Supporting Int 2 Biology: Part 1 – Multiple Document Stores

Overview

Keith Varty teaches Biology at St Margaret’s Academy in Livingston, West Lothian. He is just approaching the end of his first year of  teaching. Despite having had to find his feet as a new teacher, he has taken on the responsibility for creating a Glow Group to support pupils studying Intermediate 2 Biology.

In this series of cookbooks, we will look in detail at the content of the Intermediate 2 Biology Glow Group. In each part, there will be a general introductory overview of the Group. Each cookbook will then focus in on a different element, finding out how this has been used to support pupils studying Int2 Biology then learning how this could be replicated.  The cookbook will be split into three parts:

Part 1 – Multiple Document stores
Part 2 – Weblinks and Page Viewer
Part 3 – Using Videos asa memory aid

 Context

 Keith was introduced to Glow at the start of the session and was immediately taken with the potential it offered. Keen to embrace this as a way of supporting pupils, he decided to set up a Glow Group that would be accessible to all pupils studying Int2 Biology in the school, not only those in his own class.

 Keith has worked extremely hard to make the Glow Group what it currently is – engaging, informative and useful.

 There are seven pages in the Group, with a range of web parts on each.

 Noticeboard Page:

The News web part is used to keep pupils informed about new resources being added to the Glow Group and give information on events relevant to Int 2 biology, such revision class details.

There is a What’s On web part on the page, which has been renamed as Deadlines This has been used to advise each of the classes of the dates of upcoming ‘NAB’ assessments, prelim dates and revision sessions. This has helped pupils to plan their studies more effectively by having advanced warning of the dates and being able to organise their studying accordingly.

Keith talks us through the Noticeboard page in the following video:

 Keith Varty: Noticeboard Page (2:31)

Cookbook Focus on:  Documents

Throughout the pages of the Glow Group, there are many Document Stores used. There are separate Document libraries on the Homework Help, Current Class Topic, Archive and Exam Help pages.

On the Homework Help page, the Document store has three folders – one for essay questions and one for each of S3 and S4’s current topic homework.

Keith scans the homework exercises normally issued to pupils in paper format, and uploads these to the folder in the Document Store.  This helps reduce the need for photocopying and means that pupils always have access to a copy of the homework (and so don’t have the excuse of having lost it!)

On the Current Class Topic page there are two Document stores, one for S3 notes and presentations and one for S4. Again, Keith scans the document normally issued in paper format and uploads these. Pupils have less need to copy notes as the resources are made available to them, and they can therefore concentrate their time in class discussing and really understanding the work being covered. Having the resources here also means that pupils who are absent still have access to them, and all pupils benefit from the opportunity to revisit them when doing homework or revising.

The Archive page is a fabulous area for pupils as here Keith has uploaded all resources used in previous topics – notes, presentations, homework exercises and revision materials. This gives pupils a fantastic library of information which they can access at any time from anywhere. These resources sit within the three separate Document store that are on the page.

Finally, on the Exam Help page, there is a Document store holding exam past papers and marking schemes.

 Keith talks us through these four pages in the following videos, explaining the content and purpose of each and the benefits they have for the pupils.

 Keith Varty: Homework Help Page (1:29)

Keith Varty: Current Class Topic Page (0:38)

Keith Varty: Archive Page for previous topics (1:47)

Keith Varty: Exam Help Page (1:42)

Ingredients

Keith initially had to create a Glow Group at school level and make all staff teaching Biology and all pupils studying it, members of the Group. The pupils have contributor permissions to the Group to enable them to take part in Discussions, upload documents and respond to surveys.

Keith added and renamed the pages of the Glow Group to suit his purpose and make the Group easy for pupils to navigate around.

In order to have multiple document stores within the Glow, Keith had to use the Advanced Settings link and create brand new Document store web parts from scratch. If he had not done this and had just added the Documents web part to the page from the web part gallery in the usual way, he would have simply got a duplicate of the original Document store, complete with any folders and documents that had been added to it, rather than having new, empty ones which could be used for different purposes.

The following videos explain how to replicate these elements:

 How to create a Glow Group (2:55)

 How to add members to a Glow Group (5:28)

 How to add and edit pages in a Glow Group (3:08)

 How to create a new, empty Document Store (5:36)

Other features of the Intermediate 2 Biology Glow Group

As well as the pages already mentioned, there are a further two pages in the Group – Weblinks and Videos.  These will be explored in more detail in parts 2 and 3 of this cookbook. However, you can see Keith discuss the content of the pages in the following videos, to give you a complete picture of the entire Glow Group:

Keith Varty: Web links page (0:43)

Keith Varty: Videos page (1:01)

Impact

The Intermediate 2 Biology Glow Group has brought many benefits to the pupils in St Margaret’s Academy.

For the pupils, they now have a ‘one-stop-shop’ for all of their Biology resources, notes, homework exercises and exam revision materials.  This gives them access both at home and at school to everything they might need when going over classwork, doing homework or studying for assessments.

They have a Discussion Board within the Group which gives them a place for asking questions and getting support, both from their own teacher, other teachers in the Department, or from other pupils, so widening their range of help sources.

 Find out more in:

Supporting Int 2 Biology:Part 2-Weblinks and Page Viewer

Supporting Int 2 Biology: Part 3- using videos sa a memory aid