The Topic Evaluation

Judith Lennox was P7 teacher at Coylton Primary School in South Ayrshire and is now DHT in the school. When it came to their topic work on Earth and Space, the P7 pupils at Coylton Primary School had lots of ideas about what they would like to learn about. Judith incorporated all of these ideas into the Glow Group she put together for the topic.

Judith’s Tour of the Earth and Space Glow Group Part 1 (3:40)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

Judith’s Tour of the Earth and Space Glow Group Part 2 (2:45)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

Introduction to the topic evaluation – click to enlarge

This fifth Cookbook on Judith’s Earth and Space Glow Group will focus on the use made of a survey web part in the Glow Group to evaluate the topic through giving the pupils an opportunity to express their opinions. Four further Cookbooks will look at reusing a Glow Group through a template; the use made of embedded YouTube and TeacherTube videos within the Glow Group; the use made of a wiki for pupil project work and lastly on the use of Picture Library web parts to showcase pupil work.

You will find links to the other Cookbooks on Coylton Primary’s Earth and Space Topic Glow Group below as and when they are written:

• Working with a Glow Group template for an Earth and Space Topic
• Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary
• Our Planets Wiki at Coylton Primary
• Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries

Using the Topic Evaluation – click to enlarge

Judith used a survey with the class at the end of the topic to ask them what they thought about it. It was the first time this class had used a survey and they really enjoyed this and responded well to it. They gave very full answers where they were given an opportunity to respond about what they wanted. Judith was quite surprised at the fact that they had really enjoyed things that she thought they wouldn’t have been as interested in. She was also surprised that aspects that she thought they would all love were not necessarily enjoyed equally by all pupils.

Using the survey was obviously a very valuable tool to aid Judith in her planning, both in further work with this particular class and in running the Earth and Space Topic with the next class. Consulting the pupils, through using the survey, gave them an opportunity to be involved in constructive dialogue about their own learning, an opportunity for Pupil Voice.

Ingredients

What did Judith need to do to be able to set up the Topic Evaluation in her Glow Group?

• Set up a sub-group of her P7 Glow Group for her Earth and Space Topic.
• Set the pupils up with Contributor permission of the Glow Group.
• Create a Topic Evaluation Page.
• Add a text editor web part with instructions about the survey.
• Create a Voki to introduce the survey and make the page more attractive.
• Create a survey to use for the Topic Evaluation.
• Add the survey to the Topic Evaluation page of the Glow Group.

Recipe

The following videos will demonstrate how you can recreate the same steps Judith took to set up the Topic Evaluation Survey:

How to create a survey – Part 1 (4:12)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

How to create a survey – Part 2 (5:03)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

How to add a survey to the page in your Glow Group (1:32)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

How to edit the toolbar of a survey and how pupils will respond (2:50)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

How to change the display settings of your survey (2:25)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

Impact

Judith Lennox

Judith explains how the pupils were “hooked-in” to Glow (0:29)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

Judith speaks about evaluating the topic through Glow (0:55)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

It’s good at a glance. It was interesting to see that some of the things I had assumed they had really liked, only some of them had enjoyed. Also, some things I had thought maybe weren’t as good, they had enjoyed much more than I had thought.

It certainly came across that they had really enjoyed using Glow for their topic.

Their enjoyment was really heightened and certainly their enthusiasm was caught.

Brandon on why he likes Glow (0:29)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

Brandon and Dana

Dana on why she likes Glow (0:23)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

These additional links below are to Cookbooks which also demonstrate the use of the survey web part:

Embedding Glow in daily learning and teaching

Raising attainment in literacy in Primary 3

Encouraging deeper learning: pupils creating surveys

Enabling Pupil Voice – using a Glow Survey

These additional links below are to Cookbooks which give further information about using Vokis:

Developing confident and independent learners

All Glow and no action? Pt 3 Vokis in a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Space Mobiles – click to enlarge

Judith Lennox was P7 teacher at Coylton Primary School in South Ayrshire and is now DHT in the school. When it came to their topic work on Earth and Space, the P7 pupils at Coylton Primary School had lots of ideas about what they would like to learn about. Judith incorporated all of these ideas into the Glow Group she put together for the topic.

Judith’s Tour of the Earth and Space Glow Group Part 1 (3:40)
Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries

Judith’s Tour of the Earth and Space Glow Group Part 2 (2:45)
Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries

This fourth Cookbook on Judith’s Earth and Space Glow Group will focus on the use made of Picture Libraries in the Glow Group to showcase pupil work. Four further Cookbooks will look at reusing a Glow Group through a template; the use made of embedded YouTube and TeacherTube videos within the Glow Group; the use made of a wiki for pupil project work and lastly on the use of a survey for topic evaluation.

