Year 1 Literacy with ICT activities and Lesson Plan templates

What’s Inside

Note to the Reader.....................................................................................1 BEFORE YOU BEGIN – WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW? ������������ 2 Exploiting available technology in the Australian Curriculum..........................2 Teacher Knowledge of Resources..........................................................................2

Word Processing in Primary Education .............................................................................. 2 What is expected level of development in Year 1 students?...............................................3 How will Word Processing impact in the classroom?.........................................................3 Teacher Knowledge, Skills and Understanding..................................................................4 Conceptual Understanding..................................................................................................4 Presentation software in Primary Education....................................................................... 5 What is the expected level of development for Year 1 students?........................................5 Concepts Involved..............................................................................................................6

THE ICT CAPABILITY LEARNING CONTINUUM ��������������������� 7 How to use the ICT Capability Learning Continuum......................................................... 7

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS........................................................ 9

Language ................................................................................................................9 Literature.................................................................................................................10 Literacy....................................................................................................................11 Literacy (Cont.).......................................................................................................12

ICT TEACHING STRATEGIES.......................................................... 13

Determining a Starting Point – How to assess existing capabilities?.................13 Planning Technology-Literacy Integration..........................................................14 Introducing new software and techniques to students........................................15 Student Planning and Evaluating (Higher Order Skills).................................................... 15

Building on experiences from home......................................................................16 Stimulating and Structuring Activities................................................................................. 16

Monitoring Student Progress.................................................................................16 What should you monitor?....................................................................................17 Teacher Intervention..............................................................................................17 Scaffolding and Affordances..................................................................................18 Assessing ICT capability........................................................................................18

OVERCOMING DIFFICULTIES IN THE CLASSROOM ����������� 19 ORGANISING THE CLASSROOM................................................... 19

Low Resource Settings...........................................................................................19 High Resource Settings...........................................................................................20

LESSON PLANS..................................................................................... 22

ICT Capability in the Australian Curriculum Context.......................................22 Literacy Development............................................................................................22 How to use the Activity Planning Sheets..............................................................22 IMAGINATIVE TEXT.......................................................................................................23 Recounting or retelling key events of a story.....................................................................23 Activity Planning Sheet......................................................................................................28 Character’s Thoughts and Feelings.....................................................................................29 Activity Planning Sheet ......................................................................................................... 34

Informative Text.....................................................................................................35 Activity Planning Sheet.......................................................................................................... 40

WORKS CITED...................................................................................... 41 APPENDICE 1......................................................................................... 42

Student self-assessment..........................................................................................42

APPENDICE 2............................................................................. 43

ICT Technique Execution Tracker............................................................43

NOTE TO THE READER Integrating ICT into teaching and learning is not straightforward.

Today, it is not sufficient enough for teachers to simply expose students to ICT in the classroom in order to develop their ICT capability or ICT literacy. To effectively integrate ICT into classroom practices is not to wait for the next big technological development to come around. In fact it has nothing to do with technology itself. Teaching strategies are the key behind every successful integration of ICT. ICT capability comprises of five crucial components and research has indicated that in successful schools teachers pay careful attention to these elements in a variety of contexts. Curriculum Connect will help you to prompt students to thing for themselves about how to apply ICT to a task, rather than dictating the ideas they are expected to employ.

As ICT integration is predominantly featured in the Primary levels of progression of the Australian Curriculum, the teaching strategies embodied within this resource will help Primary teachers ensure that their students progress confidently and competently to the level expected.

Literacy teaching in primary education plays a key role in the development of ICT capability. Through the use of generic ICT tools such word processing literacy can be enhanced if the teacher makes effective use of the provisionality inherent in ICT. There are close links between the ICT capability of a teacher to that of a student in literacy and numeracy teaching.

We have included these strategies in our NESA (formerly BOSTE) accredited online PD course “Primary Classroom Strategies: Develop Student ICT Capability Today”. This is our most popular course with enrolments being taken every month. It is aligned with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers 2.6.2 and 3.4.2 towards maintaining Proficient Level teacher accreditation and will contribute to 4 hours of PD. This teaching resource comes FREE with any enrolment!!

Your professional learning will not end here though. By subscribing to our monthly newsletter and visiting our website, you will be able to keep up-to-date with the latest news, ideas and strategies all to do with integrating ICT in the classroom. As a subscriber, you will enjoy loyalty rewards such as discounts to our online PDs. This teaching resource is unique because it was written for YOU: • YOU want to enhance student literacy with ICT; • YOU are someone who sees the potential of students in your classroom; • YOU want practical and immediately actionable advice on strategies; • YOU want to meet the requirements of your National curriculum; • YOU want to ensure progression in student capabilities in ICT; • YOU integrate ICT a lot in your classroom practice; • YOU would like to create opportunities for learning in lessons and; • YOU are committed to following through with what you are about to learn.

This is why YOU are here!

We hope you enjoy this teaching resource and we look forward to helping you continue your professional learning in the future. © ICTE Solutions Australia 2018

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BEFORE YOU BEGIN – WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW? Teacher competence in ICT plays a crucial role in the development of student ICT capability. Studies have indicated that the “extent to which ICT was effectively to support the development of literacy and numeracy depended to a large extent on the teacher’s own personal capabilities in ICT and in literacy and numeracy teaching” (Kennewell et al., 2000, p.105). It is important to note that in such studies it was also revealed that where teacher’s capabilities in ICT were lacking, in most cases there was a haphazard effort in the development of student ICT capability. Integrating ICT into teaching and learning is not straightforward. So to help you explore teaching approaches that integrate the use of ICT in the spirit of structured literacy teaching, we have compiled information to aid you in your teaching practices.

Exploiting available technology in the Australian Curriculum

Integrating ICT into teaching and learning is about exploiting the here and now of the available technology in the classroom and not waiting for the next big technological development to come along and solve your ICT problems. The Australian Curriculum encourages Primary teachers in particularly to implement this key strategy into their teaching practices.

The Australian Curriculum emphasises the use of digital technologies throughout the development of literacy. For this particular age group, it is recommneded that students develop their literacy skills with the help of these technologies.

• Word processors - both online and offline programs such as MS Word, Pages for iPads and Google Docs; • Digital forms of communications such as presentation programs such as MS PowerPoint and MS PhotoStory.

Teacher Knowledge of Resources

It is more important for you to be knowledgeable about one program that your students will use than it is to have an acquaintance with a large number. This won’t hamper their development in ICT capability as it is better for them to work with a small number versatile programs and to progressively develop their skills and confi-dence in these through carefully structured ICT activities. Being familiar with a program will help you to identi-fy when students may encounter a problem and enable you to plan for strategies to overcome them.

Also, it will allow you to identify when students are ready to move onto a new feature or to use the software for a more de-manding task (Kennewell et al, 2000).

Being familiar with a program should take you beyond just knowing how to use the program for a variety of tasks. ICT capability for a teacher is the same as it is for a student – it is about developing an understanding and judgement about how to use those ICT techniques appropriately. Therefore, it is important that you reflect on the “processes it helps the user to carry out and the ICT techniques with which particular effects can be achieved” (Kennewell et al., 2000, p. 97). Consider then how you will introduce the program to the students along with what ideas need to be clear before they start.

Word Processing in Primary Education Being proficient in word processing skills is something which students will continually use and build on throughout their school career. Programs such as this can be actively used to encourage students to draft and redraft their written work. Interacting with text is just part of what it can allow students to achieve, but it also has other features like spell and grammar checker which structured carefully can used by teachers to develop a student’s spelling and grammar. Such features can be used to enhance a student’s presentation and because of its editing features it facilitates a stronger engagement with text by students. © ICTE Solutions Australia 2018

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What is expected level of development in Year 1 students?

By the end of primary school, students are expected to know the following word processing skills: • • • • • • • • • • •

Changing font, font size, bold, italics, highlight and font colour; Justifying, changing spacing, indenting; Setting up bullets and numbers, re-starting numbered lists; Inserting and modifying a table; Inserting a blank page and understanding whit this is used (not just hitting Enter multiple time); Inserting a picture - embedding it tightly with text, understanding how to re-size and re-position it; Inserting graphics, tables, smart art, symbols; Inserting hyperlinks, setting how the link page opens; Understanding how to set up a header, footer and page numbers; Setting margins, knowing which is the standard setting, changing page orientation, setting up columns; Using templates.

Children in the Foundation Year (Prep) to Year 1 are expected to have begun to learn how to enter text via keyboard, overlay keyboard and on-screen word bank.

How do students develop as digital content creators?

How do students develop as technological innovators?

How does WP aid digital fluency?

They develop skills in producing text-based digital artefacts that can be shared, uploaded or printed.

They apply new skills to creating artefacts that are beyond the task description or in new formats.

Core skills will be used throughout schooling and will be built upon as students become more experienced in the software program.

Table 1. Benefits of Word Processing (Howell, 2012, p. 148) How will Word Processing impact in the classroom?

