Developing home and school links through Glow
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Wendy Lee teaches class P7B at Forthill Primary School in Dundee. In this cookbook Wendy will talk us through how she developed a class Glow Group aimed at improving home and school links.
Context
With the introduction of Glow to Forthill, Wendy was keen to investigate if the Glow tools and functionality would help improve pupil attitudes toward homework. Most of Wendy’s pupils have access to the internet at home but Wendy ensured that pupils were given access to computers during the school day to complete Glow tasks if required. To further strengthen pupil engagement with Glow, Wendy gave all her pupils contributor permissions to the class Glow Group and encouraged them to make use of the News web part. Over the course of a week, the pupils would post items of interest (new addition to the family; school football team results; visit to the theatre) into the News web part and the items would be discussed as a class activity, first thing Monday morning. Parents were informed about the class Glow Group at a parent’s night and encouraged to have a look at what their children were doing on Glow. Wendy created a Parents page, posting items of interest and encouraged them to contribute stories about themselves onto a Discussion Board.
Video Clips
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Video Clip |
Length |
| Forthill P7 part 1 In this video, Wendy outlines why she set up the group and demonstrates how basic Glow web parts help develop her pupils as effective contributors.
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5:21 |
| Forthill P7 part 2 In this clip, we see how Wendy supports her class teaching by setting homework tasks through Glow.
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4:39 |
| Forthill P7 part 3 Wendy shows us how, through Glow, she encourages her pupils to celebrate their achievements and how links with home and school are strengthened through parental involvement.
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3:17 |
| Using the Page Viewer web part Wendy asks her pupils to complete homework for Maths and Language by completing tasks on web sites. The pupils access these webs site via a Page Viewer web part from within the Glow Group. This clip will lead you through how to set up a Page Viewer web part.
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3:00 |
| Using multiple Discussion Boards in a Glow Group Wendy makes effective use of multiple discussion boards in her Glow Group. This video explains why you need to create new Discussion Board web parts if you want to use more than one in a group and shows you how to go about doing it.
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3:54 |
What Wendy used to develop the class Glow Group:
- A Glow Group
- News web part for the pupils to publish items of interest
- Multiple Discussion Board web parts
- A Page Viewer web part
- Multiple Documents web parts
Impact
Wendy has developed a Glow Group that is engaging and inclusive. The activities in the group are encouraging pupils to be more active in their learning and are clearly developing the capacities of Curriculum for Excellence. The parental participation in the class Glow Group further strengthens the link between home and school and facilitates their involvement with their children’s education.
In the video clip below, Wendy sums up her views on the impact that Glow is having on her class.
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Video Clip |
Length |
| Using Glow in learning and teaching
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2:36 |
June 27, 2010 - 8:05 pm
I found your cookbook very interesting and informative. You have all worked very hard. Thank you Mrs Lee and P.7b.