You will find links to the other Cookbooks on Coylton Primary’s Earth and Space Topic Glow Group below as and when they are written:

• Working with a Glow Group template for an Earth and Space Topic
• Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary
• Our Planets Wiki at Coylton Primary
• Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

Mission to Mars – click to enlarge

The pupils were keen to study Mars as part of their Earth and Space Topic. Judith devised an activity for them which would allow them to use links and videos within the Glow Group for research and then, in groups, to build their own Mars Rover. As part of the activity, they were asked to photograph it and upload this into the Glow Group. Judith had previously created a Picture Library web part to allow them to display their work. This allowed the pupils to return to their work at any point during the project. It also allowed them to log onto Glow from home and show their families the work they had been involved in. It also meant that the models could be dismantled and that there weren’t Mars Rovers cluttering up the classroom throughout the whole project! Judith also took photographs of the pupils working on the models and uploaded these to the Picture Library.

The Mars Rover Mission – click to enlarge

During the topic the children’s Art project was to make some space mobiles and they planned these out based on the information they had been learning in their topic. Once they had finished Judith took pictures of them and got them uploaded into another Picture Library. The mobiles could then go home with the pupils.

Space Mobiles – click to enlarge

Taking photographs of pupil work and uploading these images into a Picture Library web part means that a permanent record of evidence can be stored. It also means that images can be captured of more active learning taking place within the classroom. Pupils enjoy going back to the Glow Group to see their work over and over again. Precious space within the classroom has also been returned for future activities.

Ingredients

What did Judith need to do to be able to showcase pupil work within the Glow Group?

• A sub-group of the P7 Glow Group was created for the Earth and Space Topic.
• Pupils were set with Contributor membership of this Group.
• New Picture Library web parts were created and added to the Mars Mission and Space Mobiles pages.
• Pupils took photographs of their Mars Rovers and uploaded these into the Our Mars Rovers Picture Library.
• Judith took photographs of the pupils working on their Mars Rovers and uploaded these to the Picture Library.
• Judith took photographs of the pupils with their Space Mobiles and uploaded these to the Pictures of our Space Mobiles Picture Library.

Recipe

The videos below recreate the steps that Judith took to showcase pupil work in Picture Libraries in her Glow Group. It begins with a discussion on the logic of creating a new Picture Library.

Why you should create a new Picture Library (2:17)
Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries

How to create a new Picture Library (0:55)
Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries

How to add the new Picture Library web part to the page (1:09)
Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries

How pupils would add images to the Picture Library (0:58)
Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries

Impact

Judith Lennox

Judith explains how the pupils were “hooked-in” to Glow (0:29)
Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries
Brandon on why he likes Glow (0:29)
Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries

Brandon and Dana

Dana on why she likes Glow (0:23)
Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries

Our Planets Wiki – click to enlarge

Judith Lennox was P7 teacher at Coylton Primary School in South Ayrshire and is now DHT in the school. When it came to their topic work on Earth and Space, the P7 pupils at Coylton Primary School had lots of ideas about what they would like to learn about. Judith incorporated all of these ideas into the Glow Group she put together for the topic.
Judith’s Tour of the Earth and Space Glow Group Part 1 (3:40)
Our Planets Wiki at Coylton Primary

Judith’s Tour of the Earth and Space Glow Group Part 2 (2:45)
Our Planets Wiki at Coylton Primary

pupil news and web links – click to enlarge

The pupils were involved in the discussion about what they would study and what the Glow Group would focus on but this was put together by Judith herself. She was able to give over control to them in a few important areas: the first was a Pupil News web part where pupils could add their own news items that they had come across to share with the rest of the class; the second was a web links web part where each pupil could add links to websites they thought would be interesting to other pupils on the Earth and Space Topic. The third important area where pupils were given more control and responsibility in the Glow Group was the Our Planets Wiki. The class worked in groups to research different planets and then to populate a wiki page on each of the planets. At the time of this project Judith used wikispaces.com, however, she would now be able to use the wiki tool within Glow.

This third Cookbook on Judith’s Earth and Space Glow Group will focus on the use she made of a wiki tool. In the Recipe section, the how-to videos will show how to recreate this using Glow Wikis. Four further Cookbooks will look at reusing a Glow Group through a template; the use made of embedded YouTube and TeacherTube videos within the Glow Group; the use made of picture libraries within the Glow Group and lastly on the use of a survey for topic evaluation.

You will find links to the other Cookbooks on Coylton Primary’s Earth and Space Topic Glow Group below as and when they are written:

• Working with a Glow Group template for an Earth and Space Topic
• Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary
• Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries
• Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

Our Planets Wiki – click to enlarge

A wiki, originally from the Hawaiian for fast, can live up to its name in terms of creating space on the web. Groups of pupils can very quickly get started with creating their own web spaces without worrying about website design. They are perfect as a collaborative tool with lots of people able to edit the one area. Wikis are an incredibly flexible tool within the classroom. A wiki allows teachers to hand over responsibility to pupils to investigate a particular area. Pupils are often enthusiastic about adding their own stamp to the Glow Group in an area that they can control. They know their research in the individual groups is leading towards them controlling what goes into a particular area that is owned by them. It allowed Judith to have control of the Glow Group and exactly what she wanted in there and yet also to give over responsibility to the pupils for a particular area without changing permissions for the whole Glow Group. The pupils worked in small groups with a separate log on to wiki spaces for each group. Judith was able to see which group had edited which part and then protect the final product at the end.

