Creating A News Literate Generation

Year 5 teacher Roz Porter Tibbey, from Grafton Primary School in London, explains how delivering the NewsWise programme has helped improve pupils’ critical literacy and engagement in the news. She shares her experience and the impact teaching critical thinking through fun and engaging lessons has had on her pupils.

We as teachers, are seeing children absorbing information from many different sources online. As the rise of digital and social media is transforming their experience of news, they have to be able to process material from a wider variety of sources than ever before. For many, the online world is a convenient and instantaneous source of information, but they aren’t often able to assess how reliable a story is, especially with the increasing presence of advertising and algorithms which have a big influence on the content they see on their newsfeeds and search results.

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      string(5602) "Using social media in the classroom is for many is a new frontier for learning. For most teachers the learning takes place in the classroom, and occasionally with homework, at home. However, if you think about the spaces the learners inhabit regularly, the classroom and home fall into third place compared to the virtual spaces online.Many of these spaces are the ones occupied by social media. This comes in several forms, and for most teachers the training provided is out of date. Does your school ban Facebook? That may be the case… but in honesty most of  the pupils we teach have long since migrated to other forms of social media not inhabited by their parents. Buckle up – there are myriad types of social media that teachers need to understand. Every teacher needs to be a teacher of e-safety – believe it or not, in the new computing curriculum your ICT teachers don’t have a lot of time devoted to this. Using social media responsibly, is the job of every teacher in the school to role model. Alongside this is the challenge of embracing using social media to take the learning to the spaces pupils already inhabit. Ask yourself – are your students more likely to check their email for a assignment notification, or are the more likely to  respond to a tweet or Tumblr notification?Integrating social media into the schoolThe use of social media in school is two-fold. The first is about creating a climate where children are being taught to use social media safely, and in a way where their teachers can role model it’s effective and positive use. Initially the most important thing is to make sure you have an effective usage policy in place, and that this is widely shared with staff and students. This needs to clearly address the responsibilities that the school has in terms  of keeping learners safe, but also stipulates the ways in which learners must conform to rules when using IT in the school environment. These can be easily adapted to include the use of social media by pupils, and can be signed at the beginning of the year. This might sound insignificant, but when dealing with those who have broken the rules, having the right policies in place will help appropriate sanctions to be applied. When applying sanctions, it must be considered that using technology is nothing particularly new. So, for example, iMessaging in class is the digital equivalent of passing notes. Teachers need to be empowered to tell students when technology should be used, and feel confident in asking them to put it away when they ask. If there is any misbehaviour, the teachers should imply equivalent sanctions to similar fractions of the rules that take place without the use of technology. Some of this will of course take time for teachers to acclimatise too, but some simple behaviour management techniques, such as occasionally teaching from the back of the room, will quickly help you see any students who are off task and using technology. Deal with this on the spot if you can. There should be consequences for breaking the rules in a classroom. Teachers are more than used to dealing with rule-breakers, and just because this involves the use of technology makes it no different. Empower staff to know how to deal with infractions, and have a clear chain of command of how to escalate or query any issues that may occur. In my school we have a detention system, but we have found that a lunchtime session based around e-safety is more productive in terms of the impact it has on students.Teachers, SLT, Governors and parents need to work together to best equip those in school to deal with social media in a safe way. This should be done through PSHE, but also in tutor group time. Teacher cross-subjects should always work when using social media to ensure that their use is within the lines agreed by the school – this is not a case of asking for forgiveness rather than permission. Work with your SLT and teaching staff to ensure that the aims of using social media are transparent, as well as agreed by the school.For many this can be a big step. Many schools are reluctant to actively use social media. This is a real shame as they are missing out on chances to connect with other schools, parents and the wider world. There is no ignoring the increased use of schools and departments of twitter in this respect, and there are some excellent examples of good practice and the sharing of ideas. The perils lie in having a social media profile on a platform, such as twitter, which is not regularly updated or ignores messages. You need to be certain that anyone running a school or department account updates it regularly, and is aware of basic e-safety, for example of twitter, not following individual students as this is when direct messaging (private messaging) can occur, which could potentially be problematic. The advantages of using social media as a school far outweigh the negatives. For those schools who are tentative, they could try setting up a twitter account that tweets from the RSS feed of the school news website. It is worth having a positive presence online, which will help to reach out, not only to current parents, but also to those considering your school.Useful examplesFacebook is a social media platform that has been much demonised in the education sector. However, following the work of the Education Foundation, many teachers are now using it to lead lessons, such as setting up private class groups, and public groups which use Facebook as a free VLE as a response to budget cuts. 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Creative Teaching & Learning