According to Potter et al. (2007, p. 103), using the word processor in the classroom will impact the classroom by: • Selecting appropriate opportunities – in which word processing software can facilitate, enhance or extend children’s learning, such as the importance of presentation in communication. In some instances the focus will be on teaching and learning in ICT (how to enlarge text, make newspaper type columns or add a border to a poster), in others ICT will be used as a resource in the teaching and learning of another curriculum area (writing for a specific audience); • Making explicit links between related knowledge, skills and understanding – word processing is closely associated with literacy and language work at all levels, and as a consequence has a contribution to make across the primary curriculum; • Modelling appropriate use of ICT – for instance, scribing and amending shared writing with the whole class or a group using the interactive whiteboard; • Demonstrating or intervening – for example, inserting an image into a word processing document, cutting and pasting, or deciding how and when to use the spellchecker. Explicit teaching of word processing knowledge, skills and understanding requires demonstration and intervention as with any other curriculum topic. Children may gain word processing skills by themselves, but without the guidance and direction of their teacher the acquisition of such capability will be haphazard © ICTE Solutions Australia 2018

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Teacher Knowledge, Skills and Understanding In order to teach word processing skills effectively in this activity, the following list attempts to identify the level of teacher competence in ICT expected.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Creating, opening, saving, closing, deleting and printing documents; Selecting font, font size, colour, style (italic, bold), line spacing and justifications; Inserting, deleting, selecting, cutting, copying, pasting and undoing; Utilising help; Inserting bullet points, tables, clip art, borders, shading and columns; Altering page orientation (landscape, portrait), background colour, page size and margins; Altering defaults; Forcing page breaks; Utilising tabs and indents; Utilising spelling and grammar checkers (including how to switch on and off), thesaurus, print preview, highlighter and talking facilities (including how to switch on an off) and find and replace; Connecting alternative input devices (overlay keyboards, touch screens); Constructing and utilising on-screen word banks; Inserting page numbers; Inserting text, graphics, tables and documents from other applications; Inserting symbols, headers and footers; Creating macros and templates; Utilising dynamic links between documents; Customising the word processor; Merging documents; Formatting graphics; Protecting documents.

Conceptual Understanding Conceptual understanding underpins the learning of every ICT technique and this is what makes the ICT techniques learnt through word processing so transferrable across the curriculum. In ICT capability, the “cognitive phase emphasises the importance of conceptual understanding. For example, understanding the difference between an effect and a style is essential to being able to learn the difference between them, and key to being able to use them appropriately” (Potter and Darbyshire, 2010, p. 18).

For example: “When we first show a child how to insert an image into a publication, it is helpful to talk about selecting the object by clicking, and to refer to handles and dragging when sizing or moving the object. If we use the same words in another context – or better still, prompts the child to use the words – the concepts should start to develop.”

According to Potter and Darbyshire (2010) these ICT techniques which we may select in order to create a solution to a problem are a function of the context, the resources available and our strategic knowledge.

Word processing can only be used effectively by students if they understand its documents are a stored file of characters together with formatting tags. These tags control how it appears on the screen and also the printed page. A feature likes this allows it to be transferred quite easily to different sources. It can adjust automatically to start a new line when required and white space can appear on the page when there are no characters. © ICTE Solutions Australia 2018

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Presentation software in Primary Education With the use of a digital projector, multimedia programs such as MS PowerPoint, Textease Presenter or Apple’s Keynote can present literacy ideas and concepts in more engaging ways. These programs are effective in education as they encompass tremendous value in supplementing and supporting oral presentations by showing visually the structuring of ideas. They also aid the student’s identification, development and sequencing of the points to be made.

As a whole-class teaching program, they are ideal for demonstrating the teaching of literacy and ICT capability.

What is the expected level of development for Year 1 students?

In addition to word processing techniques, presentation programs involve a number of techniques that include: • • • • • • •

Slide format – each new slide can have a different format; Master slide – a similar idea to a Master page in desktop publishing; Views – choose whether to see various version of the slides; Insert movies or sounds – this is in addition to text, images; Add notes – students can create notes to be printed; Timing – the slide show can be set to play with each slide/object given a specific timing for display; Transitions and animation – various effects can be applied to both transitions between slides and animations; • Action buttons – an object can be set to trigger another event when clicked, such as jumping to another slide.

Students are expected to know the following ICT techniques: • • • • • • • • • •

Enter text in a text box; Highlight text, change font, font colour, size and alignment; Use the Undo button on the Standard toolbar; Navigate from slide to slide using the scroll bar; Insert pictures from file; move, and resize; Insert, move and delete clip art; Insert clip art from MS Office from Online Clip Art; Use Print Preview, print a document; Print handouts two, three or six a page; Take photos with a digital camera.

In addition to the above skills, students also need to learn how to: • Save documents both to the hard-drive of a computer and a USB stick; • Keyboard effectively using typing skills.

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How do students develop as digital content creators?

How do students develop as technological innovators?

How does presentation software aid digital fluency?

Students are creating a digital artefact, the presentation itself.

The format and multimedia used As group and individual presentain the presentation provide multi- tions become more common and ple opportunities for innovation. are assessment tasks, students using presentation software for these tasks become more fluent in key skills needed in school.

Table 2. Benefits of Presentation software (Howell, 2012, p. 156) Concepts Involved Children do not have to be sitting at a computer to develop their ICT capability. Concepts and higher order skills can be taught through whole-class questioning. Presentation software like MS PowerPoint have similar concepts to word processing except that there is no continuity of text across the slides and only one section of the presentation can be seen at the one time. Sections are revealed under a person’s control. The ideas of transitions and animation are therefore important in designing a presentation.

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THE ICT CAPABILITY LEARNING CONTINUUM How to use the ICT Capability Learning Continuum Like other general capabilities listed such as Literacy and Numeracy, it is imperative that if you want to ensure progression and continuity in student capabilities in ICT that you yourself are well-equipped to be able to recognise this occurring and then to plan for effective learning opportunities for each individual student. There is strong evidence to support that the level of confidence and competence you have in ICT, in other words, your own ICT capability has a tremendous impact on the quality of ICT capability a student can achieve. In addition, there is also proof based on recent ICT literacy tests from the National Assessment Program (NAP-ICTL) that exposure to just technology is not enough today to ensure that students themselves are equipped with the skills and knowledge to be lifelong learners. A key characteristic of ICT capability.

What you need today is strategies that you know will work? To be an ICT capable teacher, one of the key qualities that must embody is the ability to “apply current instructional principles, research, and appropriate assessment practices to the use of ICTs” (UNESCO, 2017).

In order to be able to do this, such general capabilities like ICT capability not only provide you opportunities to develop this within students across Learning Areas but includes a Learning Continua that will help you plan for effective learning opportunities and map common paths throughout it. It is significant to note, that the four out of the six levels of progression in ICT capability lie within Primary education as indicated in the table. According to ACARA, each level in the Learning Continuum indicates a sequence of learning independent of student age. Take note as well, that individual students will progress in their capabilities at their own pace which may be influenced by prior experience, sense of self in the world and cognitive capacity.

Prior experience in this circumstance would be whether or not a student would have access to a computer at home. As a teacher, you could use this information to gauge the impact that home use might have on capability and the possible need to set more challenging work in school. It also presents you with the opportunity to ensure that the less capable students are not left behind because of a lack of regular access to ICT outside of school.

A student’s attitude to ICT could also have a lot to do with their sense of self in the world. You would need to determine whether they dominate group activities or are they reticent? Do they persevere or give up easily? Use this information to help consider the makeup of groups for an ICT activity.

Cognitive capacity refers to the level of decision making a student has in terms of the use of ICT. Higher order skills forms a key part of ICT capability and a student’s awareness of the uses of ICT inside and outside of school will play a strong role in their cognitive abilities.

These are some of things that you could use to assess a student’s ICT capability in your lesson. However, here is what you need to know. In order to be able to use the Learning Continuum proficiently, first we’ve already covered you own ICT capability but you also need to know how to recognise progression.

Research indicates that progression in ICT capability demands that: • Students develop greater autonomy and confidence in their selection and use of information sources and tools; • Students are expected to develop into discerning users of ICT, with an increasing awareness of the benefits and limitations of the systems they use; • Students become able to present their ideas in an increasing variety of ways with a developing sense of audience; © ICTE Solutions Australia 2018

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• Students use ICT-based models of growing complexity for increasingly complex lines of enquiry involving progressively greater decision making and personal autonomy and; • Student ability to evaluate their own work grows, and they become progressively more able to discuss and appreciate social, economic, political, legal and ethical issues.

Using Australian Curriculum level descriptors in the Learning Continuum?

Progression in the ICT capability LC is to do with the ability of students to meet the criteria stated in each Level Descriptors. The levels that lie within Primary education include levels 1 to 4 with the expectation that students in Foundation Year at Level 1, Year 2 at Level 2, Year 4 at Level 3 and Year 6 at Level 4.

The Learning Continuum is not indicative of the other year levels and highlights gaps between the various years and the level of progression. Each level description is a ‘best fit’ description and not a tick box assessment. It will be up to you to decide the intermediate level of capability a student has between various levels.

For this reason, it is vital that you accurately determine their current level of capabilities in ICT whether it be a new student or current student. For example, a student Year 3 may be approaching Level 3 capabilities or be struggling and may have just surpassed Level 2 capabilities in ICT. It is for this reason, that the information pertained in the Learning Continuum would be best suited as key data to pass onto other teachers as a student changes classes, moves up a year level or changes schools.

