Category: Second Level

Sharing the Learning of Active Literacy – A Collaborative Approach to Achieving!

Sharon Wallace, Effective Teaching and Learning Teacher, Curriculum Support Team has been investigating the role of other stakeholders to support pupil attainment in Active Literacy. Sharon has devised a series of sessions useful for Support for Learning Assistants in order to share the Active Literacy Programme. These two sessions have already been delivered in establishments across Falkirk and proving popular, as these quotes demonstrate:

“I wish the sessions were longer, I have learned so much already this morning!”

“I am excited to try out some of these ideas with the pupils I support!”

The two sessions look at spellings and phonics, and reading and writing and Sharon provides participants with useful handouts on activities which consolidate classroom learning in Active Literacy. Support for Learning Assistants are given a brief overview of the programme, along with practical tips to use with the pupils they support. These are hands-on sessions with Support for Learning Assistants having a go at some activities such as the five finger strategy, Elkonin boxes and diacritical marking.

The impact on pupil learning is that Support for Learning Assistants are able to use the same language associated with the Active Literacy programme and look at alternative ways to enhance the learning e.g. through the use of the outdoor environment, Smart boards, CD-roms and other sensory experiences.

These sessions are proving very popular and have so far been delivered at St. Bernadette’s, Bainsford (incorporating Drumbowie Primary) and Laurieston.

Outdoor Learning Lead Teacher Course

Cooking lunch
Jane Jackson – Outdoor Learning Development Officer of the Falkirk Council Education Services Curriculum Support Team worked in partnership with ‘Grounds for Learning’ to deliver a year long CPD programme for 20 Falkirk Council primary teachers.

The teachers were selected from across the authority with every cluster being represented.  As well as being expected to take a lead in outdoor learning in their own schools, the Lead Teachers will be instrumental in establishing OL networks within their clusters.

Setting up home for the day!
The course involved the teachers in a wide range of activities with each session involving setting up base camp and getting the fire going.  We experimented with cooking a range of things on the fire including bread, stuffed apples,  soup and marshmallows!

Each session had a curricular focus and included sharing ideas for how literacy, numeracy and science could be delivered in the outdoors.  The main purpose of the course however was to stimulate discussion and thinking about how we could move close to achieving the aim of outdoor learning being embedded within the curriculum.

Some comments from participants include:

“Before undertaking the course I had virtually no understanding of how to use the outdoors as a stimulus for learning. I hate being cold and wet and dirty, but I have loved every minute of the course so far. For me building fires and dens was a small part. The big part was how the outdoors could be used to teach almost anything and how learning outdoors fits into everyday literacy and numeracy tasks quite naturally.”

“Throughout the course I was continually reflecting on how the activities would have made the learning accessible to pupils who I had taught in the past who to whom literacy and numeracy was daunting. It would allow them, at the very least, to start learning at the same level as their peers.”

“I am taking outdoor learning forward in the school next year and cannot wait to develop all that I have learned on the lead teacher programme.”

Using Active Approaches to Reading Using Moving Image as ‘Text’

Sharon Wallace, Effective Teaching and Learning Teacher, Curriculum Support Team, has been working with a number of schools on active approaches to reading.

Sharon has been working on the development of skills which address ENG 1/2-17a – ‘To show my understanding, I can respond to different kinds of questions and can create different kinds of questions of my own.’

Working with ‘Lost and Found’ moving image as a text, Sharon has been working alongside class teachers to use Blooms question fans to support generating, and indeed, answering their own higher order questions.

Using a ‘book detective’ approach, pupils have been given specific tasks to find evidence within the ‘text’ to support themes/ characterisation/ setting/ plot and structure.

Incorporating co-operative learning strategies such as ‘corners’ (literal, evaluative and inferential questions) and ‘two stay/ two stray’, pupils have generated their own questions and model answers for other pupils to solve.

In their co-operative learning roles of question master, clarifier, recorder and summariser, pupils initially answered prediction questions about the text, followed by generating their own questions to ask others.

Pupils were highly engaged and motivated during the whole of the sessions. These sessions culminated in pupils taking on the role of teacher (Reciprocal Teaching) where they devised their own lessons for younger pupils using the same moving image as ‘text’. Pupils incorporated Assessment is for Learning strategies into their own lessons and shared learning intentions and success criteria.

Active Literacy – Differentiation – Bowhouse Primary School

Sharon Wallace, Effective Teaching and Learning Teacher, Curriculum Support Team has been looking for how class teachers in Falkirk have been differentiating the Active Literacy resource to meet the needs of all pupils.