Snapchat, selfies, and teaching

20 Jun 2017

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      string(5631) "the cell and measure the DNA with a ruler, this is the length of DNA in each cell in the body. Test their knowledge by asking how many cells there are in the body. If you popped all the cells in the body the DNA would stretch from the earth to the sun and back over 60 times. To fit 2m of DNA into a cell it coils up into a special structure called the ‘DNA Helix’. What DNA looks like?Turn your class into a laboratory and get the children to extract DNA from different fruit e.g. strawberries and bananas. Their challenge is to become real scientists and determine which fruit contains the most DNA. Using scientific enquiry, this hands-on experiment will consolidate learning from previous activities. The multi-sensory aspects will appeal to different types of learners, making the activity engaging and memorable. This is also a fantastic opportunity to enhance science capital and hopefully encourage the next generation of scientists.The methodology for extracting DNA from fruit using simple equipment and chemicals is shown in the following video clip: https://jwp.io/s/2TJuu0El (made in collaboration with Developing Experts www.developingexperts.com). Children will also get to understand how the DNA is extracted and what happens to the cells. A great tip is to use black card under the beakers when precipitating the DNA as it will make it easier for the children to see.Worldwide scientists are extracting DNA every day. They may use smaller tubes and slightly different chemicals than in this experiment but the process is the same. They could be extracting human, animal or plant DNA. Ask the children to brainstorm what kind of things scientists use DNA for, such as forensics, archaeology, to study animals, to see if someone has a disease, to help farmers get better crops, etc. If children can see how working with DNA affects their lives, it makes it relevant to them. Get the children working collaboratively, sharing ideas to hypothesise which fruits have the most DNA and why. Which fruit is squashier, making it easier to break down the cells and extract DNA? How can we make it a fair test? (i.e. use the same amount of fruit or chemicals.) How will we measure how much DNA there is? What will DNA from different fruits look like?Get the children to use technology to communicate, record and compare the results (iPad, videos, photos). Observation skills will be important for making valid conclusions. The results are another opportunity for discussion and to develop deeper understanding. Which fruit had more DNA? Why were some groups more successful than others at getting DNA? Do cell walls in some fruit break down more easily? Did the groups do anything differently that could have affected their yield of DNA?  The table below shows the number of chromosomes in common fruits. Theoretically, the fruit with the most chromosomes should produce the most DNA, but this may vary depending on a number of factors, including how well the children mash up the fruit to maximise the surface area exposed to the chemicals, how tough the cell walls within the fruit are, how well the salt is dissolved, how much filtrate was used, how cold it was or how much alcohol was added. To demonstrate deeper understanding discuss which fruits in this table should yield the most DNA or least DNA?  Fruit  Number of Chromosomes  Strawberry (the ‘common’ strawberry) 56Bananas (cultivated bananas)44Blueberries (Northern High Bush)48Pears (European pear)34Oranges (citrus sinensis)18Kiwi (cultivated kiwi)174A great way to help children transfer this new knowledge and vocabulary from their working to long-term memory is to use a cross-curricular approach. In terms of literacy, my book, The DNA Detectives – To Catch a Thief is a great resource for this. In the book the children will repeat what they have learnt in a different context. In the story, the characters discuss what DNA and cells are, where they are found in the body and they extract DNA in a laboratory. They use DNA to catch the thief who has stolen their pet dog. This is a problem children can relate to and want to solve. 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This is key in enabling them to understand the next stage of the conceptual framework and how we get variation.Introducing the concept of variationA great way to introduce this concept is to get the children observing variation in their own features. Which features are inherited from their parents and which are not? How many different types of hair, eye colour etc are there in the class? The weblink below explains how to facilitate this in the classroom. https://teach.genetics.utah.edu/content/heredity/files/InventoryOfTraits.pdfGet children to think about what makes"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Bringing DNA to Life in the Primary Years

