely positive.
Year: 2013
Subject Development Work in Falkirk’s Secondary Schools
As newly appointed Curriculum Suport Officer (Secondary) for the CS Team I have responsibility for orgnanising the ‘Curriculum Manager’s Groups’ that bring together Principal Teachers/Faculty Heads from across the authority to discuss, share and generally raise standards for their subject areas.
In addition to this responsibility I also have a role in working with the SQA Nominees that we have appointed to work on behalf of Falkirk Council. Last year 35 Nominees were selected through a rigorous application and interview process and are now being deployed to various panel events and school visits to moderate assessments for the new National Qualifications.
In light of the recent devlopments in Nationals (1-5), and the imminent implimentation of the new Highers, it was felt that the authority would benefit from the creation of ‘Subject Development Groups’ to drive forward subject specific work in the council and these will replace CMG meetings for 2 of the 4 scheduled slots for the year.
Principal Teachers will have an important role to play in these groups, as will the relevant SQA Nominees who can bring first hand experience of the verification process.
Intitial Subject Development Group meetings will be held at the end on November and then a second meeting in late February. I look forward to updating you with the porgress of these groups later in the year.
For more information on Curriculum Managements Groups, Subject Developments Groups or SQA Nominees, please contact me via email; gillian.campbell@falkirk.gov.uk
Scottish Learning Festival 2013 – Sharing Good Practice
Sharon Wallace, Curriculum Support Officer, Curriculum Support Team delivered a workshop to 95 colleagues from across Scotland and beyond at this year’s Scottish Learning Festival.
The theme of the presentation was ‘Sharing the Learning with Parents/ Carers – Active Methodologies’ and the aim of the session was to provide an overview of the wide variety of approaches Falkirk establishments are using to share active methodologies with parents and carers.
The agenda for the workshop was:
- An overview of the Falkirk picture
- An explanation of the range of active methodologies used in Falkirk
- Parent/ carer workshops on offer
- Literature/ leaflets used
- Online methods – blogs/ you tube/ twitter
- Working in partnership with schools/ partners
- How this fits into Falkirk’s Literacy Strategy 2013 – 2016
Three pupils from Kinneil Primary School spoke eloquently and confidently about their experiences helping out at active learning workshops for parents. They talked about how attending the parental workshop gave their own parents ideas on how to support their homework.
Sharon shared a short video of Susan Dyer from Bankier Primary School explaining the impact an active learning workshop had on her school, as well as a video from a Bankier parent describing what it meant to her and her family.
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https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fa/LiteracyStrategy/
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Feedback included:
"Inspirational, you have really motivated me!"
"Thank you for sharing the Active Literacy parental leaflets - they are very useful."
Lots of delegates who attended this seminar then came along to Falkirk Council's stand in the Local Authority Village to enquire about our short animations Falkirk has developed on CfE and Active Literacy.
Active Literacy – Stirling University Input
Sharon Wallace, Curriculum Support Officer, Curriculum Support Team has delivered an input to 45 second year ITE students at Stirling University. The session was based around Active Literacy and covered the following aims:
- To provide an overview of active approaches to literacy in the Early Years
- To outline key strategies and methodologies used for effective teaching and learning
- To examine ways forward for the student teachers careers to incorporate active approaches to literacy
Sharon provided these students with an overview of how Falkirk Council are meeting the literacy needs of our pupils from early to second level.
The students developed their knowledge and awareness of spelling and phonics strategies such as: five finger strategy, Elkonin boxes, diacritical marking, mnemonics, words within words, syllabification and compound words.
The active literacy animation for parents was shared, as well as Falkirk Council’s Literacy Strategy online support tool blog.
Sharon provided the students with an overview of the phoneme programme for each year group and how the 40 phonemes are covered across P1-3. Students used the reciprocal teaching method to work with a range of phoneme words to see how these are taught in Falkirk establishments.
There was an overview given of the six reading comprehension strategies and Sharon used the text ‘The Gruffalo’ to exemplify how each strategy can be used with this picture book.
The session concluded with the students reflecting on what they had learned, how this new knowledge impacts on their beliefs and understandings and what their next steps will be.
Using a Smart Board to support active learning in the classroom
Malcolm Wilson, ICT Curriculum Development Officer in Falkirk Council Education Services Curriculum Support team, presented a hands-on continuing professional development session for staff from primary and secondary schools in Falkirk on the use of Smart Notebook software with the Smart Board interactive whiteboard to support active learning across the curriculum.
Participants were guided through hands-on use of a host of interactive techniques using Smart Notebook software with the Smart Board which a teacher could use to support learning and teaching in the classroom across the curriculum. These included different ways of using tools like the magic pen tool (to zoom in, magnify, spotlight, and fade out annotations), using pen tools for annotations and sorting on screen as well as handwriting recognition, moving pictures to hide and reveal, matching images within tables, and page activity recording.