Ingredients

What did Judith need to be able to allow her P7 pupils to have more authorship responsibility within the Earth and Space Glow Group?

• A class Glow Group for the Earth and Space Topic created as a sub-group of the class Glow Group
• Pupils set with Contributor permissions for the Glow Group
• a Pupil News web part
• a Pupil web links web part
• Judith took out a wikispaces.com free account and gave the pupils log-ins for this
• She also added a link to this wiki to the Noticeboard page of the Glow Group – however, to do this with a Glow Wiki she would need to have done the following:
  • add a Glow Wiki web part to the Noticeboard page
  • Create an Our Planets wiki – the pupils would then be able to get started straight away

Recipe

The videos below will allow you to recreate what Judith did with wikis using a Glow Wiki.

Creating the Our Planets Wiki (3:36)
Our Planets Wiki at Coylton Primary

Editing the front page of the Our Planets Wiki (3:59)
Our Planets Wiki at Coylton Primary

Creating the pages in the Our Planets Wiki (2:50)
Our Planets Wiki at Coylton Primary

Changing the Privacy Settings on the Our Planets Wiki (1:48)
Our Planets Wiki at Coylton Primary

Impact

Judith Lennox

Judith explains how the pupils were “hooked-in” to Glow (0:29)
Our Planets Wiki at Coylton Primary
Brandon on why he likes Glow (0:29)
Our Planets Wiki at Coylton Primary

Brandon and Dana

Dana on why she likes Glow (0:23)
Our Planets Wiki at Coylton Primary

Earth and Space Group – click to enlarge

Context

Judith Lennox was P7 teacher at Coylton Primary School in South Ayrshire and is now DHT in the school. When it came to their topic work on Earth and Space, the P7 pupils at Coylton Primary School had lots of ideas about what they would like to learn about.

Judith’s Tour of the Earth and Space Glow Group Part 1 (3:40)

Working with a Glow Group template for an Earth and Space Topic

Judith’s Tour of the Earth and Space Glow Group Part 2 (2:45)
Working with a Glow Group template for an Earth and Space Topic

Judith Lennox

She realised originally, when she came to speak to the P7 pupils the year before about what they were interested in doing for their topic, that this wouldn’t fit into the class Glow Group. She decided to make a sub-group of her class Glow Group for the Earth and Space topic. This allowed it to sit separately and self-contained in terms of organisation. The following year, she was able to use a template of this first Glow Group to set up a new Glow Group on Earth and Space. This meant that she was not starting from scratch when putting the content together for the topic. She saved the template and then used this to create a new Group but then edited it to fit in with what the children from the current year wanted to learn about. This meant that some of the content was able to be reused.

This first Cookbook on Judith’s work with her P7 pupils on their Earth and Space Project will focus on reusing a Glow Group by saving it as a template. This can be a difficult concept to get your head around. However, if you take your time and follow the instructions you will be able to do the same with one of your own Glow Groups.

Four further Cookbooks will look at the use of video within the Glow Group; the use made of a wiki within the Glow Group for pupils to present research; the use made of picture libraries within the Glow Group and lastly on the use of a survey for topic evaluation. As these Cookbooks are written they will be available from the links below:

• Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary
• Our Planets Wiki at Coylton Primary
• Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries
• Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

Ingredients

pupil news and web links – click to enlarge

There are several choices within different contexts for reusing Glow Groups. Everyone is busy and finding ways to make best use of previous work is a bonus. Some people choose to simply clear out discussion boards etc from the previous year and change over the membership of their Glow Group for the current class. In other cases people choose, mainly for class Glow Groups, to retain the membership for the original class and let them carry this with them as they get older. This would mean adding content to the Glow Group as is appropriate for the pupils as they move forward.

It is sometimes beneficial to teachers to retain what has been done in a previous year with a class and Glow as evidence. In this case they would want to recreate a similar Glow Group for use with the following year group. Teachers could also want various versions of their Glow Group available at the same time, for example in a secondary context. In both of these scenarios it is beneficial to save the original Glow Group as a template and use this to create further Glow Groups.

What did Judith need to do to be able to create a copy of the Glow Group she had been using with her previous P7 class?

• Access to a Site Collection Administrator account for the school
• To save the original Glow Group as a template as the Site Collection Administrator
• To create a new Glow Group from this template as the Site Collection Administrator
• To set Administrator membership up for her own Teacher Account as the Site Collection Administrator
• To edit the Glow Group for the current class of P7 pupils
• To set the current P7 pupils up with membership of the Glow Group

Recipe

Mars Mission

The videos below will take you through the process of saving your Glow Group as a template and then creating a new Group using this template. You will need to have a Site Collection Administrator account for your school. If you do not know what this is then it is worth asking a Glow Mentor within the school or a member of the senior management team.

How to save a previous Glow Group as a template (4:50)
Working with a Glow Group template for an Earth and Space Topic

How to create a new Glow Group using a template (4:35)
Working with a Glow Group template for an Earth and Space Topic

How to edit your Glow Group for use (3:27)
Working with a Glow Group template for an Earth and Space Topic

Impact

I was able to use a template [for the sub-Glow Group] of a Group I had used the previous year. I uploaded the template but then edited it to fit in with what the children this year wanted to learn about. So I was able to re-use some of the content and I was able to edit the rest that I wasn’t needing.