26 Mar 2019

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      string(3658) "Prince Philip with John and Ann CrickIt’s hard to believe, but the very first iteration of Clicker was launched 26 years ago. How far we’ve come! The idea for Clicker came to me in the early 1990’s when I was working in a special school for children with physical disabilities. These new things called ‘computers’ had begun to appear, and we started exploring how we could use this new technology to help our kids. It was a really exciting time; getting children connected up with trackerballs and switches, creating new output opportunities for them – it was just wonderful. We wanted to get them progressing with their literacy and language development, but there wasn’t anything around that could give kids access to writing, and in terms of putting sentences together, it would take them way too long to do this letter by letter – they wouldn’t be able to sustain the use of the switches for that long.   I startedformulating this idea… wouldn’t it be great if you could have an applicationwhere you’d have a grid with words that would go into a word processor when youselected them, that was scannable, and that enabled the teacher to tailor itinstantly without having to go into some complicated editor. Twelve months ofhard work and a lot of 2am programming sessions later, Clicker was born! Universal designWhen I started testing it, my wife Ann (also a teacher) came in and looked at what I was doing, clicking on words and sending them into the word processor, listening to them speak and so on, and she said that this would be a fantastic tool for the kids she was working with, to help them with their writing. A Clicker grid  for fairy talesAt that point, the light bulb lit up… we sat down together and said, wow, what we’ve got here is something that isn’t just a very specialist tool for switch-users, as important as that function is, but something that could help every child become a better, more confident writer. In a sense, we stumbled upon universal design by accident, before it even became part of our terminology! You think about supporting the least able users and you suddenly realise – oh, this is actually better for everybody.  After that, Annand I started working on Clicker full-time, and seven versions, 10 languagetranslations and eight BETT Awards later, Clicker is being used to supportyoung writers in thousands of schools around the world.Building a brandAs new devices came into schools, our product offering expanded, including our range of Clicker Apps for iPad and Chromebook. We are constantly adapting and keeping an eye on that ever-changing education horizon, whilst always staying true to the essence of what Clicker is, and the impact it has on teaching and learning. ’This is what it’s all about for us: opening up new learningdoors for students and giving everybody the same opportunities to progress and achieve.And every year, we’re very excited to help a whole new generation of learnersto discover Clicker and experience those same feelings of pride, success, andinclusion.Clicker in 2020…Crick Softwarehas launched two major Clicker updates for 2020 – Clicker 8 for Windows/Mac andClicker Writer foriPad/Chromebook. Having supported thousands of schools around the world withfree access to Clicker during the COVID-19 school closures, Crick is nowfocussing on showing teachers how Clicker can be used to bridge potentiallearning gaps and support blended learning strategies this year. Find out moreby signing up for one of Crick’s free Clicker webinarsthis term."
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Digital Learning