However, the above paragraph highlights the significance of providing meaningful information to your colleagues. It would inappropriate of you to simply report that a student was functioning at Level 3, as this information is simply ‘best fit’ and the student might be functioning above or below that level in relation to one of the aspects.

There would be a lot more information required. For example, you would need to know more than just that a student could Use ICT as a creative tool to generate simple solutions, modifications or data representations for personal or school purposes; you would need to know in which media they had experienced in doing this.

Determine if it was with text as in a word processor, or with text and graphics like with a desktop publisher, and even with an image manipulation program (and if so, with a painting and/or drawing program). Know which program they had used (Potter & Darbyshire, 2005). To give this type of information to parents would be meaningless and this also includes the level descriptions.

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Text structure and organisation

Sub-strand

LEVEL 2 (End of Yeaer 2)

ICT Capability Critical and creative think-

Identify and safely operate a selected range of appropriate devices, software, functions and commands when operating an ICT system and attempt to solve a problem before seeking help

Understand that computer mediated communications may be received later by the receiver

Scroll bars;

•

Use spelling patterns

Make connections between text and images; • •

Understand concepts about print and screen; •

English: Students will be assessed on their ability to –

Inserting images either online or with ClipArt.

Table of contents;

•

•

Titles;

•

Use of Shift or Caps Lock keys

Headings;

•

•

Page numbering;

•

ICT Capability: Students will be assessed on their ability to demonstrate the following ICT techniques –

ASSESSMENTS/ACTIVITIES

ACHIEVEMENT STANDARD – Productive Mode (speaking, writing, and creating): Students create text that show understanding of the connection between writing, speech and images.

Understand that messages are recorded, viewed or sent in computer mediated communications for others to receive

Communicating with ICT Understand computer mediated communications

Identify and safely operate ICT systems to complete relevant simple specified tasks and seek help when encountering a problem

Managing and operating ICT Select and use hardware and software

LEVEL 1 (End of Foundation)

General Capabilities – Literacy Numeracy ing

Learning about how books and digital texts are organised including page numbers, table of contents, headings, images with captions and the use of scrolling to access digital texts.

Elaboration

General Capabilities - Literacy Numeracy ICT Capability

Understand concepts about print and screen, including how different types of texts are organised using page numbering, tables of content, headings and titles, navigation buttons, bars and links(ACELA1450).

LANGUAGE

Language

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS

STRAND

CONTENT DESCRIPTION

ICT CAPABILITY ELEMENTS

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Creating Literature

Sub-strand

Literature

LEVEL 2

Experiment with ICT as a creative tool to generate simple solutions, modifications or data representations for particular audiences or purposes

Use purposefully selected ICT tools safely to share and exchange information with appropriate local audiences

Understand that messages are recorded, viewed or sent in computer mediated communications for others to receive

Understand that computer mediated communications may be received later by the receiver

Understand computer mediated communications

Use purposefully selected ICT tools safely to view information shared by trusted adults

Communicating with ICT Collaborate, share and exchange

Use ICT as a creative tool to generate simple solutions, modifications or data representations for personal or school purposes

Creating with ICT Generate solutions to challenges and learning area tasks

LEVEL 1

General Capabilities – Literacy ICT Capability Critical and creative thinking

Retelling key events in stories using oral language, arts, digital technologies and performance media

Elaboration

General Capabilities - Literacy Critical and creative thinking ICT Capability

Recreate texts imaginatively using drawing, writing, performance and digital forms of communication (ACELT1586)

LITERATURE

CONTENT

STRAND

DESCRIPTION

ICT CAPABILITY ELEMENTS

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Inserting text.

•

Make connections between text and images; Use spelling patterns

• •

•

Use emails to insert an image or yourself or clasmates followed by a short text.

Activities:

Understand concepts about print and screen;

•

English: Students will be assessed on their ability to –

Use of any form of digital communication such as emails;

Inserting images either online or with ClipArt;

•

•

ICT Capability: Students will be assessed on their ability to demonstrate the following ICT techniques –

ASSESSMENTS/ACTIVITIES

cessing programs (ACELY1664)

Creating Text

Sub-strand

Literacy ASSESSMENTS/ACTIVITIES

LEVEL 2

Experiment with ICT as a creative tool to generate simple solutions, modifications or data representations for particular audiences or purposes

Use purposefully selected ICT tools safely to view information shared by trusted adults

Use purposefully selected ICT tools safely to share and exchange information with appropriate local audiences

Communicating with ICT Collaborate, share and exchange

Use ICT as a creative tool to generate simple solutions, modifications or data representations for personal or school purposes

Creating with ICT Generate solutions to challenges and learning area tasks

LEVEL 1

General Capabilities – Literacy ICT Capability Critical and creative thinking

Adding images to digital written communications such as emails with pictures of self, classmates or location.

Creating digital images and composing a story or information sequence on screen using images and captions.

Elaboration

General Capabilities - Literacy Critical and creative thinking ICT Capability Inserting text.

Use of any form of digital communication such as emails;

Use spelling patterns

Make connections between text and images; • •

Understand concepts about print and screen;

•

English: Students will be assessed on their ability to –

•

•

Create short imaginative and informative texts that show emerging use of appropriate text structure, sentence-level grammar, word choice, spelling, punctuation and appropriate multimodal elements, for example illustrations and diagrams (ACELY1661) ICT Capability: Students will be assessed on their ability to demonstrate the following ICT techniques – General Capabilities - Literacy Critical and creative thinking ICT Capability • Inserting images either online or with ClipArt; Construct texts that incorporate supporting images using software including word pro-

LITERACY

STRAND

CONTENT DESCRIPTION

ICT CAPABILITY ELEMENTS

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Managing and operating ICT

LEVEL 2 (End of Year 2)

Investigating with ICT

Identify and safely operate a selected range of appropriate devices, software, functions and commands when operating an ICT system and attempt to solve a problem before seeking help

Use icons to locate or generate required information

Locate information from a given set of digital sources

Locate, generate and access data and information

Identify and safely operate ICT systems to complete relevant simple specified tasks and seek help when encountering a problem

Select and use hardware and software

LEVEL 1 (End of Foundation)

Literacy (Cont.)

ICT TEACHING STRATEGIES In the classroom today, teachers need to do more than just expose students to ICT tools and resources in order to develop student ICT capability. Throughout the curriculum, there are ample opportunities for teachers to accomplish this. As a 21st century skill, ICT capability is best created when ICT is sitting transparently in the background of a subject context and is used to enhance its learning in a purposeful and meaningful context. It is essential that you intellectually challenge students in their use of ICT. Here are some points to remember: • Progression in ICT capability is facilitated through the broadening and elaborating context and ICT environments; • Use more sophisticated software in response to the demands of the task – the aim is to broaden and elaborate contexts and use more sophisticated software as a consequence of the increasing elaboration of curriculum context; • The student must find and overcome difficulties for learning to occur and; • Maintain an appropriate balance between the factors according the objectives of the activity.

Determining a Starting Point – How to assess existing capabilities?

Assessment is closely linked to forward planning and so if you intend to plan for the progression of ICT capability with students, it is vital that you have an appreciation of where the children are, where they ought to be and where they might be heading next.

In order to help your students develop their ICT capability begin by determining their starting point followed by accurate directions that will enable them to plot a course for success.

The assessment of ICT capability is vital as it will allow you to track progress and to plan appropriately for students to achieve their capabilities. Proper assessment will provide you with real evidence and knowledge of where the students are up to. Without it any planning conducted would be worthless.

Being able to determine the starting point of a student’s ICT capability is vital if you are to plan effectively for progression. Already we have discussed how planning and assessment are closely linked. When a new student comes into the classroom like literacy and numeracy their existing ICT capability needs to be determined. However, unlike other areas this may not be as straightforward as students rarely have a complete understanding but instead a series of connected ideas (Beauchamp, 2012).

As with pre-teaching assessment in Science (Summers et al., 1998 as cited in Beauchamp, 2012) a useful framework can be equally applied. When trying to establish an existing understanding with students you could look for: • Preconceptions – either a misconception, that is, a technical incorrect idea, or a partially understood technical idea; • Missing – a technical idea for which there was no evidence of any knowledge or understanding; • Knows – a technical idea of which the child demonstrated knowledge and understanding.

An idea would be to use a range of practical activities with no ICT and identify the level of the student’s understanding using questioning, written tests or practical tasks. In addition, you may also be able to decide the level of capability through class discussion. © ICTE Solutions Australia 2018

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It might also be a good idea to plan for a practice lesson so that you can observe and monitor their capabilities.

Planning Technology-Literacy Integration

Before you begin, it is important to set out your to maximise opportunities for learning to occur. The next step is to determine what you are going to teach. In this instance, the example I have provided comes from the portfolio example of the Australian Curriculum. It sets out the standards which you need to know. In addition, you need to determine your instructional objectives and have a clear sense of the ways in which the literacy objectives dovetail with the Australian Curriculum ICT capability objectives.

