I've been doing a lot of reading and trawling, and in this briefing we cover historical conflict, parents, limited vocabulary strategies and addressing the problem of under-achieving pupil groups.
Their past, your future
Subtitled "Learning from past conflicts", this is a programme which makes available funding for museums, libraries and archives to use their collections and resources to explore innovative ways of increasing young people's knowledge and understanding of the impact of conflict. There is a list of the projects that have been funded for 2008/9, with brief descriptions.
This is a good resource for sparking off ideas that perhaps you could explore yourself. For example,
"Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service staff in partnership with BBC Voices will work with high school students to record the WWII memories of veterans and civilians. These will be incorporated into downloadable audio files or “Podcasts” that will be incorporated into a package of learning resources."
Training students to plan and record podcasts will be part of the activity.
In Woking,
"Young people will be given the opportunity to train in interview techniques and will carry out a series of in-depth video interviews with both older and younger refugee witnesses of conflict."
There are one or two other examples as well. Well worth a look.
Parents as Partners
The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has produced a DVD entitled Parents as Partners: Playing and Learning Together. There are some video extracts from it on the Every Child Matters website, and it's free (but I believe only for people living in the UK). All you have to do is register at the site, which is free, and then order a copy.
I have requested a copy myself. Its objective is to inform parents how they can contribute to their child's learning. I'm not sure if the fact that this was deemed necessary is a sad reflection on our society, or an indication of the existence of a "nanny State". Still, it might be worthwhile to order multiple copies, to give out at your next parents' evening. Stock restrictions apply, but the upper limit is not displayed until you are at the check-out page, so I cannot tell you now what it will be. However, if you register as a school the limit will be higher than if you do so as an individual.
Look here for details.
Limited vocabulary
It's axiomatic that children with poor vocabulary are greatly disadvantaged. A newly-published document from the DCSF entitled "Teaching Effective Vocabulary" suggests teaching strategies to help such children. Now, although the publication seems to be aimed at teachers of very young children, and specifically in regard to their English skills, I think this is worth looking at for hints and tips on the teaching of educational ICT-specific vocabulary.
There are some great suggestions here. None of it rocket science, and you could definitely start applying some of the methods from Day 1. It goes beyond the common exhortation to put words up on a flipchart at the start of the lesson. Here are just two of the many suggestions:
- "Planning for the introduction of new vocabulary.You could indicate on short term plans where and how new vocabulary will be introduced.
- Encouraging “word of the day”. You and the pupils identify a new word each day and attempt to use it in context as many times as possible."
This publication is free, and available from here.
Addressing the problem of under-achieving pupil groups
There is now a consultation on how to reduce the burden on Local Authorities as far as setting targets for under-attaining groups are concerned. It's being proposed that:
"LAs are required to set targets only for groups which are lagging significantly nationally. These groups would need to be defined in regulations, which would give us the scope to include for the first time Free School Meals (FSM) pupils, who are amongst the weakest performers in the country. The under-performing groups which we propose all LAs should be required to set targets for are:
(1) FSM;
(2) Black Caribbean and White / Black Caribbean;
(3) Black African and White / Black African;
(4) Black Other;
(5) Pakistani;
(6) White Other;
(7) Gypsy, Roma and Traveller of Irish heritage. "
This is a reduction from 17 groups to 7.
Now, this has nothing to do with ICT as such, but two things struck me about it.
Firstly, none of the suggested targets include ICT. Understandable, of course, in view of the lack of a SAT in ICT.
Secondly, it may be worthwhile to look at your own strategies for improving the attainment of under-achieving groups in ICT. For a start, do you actually have a strategy? This is not the right time or place to delve any deeper into this issue, but I think it's worth raising -- especially near the start of a brand new school year.
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