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

Burns Supper at Coylton

Judith Lennox was P7 teacher at Coylton Primary School in South Ayrshire and is now DHT in the school.

Judith Lennox

Judith explains the Burns Supper Enterprise Project at Coylton Primary (0:53)
Burns Supper – Using Glow to support an Enterprise Project

Primary 7 pupils at Coylton Primary School used a Glow Group to help in the planning of an interdisciplinary enterprise event. This event was the organising of their annual Burns Supper.

P7 pupils took responsibility for all aspects of planning this event, which involved:

• writing newsletters to parents
• inviting special guests
• selling tickets
• handling cash and cheques
• rehearsing songs, poems and dances
• writing and learning speeches
• publicising the event in the school community.

All 60 P7 pupils took on a role in organising the event, as well as having an ‘on the night’ job.

Glow Group Pages

Co-ordinating this number of pupils, from different classes, who were all completing different tasks, was made easier by the great idea of using a Glow Group for communication. This meant that pupils were able to communicate easily between the 2 classes by using various discussion boards, a moderated chat room and a Glow Meet room. The pupils made use of these both in and out of school. Using Glow enabled class teachers to oversee the planning process, whilst allowing pupils to work independently. It meant that the teachers didn’t have to keep bringing the 2 classes together and disrupting the school day. Teachers were able to answer queries as they arose and challenge pupils’ thinking by contibuting to the discussions in the Glow group.

The Coylton P7 Burns Supper

On the night, pupils chaired the event and provided high quality entertainment for their 90 guests.  After the event, pupils continued to use the Glow Group to celebrate their success. They were able to discuss their favourite memories and look at photos of the event which their teachers had uploaded.

Judith’s Tour of the Burn’s Supper Glow Group (3:14)
Burns Supper – Using Glow to support an Enterprise Project

This Cookbook will focus on the use of the Glow Group as a planning tool for the P7 classes.

Ingredients

What did Judith need to be able to allow the pupils to use Glow as a planning tool for their enterprise event?

• A Glow Group built at school level in Coylton Primary School
• Pupils from a both P7 classes set with Contributor permissions
• Use made of a general discussion board
• A Job Discussions page created
• Additional discussion boards created on this page to aid different teams of pupils in their planning
• A chat room
• A Glow Meet room
• A Page Viewer web part with the World Burns Club website
• An additional Page Viewer web part with Address to a Haggis
• A Memories page with photos and an additional discussion board for pupils to comment on the event

Recipe

Discussions in the Group

In this Cookbook we have chosen to focus on creating the Jobs Discussions page and additional discussion boards.

In the videos below you will be able to see how Judith did this.

How Judith created a new page in the Glow Group (1:47)
Burns Supper – Using Glow to support an Enterprise Project

How Judith created additional discussion web parts (2:47)

Burns Supper – Using Glow to support an Enterprise Project

How Judith added these web parts to the page (1:03)
Burns Supper – Using Glow to support an Enterprise Project

Impact

Judith explains why she wanted to use Glow for the project (0:32)
Burns Supper – Using Glow to support an Enterprise Project

Judith explains why she thinks using Glow was successful (0:49)
Burns Supper – Using Glow to support an Enterprise Project

The Burns project worked really well. The pupils were extremely enthusiastic. They had only just got their Glow log-ons and they were really keen to use Glow as much as possible. They were logging in at home quite a lot and also in school they were given a chance to log in whenever they had any free time.

The discussions worked really well. It was a good way for the pupils to collaborate without having to be in the same room as each other. Because it was 2 classes working together, it meant that we could do that without any disruption to the school day.

Brandon and Dana from P7

Brandon on why he likes Glow (0:29)
Burns Supper – Using Glow to support an Enterprise Project

Dana on why she likes Glow (0:23)
Burns Supper – Using Glow to support an Enterprise Project

Maureen Atkins

Maureen Atkins is a Maths teacher at St Aidan’s High School in North Lanarkshire. She has been making good use of Glow in her teaching. She was involved in the school making the decision to move ahead with using e-portfolios with the S1 year group. Maureen was keen that evidence of pupil achievement that she had captured in the classroom would be available to be used by the pupils when creating posts in their e-portfolios. This Cookbook will focus on the Maths Store Glow Group and on the wiki. You will see a tour of the Glow Group and wiki and also interviews with Maureen where she will explain what she was setting out to do.

This process could be used across any whole school seeking a method to give pupils access to evidence from classes for use in their e-portfolios.

Ingredients

click on image to enlarge

Maureen decided that the easiest way to give pupils access to  evidence from  their Maths classes was to create a Glow Group called The Maths Store and then create a wiki inside this group for various files to be uploaded to. The plan was originally that the whole Maths Dept would use this but the school are looking into having a school-wide evidence wiki. It was materials such as, scanned images of posters the pupils had made; PowerPoint files from their Famous Mathematicians presentations and photos Maureen normally takes in class for evidence that she wanted to give the pupils access to. There is a 5Mb limit on uploading individual files into the Glow Blogs currently being used as pupil e-portfolios. With this in mind, Maureen compressed some larger image files before adding them to the wiki to make it easier for the pupils to upload them to their individual e-portfolios.

