 |
|
|
|
|
Jo Ryman, Personalised Learning Consultant demonstrates how to help students gain level 4.
So how can a poster be a level 4?
| Pupils at Fir Tree Junior School in Wallingford had
produced some posters as part of their healthy living class work. Their
teacher had decided this poster was a level 3 because “Pupils use ICT to
save information and to find and use appropriate stored information,
following straightforward lines of enquiry. They use ICT to generate,
develop, organise and present their work. They share and exchange their
ideas with others.” The pupils’ response was to ask how they could
move this work onto level 4. Some pupils e-mailed their posters and asked
if I could offer some helpful hints to improve their work. I explained that although the poster was clear and well set out with a good colour choice, they might want to review the font in order to make clearer from a distance; perhaps Jokerman was not particularly suitable for the text. In addition they could add some details about where this could be purchased, the cost and perhaps the nutritional value for each fruit without making it too crowded. Since they had exchanged information and ideas with others i.e. their teacher, peers and with me, via e-mail, they had already touched on some basic elements of level 4.
|
|
|
|
Within a few days I received a second copy of the poster. As you can see the pupils had incorporated the advice that I had given to them and added details of a website to give more information about healthy eating. The reviewed poster certainly demonstrates some aspects of level 4 because pupils have: (a) added, amended and combined different forms of information from a variety of sources (b) shown an awareness of the intended audience and the need for quality in their presentations and (c) exchanged information and ideas with others [Note: they do not "have" to use e-mail to exchange that information within this type of context but since they did so that is even better]. The aspect that is missing from this to make it a secure level 4 is “Pupils use ICT to present information in different forms" which you will almost never get in one example of work but through the year they will present different tasks or activities in different forms. Had the pupils continued with this theme and produced some packaging or a label to accompany the carton then this would have been moving into the realms of a more secure level 4. But some advice had markedly moved the outcome on.
|
In general ICT work can be improved with some clear marking or analysis with the pupils. Here the pupils reviewed their work with their peers and their teacher and hence achieved a better quality outcome. Of course this wouldn’t be a true reflection of the pupils’ overall ICT capability and could not be used as part of their formative assessment, but would help them to review their work in the future.
On a slightly different note, it is good practice to begin a unit of work with some examples of expected outcomes, for example an effective poster on a different subject, which can be used to highlight particularly good [or bad!] features to provide the pupils with some clear guidance before they begin a unit of work. This gives the pupils some indication or a ‘yardstick’ before they begin creating their own.
