More teaching Portals

Just found http://www.educationoasis.com/index.htm. Looks good.

Exploratree vs Rationale

While tussling with Rationale as an argument programme, Kate from TEACHIT recommended Exploratree.  Its brilliant…try it.

One click wonders…

Student sparknoting for an essay.  Me – why use that when the information is in a handout from earlier in the term?  He looked at me, pointed at the screen and one clicked to an answer.  However good/average the information it was much more accessible.  And this blog (which is a diary not an information resourse) won’t meet that challenge.  YIKES.  The stuff we produce for class better from now on better be online and retrievable at the click of a mouse…or building up into a printed study guide that is ‘essential’ reading!

SA IB advice

30/4/09  Good meeting with SA ‘Talking about the CORE’:

Ext Essays – avoid descriptive essays – tightly focussed qus make this less likely.  Follow the criteria carefully. Do it over the summer – easier for Autumn term – check assignments calendar.

TOK – See Knower diagram.  Use TOK moments in other subjects.  Aim to realise that other people may be right – don’t just tolerate them.  (ref ES’s socratic seminars).

CAS – huge opportunities out there – and a key opportunity for reflection.

IDEAS (from it) – Map project – x-ref to Common Ground’s Parish Map project, Word of Mouth’s- Portsmouth’s dialect map, SA’s history of maps TOK link with seeing the world.

Creative Writing – Daniel Allan’s session

DANIEL ALLAN – CREATIVE WRITING:

Daniel from Plumstead Manor set out the class in a horseshoe shape and made sure everyone had plain paper and a pen.  He ran through the following exercises.  It was a spellbinding session.  (Explanations and rationales are in brackets.)

‘…SYLLABLES – Write down your favourite one syllable word. Pass your piece of paper to the left.  Now write down your favourite two syllable word, and three syllable word underneath (extension – go to four syllables).  Then pass your new sheet to the left again (this reinforces the movement which is key to later exercises).  Make the three/four words into a sentence – comprehensible, no swear words, sexual references.  Pass on to the left.  Read out examples.  REPEAT – one, two, three, four syllables – write a sentence, pens down when finished, others looking to see who not finished, wait for them then offer to read.

 

COLOUR – think of a colour.  Now think of ten things that are that colour (or more).  Think literally, things etc, and EMOTIONALLY.  Write them down.  Read out and rest of class has to guess the colour.  Now close your eyes -  IMAGINE you are behind your front door, you open it and step through the door and out.  You walk, begin your journey and you see the items of colour that you have listed, you see what you have written down.  Open your eyes and write the journey you have been on.  Start with – I opened my front door, stepped out and saw….  (e.g. blood, roses, fire, anger, burning, rose, wine.)

(Positive praise makes everyone want to take part…Starting with a sentence and some words stops the ‘I don’t know what to write’ thing…Passing work on encourages sharing…Active listening encouraged by having to guess the colour, watch for when people have put their pens down.)

 

OSCAR AND THE TRASH CAN – You will each write one line on the page AND THAT’s IT!  At the end of 30 secs pass it on to the left.  Try to keep the story going as it moves round.  Start with a sentence that starts it (the same one that we used for colour) Time thirty seconds and pass it on.  We did this 30 times, getting faster and faster, having less and less time to read the ever increasing lines of writing above ours!  We read them out and they were fantastic (in both senses!).  Some extracts would be brilliant story starters.  There were some strange disassociations, the occasional ‘sentient one’ (all Daniel’s descriptions – his performance is fluent and captivating).  Seeing what people have written – gives them confidence.  (Time limited exercise – as are all the others, just this one can get frantic!  Rationale for time limiting is that you are encouraging quantity not quality – no thinking, no reading, no correcting, no crossing out, no moaning – just writing.  Writers are kept constant and busy, teaches writing under pressure, teaches reading and writing skills, skimming and scanning for meaning.  It becomes part of an arsenal of resources.  Reinforces the message that you should rewrite only when you are finished.  Writing becomes a process of writing and rewriting which encourages the art and value of drafting.  Separate the writer from the editor.  (Tell story about how writers write at one time of the day and edit at another etc)  Liberate the writer – don’t unleash the editor/censor.  Gives writers the freedom to express (within the context of the class).  Good writers make better readers and better commentators. Helps with assessments where you are assessing writers.  Be one to know one etc! 

