ICT
Training
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Planning for ICT in English
| Module 4 | Contents |
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Planning for a classroom activity
We have discussed a very large number of activities using ICT resources, and we hope you have tried out some of them with pupils. You are probably now very aware of the fact that you can't just launch into a lesson using ICT - you need to do some very careful planning to make sure that the lesson is successful in terms of the activities that the pupils carry out and the expected learning outcomes.
We have provided some guidelines for planning classroom activities in the Module 3 of the Primary Materials. You should look at these now, as well as the guidelines on observing pupils on an ICT activity. The second guidelines follow immediately after the first set in Module 3.
We have given some further ideas for teaching and managing ICT, as well as discussing the role of the teacher, in Module 4 of the Primary Materials. You should look at these now.
Task 14
Plan a lesson or series of lessons using a variety of ICT resources.
You could develop some of the ideas discussed in the previous modules, or you could try out the front page suggestion we give in detail below. Have a look also at the detailed Ideas for Integrating IT on the English pages of the Curriculum IT support pages of the VTC.
Make a Front Page of a Newspaper
The following is a suggested framework for producing the front page of a newspaper. The paper may be for national, local or peer group consumption. You will have to decide on the target audience.
Type of activity
Simulation
Language outcomes
Understanding the language of the media - concepts such as ' gate-keeping', editorial meetings, research on individual news stories. There may be the need for presentations on why certain stories should make the front page of the newspaper.
Use of ICT
The Internet could be used as a real source of news. Do a search (Google is a particularly good search engine) for local, national or foreign newspapers and agencies.
Word-processing
DTP
Guidelines
Clearly, research into what makes a good front page and a good news story is essential. Students could be sent around the school to gather news. Groups of three or four could work together to give a representation of the school at work. I have tried this and the ensuing report back can provoke a great deal of controversy over what is or is not news. Also, some students may gain 'inside information' due to their friendship with a student or relationship to a member of staff. Suffice to say that a variety of representations are evoked.
Half the class could work on the above for a school newspaper, whilst the other half work on a national newspaper. The second group may need access to the Internet.
Once all the preparatory work has been completed and the students have made their decisions about what they will include, they should undertake some preliminary drafting of stories. The next stage is to produce the final copy and the finished publication. Professional DTP packages are expensive, but many schools have access to Publisher (see the notes on Publisher in the previous section) or something similar. It is possible to do the drafting in these packages, or to continue drafting in the Word Processor and import final text into the publishing package.
You will need to find out which packages are available in your school, and if they allow you to integrate text and graphics as objects in a meaningful way. This is where the students use the publishing package to enhance their understanding of the subject. They will need to make decisions about colour, font, picture, copy and so on. It is a good idea to get them to keep a log of their decisions as they go along, as this helps them to think about what they are doing. There is a danger that they will merely copy front page conventions or perhaps accept automatically the publishing package's electronic guides and formats (these are sometimes called 'wizards').
The final results can be displayed in the school, or even on your web site.
The above is not meant to be a prescriptive lesson plan or a scheme of work. It is meant to provoke your own ideas as to the ability of ICT to enhance the learning experience of the students.
Here are links to two sample lesson plans which you might like to try out or adapt for your own class.
The first example is an e-mail penpal activity which can be adapted for different age groups and topics, and the second example, while originally devised for for a group of KS4 students who are studying Macbeth, could be adapted for a different age group and for any book or play that you are studying that has CD-ROM support materials.
Do these sample lesson plans reflect your approach to lesson planning?
What are the gains from using ICT?
What has been done differently, or which could not be done without ICT?
The remainder of this section contains a number of web addresses where you can find resources and ideas to use in your lessons.
| Quia! - Create your own learning activities | http://www.quia.com/ | Create your own educational activities to be used online, including flash cards, matching games, and word search puzzles. Create and administer online quizzes. Browse through activities in various subjects. |
| English Resources | http://www.englishresources.co.uk/ | Free resources for teaching or revising English Language and Literature at Key Stages 3, 4 and A level. |
| Schoolzone.co.uk | http://www.schoolzone.co.uk | Once it gains further materials, this will become an excellent resource which allows you to search for policies, lesson plans or homework by programme of study or NC level required. |
| English On-Line | http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/units/home.html | NZ units of work, delivered via the Internet; many are applicable to UK curriculum and texts. Especially useful in visual media and Speaking and Listening projects. |
| Teachers' Library of Resources | http://www.teacherslibrary.org.uk (Broken Link. Do an online search under teachers library uk for similar resources which might suit your purpose.) | The site is dedicated to enabling teachers to share their resources with colleagues. Browse the resources loaded and send in your own materials |
|
inkentENGLISH Site is moving - try both links |
A one-stop web links site for English teachers. Emphasis is on relevance to resources for teaching the National Curriculum (secondary). | |
| Outta Ray's Head English Lesson Plans | http://home.cogeco.ca/~rayser3/ | Individualistic lesson plans on a very wide range of topics. American resources, creative in concept. |
| ESL / EAL - EnglishSpace | http://www.englishspace.ort.org | Free online resource centre for UK Secondary school teachers / students of ESL or EAL. Includes over 60 hours of interactive / audio lessons. It takes 2 weeks to register with this site. |
| Children's Literature | http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/rteacher.html | Teachers' Resources / Hyperlinks |
| On-line Writing Lab | http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ | Handouts. Massive Resource. |
| Coursework Assignments | http://www.indiana.edu/~eric_rec/bks/lessons.html | Lesson plans. |
| Media Lesson Plans | http://www.screen.com/mnet/eng/med/class/teamedia/tujs.htm (Broken Link?) | Ideal as a one-stop-shop for media related topics. |
| Useful Resources, Lesson Plans, and Teaching Materials for Teachers | http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/staff/visitors/kenji/teacher.htm#a | by Kenji Kitao and S. Kathleen Kitao |
| Voice of the Shuttle: Teaching Resources Page | http://www.qub.ac.uk/english/shuttle/teach.html | Variety of sources for professional development. |
| PedagoNet Learning Resource Centre | http://www.pedagonet.com/ | Learning resource database - general. |
| BDD Teachers Forum | http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/ | Literature based resources. |
| Teachers' Resources on the Web | http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/oxceu/teachres.html (Broken Link?) | Useful resource for lesson plans on a variety of language / literature issues. |
| English Teaching in the United Kingdom - by Harry Dodds | http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Harry_Dodds/ | Excellent for all manner of ideas on literature and language. Also good for professional development and links to other sites. |
Task 15
Explore a selection of the above sites and plan ways of introducing some new ideas using ICT into your lessons.
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