If you are teaching in a low resource setting in which there may only be one computer in the room. Depending on the nature of the task and of the software, in this case a word processor such as MS Word, you may need to divide a group of six students into two of lots of three and give them 10 minutes each. This could become the working group for the week and the class can be rotated. As a consequence you will need to plan other literacy work for students to do whilst they are waiting away from the computer.

Additionally, if you have access to a data projector and there is access to the carpet area, then students could be preparing small presentations on the learning objectives. An activity like this will further develop their higher order thinking skills.

The following two table may be of further assistance in your planning.

Activity 10 minute onscreen reinforcement of learning objective 10 minute onscreen search and replace, reinforcement of learning objective Collaborative work on presentation for the plenary about a particular learning objective.

Software Tutorial CD, focused aims, revision in a game-style environment.

Word processing

Literacy Vs. ICT potential High Literacy Low level ICT skills High literacy

Presentation software

Low level ICT skills High literacy

Word processing

High level ICT skills

Table 1. Plenary in a low resource setting (Potter, Sharpe, Turvey & Alllen, 2007) Activity Group activity reinforcing learning objective for 20 minutes

Software Three computers, tutorial software or word processing

Literacy Vs. ICT Potential High literacy Low level ICT skills (tutorial)

High level ICT skills (WP) Group activity on search and PDAs or laptops available for High literacy replace, guided writing group High level ICT skills Collaborative work through- Network room presentation High literacy out literacy lessons on learn- software, html editors etc. ing objective, used on the High level ICT skills interactive whiteboard and Word processing software, perhaps published online on Authoring templates providthe school website ed by the online supplier

Table 2. Plenary for a High level resource setting (Potter, Sharpe, Turvey & Allen, 2007) Š ICTE Solutions Australia 2018

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Introducing new software and techniques to students

The effective use of ICT in activities demands higher order skills and so students need to recognise when the use of ICT might be appropriate for a task. To achieve this, start by discussing what can it do and how it might be achieved. You might want to discuss with them: Where there have seen this software before; how was it used etc.

By implementing this methodology you will be helping them to develop autonomy. It involves giving them the right knowledge they need in order to select the appropriate tools and resources for the solution.

A good example of how to develop autonomous learners would be to discuss with students the different software available. It doesn’t mean to go into great detail but share with them what they are, what they are mostly used for and then go further and explore various key features of them and question students as where and why these features would be used.

In primary education, students love to show their creative side and if given the chance they would choose a particular software that they would think will demonstrate their creativity the most. For example, if you ask to write a report on something some may choose PowerPoint over MS Word. The latter is the one you want them to use as reports are typically documented and Word has the features and functions to enable this better.

It is best teach ICT techniques when the task provided a suitable context. Provide extra practice in routines when necessary to supplement the work in context.

Student Planning and Evaluating (Higher Order Skills) By year 3 or perhaps year 4, students may be able to begin to plan and evaluate their own work in relation to ICT. Along with displaying your own enthusiasm towards the use of ICT to help with the development of the students’, they also have to articulate their thoughts about the opportunities, processes and strategies which they have experienced. This could be in the form of verbal, written or email and must be interactive.

Students should consolidate their thoughts in the end through reflecting formally on their ICT learning. If we encourage students to reflect on the use of techniques across contexts and situations, they are more likely to generate principles, ideas and strategies that are widely applicable.

In terms of processes, the particular techniques and the sequence are not fully determined by the goal, and the user needs an understanding of both the goal and the tools available in order to make appropriate choices. Sometimes the choice made will not produce the desired effect, and a different technique will be tried.

Reflection on this mistake will lead to learning which improves the user’s ability to make an appropriate choice in the future.

Concepts are developed through verbalisation of activities and by reflection on experience – particularly experience which is carefully structured. As a teacher it is important that you model the decision making process to students. If you model the techniques of strategic planning by thinking out loud in front of students, you will demonstrate to them the questions that might arise during the process.

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Finally, involve the students socially in planning, monitoring, evaluating and reflecting through whole-class teaching.

Building on experiences from home

Digital natives such as this generation of students use a computer with increasing confidence and competence in their own homes. For this reason, teachers should build on their ICT experiences in order to gain most from their ICT work at school. Ensure that: • Student activities are interesting to them; • Activities are structured in such a way to stimulate understanding that may be difficult for them to achieve unaided; • You appreciate the nature of children’s ICT work at home; • You provide opportunities both inside and outside of the lesson for children who do not have home access to ICT facilities.

Stimulating and Structuring Activities To capitalise on home use of ICT ensure that: • • • •

You set clear objectives; Activities are structured; You set high expectations of students in terms of ICT use; You have an appreciation of any problems likely to experienced and have planned strategies to deal with them.

Use the following teaching method: • Whole class briefing on the context of the activity; • Detailed explanation to each group when they were ready to work on the activity; • Careful choice of pairs to work on the computer in turn; • A review of the key points with the group afterwards.

Also it is best to work the whole class or group beforehand to clarify your expectations, focus their attention on the activity, and generate ideas and to conduct the demonstration of ICT techniques.

Research (Kennewell et al., 2000) also indicates that it is best to identify to the students when it is the most appropriate to plan their work on paper first so that they had a clear view of what they intended to do. It highlighted how important learning activities need to be introduced by explanation and questioning of students, and then concluded with further questioning and a reflection activity that clearly summarises what they had learned.

Monitoring Student Progress

It is important to monitor student progress on computers for two reasons: 1. It is common for students to appear to be usefully occupied with the activity when in fact they are working very inefficiently and failing to exploit the potential of ICT; 2. Because of the richness of the resource, students may divert from the intended task without it being obvious from their behaviour.

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What should you monitor?

ICT capability is made up of five components that each should be monitored. These include: • Routines – Definition: the ease and speed by which ICT techniques are carried out. For each year level, have a checklist of techniques available that each student should be able to use routinely. Keep this checklist up-to-date according to the software and hardware available. If students struggle with a routine then extra practice is needed; ICT Techniques – Definition: a skill that has not become a routine yet. In this case, they can be carried out using the affordances on the screen (icons, menus) or with the help of adults or peers (Kennewell et al., 2000). Have a checklist for each class ready in order to keep track of each students’ confidence in ICT techniques – Give students who need help the minimum amount of support and then withdraw the support as soon as possible; • Processes – Definition: made up of several ICT techniques. Students need to have an understanding of the relevant concepts needed in order to make decisions about which ICT techniques are appropriate for the task. It is essential that they are not given step-by-step tasks so that you as a teacher can let them try out their ideas, and intervene when they fail to make the expected approach. As with ICT techniques, the minimum amount of support should be provided. Structure the activity with questioning, prompting and demonstrating if necessary. Then withdraw the support as soon as possible. Note: If a student uses a desktop publisher to produce a poster or a spreadsheet, you cannot use a checklist. Instead, your description of how a student understood a process should include the way a student approached a task and the level of support they received. You could then use the level description that best matches the approach to the task in the ICT capability Learning Continuum and record the level of support given; • Higher order skills – Definition: level of decision-making a student has during a process. There are three ways you can aid their development: 1. Model the techniques of strategic planning by thinking out aloud in front of the students to highlight the questions that might be asked during a process; 2. Give the students responsibility for planning a task and then coach them by asking them focusing questions at intervals to guide students towards a viable plan; 3. Involve the students socially in planning, monitoring, evaluating and reflecting through whole class teaching.

Teacher Intervention

Intervening in a student’s ICT activity can go a long way towards developing their higher order skills.

Ensure that you: • • • •

Use focusing questions in the form of generalisations to help students in the formation of generalisations; Split the task into stages if it is complex or if you are teaching a low-ability class; Only explain the next stage when a number of students have completed the current task; Plan particular points in the lesson when you will stop the class to review what they have done and explain the next stage.

In planning consider – • Planned points to explain or demonstrate something which was not appropriate at the start or perhaps question students about what they are doing; • Unplanned points for when a student has a problem. It would help if you can predict these difficulties; • Intervening to drive the pace of the work forward or even setting more specific targets.

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Scaffolding and Affordances

Affordances in relation to ICT basically means the opportunities provided to the student by the technology is support of the task, the social support provided by the teacher or any other adult and also the contextual support provided by the setting in which the activity occurs (Kennewell et al., 2000).

Scaffolding may also be provided by the technology itself in lessons using ICT. However, there must be a gap to bridge between the student’s abilities and the requirements of the problem situation if learning is to occur. This gap can be reduced if you add to the affordances of the environment e.g. providing an information sheet to assist in the use of the software or a clear demonstration using the data projector.

Arrange the following conditions: • On the basis of the student’s current abilities, the affordances are insufficient for the learner to complete the set task; • Adjust the affordances of the learning environment to reduce the gap sufficiently for the students to be able to bridge it with effort; • Student’s abilities change as a result of the experience.

(Kennewell et al., 2000) To encourage the use of higher order skills and understanding ensure that the affordances of the planning, monitoring and evaluating the activity is not too great.