The Clicker Story - a quarter of a century supporting literacy

9 Oct 2020

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      string(5617) "When we asked Stephen Heppell what he’d get rid of in next generation learning spaces, one of the things he suggested was instant coffee. “We learn from sport that the aggregation of little marginal gains makes a big difference” he said. “If we want everyone in our schools to be the best they can possibly be, every little detail matters. Teachers are scarce and valuable professionals: they deserve decent coffee.” It wasn’t quite what we had in mind, though – we were thinking of practical and physical things in the classroom (and he helped us put that together too). So here’s what we think you ought to be giving up in 2018 and beyond.1 Seating plansSeating plans smack of control over learning. When we dictate at which desk each of the learners in our class sits, we’re removing agency from them (and are very possibly taking away much more than we’re bargaining for). Because if we want to develop responsible and autonomous learners yet the first thing we do is to remove their ability to decide where to sit, we’re giving them very mixed messages: we’re certainly telling them we don’t trust them. Allowing learners that simple act of coming into a room and deciding where to sit sets a very clear precedent – one where they ARE trusted to take control of their learning, and from that, much will follow, if we but allow it. And this all presupposed that learners will occupy just one space within the classroom throughout the whole learning period rather than move around during them (even though the research tells us movement is linked to cognition) – that just one space will support everything they need to do, whether that’s collaborating with other learners, reflecting, experimenting or presenting. And it’s the same with …2 Teacher desksNicholas Provenzano, the high school English teacher from Detroit who tweets and blogs under the name The Nerdy Teacher got rid of his in 2015. For him it started with the simple question “is this room designed for me or for my students?” as he later wrote in a post for Edutopia. “I wanted the students to start feeling that it was their classroom and I was part of it” he continued. And he’s not alone. That same year, according to The New York Post Donna Connelly, Principal of the Spuyten Duyvil School in the Bronx, ordered her teachers to give up their desks: “it’s the 21st century” she said, “you don’t need desks” Removing them, according to Prakash Nair of designers, Fielding Nair International “decentralizes the classroom” but with them, some have gone so far as to admit that learning is arranged around it. And all too frequently no more than a dumping ground anyway, let alone reinforcing the one-way didactic approach to content delivery.3 Fixed teaching wallsAnd so too, the “front of the classroom” created by fixed teaching walls that frequently dictate a “Dick Turpin” (stand and deliver) teaching style. The single point of focus reduces pedagogic opportunities and is cognitively inefficient, because, according to Stephen Heppell’s website the diversity of context needed to cement memory and structure taxonomies of understanding is absent and offers a (literal) barrier to effective team teaching and collaboration. Instead, Stephen suggests, there should be multiple displays, and where possible they should be mobile. As an example, Wapping High School in London (see volume 3.2) designed all its learning spaces with mobile presentation and a power and data infrastructure that enabled them to be positioned in any of three locations in classrooms – centrally on the short wall (for instruction), centrally on the long wall, for more collegiate learning – discussions and debates, and in a corner creating an intimate study space.4 Four walls	“We asked ourselves what is a classroom?” Di Pumphrey of West Thornton Academy told us when we asked her the rationale behind why she’d created large learning studios there. “What does it have to look like for learning to take place?” she continued, “How can we encourage children to take more ownership of their learning?” So they removed the walls and created a more flexible learning environment and the results were remarkable – beyond just the visual feeling of light and space. Children and adults had more control over their space and could adapt it to suit their own needs, for their own learning. It became a learning community where collaboration, support and timely intervention became the norm- for both children and adults.  The classroom is no longer just the teachers’ domain, it is a shared learning space. “We are still evolving our practice” Di accepted … “learning about what really makes the difference – but we are certainly not putting children back in a box!”5 ICT suites“Schools should be ditching their rows and rows of computers organised in separate ICT Suites because technology in schools should be like electricity: always there” Gary Spracklen, Headteacher, and Member of the UK Government’s Education Technology Action Group says. “You wouldn’t expect to walk into a school and find no electricity in any one of the classrooms. Likewise, this should be the case with technology. Always there… always on… always available” ICT Suites always best served the needs of ICT Technicians before learners, keeping a resource locked behind closed doors, where every effort is made to make every device the same. “But it does not reflect the world of work now, nor does it represent the future” Gary"
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ECO Friendly Design

New Year’s Resolutions

1 Feb 2018