What did Maureen need to do to enable the pupils to upload class evidence into their e-portfolios:

• Have a staff Glow account at St Aidan’s High School
• Have her pupils provisioned and given their Glow usernames and passwords
• Create a Glow Group on the school site and set the pupils up with at least Reader membership
• Remove pages other than Noticeboard page from the Glow Group
• Add a text editor web part with instructions
• Add a wiki web part and create the wiki
• Edit the wiki to give instructions and create a separate page for her class to use
• Upload images and files to the page in the wiki
• Pupils with e-portfolios created
• Pupils need access to a computer to save the file and upload this to their e-portfolio to become part of a post.

Recipe

The first video below is of Maureen taking you on a tour through the Maths Store Glow Group and through the wiki itself. The videos that follow will allow you to follow the same steps that Maureen has taken to be able to achieve this yourselves.

Maureen’s Tour of the Maths Store Wiki (3:09)
Using a wiki as an evidence store for pupil e-portfolios

Creating a Glow Group to use as an evidence store (1:38)
Using a wiki as an evidence store for pupil e-portfolios

Removing the unwanted pages and adding a text editor (3:06)
Using a wiki as an evidence store for pupil e-portfolios

Adding the wiki web part and creating the wiki (2:17)
Using a wiki as an evidence store for pupil e-portfolios

Editing the wiki (3:17)
Using a wiki as an evidence store for pupil e-portfolios

Uploading evidence to the wiki (1:28)
Using a wiki as an evidence store for pupil e-portfolios

How the pupils can access the evidence from the wiki (1:33)
Using a wiki as an evidence store for pupil e-portfolios

How the pupils would use this in their e-portfolio (3:20)
Using a wiki as an evidence store for pupil e-portfolios

Impact

Click on image to enlarge

Maureen notes that the pupils were very keen to use the evidence she had provided in the wiki for their individual e-portfolios. She notes:

They were even going home and trying to do it. They’re excited about it … because they live in that world. This use of ICT, they like it, they are very comfortable with it.

They were very keen that it gave them a vehicle to be able to show their parents. This is something Maureen knew that both the parents and the pupils were keen on before but that there wasn’t really a mechanism for sharing until Glow.

In the videos below Maureen talks about various aspects of the impact of this project.

Why Maureen was keen to become involved with Glow? (0:24)
Using a wiki as an evidence store for pupil e-portfolios

Why did Maureen decide to create an evidence store in Glow? (0:35)
Using a wiki as an evidence store for pupil e-portfolios

What was involved in getting the materials onto the wiki? (0:39)
Using a wiki as an evidence store for pupil e-portfolios

How the pupils have responded to using evidence and making posts in their e-portfolios. (1:05)
Using a wiki as an evidence store for pupil e-portfolios

You may wish to visit other Cookbooks written about St Aidan’s High School:

• St Aidan’s High School Transition – Interactive School Map
• Sharing Instrumental Performance Videos at St Aidan’s High School

P2 building an igloo – learning about Antartica

Overview
Nathalie Spence is a probationary teacher at Onthank Primary, Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire. Following an introduction to Glow, whilst a student teacher at the University of the West of Scotland, Nathalie was keen to use Glow to support the learning and teaching with her P2 class.

In this activity the P2 class worked together to build an igloo with recycled plastic milk jugs.

Video Clips
Watch a tour of the P2D Glow Group

Onthank Primary – P2 Igloo ProjectIngredients

Using Glow to support the class work, Nathalie went through the following steps:

1. creating a Glow Group at school level
2. making pupils in the class members of the group
3. adding new pages/changing the names of pages
4. creating a Picture Library and Discussions web parts

Recipe

The ‘How-to’ videos below show how to replicate many of the elements Nathalie has used in the P2 Glow Group.

How to add, remove or rename pages in a Glow GroupOnthank Primary – P2 Igloo Project

How to create a new Picture Library (or other web parts)Onthank Primary – P2 Igloo Project

How to compress images before uploading to GlowOnthank Primary – P2 Igloo Project

How to upload and view images in a Picture LibraryOnthank Primary – P2 Igloo Project

How to rename the Discussions web part
Onthank Primary – P2 Igloo Project

How to add and reply to posts in a Discussion Board
Onthank Primary – P2 Igloo Project

Impact

Nathalie – “This project is a really good example of linking home and school through Glow. Using our topic Antarctica where we built a life size igloo using milk cartons was a great success. The children took photographs of each process and were able to put them on to Glow. A discussion board was used and allowed us to show the parents at home the actual process that we were going through and then at the end the finished product. The parents came in to school for a presentation and they commented that the fact that they were able to go back to Glow and see the processes that the children went through and discuss this with them actually made the parent understand exactly what the children were learning about.”