The predominant source of learning for each ICT capability component are: • Routine – through practice; • ICT techniques – copying a teacher, peer or trial and error; • Concepts – through verbalisation of activities and by reflection on experience; • Processes – supported combination of ICT techniques into multistage procedures in a range of problem situations, with an increasing degree of personal autonomy and active involvement on the behalf of the student; • Higher order skills – developed in an environment which encourages exploration when opportunities are presented to decide which software to use and how to use it, to make plans, to monitor progress through an extended and evaluate and reflect on solutions made by ICT. (Kennewell et al., 2000)

Assessing ICT capability

If you wish to assess your students’ ICT capability I recommend that of which Kennewell et al. (2000, p.99) states: • Devise methods of enabling the students to monitor and record their own progress e.g. self-assessment sheets; • Question students and ask them how they went about a task; • Set occasional prescribed challenges e.g. Can you write a caption and print it out for me?

• Make use of well briefed parent helpers to work exclusively with children at the computer, recording the the amount of help each child received; • Vary pairings to see how children work with other partners; • Encourage children to save their first drafts as well as their final drafts of each piece of ICT work.

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OVERCOMING DIFFICULTIES IN THE CLASSROOM

Students don’t need to be sitting on a computer to develop their ICT capability. The first bit of advice is that if you can get a hold of your school technician before the lesson starts, ask the person to check to make sure that all hardware and software in the classroom is operational. It is even a good strategy to request their presence at the beginning of the lesson so that if anything goes wrong they can sort it out for you straight away. What if this isn’t a possibly? What happens then?

It wouldn’t surprise you that the most commonly used software in the classroom is MS Word. Along with other generic software used in schools it presents you as a teacher with a fantastic opportunity to develop student ICT capability. Each program allows students to practice techniques which is part but not all of what makes up ICT capability. The good news is when it comes to facing technical problems in the classroom is that students don’t need to be sitting at a computer to be able to develop their capabilities. Having a contingency plan is essential in this circumstance. Here is what you can do. Firstly, it is important to plan and seek every opportunity to develop each component of ICT capability and there are five of them.

Secondly, as the generic software mentioned earlier comes with many different concepts and techniques, you can plan a whole class or group discussion about the concepts behind the skills. Ensure that you challenge any inappropriate and naïve ideas about using ICT tools. It would also involve planning questions that will help develop their higher order skills. Finally, provide students with the opportunity to reflect on their ICT learning.

ORGANISING THE CLASSROOM

As every school and classroom is different in terms of classroom ICT resources there are a number of ways for you to organise your classroom in order to continue student learning in literacy and language.

Low Resource Settings

I will begin with discussing the best practices of you to use in the weakest of the settings – low resource.

With more and more schools enjoying their rollout of technology in the classroom, this type of setting is becoming far less common. However, they still exist and can also pertain in a school when a network room or set of laptops is out of use or block booked by another teacher!

If your classroom has a single computer in it that is shared by at least 30 students (hopefully not that big!), here is the first strategy you will need to implement. It is a good idea if you can to bring the computer in an area where it can be seen by everyone. Of course, this may not be physically possible and so you can overcome this barrier by borrowing areas big enough to do so elsewhere in the school. Using a whole-class demonstration of the software is essential at this point and it would help if you spend time the software to fully understand it yourself as the students may not have encountered it before.

What you are aiming for here is to allow the computer to become part of the general resource provision.

Research shows that a “question-and-answer” style of teaching lends itself to this type of circumstance.

Students need to be able to contribute in these discussions even if they are providing tips to their peers. As a teacher, discuss with them the difficulties that they may experience with familiarising themselves with the onscreen layout of the particular software. To enhance your whole-class sessions, follow this advice provided by Allen et al. (2012) 18-31: • Ask the children to discover during the session, and then report back on, different ways of doing the same thing. In a writing program for example, how can they make text appear in a different font size or colour?

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• • •

• • •

print’, in order to avoid the inevitable heartache which arises when a document gets lost; As is the case with all good primary practice, and down with the answer (don’t favour the loud over the quiet); Do not allow one gender or group of children to dominate; Stress the team-building aspects of sharing strategies so that they/we can all use the computer efficiently and safely. Involve children in a discussion about safety – monitor position, length of time, seating and so on; Value what children contribute even when it is patently wrong. Help them to discover a better way constructively (e.g. ‘That’s a good suggestion but …’); Draw on children’s experience of ICT at home or in other community settings; Along with this you need to ensure that students learn how to take responsibility for their electronic forms of work. Show them how to save and retrieve their work and the importance of backing up their work. This is a significant concept that students make remember and it needs to be done as children progress through school. A strategy like this can be taught from the early age.

Lastly, in a low resource setting establishing and maintaining a rota can be crucial to ensure equality of access and of opportunity in the classroom. Rotas should not be set in stone as the acquisition of ICT skills is a dynamic process that is always changing.

High Resource Settings

High resource settings in schools means of course a lot more ICT tools and resources to choose from. Despite this, it is not surprising that many of the strategies used in low resource settings can be applied here too. So the following is a list of extra strategies to ponder about if needed.

If your school falls within this setting then it is likely that you will able to share the experience of the lesson using a large screen display with children. It could be either in the form of a large monitor, projector, screen or even what most schools double up its use of is interactive whiteboards. However, if your school doesn’t have a display like this then children can sit in front of the monitors. By observing fellow teachers, you may be able to pick up other strategies to overcome any difficulties encountered.

The availability of many computers in a room can also sometimes create problems. To avoid any pushing and shoving in the classroom when children are deciding on where to sit, remind them that they don’t have to sit at the same computer every week. It is great plan of action to proactively do the same about the importance of their passwords. Allen et al. (2012) outlines some other classroom practices: • Whole-class logon with the same username and password into a general area on the network for that class.

• Children with a unique username and password.

• Children with group logon names and passwords.

Logging into and out of computers is a very important process and children should be taught to do so by themselves. Index cards can contain all the passwords and usernames and it can be handed to children at the beginning of lessons and collected at the end.

Whole-class demonstrations as I stated earlier in this course is an excellent way to assess student capabilities. So it should always take place and be for a sensible length of time. By doing this it allows the children to make the best use of time available. Children make a significant contribution to the whole-class under© ICTE Solutions Australia 2018

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standing of ICT skills and its development.

Mobile learning is becoming common these days and so you need to take into account things like battery life, ownership, sharing and storing as some examples. Integrating technology into classroom work can be much simpler in these circumstances.

Regardless of the level of resource you have available at your school it is important that you make the most out of every opportunity. Being a role model in the use of technology in the classroom is vital in primary education in particular as it sets the experience of learning with technology throughout their education.

Remember that the effectiveness of a technology-based unit of work depends on how well you plan.

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LESSON PLANS The lesson plans which follow are derived from the context of the Australian Curriculum where the general capability - ICT Capability - is located. It is important to note, however, that within the curriculum there are in fact a number of ways to integrate ICT and teach ICT capability. The first is to do as such and use the opportunities presented. Secondly, if opportunities do not arise then teachers can create them themselves so long as the appropriate time arises and that suitable software is selected for student use. Please remember, that students will only develop their ICT capability if they are provided with the opportunities to use more intellectually challenging content-free software such as word processors, coding programs, databases and graphic and graphing programs where the students’ level of decision-making and control is high.

ICT Capability in the Australian Curriculum Context

In the Australian English Curriculum for this particular year level, students are created to Create and Construct text in the following context.

• Imaginatively (narrative); • Informatively.

Students are also required to develop their ICT capability when they Retell/Recount the key events of a story.

Literacy Development

The lesson plans included in this teaching resource only cover the ICT capability context of literacy development. Therefore, it is important that before implementing these in the classroom that you do further literacy activities and development based on the context provided in the Australian Curriculum. Lesson plans here can be implemented to further develop student literacy with the use of ICT at the completion of previous excercise and only when the teacher deems that the student has progressed to the level required and set by the work program devised.

How to use the Activity Planning Sheets

Planning and assessment are so closely related that is best that they are addressed together. As assessment is closely linked to forward planning, we have put together activity planning sheets that will not only save you time in your planning but also ensure that each aspect supports the other.

An activity planning sheet sets out what to look for in a student’s work as well as specifying the nature and purpose of the activity. Records like this can be used: • By principals, deputy principals and ICT coordinators to monitor the implementation of ICT across the school; • To assist the teacher in future planning; • To inform the teacher of the next year group of what has been covered; • To inform supply teachers; • To show any discrepancies between what was taught and what was actually planned.

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DATE:

/

/

.

SUBJECT: ENGLISH

IMAGINATIVE TEXT Recounting or retelling key events of a story LEARNING CONTINUUM ELEMENTS: ICT CAPABILITY Literature Communicating with ICT •

Understand computer mediated communications

Creating with ICT •

Generate ideas, plans and processes

Previous Lesson Students listened to a story called

.

Lesson Overview In this lesson, students will be working on the ICT capability component of the activity where they will be retelling (recounting) key events in the story using digital technologies. The use of the term ‘digital technologies’ in the curriculum context leaves the choice of software open to the teacher’s own choice. It may include software such as MS PowerPoint, MS Photostory, iMovie, Movie Maker and MS Word or other word processors like Google Docs and Pages for iPads. Being not software specific there is a wide range of ICT techniques that students can learn depending on the software. The software which the students will be using is MS Word or Pages on iPads. A third option would be to use Google Docs.