Sharon met with P4 Class Teacher, Nicola Lorenzetti and her pupils in action with Active Literacy activities. The pupils were working through an exciting range of differentiated Active Literacy activities and eloquently explained to Sharon what they were doing.

Nicola Lorenzetti has organised individual literacy trays which contain all the resources needed for Active Literacy teaching, consolidation and application across other areas. These trays provide breadth, challenge and allow pupils to apply their skills across a range of activities including working with non-fiction texts, use of ICT and talking and listening activities.

This good practice is going to be shared at a forthcoming Active Literacy CPD event.

Active Literacy – CPD tv

Sharon Wallace, Effective teaching and learning teacher, Curriculum Support team, has been working on GLOW CPD tv sessions relating to Active Literacy.

The short CPD tv clips provide an introduction to each stage/ aspect of Active Literacy for class teachers.

http://www.youtube.com/user/fcEducationServices

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[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/eTnP9ArCeck" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/NuHmDLxFREs" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/32oXIbrzzgo" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/D0Sb-Jm_mEA" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/A62fESpf8DY" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

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Reading Flash Mob

Yvonne Manning, Principal Librarian, Curriculum Support Team, Falkirk Council Education Services organised a reading flash mob on 30th November 2012 to celebrate Book Week Scotland. Pupils from Bantaskin Primary School and Windsor Park School met in Falkirk Town Centre each with a book, and at 11am the reading began, starting with one voice and building up to over 50 voices reading aloud. At the signal (a whistle) the reading immediately stopped and everyone walked off in the spirit of a flash mob.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/TChhGYLcWbs" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

Book Week Scotland is organised by Scottish Book Trust, http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/

ICT Resources to Support Social Subjects in the Primary School

Malcolm Wilson, ICT Curriculum Development Officer in the Curriculum Support Team of Falkirk Council Education Services, presented a session with primary class teachers on a variety of ICT resources to support teaching Social Subjects in the Primary School.

Resources

Here are links to some of the resources shared:

What was there, then and now – Tools to compare photographs of same views then and now http://glo.li/pzwVdT 

Class character exchange – engaging with another class in another part of the world by exchanging a soft-toy character or other figure. Provides a route into pupils having a better understanding of people in place. http://glo.li/NUzqij 

On This Day in History Link topic to events by particular days http://glo.li/Whu37F

Timeline Tools – Marking Milestones in History Timeline Tools including Fakebook – Facebook-like timeline, Twister – Twitter-like events as they happen http://glo.li/IYu6fU 

Geograph the British Isles – combining mapping, photography and gaming http://glo.li/HbTeQZ

Our Governments – Scottish, UK and EU parliaments http://glo.li/mSDggW

World Disasters and Emergencies – Learn about natural disasters around the world. Resources to support dealing with emergencies http://glo.li/JxNmxr 

Use digital video cameras for pupils to engage with social studies topics and demonstrate their understanding of the information. Create stop-motion animation to illustrate features, concepts or event sequence. Resources here for video cameras: http://glo.li/gTmdzS. Resources for editing video: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fa/ICTFalkirkPrimaries/2010/09/16/video-editing-with-windows-live-movie-maker/Resources here for making videos from still image photographs: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fa/ICTFalkirkPrimaries/2011/03/09/photostory-3/

Outdoor Learning – the outdoor clasroom http://glo.li/rycd4U

SCRAN – Cultural Resources Archive – Images & videos with full descriptions and automatic credits for use in class projects. Free access through Glow http://glo.li/mTo4Ui

Google Earth – Explore anywhere in the world http://glo.li/v4NDkU 

Quiz-creation tools – create self-correcting quizzes, provide feedback on what has been learned by pupils, pupils creating quizzes motivates & helps embed learning http://glo.li/g73CnR

Further Online Links

Teaching Ideas – a series of crowd-sourced ideas shared by teachers http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/history/contents.htm

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/geography/contents.htm 

Cybrary Man links to resources by category http://cybraryman.com/socialstudieslinks.html

Active Literacy – What do the Pupils Think About It?

Sharon Wallace, Effective Teaching and Learning Teacher, Curriculum Support Team, has been carrying out some research with pupils in Falkirk establishments to see what they really think about Active Literacy and how they think it helps them to learn.

We first asked the pupils:

“How would you describe active literacy”?

