Lynne Horn

ICT!

Lest you think I have abandoned ICT it is still to the fore - today S3 used the Simpsons movie site to make avatars of themselves and then write descriptions.  I’m delighted to say that next week when S2 go further into house descriptions we’ll be able to use a flash version of their house.  I have Joe to thank for both of these.

S1 have recorded their first conversations and as soon as I manage to download them they’ll listen and do 2 stars and a wish for each other. 

S5’s reward for getting most of their dictation correct (yes the dictation came as a bit of a shock to their system!) was to watch Eddie Izzard on learning French (no link in case it shocks your sensibilities - look him up on YouTube!)  I would like to show it to S4 as it contains lots on prepositions, but will have to edit it a bit first - however next week I will be showing them the video “Marly Gaumont” as it ties in with what they are doing.

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(Sorry I can think of a more snappy title - it takes me longer to think of a title than it does to write the post!)

I think watching classes today just confirms that giving up 3 days of holiday to do cooperative learning may have been one of the best decisions I’ve made for a long time.

Today S2 worked to make their own house plans using new vocabulary - I’ve been emphasising the individual accountability with them, at the end of the task anyone in the group can be chosen to explain the group’s work.  S2 are very mixed ability from the more able to pupils who have just achieved Level A in English and yet looking around all of them were active in their groups and involved in the decision making process.

Meanwhile back in S4 we continued with house adverts - today they were working together to write a piece advertising a house which was for exchange.  Each group tackled this slightly differently, one group got each member to write about a different aspect of the house, others contributed ideas taking it in turns to write (using a different colour of pen for each person to show that they had all contributed).  When time was up they split into different groups (all 1s from each group together, all 2s etc).  They then moved round the written pieces - at each table the person who had been part of that table’s work became the expert and explained what they had done to the others.  At all times everyone in the groups were engaged, in fact I saw at least two boys working in a way I had never seen before

Of course it still needs work, we’re still at the beginning and I could still manage it better in some ways (there are bits of the 5 essentials I keep forgetting - need to keep a check list in my planner), but I’ve been very impressed at the results so far.

For S2 the big test will come in a couple of weeks when we move onto directions and I send them out together to find their way following directions, for S4 it will be to see what they come up with individually after being separated from the group as they prepare talks.

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I started trying out some cooperative learning techniques with S4 today.  As they got started and got into the task I found myself pacing the floor as they didn’t seem to need me apart from the odd question. 

They were working on a reading passage noting down useful vocabulary in 4 categories - I was interested to see the final results - 2 groups produced good stuff , one group less so and the 4th group no where near what they were capable of.  My wanderings gave me time to observe.  Each member of the group had an allocated role - materials manager, timekeeper, checker and encourager.  We also had the online clock on the go.  One boy was the most fantastic encourager, keeping the group on the go, praising every answer - the others were not quite so encouraging and in one group the others were encouraging the “encourager” to be more encouraging.  It will be interesting to see how they progress - we are looking where they live and if I can get my head round Google Maps I’m hoping they can produce something on line.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to continue the cooperative learning with different age groups and different tasks - this will be my case study for our autonomous learning group.  I want to see if using cooperative learning (especially emphasising individual accountability and positive interdependence) could lead to pupils’ overall performance and increase confidence.  As we’re a joint primary/secondary our group of 5 has an interesting mix of cases studies - information literacy skills with p5/6, thinking skills through stories in p1/2, online knowledge testing in S3 Physics, cooperative learning in English and RME and taking responsibility for own learning in Higher English.

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Over the last couple of years we’ve aquired lots of iPods (thanks to Partners in Excellence, Gaelic funding and Jim Henderson).  I must be the only person who looks at them with dismay as I work out how to keep them charged so that we can use them to their best advantage.  Thanks to the wonders of Facebook, I was asked David Baugh I’ve asked lots of people over the last couple of years, “Is there a way to charge lots of iPods at once?” and it turns out the answer is simple - a usb hub - so there we are problem solved, once we get a couple, we can charge and use our iPods to their fullest advantage.

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Thanks to Chris I’m struggling to think of  8 little known, but vaguely interesting  facts about myself, but maybe they don’t need to be little known or indeed interesting.

My favourite tv programme is “The West Wing” - I have them  all on video or DVD and am currently rewatching (I’m at the end of Season 6).  It’s hard sometimes to forget it’s not real)

I love musicals, especially if they are live and can sing lots of bits of various songs (I’m not in the same league as Mark Pentleton - I only know them in English!)

I have 3 phobias - worms, dentists and vampires.  I can’t watch or read anything vampire related, it really scares me (make an exception for The Count from Sesame Street)

I love reading lots of different books, don’t like things which overly tax my brain - favourites include Iain Rankin and James Rollins and recently discovered the Shardlake novels by Sansom.

I ran Brownie Units in Argyll for 15 years, had a few years with Rainbows and am still involved at County level.

I’ve travelled in both Canada and New Zealand and would like to visit both again.

Only just discovered the wonders of Facebook - have a grand total of around 10 friends!