Learning needs of the students In terms of student ICT capability learning needs, the Australian Curriculum highlights the following capabilities: Page numbering; Table of contents; Headings; Inserting digital images Inserting captions; Find, locate and start a word processing program Keyboarding skills such as using Shift and Caps Lock keys for capital letters, locating the full stop.

Spell checker use.

Despite, this, it would be necessary to conduct a pre-lesson to determine the level of ICT capability at the time. Student learning needs will be primarily based on this assessment.

Grouping/timing Students will be grouped according to the: Differences in ICT capability- a less capable with a more capable student; Sex – Single sex pairs or mixed pairs (boy and girl) Nature of ICT activity – both students will collaborate on the one outcome or assist each other with their individual pieces of work Personalities – dominant personalities will be paired together.

Resources

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What resources are available to you? You will need: • Computer or laptop; • Microsoft Word, Google Docs or Pages for iPad Theoretical Context The benefits of using ICT to support the processes of improving writing extends across the curriculum.

The major benefit of word-processing is the possibility of redrafting. While text is on the screen it is fluid and malleable and it can be changed in any way without leaving a trace. This presents a zone of possibility to the writer, and has already had enormous impact on the way a writer operates in creating texts.

The most obvious implication for teaching and learning is that children can benefit most from this ‘creative space’ of the word-processor in the initial stages of writing – when they are collecting and shaping ideas.

ICT Teaching Strategies • Have high expectations of your students in terms of ICT capability; • Structure your activities appropriately; • Work with the whole class or group beforehand to clarify your expectations – focus their attention on what they are going to do, generate ideas about how they might go about it and demonstrate any new techniques involved; • Identify to the students when it is helpful to plan their work first on paper; • Introduce the learning activity through explanation and questioning of students. Conclude by further questioning and a summary of what has been achieved; Monitoring and Intervening • Plan any interventions during the activity at a stage when students meet a need for relevant knowledge. Students can see you when they have reached a particular stage; Each of the ICT capability components should be monitored. These include routines, ICT techniques, concepts, processes and especially HOS. How to monitor?

Routines – ease and speed by which ICT techniques are carried out. Use a brief checklist of ICT techniques that students should be able to use routinely.

ICT techniques – have a checklist and give those students who need help the minimum amount of support. This support should be withdrawn as soon as possible.

Processes – these are made up of several ICT techniques. Students need to work on the task (ensure that it is not set up step-by-step), so to make sure that you can let them try out new ideas and observe their approach and intervene when they fail to make the expected progress. Minimum level of support should be given – structure the activity by questioning, prompting and showing if necessary. Withdraw as much support as possible to see what the student can do unaided.

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This should be described by the way in which they approached the task and the support that they need.

Higher Order Skills – these enable the student to carry out complete processes themselves when the scaffolding provided by the teacher is removed.

1. Model the techniques of strategic planning by thinking out loud in front of students to show the students what questions what might be asked during the process.

2. Give a groups of students responsibility of planning a task and coach them by asking them focusing questions at intervals to guide students towards a viable plan.

3. Involve the students socially in planning, monitoring, evaluating and reflecting through whole class teaching.

Your own learning needs (Are there any concepts that you need to revise and review before teaching?)

Organisational Memory Jogger Things to organise include: • Passwords; • Availability of computers; • Maybe keys to computer lab.

Information for Teacher Aides/Adult Helpers • Listen to what students to say and encourage them to share their ideas; • Help the children to understand that it is acceptable to try out their ideas and make mistakes; • Give the students time to work out their answers; • Take every opportunity to praise students’ success when completing the activity or developing a computer skill.

Learning Objectives For ICT Capability: The key idea that ICT can be used to improve text and make a message clearer by means of onscreen editing. Learning deleting and inserting text to improve readability.

For English: Students will be required to retell the key events of the story using drawing, writing and digital forms of communication. Students will need to create texts that show understanding of the connection between writing, speech and images.

Other:

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Differentiation (Answer the following questions) What do you expect different members of the class to achieve in terms of their different ability levels?

How will you help children who are experiencing difficulties with ICT?

How will you develop further the skills, knowledge and understanding of the most able in the class?

What do you expect the majority to have achieved by the end of the lesson?

Learning Needs – English as an additional language The strategies that I will use include: -

Partnering the children appropriately according to the language needed to access the activity;

-

Allow some pairs to work at the same computer if they are experiencing difficulties;

- Check and re-check understanding of task.

Learning Needs – SEN students Possible strategies include: • Peer tutoring; • Use printouts to help with the sequence of events; • Make step-by-step cards; • Enlist the help from other students; • Consider any minor adjustments to the existing activity; • Use the never-ending activity e.g. beebots.

• Set challenges.

Assessment Opportunities – ICT capability Students will be assessed on their capabilities to: • Operate a computer; • Logging on and off their portal; • Using a keyboard - Using Shift key or Caps Lock to create capital letters; • Creating/inserting images.

• English:

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Key Questions Questions will be asked when it comes time to intervene and they will be in the form of focusing questions to assist students in the formation of generalisations. Interventions are also planned during the activity when students meet a need for the relevant knowledge. The planned interventions will be in addition to the unplanned interventions.

Possible structured questions that focus on the process used: • What key would you press?

• Where is the key?

• How would you create a new line?

• Why is there a squiggly line under the word?

• What key do you press to leave a space between the words?

Suggested Lesson Format Whole class teaching is best for the demonstration of techniques.

1. Whole class teaching on the context and the activity; 2. Detailed explanation to each group when they were ready to work on the activity; 3. Careful choice of pairs to work on the computer in turn; 4. A review of key points with the group afterwards 10 minutes: Opening with demonstration at the IWB. Invite some participation from the children. Ask questions.

Check and re-check understanding of the task. Share the learning objectives with the children.

25 minutes: Group 1 at the computers, Group 2 at the tables. Allow pairing of children where appropriate and supportive.

5 minutes: Change over and recap on purpose of the activity.

25 minutes: Group 2 at the computers, Group 1 at the tables. Allow pairing of children where appropriate and supportive.

10 minutes: Whole class discussion with contributions/questions from children. Allow the IWB. Remember to allow for questions from across the ability range.

WRITE YOUR OWN HERE

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Activity Planning Sheet

Year 1 Subject: English/ICT/literacy

ICT Capability Learning Continuum Communicating with ICT Creating with ICT

Topic: Retelling key events of a story Activity: Students will use MS Word or Pages as a word processor to draft/redraft and improve their writing of the key events of a particular story. They will learn how to turn the computer on (if necessary), log on and off their portal using their username and passwords, to locate and open a software application, use the keyboard to locate keys and use the Shift key or Caps Lock key to create capital letters. Also, they will learn how to use the Enter key to start a new line and to save their work into their folders.

Advanced students will have the time to learn how to find and locate the Insert tab in order to select Shapes and format them appropriately using colour, effects and outlines.

Grouping: For students who are EAL or SEN that may work better as a pairs otherwise students can work individually.

Assessment: Independent management of work. Appropriate use of Caps Lock and Shift keys. Appropriate use of font/style/colour of text. Use of Shape formats like effects, colour and outline. Overall use of the keyboard.

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DATE: SUBJECT: ENGLISH

Character’s Thoughts and Feelings Learning Continuum Elements: ICT Capability Literate – Communicating with ICT •

Understand computer mediated communications

•

Collaborate, share and exchange

Creating with ICT •

Generate solutions to challenges and learning area tasks

Previous Lesson – Character Reflection In the previous lesson, students listened to and discussed a particular story. They were then ask to write a short text describing a character’s feelings and thought as part of their English/literacy development. It should have included details about the character’s personal preferences. Students also completed a diary entry as if they were that character.

Lesson Overview – Redraft of Character Reflection Students who have completed their draft of the character description can begin to redraft/rewrite their work using a word processor such as MS Word in the computer lab or on the classroom computer. If iPads or laptops are available, students may also use the MS Word app or even the Pages app to do this activity. In this lesson, they will extend their literacy learning to learn how to improve their writing as part of the General Capability ICT capability.

Learning needs of the students In terms of student ICT capability learning needs, the Australian Curriculum highlights the following capabilities: •

Page numbering;

•

Table of contents;

•

Headings;

•

Inserting digital images

•

Inserting captions;

•

Find, locate and start a word processing program

•

Keyboarding skills such as using Shift and Caps Lock keys for capital letters, locating the full stop.

•

Spell checker use.

Despite this, it would be necessary to conduct a pre-lesson to determine the level of ICT capability at the time. Student learning needs will be primarily based on this assessment.

In terms of literacy learning needs, students will have needed to have completed their previous draft of a character’s thoughts and feelings on paper after which they had completed any other activities.

-

Know about responding from a character’s point of view – first person;

-

Spelling patterns

-

Elaborating on sentences.

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Grouping/timing Students will be grouped according to the: Differences in ICT capability- a less capable with a more capable student; Sex – Single sex pairs or mixed pairs (boy and girl) Nature of ICT activity – both students will collaborate on the one outcome or assist each other with their individual pieces of work Personalities – dominant personalities will be paired together.