It is fun and really exciting! It is also very helpful with spelling words, I really like it (P6/7)

Active literacy is a language task that is used to help children improve their spelling and sounds (P7)

It helps you see the phonemes in words (P6/7)

Fun if you are working with a partner (P4/5)

I would describe it as a fun lesson to learn different phonemes and spelling rules to help us spell accurately although I enjoy the tasks (P7)

Fun, great way of learning and very helpful for spelling and understanding of spelling (P6)

A better way than spelling tests (P4/5)

I do like active literacy, but sometimes it can be difficult (P5)

We then asked the pupils how they think Active Literacy has helped them in class and this is what they said:

The spelling rules and syllabification.

I understand my literacy work more using active literacy.

I have got better at spelling and I learn lots of new words.
It helps me get better at my literacy work because we learn different language rules that we remember to help us spell so our work is correct.

It has helped me get better because I really understand it now.

I have learned more about the sounds of words.

It helps you see phonemes in words.

I have learned loads using active literacy.

Here are a few pupil quotes:

“I like active literacy because it helps me improve on my story writing and phonemes. I really like the active literacy homework. I like the spellings”. (P4)

“I like active literacy because I am a better reader and speller and I like all the fun tasks for homework. My favourite task is bubble spelling”. (P4)

“I like active literacy, my favourite part is Elkonin boxes. I prefer Elkonin boxes to diacritical marking, but at least it is helping with my vocabulary and spelling. For homework I like the jingles. My spelling has improved since I started Active Literacy. (P7)

ICT to Support Modern Languages in the Primary School

Malcolm Wilson, ICT Curriculum Development Officer in the Curriculum Support Team of Falkirk Council Education Services, presented a session with primary class teachers on a variety of ICT resources to support teaching Modern Languages in the Primary School. 

Resources

Audacity – Record pupil voice with Audacity, create and edit audio as pupil listening activities (e.g. cutting individual words or phrases and pasting them out of sequence in the audio for other pupils to correctly re-sequence the words) , turn into mp3 files (such as recitations or songs of individuals or groups of pupils) for sharing on school website, class blog or Glow group: http://glo.li/gJxmOi  

Little Bird Tales – Pupils create stories combining their voice with text (of vocabulary, phrases or sequence of sentences) and their images (either uploaded or created online with an artpad within the Little Bird Tales site) http://www.littlebirdtales.com/ and http://glo.li/rsrAzz for description, guide and video of use. 

Use digital video cameras for pupils to engage with texs and demonstrate their understanding of the text. Create stop-motion animation to illustrate vocabulary, phrase, poem or song. Resources here for video cameras: http://glo.li/gTmdzS. Resources for editing video: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fa/ICTFalkirkPrimaries/2010/09/16/video-editing-with-windows-live-movie-maker/Resources here for making videos from still image photographs: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fa/ICTFalkirkPrimaries/2011/03/09/photostory-3/

Hello Mylo for Games-based learning, has online badges reward pupil progress, teacher account provides pupil progress reports. http://glo.li/RqNj0r

Create word-cloud images for wall display, blog, or website. Pupils create a word cloud of vocabulary on specific topics. Connect foreign word and English word in Wordle by adding a tilde between the words (~) or omit the connection and use as lesson starter for pupils to connect word and translation with pen on interactive whiteboard http://glo.li/f2Ifx9

Comic Creation Tools – pupils sequence stories in chosen language, or annotate conversations with images and speech bubbles for visual story-telling. Free online Comic-creation tools and resources here: http://glo.li/eEkUjo 

Google Translate – Use Google Translate to translate any text by copying and pasting words/phrases, paragraphs or a whole document or website. Use the speech feature to hear the text spoken with the accent of the chosen language. Translate class blog or school website. http://translate.google.com/

Lingro – Highlight words on any website in chosen language, Listen to the words spoken, Translate, then play flashcard games with all words chosen – all within the Lingro toolbar along the top of any website you choose. http://glo.li/hNnhFk 

Song Videos with Lyrics – Online videos with printed lyrics to follow http://chansons-fr.com/ – may provide inspiration for pupils to create own videos http://glo.li/gTmdzS (for resources about using Flipcam-type video cameras). Lyrics-gap Songs on video with choice of level of missing words for pupils to select from words while listening http://www.lyricsgaps.com/ 

Classtools: Online class gaming tools already created for French or German. Easily add own arcade-type games with own questions/answers http://www.classtools.net 

Quiz-creation tools – create self-correcting quizzes, provide feedback on what has been learned by pupils, pupils creating quizzes motivates & helps embed learning http://glo.li/g73CnR

Further Online Links

Teaching Ideas – a series of crowd-sourced ideas shared by teachers http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/foreignlanguages/contents.htm

Cybrary Man links to resources by category http://cybraryman.com/foreign.html 

Comments from participants included: 

“Made me keen to try sites with my class.” 

“Really useful, easy to understand and well presented.”