ICT
Training
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Planning, teaching and assessing ICT
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Module 5 |
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The integration of ICT into the curriculum will entail not only careful planning, but also the management of resources and an evaluation of what these can offer teaching and learning. Earlier units have provided opportunities for you to evaluate ICT resources and to plan ICT focused lessons.The context for planning ICT needs to be based on your own situation. Many schools, however, have adopted a partial cross curricular model for teaching ICT, where responsibility for teaching ICT is shared by the ICT department and other subject departments. The NOF training, which all secondary subject teachers will have access to, will also encourage more subject teachers to use ICT in the teaching of their subject. ICT teachers and subject teachers will, therefore, need to collaborate to ensure broad and balanced access to ICT for pupils. The school should also have an ICT map which indicates where ICT is taught and used across the curriculum. Click here to see a draft of a possible ICT map for KS3 and KS4.
You may also want to download blank proformas to help you map ICT at KS3 and KS4. These are available on the Managing ICT Conference (Resources folder)
Once a map has been established, an ICT Scheme of Work will need to be developed. When developing a scheme it is useful to draw from a range of existing published resources. NCET, now BECTa, published Schemes of Work for KS3 IT which contain a broad range of ideas for teaching both focused ICT and ICT in the context of other subjects. DfEE and QCA have also published ICT Schemes of Work for KS1, KS2 and KS3.
Click here for information about the schemes:
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes/
Teaching whole class lessons in an ICT Suite
Teaching whole class lessons in an ICT suite will require careful management of pupils and resources. Before teaching the lesson, you will have planned what you are going to teach (see the previous module for ideas on planning activities).You may also want to give some consideration of your role when working with pupils and ICT. Click here for more on this.
The following is a checklist to help you think through the process of teaching whole class lessons in an ICT suite. You may want to download a lesson planning proforma from the Secondary Curriculum Conference (SecICTProformas).
Before the lesson
- Give yourself time to evaluate thoroughly the software you are using for your teaching. If you have a classroom assistant, ensure they too are familiar with the new software.
(N.B. Classroom Assistants can also be tasked to help with many of the lesson preparation activities identified below.)
- Ensure computers and peripherals are working.
- The content of the lesson should be relevant to pupils in order to interest and motivate them.
- Be clear about what you are focusing on in your teaching. Don't assume subject knowledge if your activity is set in the context of another subject.
- Create wall displays which show a balance between pupils' work (both process and product) and teacher-generated material (e.g. lists of new vocabulary).
- Create step-by-step guides (crib sheets) to encourage pupils to work independently.
- Plan differentiated tasks e.g. teacher designed templates for less able pupils, open-ended tasks for more able pupils. For further information on ICT and curriculum access see the secondary core materials.
- Empower pupils (particularly those who don't have computers at home) by teaching them in clubs or 'out of school' activities. These 'expert' pupils can then help others in lessons.
During the lesson
- You should share the objectives of the lesson with pupils at the beginning of the lesson, and explain how the current lesson fits into the overall aim of a longer term activity or project.
- Demonstrate an aspect of software, using a data projector, and ask pupils to follow the demonstration actively at their own computers. An interactive whiteboard can be used even more effectively for this purpose.
Alternatively you may encourage pupils to use an inbuilt software tutorial. You may want a mixture of these approaches.
- Introduce new vocabulary by question and answer to ensure their understanding. Refer pupils to explanations of new vocabulary on the wall display.
- Give pupils time to explore the software.
- Group pupils for follow up work and encourage collaboration between pupils. The layout of your ICT suite should support this.
- All pupils should then engage with the activity. You will want to intervene if pupils are stuck or if one pupil is dominating.
- Interventions should provide constructive feedback while valuing pupils' ideas.
- Encourage pupils to check their own work by using spellcheckers and to solve some problems on their own by using help menus.
- Don't panic if technical problems arise. Involve pupils and show them problem solving strategies: they'll need these!
- Encourage classroom assistants to help with peripherals, such as printing or use of cameras to grab images, so that you as the teacher can concentrate on the overall management of the lesson.
- Never underestimate how much time you will need at the end of the lesson for finishing off work, printing, saving files, and generally putting the system ready for the next group.
- A Plenary session of 10 minutes at the end of the lesson will give pupils time to reflect on work. This will include short question and answer session to elicit from pupils the main points of the lesson and give time for pupils to note down their reflections.
- Encourage pupils to evaluate their own work critically by writing up their reflections. Proformas to help pupils reflect on and write up their work are available on the Secondary Curriculum Conference (SecICTProformas folder).
After the lesson
- Encourage pupils to use skills developed in ICT lessons in other subject contexts, at home or in other ICT spaces such as libraries and local youth spaces.
- Homework could include: asking pupils to continue to develop their written reflections on their work; further practice of their ICT Skills in ICT clubs or at home or background reading for the next topic.
Assessment can be divided into three aspects: Formative, Summative and Evaluative. For a fuller explanation of this see the section in the primary core materials.The previous section focused on teaching and also included elements of formative assessment. This involved:
- providing ongoing constructive feedback to pupils informally in the classroom;
- actively involving pupils in their own learning by making explicit to them strategies for checking their own work and independently solving problems;
- encouraging pupils to review their work critically and constructively in order that they can understand how to improve;
- questioning pupils, using open ended questions, to elicit their understanding of aspects of the work;
- observing pupils and listening carefully to what they say prior to making interventions.
These strategies will help you to make informal judgements about pupils' attainment and progress.
SummativeYou will also need to make summative judgements in order to:
- inform reports to parents;
- compile end of KS3 ICT assessments of pupils for reporting to QCA.
It is useful when assessing pupils' work to have examples of teacher assessed samples with commentaries explaining how NC AT level judgements were arrived at. Some publications to help with this are:
- SCAA (1996), Consistency in Teacher Assessment - Exemplification of Standards - KS3 IT
- SCAA (1997), Expectations in IT at KS1 & KS2
- Lewisham E&CS (1999), Ideas for integrating ICT into the primary and secondary classroom (Revised and republished 2001)
- Lewisham(2000),Ideas for integrating ICT into the primary and secondary classroom - Internet and e-mail
All four publications (full references in the ICT Resources Module) give examples of pupils' printouts and write-ups with teacher commentary on how ICT NC Attainment Target level judgements were arrived at.
ICT Co-ordinators or Heads of ICT Departments will also be responsible for moderating pupils' work across a year group to ensure consistent level judgements have been made. This can be done by collecting samples of assessed pupils' work from teachers in three categories:
- developing capability
- capable
- very capable
Pro formas to help with this were published in the Lewisham publications and can be downloaded by going to the Secondary Curriculum Conference (SecICTProformas).
For further reading on assessment refer to the secondary core materials.
EvaluativeThis aspect is dealt with in depth in the next secondary ICT module (Evaluating the impact of using ICT).
Task 5
- If you are responsible for co-ordinating ICT, draft an ICT curriculum map for your school, or update your existing map in line with the National Curriculum 2000.
- Write a lesson plan for one of your own ICT lessons. Use the QCA ICT Schemes of Work as a guide.
- Collect samples of pupils' work and make a National Curriculum Attainment Target level judgement. Use the QCA ICT Schemes of Work as a guide.
Task 6
- Assess your last lesson which used ICT in the light of the above ideas.
- What can you learn?
- How will you improve things next time?
Activity