Resources What resources are available to you? You will need: • Computer, laptop or iPad (or other tablet computer); • Microsoft Word • Other software – Pages for iPad or any other word processing program.

Theoretical Context – ICT Capability The benefits of using ICT to support the processes of improving writing extends across the curriculum.

The major benefit of word-processing is the possibility of redrafting. While text is on the screen it is fluid and malleable and it can be changed in any way without leaving a trace. This presents a zone of possibility to the writer, and has already had enormous impact on the way a writer operates in creating texts.

The most obvious implication for teaching and learning is that children can benefit most from this ‘creative space’ of the word-processor in the initial stages of writing – when they are collecting and shaping ideas.

ICT Teaching Strategies • Have high expectations of your students in terms of ICT capability; •

Structure your activities appropriately;

•

Work with the whole class or group beforehand to clarify your expectations – focus their attention on what they are going to do, generate ideas about how they might go about it and demonstrate any new techniques involved;

•

Identify to the students when it is helpful to plan their work first on paper;

•

Introduce the learning activity through explanation and questioning of students. Conclude by further questioning and a summary of what has been achieved;

Monitoring and Intervening Plan any interventions during the activity at a stage when students meet a need for relevant knowledge.

Students can see you when they have reached a particular stage; Each of the ICT capability components should be monitored. These include routines, ICT techniques, concepts, processes and especially HOS. How to monitor?

Routines – ease and speed by which ICT techniques are carried out. Use a brief checklist of ICT techniques that students should be able to use routinely.

ICT techniques – have a checklist and give those students who need help the minimum amount of support. This support should be withdrawn as soon as possible.

Processes – these are made up of several ICT techniques. Students need to work on the task (ensure that it is not set up step-by-step), so to make sure that you can let them try out new ideas and observe their approach and intervene when they fail to make the expected progress. Minimum level of support should be given – structure the activity by questioning, prompting and showing if necessary. Withdraw as much support as possible to see what the student can do unaided.

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This should be described by the way in which they approached the task and the support that they need.

Higher Order Skills – these enable the student to carry out complete processes themselves when the scaffolding provided by the teacher is removed.

1. Model the techniques of strategic planning by thinking out loud in front of students to show the students what questions what might be asked during the process.

2. Give a groups of students responsibility of planning a task and coach them by asking them focusing questions at intervals to guide students towards a viable plan.

3. Involve the students socially in planning, monitoring, evaluating and reflecting through whole class teaching.

Your own learning needs (Are there any ICT concepts that you need to revise and review before teaching?)

Organisational Memory Jogger Things to organise include: • Passwords; • Availability of computers/iPads/laptops • Maybe keys to computer lab.

Information for Teacher Aides/Adult Helpers • Listen to what students to say and encourage them to share their ideas; • Help the children to understand that it is acceptable to try out their ideas and make mistakes; • Give the students time to work out their answers; • Take every opportunity to praise students’ success when completing the activity or developing a computer skill.

Learning Objectives For ICT Capability: The key idea that ICT can be used to improve text and make a message clearer by means of onscreen editing. Learning deleting and inserting text to improve readability.

For English: The key concept of full stops and capital letters to create sentences and improve sense and understanding of writing. Responses from a character’s point of view using ‘first person’. Accurate and elaborated sentences that provide details.

Differentiation

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How will I help children who are experiencing difficulties with ICT?

How will I develop further the skills, knowledge and understanding of the most able in the class?

How will I ensure an appropriate level of challenge for all ability groups? How will you support specific needs?

Learning Needs – English as an additional language The strategies that I will use include: -

Partnering the children appropriately according to the language needed to access the activity;

-

Allow some pairs to work at the same computer if they are experiencing difficulties;

- Check and re-check understanding of task.

Learning Needs – SEN students Possible strategies include: • Peer tutoring; • Use printouts to help with the sequence of events; • Make step-by-step cards; • Enlist the help from other students; • Consider any minor adjustments to the existing activity; • Use the never-ending activity e.g. beebots.

• Set challenges.

Assessment Opportunities ICT Capability – Students will be assessed on their capabilities to: • Operate a computer; • Logging on and off their portal; • Using a keyboard - Using Shift key or Caps Lock to create capital letters; Creating/inserting images; Full stop key used.

• Locate and open MS Word; • Save draft(s) – it is an idea to get students to save multiple drafts naming them differently so to determine student progress in activity.

• Print redraft for portfolio.

English/Literacy – Students will be assessed on their capabilities to: -

Respond from a character’s point of view e.g. “I like….”, “I don’t like….”

-

Writes legibly joining some upper and lower case letters correctly;

-

Spells some words with regular spelling patterns e.g. like, play, bake etc

-

Uses sound and letter knowledge to attempt unfamiliar words e.g. “dowing” (doing) and “vere” (very).

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Key Questions Questions will be asked when it comes time to intervene and they will be in the form of focusing questions to assist students in the formation of generalisations. Interventions are also planned during the activity when students meet a need for the relevant knowledge. The planned interventions will be in addition to the unplanned interventions.

Some questions for ICT development, differentiated according to ability, might include: Which keys do you use to delete or rub out words? (Lower) How do you change letters from lower case to upper case?

(Lower/Middle) How do you move around in the text and/or how do you place the cursor where you want it to go? (Middle) Do you know a quick way to locate the word ‘and’ in the text? (Higher) Possible structured questions that focus on the process used: • Where is the Shift key? Where is the Caps Lock key? Where is the Full Stop key?

• What key would you press to create a new line?

• Why is there a squiggly line under the word?

• How would you check the spelling of a word?

• What key do you press to leave a space between the words?

Suggested Lesson Format Whole class teaching is best for the demonstration of ICT techniques.

10 minutes: Opening with demonstration at the IWB. Invite some participation from the children. Ask questions. Check and re-check understanding of the task. Share the learning objectives with the children.

25 minutes: Group 1 at the computers, Group 2 at the tables. Allow pairing of children where appropriate and supportive.

5 minutes: Change over and recap on purpose of the activity.

25 minutes: Group 2 at the computers, Group 1 at the tables. Allow pairing of children where appropriate and supportive.

10 minutes: Whole class discussion with contributions/questions from children. Allow the IWB. Remember to allow for questions from across the ability range.

WRITE YOUR OWN FORMAT HERE 

Evaluate the lesson (operational issues, learning outcomes, next lesson)

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Activity Planning Sheet

Year 1 Subject: English/ICT/literacy

ICT Capability Learning Continuum Communicating with ICT Creating with ICT

Topic: Character thoughts and feelings Activity: Students will use MS Word or Pages as a word processor to draft/redraft and improve their draft writing of the character’s feelings and thoughts. They will learn how to turn the computer on (if necessary), log on and off their portal using their username and passwords, to locate and open a software application, use the keyboard to locate keys and use the Shift key or Caps Lock key to create capital letters.

Also, they will learn how to use the Enter key to start a new line and to save their work into their folders.

Advanced students will have the time to learn how to find and locate the Insert tab in order to select Shapes and format them appropriately using colour, effects and outlines.

Grouping: For students who are EAL or SEN that may work better as a pairs otherwise students can work individually.

Assessment: Independent management of work. Appropriate use of Caps Lock and Shift keys. Appropriate use of font/style/colour of text. Use of Shape formats like effects, colour and outline. Overall use of the keyboard.

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Date:

/

/

.

Subject: English

Informative Text

Learning Continuum Elements: ICT Capability Literacy – Managing and operating ICT •

Select and use hardware and software

Previous Lesson – Informative Texts Students read and viewed a series of information text about . They compared information texts and imaginative texts. After that, students wrote an informational text about , and included a labelled illustration (as seen in the Above Satisfactory work example in the Australian Curriculum).

Lesson Overview – Informative Texts In this lesson, students will redraft their informational text about , using a word processor as stated in the curriculum context. The word processor which they will use will be MS Word or if using an iPad or other tablet computer, Pages. Instead of drawing a labelled diagram students can use the ClipArt or insert an Online Picture about . In addition to learning about information texts, they will learn valuable ICT techniques in relation to word processing.

Learning needs of the students In terms of student ICT capability learning needs, the Australian Curriculum highlights the following capabilities: •

Page numbering;

•

Table of contents;

•

Headings;

•

Inserting digital images

•

Inserting captions;

•

Find, locate and start a word processing program

•

Keyboarding skills such as using Shift and Caps Lock keys for capital letters, locating the full stop.

•

Spell checker use.

Despite, this, it would be necessary to conduct a pre-lesson to determine the level of ICT capability at the time. Student learning needs will be primarily based on this assessment.

Grouping/timing Students will be grouped according to the: •

Differences in ICT capability- a less capable with a more capable student;

•

Sex – Single sex pairs or mixed pairs (boy and girl)

•

Nature of ICT activity – both students will collaborate on the one outcome or assist each other with their individual pieces of work

•

Personalities – dominant personalities will be paired together

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Resources What resources are available to you? You will need: • Computer, laptop or iPad (or other tablet computer); • Microsoft Word or Google Docs • Other software – Pages for iPad or any other word processing program.