I once said I’d never live on an island - been here 15 years now.

So there you go - I’m not tagging anyone else just now as I think everyone whose blog I read has done it!

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I had a play around with Google Maps earlier on - certainly no where near attaining the impressive results achieved by others I’ve seen recently, I managed to put on one marker!

I’ll keep practising though - soon S4 will be discussing home area and environment and it would be good to put their opinions on the map so to speak.  Maybe by then I’ll be able to look at the map and put on the markers without the map zooming in and at out at great speed and then disappearing altogether - or worse taking me on an (unwanted and unasked for) fly over of everywhere but where I want to put the marker.  I guess these things are sent to try, but I’m not giving up just yet.  However for these evening I think reruns of the West Wing are needed to sooth my brain.

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After a couple of days back I have been trying out some of the techniques learned at the Cooperative Learning Academy, so here are a few reflections on what I’ve tried and how it’s worked.

S1 - in some ways the new intake were the easiest, everything is new to them.  We were looking at Family and in particular how to adapt a short text on brothers and sisters.  They tend not to write in primary so it’s always a hurdle to make them see they can in fact write in French.  To get them into random groups I distributed cards to put them into groups of 4 - bit of a challenge for me as it turned out to think of famous “4s”, however in the end I had Spice Girls, Famous Footballers, Famous Painters, Royalty, Big Brother and the Simpsons.  Once in the groups we did a quick contact activity, this was just to tell everyone what they had in the way of brothers and sisters so that everyone in the group knew what each individual would be aiming to write in the end.  We assigned roles - Time Keeper, Resource Manager, Checker (someone to come and ask if the group didn’t understand the activity) and Encourager.  They started off reading the text aloud in groups a line at a time, they then matched English phrases to French phrases in the text, writing their answers on a sheet of A3 paper shared in the group, finally the group rewrote the text together.

Did this way work better than how I may have done it before - well I’m pleased to say it did.  The group wouldn’t allow one boy to back out (”I’ve not done French before”), helping him through his lines and teaching him phrases he needed.  Although one person scribed for the group the others were keen to assist as they knew anyone of them could be called upon for an answer.  They helped each other through, the Time Keepers kept everyone on task with the help of the online timer and everyone felt they had achieved - the Encouragers were fantastic.  Tomorrow we’ll keep working and see if everyone manages to write their own text.

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S3 and I have been revising the alphabet in French (something most of them can sing to various tunes having learned it in primary). 

I was pointing out the importance of knowing the alphabet as often you have to spell out your name and address.  To illustrate I pointed out that despite having worked in Argyll for many years at two INSETs over the last couple of weeks my name had been spelt wrongly (Lynne Horne one week, Lynn Horn the next).  However S3 couldn’t see what was so difficult about “Horn” to spell, I said my first name seemed to cause problems too, “What’s difficult about Miss”, they replied.

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Things I’m determined to do in the ICT line…

• get our blogs unblocked - it would be good to get back into class blogging
• get into podcasting - really only played with it last year
• find a way of charging lots of iPods at once!

And on the non-ICT front

• work on both independent and cooperative learning (and they’re certainly linked in the long term)
• have a go at Rich Tasks

However my favourite, is that I might get to teach French to primary 1-3 during their structured play time - we’ve been talking about introducing languages from the infant stage onwards for a while and this seems a good way to start.  It will give a bit of time to experiment with what works best.  They will also start to learn a bit of Gaelic.  And maybe along with French and Gaelic they could start to do a bit of podcasting!

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The sun was setting over Kerrera as we waited for the late ferry on the way back last night, tired after 3 days away.

Yesterday we started with our lessons - a salutory reminder that 20 minutes is not that long and our group may have tried to fit a little too much in!  We taught one lesson and received two - in our case we taught an RME lesson and were given a lesson from primary French teachers on the family and a lesson in which we were being trained as Peer Tutors from the University of the First Age.  Afterwards we went back into Home Groups and discussed what we had seen and had time to evaluate our own lessons.  We also used the Inside/Outside circle as a way of sharing ideas. In the afternoon we took part in a Team Games Tournament, a handy way of self/peer assessment where individuals are supported in the test by a group.

When we go back to school next week we’ll be looking at how to take cooperative learning forward, especially with regard to independent learning and I do think that implementing cooperative learning is going to boost independent learning.  In fact  our independent learning working group now has 5 out of 6 members who have done the training.

What am I going to do now?  Hopefully we will start by doing a bit of team teaching as we begin to implement what we have learned.  I am hoping to use it as a means of learning verbs and vocabulary with S3/4 as well as looking at how to develop other skills in the coming year.  In Tobermory registration is done in year groups with registration teams, ie next year 6 of us will all of S1/2 in the gym, the PE teacher currently does a bit of yoga and brain gym whilst the rest of us sign planners and take registers.  This may also be a good time to start teaching some of the skills that s1/2 will need to be good cooperative learners.

So I hope there is more to come on cooperative learning in the coming weeks!

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