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Curriculum Connection
The Australian Curriculum Learning Continuum for ICT Capability encompasses a wide range of capabilities for students to progress through in Primary education. In the context of the English learning area, ICT capability is developed when students use ICT to “interpret and create print, visual and multimodal texts. They use communication technologies when they conduct research online, and collaborate and communicate with others electronically” (General Capabilities, 2018).
In Year 2, ICT capability exists in the Language and Literacy sub-strands and is inclusive of the Learning Continuum elements Communicating with ICT, Creating with ICT and Managing and operating ICT.
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How to interpret the curriculum maps
The curriculum maps included in this teaching resource features two levels of student progression based on the LC from Level 1 (end of Foundation Year) to Level 2 (end of Year 2). As such I have included the following symbol to represent a student’s progress in ICT capability. It is important to note that a student may or may not be still at Level 1 at the end of Year 2 or may be somewhere in between and could even have reached or surpassed Level 2 capabilities at the end of Year 2.
Symbol indicating possible student progression.
Determining student progression
The above points highlight how crucial it is that student progression is accurately determined by teachers of each year level. A student may have progressed in their capabilities if:
• They develop greater autonomy and confidence in their selection and use of information sources and tools; • They develop into discerning users of ICT, with an increasing awareness of the benefits and limitations of the systems they use; • They become able to present their ideas in an increasing variety of ways with a developing sense of audience; • They use ICT-based models of growing complexity for increasingly complex lines of enquiry involving progressively greater decision making and personal autonomy and; • Their ability to evaluate their own work grows, and they become progressively more able to discuss and appreciate social, economic, political, legal and ethical issues.
Therefore, what is required is an understanding of the ICT potential of situations. Progression involves the student solving “increasingly sophisticated and abstract problems, constructing an increasingly rich and viable conceptual framework and developing fluency in the use of a widening range of techniques” (Kennewell, Parkinson, & Tanner, 2000, p. 38).
An ICT capable student must be someone who can construct ICT solutions to problems which are appropriate the Literacy contexts and are based on the knowledge of the opportunities and limitations offered by the hardware and software available.
What you need to know
Each component of ICT capability will require a different assessment strategy as followed.
• ICT Techniques – can a student perform an ICT technique after having seen a whole-class or small group demonstration? • Routines – know and describe how an ICT technique was executed. For example, was the student hesitant, steady or fluent? • Concepts – did a student have any misconceptions? Student’s conceptual understanding can also be assessed by the use of effective questioning and discussion; • Processes and Higher Order Skills – You will need to judge the decisions a student made in order to create a finished product. Determine if a student was able to make a decision about, for example:
1. Which media to combine, and in what way, in order to present some particular information to a specific audience; 2. Which series of techniques to use in order to follow a line of enquiry to prove or disprove a hypothesis; 3. Which techniques to use in a graphics program in order to produce a portrait that visually represents feelings? (Potter & Darbyshire, 2005, pp. 191-193)
Sharing information with other Teachers
Student progression in ICT capability in Literacy learning throughout the whole school can only be achieved if each teacher proficiently determines how a student has progressed in their capabilities in ICT. In addition, helpful information needs to be shared amongst teachers of different year levels once a student has completed it. For example, for a student who has just completed Year 2, that teacher will need to inform the Year 3 teacher more than just if a student could use ICT tools safely to share and exchange information with appropriate local audiences. They would need to know in which media they had experienced in doing this. Was it with text as in a word processor, with text and graphics as with a DTP program, with an image manipulation program (and if so with a painting and/or drawing program)? It would also be helpful to the other teacher which programs they had used.
ICT Capability: Students will be assessed on their ability to demonstrate the following ICT techniques – (Refer to the included Lesson plans for full list of tech niques) Programs may include: Word processing – MS Word, Pages (iPads), Edublogs, Wiki, Email (school intranet), web creation software i.e. Dreamweaver etc. Coding skills – Scratch Junior; Presentation skills – MS PowerPoint;
Text structure and organisation
organisation including page and screen layouts, alphabetical order, text Know some features of (ACELA1466). and different types of diagrams, for example timelines - Literacy ICT Capabilit y
General Capabilities
Elaboration Learning about features of screen texts including menu buttons, drop down menus, links and live connections.
Sub-strand TION
– Literacy ICT Capability Critical and creative thinkin g
General Capabilities
LEVEL 2 (By end of Year 2)
LEVEL 1 Communicating with ICT
Understand computer mediated communications Information literacy skills – web searching on WWW. English: Students will be assessed on their ability to – Uses expressive language; Names a familiar that connects with the main idea of another text;
Understand that computer mediated communications may
be received later by the
receiver
Understand that messages are recorded, viewed or sent in computer mediated communications for others to receive Uses correct spelling and grammar for high-fre quency words; – Receptive Mode (listening, reading, writing) – They understand how similar text share characteristics by identifying character, settings and events. Students identify literal and implied meaning, main ideas and supporting detail. They make connections between texts by comparing content.
ACHIEVEMENT STANDARD
(speak -
Productive Mode
ing, writing, and creating) - Students explain their preferences for aspects of texts using other texts for comparisons. They accurately spell familiar words and attempt to spell less familiar words and use punctuation accurately. They also legibly write unjoined upper and lower case letters.
ASSESSMENTS/ACTIVITIES
LITERACY Creating Text
ICT Capability: Students will be assessed on their ability to demonstrate the following ICT techniques –
pro word Construct texts featuring print, visual and audio elements using software, including (ACELY1674) cessing programs - Literacy Critical and creative thinking ICT Capability
General Capabilities
Use of visual and audio elements;
Elaboration Refer to lesson plans for list of assessable ICT tech niques. English: Students will be assessed on their ability to: Uses expressive language to describe actions from text; Make connections between two texts; Connects texts giving suggestions of author’s intent; Uses variable sentence structure; Accurately spells high frequency words; Use of capital letters for pronouns; Supports preference using literal and implied meanings; Creates an illustration to support the text; Structures text using an opening statement.
Experimenting with and combining elements of software programs to create texts – ICT Capability Liter acy
General Capabilities Creating with ICT
Generate solutions to challenges and learning area tasks Experiment with ICT as a creative tool to generate simple solutions, modifications or data representations for particular audiences or
Use ICT as a creative tool to generate simple solutions, modifications or data representations for personal or school purposes purposes
Managing and operating ICT
Select and use hardware and software 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
Identify and safely operate ICT systems to complete relevant simple specified tasks and seek help when encountering a problem