Judith explains why Earth and Space was a sub-group and why she used a template (0:55)
Working with a Glow Group template for an Earth and Space Topic

Brandon on why he likes Glow (0:29)
Working with a Glow Group template for an Earth and Space Topic

Dana on why she likes Glow (0:23)
Working with a Glow Group template for an Earth and Space Topic

You may find these Help Articles from the Glow Help Blog to be useful:

How to copy Glow Groups within an establishment site

How to copy Glow Groups between establishment sites

Earth and Space Topic Glow Group

Judith Lennox was P7 teacher at Coylton Primary School in South Ayrshire and is now DHT in the school. When it came to their topic work on Earth and Space, the P7 pupils at Coylton Primary School had lots of ideas about what they would like to learn about. Judith incorporated all of these ideas into the Glow Group she put together for the topic.

Judith’s Tour of the Earth and Space Glow Group Part 1 (3:40)
Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary

Judith’s Tour of the Earth and Space Glow Group Part 2 (2:45)
Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary

This second Cookbook on Judith’s work with her P7 pupils on their Earth and Space Project will focus on the use of video. Four further Cookbooks will look at reusing a Glow Group through a template; the use made of a wiki within the Glow Group for pupils to present research; the use made of picture libraries within the Glow Group and lastly on the use of a survey for topic evaluation.

You will find links to the other Cookbooks on the Earth and Space Topic Glow Group below as they are written:

• Working with a Glow Group template for an Earth and Space Topic
• Our Planets Wiki at Coylton Primary
• Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries
• Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

Judith Lennox

Although they do so much more, sites like YouTube and TeacherTube can act as incredibly powerful search engines for rich, engaging and relevant content for learning and teaching. It is estimated that at least 20 hours of video is uploaded every minute to YouTube. When teachers can sift through and find gems of content to use then they can often create a context which provides pupils with a visual connection to a particular area of the curriculum. Concepts which can be particularly difficult to teach in the classroom, like gravity, can suddenly come to life with a couple of well chosen videos which can act as a bridge to understanding and a stimulus for discussion.

You Tube Animaniacs Videos

Glow is a perfect tool to be able to share these short videos with pupils. Videos can be embedded within the pages of a Glow Group and then used in the classroom on the whiteboard but then also used by pupils at home to consolidate their learning. Of course, some local authorities may have restricted YouTube so that videos from it cannot be used on the school network. Some local authorities restrict this for pupils but not for teachers. However, if teachers have embedded well-chosen videos into their Glow Groups, pupils should still be able to access these from home.

Judith felt that the videos worked extremely well in terms of “hooking” the pupils into the Glow Group and focussing their enthusiasm for their Earth and Space topic. This was the case with a couple of the Animaniacs videos which came from YouTube, Our Solar System Singalong and Yakko’s Universe song. Judith added these to the Noticeboard page of the Glow Group to set the scene for the pupils and the pupils wanted to return to them time and time again.

Videos in the Glow Group – click to enlarge

Further use was made of video on the Mars Rover page with the Mars Rover Animations videos, again from YouTube; the first moon landing on the Space Exploration page; both some instructional and some fun videos on the Gravity page; more TeacherTube videos on the Earth, Moon and Sun page and great NASA TeacherTube videos bringing in a health and wellbeing aspect on the Future Astronauts page.

Ingredients

Click to enlarge

What did Judith need to be able to embed videos in her Earth and Space Topic Glow Group?

• A Group created within Coylton Primary School with pupils set as members of any level
• Appropriate videos selected  from YouTube and TeacherTube
• embed codes copied from TeacherTube and YouTube for each video
• xml web parts added onto pages where videos are required
• embed codes added to xml web parts and titles of web parts changed to reflect the video content

Recipe

In the videos which follow we will recreate with one video what Judith did in the Earth and Space Glow Group to add videos to several pages.

How to find a video to use in your Glow Group and copy the embed code (2:48)
Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary

How to add an xml web part (1:27)
Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary

How to add the embed code (2:13)
Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary

These are the links to the videos Judith used in her Glow Group:

YouTube Videos

• Animaniacs – Our Solar System singalong…
• Yakko’s Universe Song
• mars rover to mars holst the planets
• Mars Rover Blooper Reel
• First Moon Landing 1969
• Harry Discusses – Gravity
• Eureka! Episode 6 – Gravity
• I’m a Victim of Gravity

TeacherTube Videos

• TeacherTube Videos – Phases of the Moon
• TeacherTube Videos – What Causes Seasons on the Earth
• TeacherTube Videos – The Mystery of the Earth’s Tides
• TeacherTube Videos – Forceman Animation – Gravity
• TeacherTube Videos – NASA – Base Station Walk-Back
• TeacherTube Videos – NASA – Mission Control
• TeacherTube Videos – NASA - Crew Strength Training
• TeacherTube Videos – NASA - Do a Space Walk

Impact

Below you will find some videos where Judith talks about the impact of various aspects of the Earth and Space Topic Glow Group and also videos where pupils, Dana and Brandon talk about why they like Glow.