The variety of different gallery items including engaging interactive tools such as timers were illustrated in various activity contexts, as well as how to adapt the host of lesson activity toolkit pre-created game-type interactives to any topic. Hands-on use of the resources on the Smartboard by participants illustrated how the activities can be used to help engage pupils in their learning.
There are also many free pre-created templates and question sets ready to be downloaded and adapted by teachers from Smart Exchange to suit the needs of their own pupils. Click here for the online Smart Exchange site where these can be downloaded.
The resources used during the session can be accessed by clicking here (note that a Glow username and password is required to access these resources).
Comments from participants included:
“Well delivered and well organised course with a clear focus, interesting and relevant content and an engaging presenter.”
“Taught me new ways to use my SMART board which will in turn enhance learning of my pupils.”
“Showed me how to use different functions on a SMART board that I had never seen or used before, with examples of how they could be used, which was helpful so I can start using these with my own class.”
“Provided practical opportunities to engage with the materials presented, and the delivery of the course was engaging and accessible to someone looking to develop their use of a SMART board in their classroom.”
“A very well presented course that catered for a cross section of abilities.”
“The hands on overview was very helpful and the delivery style of the presenter was at a pace that was very easy to follow.”
Larbert Cluster Interdisciplinary Planning
Yvonne McBlain of Falkirk Curriculum Support Team was thrilled to attend the first of a series of cross-sector cluster interdisciplinary planning sessions on Tuesday 17th September 2013. As chair of the Commonwealth Games Interdisciplinary Project sub-group, Linda-Anne Reid worked with colleagues to co-ordinate this collegiate planning. Early year’s practitioners and primary 1 teachers met in Stenhousemuir PS, first level teachers met in Carron PS, and second and third in Kinnaird PS. All staff were given relevant planning materials and information in advance, including the cluster plan, NAR planning flow chart, NAR planning flow chart instructions and Falkirk Community Trust/Active Schools Going for Glasgow Accreditation paper. Isobel Edmond provided early level practitioners with a very clear introductory overview of the potential benefits of this interdisciplinary learning context. Morag Carson then explained that each of the 3 hour-long planning sessions would involve same stage groups planning within 3 bundles of E & Os. This means that the Larbert cluster will generate at least 3 interdisciplinary plans per level which meet experiences and outcomes from: Social subjects & Expressive Arts, Social subjects & Technology, & Social subjects and Science. They are more than happy for these plans to be made available across the authority when complete. Once these groups were established, their first task was to identify the small bundle of E & Os they felt could be progressed by this context, for their learners. Yvonne and Linda-Anne enjoyed a whistle-stop tour of the nursery and primary 1 groups, and then nipped up to Kinnaird PS to pop into the second and third level groups. The staff involved had already made choices about their E & Os , and begun to consider learning intentions, and the best activities to develop knowledge, understanding and skills within the Commonwealth Games context. There will be 2 further planning sessions on 30th October and 21st November, but some groups have opted to do one double session instead. Although clearly linking into national events taking place in 2014, this way of working across-cluster offers potential benefits on many levels: the planning of robust interdisciplinary learning, development of understanding of skills progression, and the sharing of practice generally. All in all, a really active, purposeful form of collegiate professional learning!
Probationers Experience Active Literacy
Sharon Wallace, Curriculum Support Team has delivered Active Literacy training this week to all primary probationer teachers in Falkirk.
The two sessions covered the range of strategies and methodologies used across all stages to develop skills in all areas of literacy.
The probationers enthusiastically participated in activities including a spelling test to highlight how we draw on our own phonological awareness, knowledge of spelling rules and phonemes to spell words. They also put a series of words into Elkonin boxes examining the 40 phonemes in the Active Literacy programme.
Sharon provided the primary probationers with a full overview of the programme from early to second level. They developed their knowledge of phonemic awareness, spelling strategies including: mnemonics, words within words and syllabification. Colleagues are aware of how the five finger strategy, effective use of resources such as Smart notebook tools, magnetic boards and letters and reciprocal teaching can enable pupils to become better spellers. Evidence is showing that pupils are transferring their knowledge of phonemes to other types of writing in different situations.
Sharon also explained how the six key comprehension reading strategies are used across a range of ‘texts’. Probationer teachers discussed the reading skills they are currently developing with their classes and how the six key comprehension strategies supports this development.
In terms of writing, Sharon provided colleagues with an overview of the seven different genres and how these should be addressed across the course of the year.
Sharon also shared the new Active Literacy for parents animation.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/TnXMSAcKcCo" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]Feedback so far has been very positive and has included:
“Thanks very much for the course. I feel really enthusiastic and excited to try out the Active Literacy strategies in class.”
Active Literacy – P6/7 Training
Sharon Wallace, Curriculum Support Officer of the Curriculum Support Team has carried out Active Literacy training over the past two weeks with 54 teachers. The two three hour sessions examined the writing programme incorporating spelling and the reading programme.