HOPPER WRITING – Pictures speak a thousand words -  Daniel handed out Edward Hopper pictures to everyone.  Face down.  ‘You have fifteen minutes to write about this picture.  Turn it into a narrative – keep the pen moving, no hesitation, crossing out, correcting, stopping, editing, moaning, crying, beating your chest.  If you get stuck, write and rewrite the previous phrase and sentence until you are back on track (model this – its quite funny, like a jumping record/a repeated rap/ a phrase caught in a loop)  Fifteen minutes goes surprisingly quickly.  STAGE TWO – go through and underline the words, phrases and sentences that you like.  STAGE THREE – extract those underlinings onto a new page and read out – put on sugar paper around the picture – it’s a prose piece, even a poem.  Shows drafting!

Dan’s golden rules – keep the pen moving, do not edit, keep writing to time.  When students hit exams they will have developed their writing muscles and fallen in love with their writing voice so that they won’t feel the pressure of time constraints and writing with their hands.

(Thought – process vs genre?)

ICT

ICT policy and procedures:

ICT Security and Data policy - procedures vs unauthorised access, acceptable use of intranet, WWW, VLE, account security (eg changes of password are automatic) and copyright details.

E-Learning – inclusivity key to school ethos and ICT seeks to support this.  ICT defined in the policy and purposes outlined – raise standards, learn about ICT processes and applications, extend learning beyond the classroom and encourage innovative teaching.  Four ICT areas – discrete ICT, cross-curricula ICT, extra-school ICT, and as a learning support.  Examples of each area are given to illustrate ways in which policy is implemented – eg ICT as support tool – AfL- analysing pupil performance data.

H+S – appropriate and well maintained equipment (eg to encourage good posture, reduce eye strain and RSI), safely maintained equipment (eg to reduce danger of electrical failure and date loss), promoting moral and ethical standards in use of ICT via code of conduct (separate policy).

Equal Opportunities – in harmony with school policies on Equal Opportunities and Inclusion.  All to have access to ICT teaching, resources and facilities.  ICT resources to be appropriate to the user and to meet their needs through differentiating eg teaching resources.

ICT Code of Conduct – signed by all students and staff – relates to privacy, copyright, appropriate and respectful behaviour online and care for property.  Code of Conduct supports whole school policies on behaviour and learning.

Intranet is divided into areas where users have their home area, there is a student public access drive, a staff public drive and a local drive.  The staff public drive has been merged with the school intranet VLE to which all students have access.  At the moment the students have access but not editing rights.  This is because of previous problems when this access was permitted.  The ICT department is currently working on building in Interactivity into the VLE.

IN ENGLISH:

ICT is used in the vast majority of lessons.  The IWB is the key resource used.  Powerpoint and Notebook applications are used so that on screen annotations become possible.  Notebook allows images and words to be moved so that teachers can play eg word sorting games.  MTPlans are based entirely on Powerpoint/Notebook resources.  In addition teachers use video (usually Youtube) and also integrate school generated video and images.  DVD projectors with on screen editing and annotation were also used.  ICT is used in the LRC and the dedicated English ICT room for research and Media work (video editing, poster production, letter writing etc). but the resources for individual online learning are limited to an outside programme called SAM learning, or other sites such as the BBC.  Interactive resources developed by the department are in their infancy.

Most memorable and effective use of ICT – SD’s use of Notebook to shift Romeo and Juliet characters around in the Capulet party scene to respond to class analysis of each character’s background (familial) and their role (in the party and the play as a whole).  It was then possible to annotate over to top of the text which translated to the paper which each student had in front of them – scaffolding the task so that analysis became easier.   I used the programme to shift text along a tension line.  Students were able to come up and shift the text themselves.