Judith explains how the pupils were “hooked-in” to Glow (0:29)
Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary

Judith explains how she used videos and discussion boards to teach gravity (0:50)
Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary

Judith speaks about the Mission to Mars Activities (1:05)
Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary

The videos on the first page were little Animaniacs videos from YouTube that the children loved and insisted on watching just about every time we did the topic.

But it did grab their attention and it meant that they were interested and hooked-in to using Glow from the start.

Brandon on why he likes Glow (0:29)
Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary

Dana on why she likes Glow (0:23)
Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary

The statement above comes from Katy Sowden, a teacher from Williamston Primary School in Livingston. Katy and pupils from her Primary 7 class were recently asked about the impact that Glow Science has had in their classroom. You can watch what they had to say in a video clip later on in this cookbook.

Overview

Glow Science is an online resource featuring over five hundred video clips aimed at enhancing pupils’ understanding of science in the modern world. Developed in partnership between Twig and Education Scotland, Glow Science is for teachers and for learners from age 8 to 14 and is mapped to Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes. The video content and associated learning materials, quizzes, diagrams and downloadable PDF documents cover all four science disciplines: Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Earth Science; and present key learning points within engaging real-life contexts.

Watch a short excerpt from a featured video. 

Drawing on the highest quality film footage from around the world, researched and written by teachers and scientists and produced by television writers and film editors, Glow Science offers Scottish Education a unique and dynamic learning resource that brings science to life through engaging visuals, music and graphics.

Williamston Primary School 

In the video clip below, Katy and her pupils tell us how Glow Science has impacted on the learning and teaching of Science in class. While the pupils are keen to comment on the quality of the videos and the associated support material, Katy highlights how the real world content raises engagement levels, how the videos link directly to Curriculum for Excellence and the potential for continuing professional development offered by the Glow Science resource.

Accessing Glow Science

For information on accessing the Glow Science resource and adding a shortcut to the resource from Glow Light, please see the video clip below.

Click on image to enlarge

As we heard in the clip from Katy, Glow Science has been developed to aid teachers with their planning and implementation of Curriculum for Excellence. Videos and associated support materials are currently categorised into four broad modules – Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Earth Science. On their web site, the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers (SAGT) highlight the value of the Earth Science module to the teaching of Geography. A new module, Healthy Living, is planned for August 2011 and will include videos and materials to support the topics of Nutrition, Fitness, Health and Disease and Substance Misuse.

To view the Glow Science resource, click the link below to log into Glow (Glow login required), then navigate to the National Site and locate the link to Glow Science. Log in to Glow.

Building the Curriculum 5

From the recommendations contained within Building the Curriculum 5 Jennifer Richardson then South Ayrshire’s Curriculum for Excellence Assessment Team Development Officer, had decided to initiate a pilot project to use Glow to help schools meet the requirements. The documentation states that,

“children and young people should agree learning goals and should record them in ways that are meaningful and relevant.”

It also calls for the creation of a Learner Profile which should include targets and goals with information on all areas of the curriculum and wider achievement and a range of evidence of learning. It states that learners should have opportunities for reflection, sharing and dialogue.  Maintaining an electronic portfolio within Glow could provide schools and pupils with the ongoing information required for a Profile.

In this cookbook we will focus on work done in Barr Primary School in South Ayrshire as part of this pilot process.

Originally South Ayrshire were interested in some work done in East Ayrshire using Glow Groups as e-portfolios. However, since their introduction in the summer of 2010, Glow blogs have become an increasingly important tool within Glow. It quickly became obvious that they would be an excellent opportunity to provide an e-portfolio solution which would have many advantages over using a Glow Group.

Jennifer was originally keen to go ahead with using Glow blogs for this purpose as she saw the following benefits:

• they provide an accessible, electronic and manageable method of storing different types of evidence in one central place
• it can be accessed by both the learner, teachers, parents and peers (optional)
• learners can independently access and update their e-portfolio at any time and from anywhere with an internet connection
• teachers, parents and peers could comment on the learners work
• the e-portfolio can automatically transfer with the learner from class to class and from primary to secondary school.

Nation e-portfolio Glow Group

National advice and access to templates and helpsheets is available from the National level Glow Group here. The advice is given that the e-portfolios are created in a Glow Group in the pupil’s My Glow area. The My Glow area is chosen so that the pupils can have more ownership of the process but also because as the pupil moves to secondary school, if they are correctly identity matched to the same account, then they retain their My Glow and any groups within it. Rather than simply creating the blog on their My Glow it is created in a Glow Group so that membership can be set for teachers in the Glow Group without giving access to the pupil’s My Glow area. When a pupil enters secondary school membership can be reset for all teaching staff for the secondary in the way it was originally set at the primary.

Context

Barr Primary

In South Ayrshire we decided to build a template for schools to use, although local authorities are now able to work with the National Team to design a ‘Theme’ which can be used across the whole authority. Towards the end of 2010 South Ayrshire asked for volunteer schools to come along to a twilight training session. Both primaries and secondaries were keen to be involved. Fraser Baird came along from Barr Primary to find out how to get started with his pupils and kicked the process off with them when he returned to school.