Theoretical Context The benefits of using ICT to support the processes of improving writing extends across the curriculum.

The major benefit of word-processing is the possibility of redrafting. While text is on the screen it is fluid and malleable and it can be changed in any way without leaving a trace. This presents a zone of possibility to the writer, and has already had enormous impact on the way a writer operates in creating texts.

The most obvious implication for teaching and learning is that children can benefit most from this ‘creative space’ of the word-processor in the initial stages of writing – when they are collecting and shaping ideas.

ICT Teaching Strategies • Have high expectations of your students in terms of ICT capability; • Structure your activities appropriately; • Work with the whole class or group beforehand to clarify your expectations – focus their attention on what they are going to do, generate ideas about how they might go about it and demonstrate any new techniques involved; • Identify to the students when it is helpful to plan their work first on paper; • Introduce the learning activity through explanation and questioning of students. Conclude by further questioning and a summary of what has been achieved; Monitoring and Intervening • Plan any interventions during the activity at a stage when students meet a need for relevant knowledge. Students can see you when they have reached a particular stage; Each of the ICT capability components should be monitored. These include routines, ICT techniques, concepts, processes and especially HOS. How to monitor?

Routines – ease and speed by which ICT techniques are carried out. Use a brief checklist of ICT techniques that students should be able to use routinely.

ICT techniques – have a checklist and give those students who need help the minimum amount of support. This support should be withdrawn as soon as possible.

Processes – these are made up of several ICT techniques. Students need to work on the task (ensure that it is not set up step-by-step), so to make sure that you can let them try out new ideas and observe their approach and intervene when they fail to make the expected progress. Minimum level of support should be given – structure the activity by questioning, prompting and showing if necessary. Withdraw as much support as possible to see what the student can do unaided.

This should be described by the way in which they approached the task and the support that they need.

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Higher Order Skills – these enable the student to carry out complete processes themselves when the scaffolding provided by the teacher is removed.

1. Model the techniques of strategic planning by thinking out loud in front of students to show the students what questions what might be asked during the process.

2. Give a groups of students responsibility of planning a task and coach them by asking them focusing questions at intervals to guide students towards a viable plan.

3. Involve the students socially in planning, monitoring, evaluating and reflecting through whole class teaching.

Your own learning needs (Are there any concepts that you need to revise and review before teaching?)

Organisational Memory Jogger Things to organise include: • Passwords; • Availability of computers; • Maybe keys to computer lab.

Information for Teacher Aides/Adult Helpers • Listen to what students to say and encourage them to share their ideas; • Help the children to understand that it is acceptable to try out their ideas and make mistakes; • Give the students time to work out their answers; • Take every opportunity to praise students’ success when completing the activity or developing a computer skill.

Learning Objectives For ICT Capability: The key idea that ICT can be used to improve text and make a message clearer by means of onscreen editing. Learning deleting and inserting text to improve readability.

For English: Students will be required to recreate informative text that show emerging use of appropriate text structure, sentence-level grammar, word choice, spelling, punctuation and appropriate multimodal elements, for example illustrations and diagrams. It will need to include a title and capital letters.

Differentiation How will I help children who are experiencing difficulties with ICT?

How will I develop further the skills, knowledge and understanding of the most able in the class?

How will I ensure an appropriate level of challenge for all ability groups? How will you support specific needs?

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Learning Needs – English as an additional language The strategies that I will use include: -

Partnering the children appropriately according to the language needed to access the activity;

-

Allow some pairs to work at the same computer if they are experiencing difficulties;

- Check and re-check understanding of task.

Learning Needs – SEN students Examine IEPs before developing activities; Consider what minor adjustments could be made to existing activities; Consider changing screen resolution Possible strategies include: • Peer tutoring; • Use printouts to help with the sequence of events; • Make step-by-step cards; • Enlist the help from other students; • Consider any minor adjustments to the existing activity; • Use the never-ending activity e.g. beebots.

• Set challenges.

Assessment Opportunities Students will be assessed on their capabilities to: • Operate a computer; • Logging on and off their portal; • Using a keyboard; • Using Shift key or Caps Lock to create capital letters; • Creating images.

Key Questions Questions will be asked when it comes time to intervene and they will be in the form of focusing questions to assist students in the formation of generalisations. Interventions are also planned during the activity when students meet a need for the relevant knowledge. The planned interventions will be in addition to the unplanned interventions.

Possible structured questions that focus on the process used: • What key would you press?

• Where is the key?

• How would you create a new line?

• Why is there a squiggly line under the word?

• What key do you press to leave a space between the words?

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Lesson Format Whole class teaching is best for the demonstration of techniques.

10 minutes: Opening with demonstration at the IWB. Invite some participation from the children. Ask questions. Check and re-check understanding of the task. Share the learning objectives with the children.

25 minutes: Group 1 at the computers, Group 2 at the tables. Allow pairing of children where appropriate and supportive.

5 minutes: Change over and recap on purpose of the activity.

25 minutes: Group 2 at the computers, Group 1 at the tables. Allow pairing of children where appropriate and supportive.

10 minutes: Whole class discussion with contributions/questions from children. Allow the IWB. Remember to allow for questions from across the ability range.

WRITE YOUR OWN HERE ďƒ

Evaluate the lesson (operational issues, learning outcomes, next lesson)

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Activity Planning Sheet

Year 1 Subject: English/ICT/literacy

ICT Capability Learning Continuum Investigating with ICT Creating with ICT Communicating with ICT Managing and operating with ICT

Topic: Informative text Activity: Students will use MS Word or Pages as a word processor to draft/redraft and improve their draft writing about . They will learn how to turn the computer on (if necessary), log on and off their portal using their username and passwords, to locate and open a software application, use the keyboard to locate keys and use the Shift key or Caps Lock key to create capital letters. Also, they will learn how to use the Enter key to start a new line and to save their work into their folders.

Advanced students will have the time to learn how to find and locate the Insert tab in order to select Shapes and format them appropriately using colour, effects and outlines.

Grouping: For students who are EAL or SEN that may work better as a pairs otherwise students can work individually.

Assessment: Independent management of work. Appropriate use of Caps Lock and Shift keys. Appropriate use of font/style/colour of text.

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WORKS CITED

Australian Curriculum. (2018, April 15). Australian Curriculum. Retrieved from General Capabilities: https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/ Australian Curriculum. (2018, April 15). Australian Curriculum. Retrieved from English Year 1: https:// www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/english/?year=11575&year=11576&strand=Language&strand=Literature&strand=Literacy&capability=Information+and+Communication+Technology+%28ICT%29+Capability&priority=ignore&priority=Aboriginal+and+Torre Beauchamp, G. (2012). ICT in Cross Curricular Teaching. In G. Beauchamp, ICT in the Primary School, from Pedagogy to Practice (pp. 155-156). Routledge.

Howell, J. (2012). Developing digital fluency in learners. In J. Howell, Teaching with ICT: Digital Pedagogies for Collaboration and Creativity (pp. 147 - 181). Oxford University Press.

Kennewell, S. (2004). Developing ICT Capability. In S. Kennewell, Meeting the standards in Using ICT for secondary teaching (pp. 111-114). New York: Routledge Falmer.

Kennewell, S., Parkinson, J., & Tanner, H. (2000). Developing ICT capability. In S. Kennewell, J. Parkinson, & H. Tanner, Developing the ICT Capable School (pp. 36-55). London: Routledge Falmer.

Potter, F., & Darbyshire, C. (2005). Assessing ICT capability. In F. Potter, & C. Darbyshire, Understanding and Teaching the ICT National Curriculum (pp. 186-200). New York : Routledge.

Potter, F., & Darbyshire, C. (2005). The Nature of ICT capability. In F. Potter, & C. Darbyshire, Understanding and Teaching the ICT National Curriculum (pp. 17-24). New York: Routledge.

Potter, J., Sharp, J., Turvey, K., & Allen, J. (2012). Planning for ICT in other subjects. In J. Potter, J. Sharp, K. Turvey, & J. Allen, Primary ICT: Knowledge, Understanding and Practice (pp. 44-63). London: Learning Matters Ltd. Semenov, A. (2005). Information and Communication Techonologies: A Handbook for Teachers. UNESCO.

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Student self-assessment

APPENDICE 1

I CAN…….

Name:

I can create digital images.

Date:

I can add digital images.

Date:

I can use the Spacebar to insert spaces between words.

Date:

I can enter a sequence of letters to form words in a sentence.

Date:

I can use the Shift key to create capital letters.

Date:

I can locate and click on a word processing program.

Date:

I can use a new technology tool by exploring it.

Date:

I can

Date:

I can

Date:

I can

Date:

I can

Date:

I can

Date:

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APPENDICE 2

ICT Technique Execution Tracker Student Name: ICT Technique

Activity: Date

Routine – how was the technique executed Hesitant

Steady

Fluent

Locate keys on keyboard Type letters and/or words Move the mouse to the appropriate location Selecting an icon with a mouse Click and drag the scroll bar Move the mouse wheel to scroll Click the drop down menu

Useful to plan opportunities for a child to, say, move from inserting a picture hesitantly to doing fluently.

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