Session one looked at how teachers can support pupils in becoming independent spellers. Pupils are taught strategies to use their previously learned knowledge of phonemes and spelling rules to more complex, polysyllabic words.
The course examined the programme for spelling strategy work, alongside the new addition of ‘vocabulary building’, homophones and common confusions. Trials of the programme so far indicate that pupils are really enjoying the investigation element of prefixes and suffixes and how these affect the meaning of words.
The session also examined the writing genres covered at second level looking at incorporating writing trios, chunking, use of genre success criteria and next steps.
Session two focused on the development of the six key comprehension strategies across a range of texts. These strategies are:
1. Prior knowledge and prediction
2. Metalinguistics
3. Visualisation
4. Inference
5. Main ideas
6. Summarising and paraphrasing.
Sharon demonstrated how to develop these skills using a traditional ‘novel’ text, moving image (film trailer) and a poem. The course also looked at using online tools such as Powtoon, go animate and twixster to develop reading skills.
Colleagues were given a ‘Stories Allways’ resource containing a range of Scottish myths and legends as well as two CDs. This is a great resource as it provides pupils with a range of challenging questions, tasks and a synopsis of each tale.
Colleagues enthusiastically participated in a range of Active Literacy activities across the course of the two sessions and feedback so far has been really positive.
“The course was delivered extremely well by Sharon Wallace and the resources provided were very useful.”
“The course was presented over 2 days in which it provided an overview of the key methodologies and strategies as outlined in North Lanarkshire’s Active Literacy 6/7 programme. I thought all aspects of the course were useful and it enhanced my knowledge and understanding of the 6/7 programme which I will now be able to confidently implement in the classroom.”
“I am new to teaching as well as the Active Literacy programme. I had very little knowledge and understanding prior to the course however I now feel I can confidently implement active literacy in the classroom.”
“Sharon is a very enthusiastic presenter and it is clear that she wholly believes in the Active Literacy Programme. Her passionate delivery and ideas instil in you, the confidence to have a go in your own classroom.”
Primary ICT Co-ordinator Support Session – mobile device focus
Malcolm Wilson, ICT Curriculum Development Officer in the Curriculum Support team of Falkirk Council Education Services, provided support sessions for Primary ICT Co-ordinators, with a focus on mobile devices for schools at the beginning stages of looking at how to use them in learning and teaching. How mobile devices can be used to make a difference to learning and teaching, the practical implications of this in a school, and how to overcome barriers to successful integration, are issues around which schools embarking on the journey exploring using mobile devices consider.
This post describes just a few resources which may be useful to help schools at the beginning of the journey towards considering using mobile devices to support learning and teaching.
AUP
When schools have wireless, which can be accessed by pupils on their own device, and pupils are signed up to an Acceptable Use Policy which sets out responsibilities, they can then consider how best to to incorporate personally-owned mobile devices in learning and teaching.
Falkirk Council Education Services provides educational establishments with an Acceptable Use Policy which takes account of mobile devices and social media. This is available here: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fa/mobiledevices/documents/
Device Neutral Assignments
Device Neutral Assigments are tasks which let pupils choose tool according to device available. With multiple types of devices in a classroom (where pupils bring their own device), rather than the tool as the focus for learning, instead the tool should be chosen to suit the intended learning – and may be chosen by teacher or pupil to best suit task to support learning or demonstrate understanding of the learning – the learning activity does not presume a specific tool will be used. The link below provides further description of device-neutral assignments and provides links to tools for any learning activity (such as creating a video, note-taking, creating a video, creating audio, creating an assessment, etc) with suggested example apps/software/online tool specific to each device https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fa/mobiledevices/device-neutral-assignment/
QR Codes
Quick Response codes are square barcodes which, with a mobile device app, turn the mobile device camera into a barcode reader, to then provide a very quick way to access weblinks, video, images or text. http://goo.gl/1nnb2
Socrative
Socrative is a free classroom response system works on any Internet-connected device. This lets teachers set up questions for responses by pupils on any device. Pupils go to http://m.socrative.com & enter the teacher’s classroom number. http://goo.gl/w7t16. Socrative has a host of resources freely shared by other teachers worldwide.
Padlet
Padlet provides a classroom-friendly feedback discussion area online , private to the classroom, which can provide a useful tool in formative assessment in providing an online feedback tool which works on any Internet-connected device.
Managing Devices in the Classroom
The Traffic Light Approach is one way teachers have found useful to support classroom management of mobile devices. Using this approach the teacher determines the level of use, or not, of mobile devices, at any given time in classroom
Resources to support moving from One to Many to 1:1
From One to Many to 1:1 provides extensive links to resources which support the shift in emphasis in many situations from a dependence on desk-tied computing devices to embracing devices which are easily portable and able to be used anywhere by learners. Often these include devices owned by users themselves rather than by an educational establishment. The phrases often used to describe this form of application include: Handheld Learning, One to One (1:1), Mobile Learning, Tablets for Teaching, and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device).
