Primary 1 Literacy – Julia Donaldson Books – Staff Page

Overview
P1 pupils in 5 schools in 3 local authorities started using Glow to facilitate a book project on the subject of Julia Donaldson books. Initially St James’s Primary school in Paisley, Renfrewshire, had wanted to undertake a literacy project and thought Glow would be an interesting way to open this up and make links with other schools at the same time. Athelstaneford Primary school in East Lothian was also interested in taking this forward. Through the teachers collaborating within the national Collaborative Projects group within Glow, schools in Renfrewshire, East Lothian and East Dunbartonshire decided to work together over a period of 6 weeks. Although there are many aspects we could focus on for this group, in this Cookbook we will learn what was involved in creating and adding a Staff Page which the teachers used to organise the project. In other Cookbooks on this project additional aspects will be investigated.

Context

The Julia Donaldson Glow Meet session

Anne Louise Nicholson had originally wanted to work on a literacy project with P1 which could have a different dimension from other projects, she wanted to be able to extend outside of the classroom. Having used Glow for groups within the whole school previously this seemed like the logical next step. Through participation in the National Collaborative Projects group Anne Louise had made contact with Lynne Lewis from Athelstaneford Primary in East Lothian who was keen to take this forward with her.
The project was expanded by Anne Louise Nicholson and Lynne Lewis to other schools from East Lothian, Sarah Boyd at Longniddry Primary and Emma Kerr at Pencaitland Primary and also Laura Kerr at Lairdsland in East Dunbartonshire. Eventually the project comprised of 5 different P1 classes across 3 different local authorities. Within the main, each class used only a teacher machine with web cam/microphone and speakers, although St James’s (Paisley) in Renfrewshire allowed the pupils to use computers individually to contribute to Discussion Boards. Ms Nicholson at St James’s took the responsibility of setting up the Glow Group with the required webparts and creating the Staff Page.

In the main regular web conferencing, or Glow Meet sessions were held with all schools participating. Each of these was led by a different school and the teachers had planned what the content and context of each session would be. All of this was building towards the final Glow Meet session where the schools would join with the author Julia Donaldson. Over a period of a number of weeks the teachers involved communicated with each other and shared planning documents in the Staff Page of the group. The whole project had already taken place when we spoke to the teachers which allowed us to have a complete view of how the whole project had gone and its impact on the pupils and teachers involved. We will concentrate on St James’s (Paisley) in Renfrewshire for illustration within this Cookbook.
In discussion with Ms Nicholson we learned that the project had set out to address many experiences and outcomes from Curriculum for Excellence for the pupils involved as is outlined on other Glow Cookbooks in the project. However, in this Cookbook we will illustrate how the teachers were able to plan for how the project would support learning and teaching.

Ingredients
• 5 P1 classes
• Each teacher needed a computer with an internet connection
• Each teacher needed a Glow username and password
• Membership of the National level group which had been set up for the project
• New page added to Glow group
• New discussions web part created and added to page
• Web links web part added to page
• Document store web part added to page
• Teachers taking part in the discussions with each other and uploading web links for others to see and use
• Planning documents for the project shared and agreed on by each teacher

In the next sections, we’ll learn how to recreate the elements of the Glow Group that the teachers used for their planning for the project. In particular, we’ll find out how to add a new page to a group, create and add web parts to the page. Each video lasts for around 2 minutes and you can choose which section to watch at any time.

Recipe

The Staff Discussions web part

The videos begin by quickly showing the Glow Group with the additional Staff Page present and then develop into explaining how a page can be added to a Glow Group and then move through creating the new discussion web part and adding it to the page, along with adding the documents library and web links to this particular page. The videos finish with a longer tour through the Glow Group and an interview with Anne Louise Nicholson on why and how they used the Staff Page.
Further information on using these simple tools can be found in a number of places: searching on Glow Help at the bottom of every page will bring you information; clicking the Learning about Glow link on the left-hand navigation bar will take you to a menu where you will be able to access Glow training guides and online modules relating to these web parts. Of particular use in terms of this Cookbook would be guides and online modules relating to Glow Groups.

Videos

The finished Staff Page (1:01)

Adding the Staff Page to the group (1:32)

Creating a new discussion web part and adding this to the page (3:21)

Adding the documents and web links web parts to the Staff Page (4:12)

Impact

Shared staff weblinks and documents

The Staff Page added a dimension to the project which was invaluable in planning. As Anne Louise says in one of the clips, “It prevented us from re-inventing the wheel”. With so many Glow Meets happening between the schools and the project running over 5 primary ½ classes it was vital that there was an area in the group where teachers could make sure they were all on the same page. Without numerous phonecalls and emails having to be made, the teachers involved could always be ready for the next part of the project and up to date about aspects like running order of Glow Meet sessions.

Videos

Tour through the finished Glow Group (8:35)

Teacher usage of the Staff Page for the project (5:30)

Interview with Anne Louise Nicholson about how the project began (2:10)

Interview with Anne Louise Nicholson on the Staff Page (0:56)

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