Barr Primary School

Barr Primary were initially keen to use Glow Groups for e-portfolios and had already got started with doing this but then opted to give the Glow blogs a try instead. They began with creating them with the senior pupils in P5-7 but then set them up with the junior pupils as well. All pupils in P1-7 at Barr Primary have their own Glow blog to use for an e-portfolio.

To put the project in context click below to see Brian from Barr Primary take you on a tour through his e-portfolio blog:
e-portfolios using Glow blogs at Barr Primary, South Ayrshire

Ingredients

The prcess the South Ayrshire schools went through to create the e-portfolios was as follows:

• Pupils created a Glow Group with their own name as a title in their My Glow Area using the Glow Light interface.
• They added this Glow Group to their favourites.
• The pupils used the Advanced Settings link to add staff as Administrators of their Glow Group.
• They added the Glow Blog web part to the Glow Group
• They created a Glow blog, naming it with their Glow username, in order to keep the blog name unique.
• The pupils applied a template to their blog but this would now be done by adding a theme decided on by the local authority
• The pupils created their own header for the blog.
• A Glow Group was created by their teacher at school level.
• Pupils copied the URL for their blog and added this to a web links web part in the school-level Glow Group.

Recipe

If you go to the National E-Portfolio Glow Group mentioned above you will see videos and Helpsheets taking you through all the stages required for schools to set up e-portfolio with their pupils.

Brian shows us how pupils access their e-portfolios to make a post (1:22)

e-portfolios using Glow blogs at Barr Primary, South Ayrshire

Brian shows us how to move from the dashboard to the e-portfolio (0:20)
e-portfolios using Glow blogs at Barr Primary, South Ayrshire

Impact

The senior pupils at Barr Primary School

Barr Primary are very pleased with how the e-portfolio pilot is progressing and the pupils appear to really enjoy this way of working. They were generous enough with their time to let me go into the school and film their opinions on using their e-portfolios. Click on the videos in the sections below to find out what firstly, the pupils thought of various aspects and then what their teacher, Fraser Baird thought:

Introductions to the pupils (0:39)
e-portfolios using Glow blogs at Barr Primary, South Ayrshire

The pupils on creating the e-portfolios (0:51)
e-portfolios using Glow blogs at Barr Primary, South Ayrshire

Pupils on why they’re using the e-portfolios (1:37)
e-portfolios using Glow blogs at Barr Primary, South Ayrshire

Pupils on what they post on (2:04)
e-portfolios using Glow blogs at Barr Primary, South Ayrshire

Pupils on using your blog as an evidence store (1:05)
e-portfolios using Glow blogs at Barr Primary, South Ayrshire

Pupils on how to post (1:37)
e-portfolios using Glow blogs at Barr Primary, South Ayrshire

Pupils on using vokis on the blogs (0:52)
e-portfolios using Glow blogs at Barr Primary, South Ayrshire

Pupils on using it from home (0:30)
e-portfolios using Glow blogs at Barr Primary, South Ayrshire

Pupils on getting comments from teachers (0:32)
e-portfolios using Glow blogs at Barr Primary, South Ayrshire

Fraser on the decision to use blogs (1:13)
e-portfolios using Glow blogs at Barr Primary, South Ayrshire

Fraser on getting started (1:27)
e-portfolios using Glow blogs at Barr Primary, South Ayrshire

Fraser on e-portfolio for measuring pupil progression (1:09)
e-portfolios using Glow blogs at Barr Primary, South Ayrshire

Fraser on the advantages of blogs over traditional methods (0:49)
e-portfolios using Glow blogs at Barr Primary, South Ayrshire

Fraser on the pupils and blogs (2:21)
e-portfolios using Glow blogs at Barr Primary, South Ayrshire

Fraser on what and how often the pupils post (1:05)
e-portfolios using Glow blogs at Barr Primary, South Ayrshire

Glow Group navigation – click to enlarge

In this cookbook, Margaret Tracey and Sandra Donaldson from South Lanarkshire Council explain how authority-level Glow Groups have been created to exemplify CfE experiences and outcomes.

Each Glow Group aims to show the progression of an experience and outcome to develop practitioners’ understanding and confidence in planning for CfE. Furthermore, each Group will provide teachers with resources and ideas, and a place to communicate and share their own materials and approaches to learning.

Context

Margaret Tracey, Glow Co-ordinator, and Jim Reid, ICT Development Officer, are responsible for the rollout and implementation of Glow throughout South Lanarkshire schools.

During 2009/10 Margaret and Jim planned the creation of a number of authority-level Glow Groups. The aim of these Groups was twofold: to provide schools with ideas and resources; and to encourage practitioners to explore how they could use Glow with their own pupils to develop new learning and teaching strategies.

The initial plan was to create Glow Groups open to all primary schools in the authority, to support the teaching of common projects, such as ‘Rainforests’ or ‘World War 2’. Feedback was sought from schools and opinion was very positive.

