Peer Assessment within 2nd Level Literacy and Language
Overview
Sarah Burton currently teaches Primary 6B at Harrysmuir Primary School in Livingston, West Lothian. After the Headteacher, Susan Mackenzie, and another member of staff received some initial Glow training, all staff were encouraged to use Glow to support their classroom learning and teaching activities. Since the school is double-stream, it was initially decided to have one Glow Group per stage. Sarah was so keen to use Glow, she and her stage partner decided to have one Glow Group for each of their Primary 6 classes.
Hear Sarah tell us more about this:
Sarah Burton: Why I use Glow 0:23
Context
The Glow Group for P6B in Harrysmuir Primary has been growing throughout the year. Sarah initially wanted to use the Group to share information with pupils, such as Homework tasks, or about activities that the class would be doing. She soon found though that she could make more use of the Group and the web parts available.
One area that Sarah chose to use Glow for, was facilitate peer review and assessment within the class’s literacy and language activities. She found that she was able to utilise a range of simple web parts within Glow to help support this.
In this cookbook, we will focus on how Sarah and the pupils in P6B use the Glow Group as part of their literacy and language learning. In separate cookbooks, you can see how the Glow Group is also used to support Numeracy and Social Studies and how Glow Meet has been used to develop literacy skills.
So, how was the Glow Group used to support these activities?
Sarah tells us a little bit about this:
Sarah Burton: Literacy and Numeracy pages 0:10
Let’s look now at the Literacy page within the Group to find out more.
How is the Literacy Page in the P6B Glow Group used?
There are a number of web parts within the Literacy page.
Announcements
The Announcements web part is used to share weekly targets with pupils. These are written in the form of ‘I can’ statements, to mirror Curriculum for Excellence outcomes. This gives pupils access to learning intentions, both in school and at home.
Document Stores
There are currently two Document stores on the Literacy page. As there were already other Document stores on other pages within the Glow Group, Sarah had to create the Literacy ones from scratch, to avoid having duplicates of any of the existing ones.
The Document Stores have been used to upload pupil work, which can then be peer-reviewed.
One of the Stores contains documents uploaded by pupils following a Modern Languages task they completed. The pupils had to design a German Board game for pupils in P2 and then write the instructions for the game in English in language that could be understood by the P2 children. This forced the P6 pupils to consider their audience and adjust their vocabulary accordingly, so enabling Sarah to address, amongst others, the 2nd level literacy across
learning outcomes
Lit 2-23a Throughout the writing process, I can check that my writing makes sense and meets its purpose.
Lit 2-26a By considering the type of text I am creating, I can select ideas and relevant information, organise these in an appropriate way for my purpose and use suitable vocabulary for my audience.
Lit 2-28a I can convey information, describe events, explain processes or combine ideas in different ways.
The other Document store contains Desert Island stories that the pupils wrote. This creative writing exercise was done as part of the pupils work on the 2nd Level Literacy and Language outcomes:
Lit 2-20a I enjoy creating texts of my choice and I regularly select subject, purpose, format and resources to suit the needs of my audience.
Lit 2-21a I can spell most of the words I need to communicate, using spelling rules, specialist vocabulary, self-correction techniques and a range of resources.
Lit 2-22a In both short and extended texts, I can use appropriate punctuation, vary my sentence structures and divide my work into paragraphs in a way that makes sense to my reader.
Lit 2-23a Throughout the writing process, I can check that my writing makes sense and meets its purpose.
Eng 2-27a I am learning to use language and style in a way which engages and/or influences my reader.
Discussion Board
As there are other Discussion Boards within the P6B Glow Group, Sarah had to create this one from scratch, to avoid having a duplicate of any of the other existing ones. The Discussion Board on the Literacy Page has been used by pupils to peer assess the Desert Island stories that they uploaded into the Document Store. They use ‘2 stars and a wish’ to comment on each others’ work.
Text Editor
There are a number of Text Editor web parts on the page. These have been used to upload photos of pupils taking part in a range of learning activities and serve as a form of evidence of pupil participation. They also allow pupils to have a visual reminder of topics they have been learning about previously, rather like an online wall display.
It must also be mentioned that the class’s literacy and language work is not confined to the Literacy page. Sarah embeds Literacy (and Numeracy) throughout all topic work, and examples of this can be seen throughout the pages in the Glow Group. There is a great deal of Literacy work within the Europe topic page and on the Norwegian penpals page, to name but two.
In this cookbook, we will look at
• The Literacy Page in the P6B Glow Group
• How to create an Announcements web part
• How to create a new Document Store
• How to create a new Discussion Board
• How to upload an image to the Text Editor web part
Ingredients
What did Sarah Burton need to do to design and create content on the Numeracy Page?
• A Glow Group at school level
• Add only all of the P6 pupils
• Rename and add pages
• Create an Announcements web part
• Create a Document library
• Create a Discussion Board
• Add text editor web parts to upload images
In the following videos, we will take a look at the P6B Glow Group and then find out how to replicate some of its structure and content.
What does the P6B Glow Group look like? 8:29
What is on the Literacy page? 2:23
How to edit and add pages in a Glow Group 3:08
How to create an Announcements web part 6:39
How to create a new Document store 5:36
How to create a new Discussion Board 7:02
How to upload an image into the Text Editor web part 8:49
Impact
The P6B Glow Group in general allows pupils to have a permanent record of the work they have been doing. They can access this from home and share their learning with their parents. Through the security of the Group, they can take part in collaborative activities and have a forum for sharing their work.
Hear Sarah tell us about this.
Sarah Burton: Home use and Parental comments 0:11
In addition, all staff have membership of the P6B Glow Group, enabling the sharing of ideas, resources and good practice. Since the Headteacher is also a member, she has been able to see the work that the children have been doing and has taken the opportunity to comment on it and praise them for their efforts.
Related cookbooks
There are currently three other cookbooks relating to other aspects of the P6B Glow Group in Harrysmuir Primary School.
Click on the link to view each one:
Developing literacy and presentation skills through use of Glow Meet
Incorporating principles of AifL into 2nd level Numeracy
Incorporating formative assessment and critical skills within 2nd level social studies