Primary Visit Literacy Hour

Lesson on James Reeve’s poem The Sea.  Year 6.  Teacher read it out twice from IWB, then choral reading, then WC moving around classroom responding to rhythm and sound of poem.  Text analysis – looking at verbs and imagery in pairs on mini-whiteboards.  Word sort on line endings.  Sounds and effects of words linked with meaning.  Composing metaphor poem (min 5 lines).  Review/Plenary with e.g.s of poems.

Session timing – Literacy Hour clock.  Starter – Introduction to the Poem – reading and acting – on whole class basis.  Development – whole class identification of language, paired discussion of words leading to whole class feedback.  Discussion of choice of words to build metaphor of Sea as Dog.  WC brainstorm of descriptive words that describe one thing as something else.  Scaffold describing sea as another animal.  Differentiated to allow student choice of other subjects.  Independent work – writing metaphor poem.  Review - what done today – children describe it…Plenary – read/perform examples of metaphor poems.

Linguistic knowledge - VCOP Big Write experience equipped children with active knowledge of wow words – powerful descriptive words (verbs,adverbs, adjectives and nouns),  connectives and an understanding of differentated levels of punctuation (the punctuation pyramid).  Pupils responses were oral and written (use of mini whiteboards encouraged paired discussion) and very high standard reflecting BigWrite experience and excellence of teaching.  Several examples of level 6 work.  Transitions fine – students happy to work for extended periods.  Session goes on for 90 minutes – children happy and productive.

 

The Sea

The sea is a hungry dog, Giant and grey. He rolls on the beach all day. With his clashing teeth and shaggy jaws Hour upon hour he gnaws The rumbling, tumbling stones, And ‘Bones, bones, bones, bones! ‘ The giant sea-dog moans, Licking his greasy paws. And when the night wind roars And the moon rocks in the stormy cloud, He bounds to his feet and snuffs and sniffs, Shaking his wet sides over the cliffs, And howls and hollos long and loud. But on quiet days in May or June, When even the grasses on the dune Play no more their reedy tune, With his head between his paws He lies on the sandy shores, So quiet, so quiet, he scarcely snores. James Reeves

NC – tutorials

25/2/ – How to do Alerts/Epifs.  Positive Behaviour system, key tips, Add E1 to homepage.  Mini-whiteboards – laminate A4 (4 Group use A3).  Index cards on Publisher – blank pub – exp of banners and posters.  Websites – behaviour4learning.ac.uk, Pixelgirl, dafont.com.

2/3 – Consult re S’s external observation and the fall out on me when take over the class again.

25/3 – Differentiation – D QfL up and down using Bloom’s – eg – level 4 Qfl, 5Qfl, 6Qfl.  Comment Mark.  Diff within the task not by outcome.  Class groupings – by needs, target.  Picture the Class – seating plan with levels and targets and needs. Making levels explicit helps motivation.  Moodboard works like a writing frame but interesting because kinaethetic, emotive and spatial (include steps to success – how do I know I’ve succeeded).  ICT – Smartboard use it to move text around visually (SD does this.)

22/4 – Update – Cross Curriculum mapping, timetable for this term, LTP and MTP writing.

Mock trial for Great Expectations

30/3 Herbert and Pip’s assisting an escaping Felon is the obvious crime, but we also tried Magwitch for assault (ch1), Miss H and Estella (and Pumblechook) for child abuse (ch8) and Jaggers for deception (ch18).  Fun stuff…!

Going Solo

It was a hard week’s teaching not helped by a corneal abrasion and codeine fog, but I went solo on a very hard reading assessment with the Year7s.  Their pro-teach was out and the mice did play so I enlisted various firefighters to help.  We won them over by the end of a hot and frustrating hour spent confining their bubbling over energies within a writing frame of Hamlet Act 3 Scene 3 and/or Macbeth Act 1 Scene 7.  I wonder how long it will take for me to learn the presence of a pro-teach!