However, in consultation with the authority’s QIO team and ‘Training – Learning and Teaching’ advisory group, the plans evolved into something more ambitious: to select one CfE experience and outcome and follow its progression from Early to Fourth Level. A Glow Group would be created to exemplify the outcome at each level and provide activities and resources to support classes working on it.

As the plans developed, it quickly became apparent that a range of expertise was called for, to ensure that the experiences and outcomes were fully understood and to develop level-appropriate materials. 

Three working parties were then set up: for Science, for Numeracy & Maths and for Literacy & English. Each working party was headed up by a South Lanarkshire Development Officer, with expert advice provided by the QIO team. Experienced practitioners were invited to join, with the essential criteria for selection being enthusiasm and understanding of CfE. Further advice for each working party was provided by CfE staff from Learning and Teaching Scotland and members of the national Glow team.

Margaret Tracey explains the background to the creation of the Glow GroupsSupporting progression and continuity in Science

Margaret Tracey explains how the content of the Glow Groups was decided uponSupporting progression and continuity in Science

This cookbook focuses on the work of the Science working party. Cookbooks have been published for the Numeracy and Maths group and the Literacy and English group.

Click to enlarge

The Science working party was led by Development Officer Sandra Donaldson. Following discussion with headteachers, ‘Space’ was selected as a theme, as it’s a popular project with schools. Additionally, a clear line of progression in the experiences and outcomes from Early to Fourth Level makes this a good subject for exemplification. 

Three primary teachers – Lorraine McKendry, Karen McGee and Martyn O’Donnell - together with early years representative Angela Purse, worked on Early, First and Second Level areas of the Glow Group. Biology teacher, Marcus Balloch, developed the Third Level materials and physics teacher, Lee Charnley, the Fourth Level.

The working party met on a series of occasions, to discuss the Experiences and Outcomes and plan the activities to be included in the Glow Group. The first meeting was a brainstorming session, identifying the key knowledge and skills at each level, appropriate learning and teaching strategies and links to other curricular areas.

A great deal of discussion centred around whether the Glow Group should be pupil or staff orientated, and it was decided that a combination would be best. At Early Level, the activities in the Glow Group would be teacher-led, but at other levels, it is envisaged that pupils will be able to access and use the Glow Group independently.

Staff area – click to enlarge

Subsequent meetings enabled the working party to share the ideas and materials they had developed, and to deal with any questions or problems that had arisen. These questions often focused on the transition between levels, and valuable discussion ensued to ensure that the intention of the experiences and outcomes were fully understood and that appropriate content had been included at each level.

At the end of each meeting, the working party members were tasked with beginning to build their respective pages in the Glow Group. Meetings took place every 3 weeks, allowing regular checks on the continuity and progression of the resources being developed.

Sandra Donaldson demonstrates the Science Glow GroupSupporting progression and continuity in Science

Ingredients

Sandra created the Science Glow Group on the South Lanarkshire site in Glow. A page was created for each level from Early to Fourth. Each member of the working party was then given Administrator rights to the Group so that they could design the page for their level by:

• Adding a Text Editor web part to display the Outcome and Experience
• Adding further Text Editor web parts to display images, links, activities and videos
• Adding new Web links and Documents web parts 

 The video clips in the Recipe section below show how to replicate these elements.

Recipe

* How to add, edit or delete pages in a Glow GroupSupporting progression and continuity in Science

* How to add the Text Editor web part to a page Supporting progression and continuity in Science

* How to add an image to a Text Editor web part Supporting progression and continuity in Science

* How to add a hyperlink to a Text Editor web partSupporting progression and continuity in Science

* How to add a link in Text Editor to a documentSupporting progression and continuity in Science

* How to use a table in Text Editor to layout text and images Supporting progression and continuity in Science

* How to display a video in a Text Editor web partSupporting progression and continuity in Science

* How to create a new Discussions web partsSupporting progression and continuity in Science

Impact

The meetings and tasks gave the members of the working party a valuable opportunity to explore the experiences and outcomes in detail. All felt they had benefited from working with colleagues from across the range of stages and sectors and to understand more about learning and teaching strategies at different stages. The primary members particularly appreciated the support of the secondary specialists in developing activities appropriate to each level.

Two members of the team were Glow novices and felt that their ‘Glow skills’ had progressed tremendously as a result of being involved in the working party.

The benefits for the working party members Supporting progression and continuity in Science

The Science Glow Group is currently open only to members of the working party, but will be open to all South Lanarkshire schools from autumn 2010. The aim is that classes will actively engage with the Glow Group, participating in the activities, using the resources, and sharing ideas and questions through the discussion boards.

Plans for how the ‘Space’ Glow Group will be used Supporting progression and continuity in Science

Developing the ‘Space’ Glow Group: lessons learned Supporting progression and continuity in Science

Use of the Glow Group will be evaluated. Quantitative data will be available through the Management Reporting tools and qualitative feedback will be gathered through the use of a survey.

Beyond this initial trial period, the Glow Group (along with the Numeracy & Maths and Literacy & English Glow Groups) will be made available to schools nationally. Links to the Groups will be advertised in a number of locations in Glow, including the relevant cookbooks.

Margaret Tracey explains the plans for evaluating the impact of the Glow Groups Supporting progression and continuity in Science

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 as a memory aid

If you have already read Part 1 or Part 2 of the series, you may wish to move on to the cookbook focus section of this one, as the initial context section is the same as in previous parts (for the benefit of those who have not yet read parts 1 or 2)

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)
Supporting Int 2 Biology: Part 3 – Using Videos as a memory aid

Cookbook Focus: Using Videos as a memory aid

Keith has been keen to engage pupils by using a range of different types of learning resource within the Glow Group.

One way he has done this is to embed videos from YouTube into the text editor web part.

The page in the Glow Group where the videos are embedded currently has six videos to view. These have been chosen as they show people carrying out experiments that the pupils themselves have done in class. The videos are therefore a great way of reminding pupils of this. They also allow pupils who were absent when the experiments were done in class, to still see them being carried out.

Next session, Keith plans to video the pupils when they carry out the experiments, then add these to the Glow Group. He talks about this is the following video clip:

Keith Varty: Videos page (1:01)
Supporting Int 2 Biology: Part 3 – Using Videos as a memory aid

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 embed the videos, Keith had to add a Text Editor web part for each video clip, then paste the video’s embed code from YouTube into the web part.

In part 1 of this cookbook series, there are videos explaining how to create a Glow Group, add members, and add and rename pages. There is also a video explaining how to create multiple document stores within a Glow Group. In part 2, you can find out how to add web links with the notes field displayed and also how to use the Page Viewer web part.

The following video explains how to embed a YouTube video into the Text Editor web part in a Glow Group :

How to embed a YouTube video into the Text Editor web part (3:47)
Supporting Int 2 Biology: Part 3 – Using Videos as a memory aid

Other features of the Intermediate 2 Biology Glow Group

As well as the pages already mentioned, there are a further five pages in the Group. Three of these have been explored in more detail in Part 1 of this cookbook series, and two are the focus of Part 2. However, you can see Keith discuss the content of these five pages in the following videos, to give you a complete picture of the entire Glow Group:

Keith Varty: Homework Help Page (1:29)
Supporting Int 2 Biology: Part 3 – Using Videos as a memory aid
Keith Varty: Current Class Topic Page (0:38)
Supporting Int 2 Biology: Part 3 – Using Videos as a memory aid
Keith Varty: Archive Page for previous topics (1:47)
Supporting Int 2 Biology: Part 3 – Using Videos as a memory aid
Keith Varty: Exam Help Page (1:42)
Supporting Int 2 Biology: Part 3 – Using Videos as a memory aid
Keith Varty: Web links page (0:43)
Supporting Int 2 Biology: Part 3 – Using Videos as a memory aid

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.

Click to enlarge image

This cookbook is a follow up to an earlier cookbook where Bruce McMaster, a teacher of Biology at Broughton High School in Edinburgh, took us through how he uses Glow to support the learning and teaching of Advanced Higher Biology. You will find a link to the earlier cookbook below.

In this cookbook, Bruce shows us how he uses Glow Learn to further support the learning and teaching of Advanced Higher Biology (Glow Learn is the virtual learning environment available to Glow users).

Context

With the introduction of Glow to Broughton, Bruce was keen to investigate how best to use the tools and functionality to further enrich the learning experiences of his Advanced Higher pupils.  He quickly developed a Glow Group that provides an easy access point to a variety of information sources, stimulus to deeper learning, opportunities for collaboration, peer evaluation and assessment.  Following the successful introduction of Glow to his class, Bruce has gone on to incorporate the use of Glow Learn into his teaching. In this cookbook, Bruce talks us through how he integrates the use of Glow Learn to further support the learning and teaching of Advanced Higher Biology.

What Bruce uses to integrate the use of Glow Learn into his Glow Group:

1. A Glow Group
2. Glow Learn
3. Glow Learn Learning Space web part

Video Clips

In the first video below, Bruce demonstrates how he uses Glow Learn and talks about the positive impact it is having on his pupils. In this video we see Bruce connecting to Glow Learn from a Glow Group. A Glow Group that links to Glow Learn is called a Learning Space. The second video, ‘What is a Learning Space?’, describes how you can create a Glow Group that connects to Glow Learn and the potential benefits of doing so. For support on using Glow Learn, see the links at the end of this cookbook.

Impact

Glow Learn enables Bruce to organise his resources, replicating the structure of the Advanced Higher Biology course as it progresses. Pupils benefit from being able to access specific resources that support their learning at a particular time during the course and, because of the structure, are able to dip back into particular units of work as required. By combining the resource structure of Glow Learn with the tools and information sources of the Glow Group, Bruce has developed an environment which he feels has positively impacted on the attainment levels of his pupils.

Follow the link below for the earlier cookbook outlining how Bruce uses Glow to support his Advanced Higher biology class: 

For video support on using Glow Learn, follow the link below:

Glow Learn cookbook videos

For downloadable versions of Glow Learn helpsheets and training guide, follow the link below (Glow login required):

Glow Learn guide and helpsheets