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

In order to look at how the Group was used, this cookbook will be split into four parts. This part, part 4, looks at the use of pictures and videos within the Group. Part 1 looks at the use of hidden pages, Part 2 at the use of Glow Meet and Part 3 focuses on how the Glow Blog was used. All four parts will contain the same overview in the ‘context’ section, with the different elements being explored in the ‘Focus On’ and recipe sections.

Context

Jan Pollok, Quality Improvement Officer and Glow Key Contact for East Dunbartonshire Council sent out a Targeted News item from the Local Authority site in Glow, asking for schools to volunteer to attend the Scottish Learning Festival (SLF) to take part in LEGO activities. Jan had initially wanted to choose two schools, but after responses came in from schools, she decided to invite the four schools named above.

Jan met with Joanne Connolly, one of the Glow Educationalists from the National Glow Team, to discuss how Glow could support the schools before SLF and also how it could be used during and afterwards.

As a result of this conversation, Jan created a Glow Group at Local Authority level to enable the four schools to have direct sight of it. The layout was then designed and built, after consultation with the schools.

Initially, the Primary 7 teachers from the schools met with Jan and Joanne to discuss the activities that the pupils would be undertaking at SLF and to give their input to the Glow Group structure and content. It was agreed that the Group would contain hidden pages, with only the Noticeboard Page visible and links to the hidden pages provided there. This gave the Group a sleek and simple look and made it very easy to navigate around. You can learn more about hidden pages in Part 1 of this cookbook series.
We can look at the Group and its layout in the following video:

Tour of the SLF LEGO Glow Group (11:48)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 4- Pictures and Videos

Elements of the Glow Group

A range of different web parts were incorporated within the Glow Group:

Glow Meet
The first part of the Glow Group that was used was the Glow Meet page. It was agreed at the initial meeting that a Glow Meet would be held to enable the children to introduce themselves and become more familiar with Glow Meet. It also provided an opportunity for the schools to check their equipment was working. You can find out more details about it in part 2 of the cookbook series.

Picture Library
Both before and after the Glow Meet, the pupils spent time in their classrooms using the ‘We-Do’ LEGO kits that they had been given to allow them to practise prior to attending SLF. They took photos of the models they built and these were uploaded to the Picture Library on the ‘Our Photos’ page of the Group. Find out more in the ‘Focus on’ section of this cookbook.

Document Stores
There are two Document Stores in the Glow Group.

The first is on the Documents page. This was there to give pupils a place where they could perhaps write instructions on how to build a particular LEGO model and share those with others by uploading to the Document store. It was also discussed that pupils might do creative writing about the models they built and those pieces of writing could also be uploaded and shared.

The second Document store was created through the Advanced Settings link, in order to have a fresh, new, empty web part, rather than just a duplicate of the original Document store on the Documents page. This Document store was named Video Files and was added to the ‘Our Videos’ page. A folder was created for each of the schools, along with a fifth folder for SLF. Schools could use this to upload videos of their LEGO models in action, since the ‘We-Do’ kit includes software enabling the models to be programmed to move and make sounds. Find out more about how this Document store was used in the ‘Focus on’ section below.

Discussion Board
A discussion board was added to the Discussions page. This was originally intended for staff to ask questions about preparations for SLF and for pupils to discuss the activities they had been doing with the LEGO kits. However, the discussions about these activities naturally transferred themselves to the final page of the Glow Group, the Glow Blog.

Glow Blog
A page was created to host the Glow Blog.
The Glow Blog web part on the page enabled pupils to make quick posts about the activities they were doing. It was also used during the Scottish Learning Festival and afterwards. You can read more about this in Part 3 of the cookbook series.

In the next section, we will focus on one of the elements briefly described above. The others are focused on in the other three parts of this cookbook series.

Focus on: Pictures and Videos

Pictures

Click to view

A Picture Library was added to the Glow Group to enable the schools to upload photos of the LEGO models they made prior to attending SLF. This enabled the pupils to share their work with other schools, log on at home and show their parents what they had created in school and also learn from one another.

The picture library was configured to show only two columns – a thumbnail of the photo and a description of it. This allowed the pupils to describe their picture or simply add a comment.

During the Scottish Learning Festival, many photos were taken of the pupils participating in the LEGO, animation and video activities. These were then made into a collage by pasting all of the images into a Microsoft Word document then capturing the collage as a single picture using an image capture tool. This single image was then uploaded into the Text Editor web part, giving another way of sharing images between all four schools.

Videos

Video files were added to the Glow Group in two ways.

Prior to SLF, some of the schools recorded short video clips to show the models they made in action, since the software that accompanied the LEGO kits enabled the models to be programmed to move and make sounds.

Click to View

These video files were then shared by uploading them into the ‘Video Files’ Document Library on the ‘Our Videos’ page in the Glow Group. Members of the Group simply had to click on the file to play the video.

During the Scottish Learning Festival, the pupils made stop/start animations with LEGO models. The animation videos were then added to the Glow Group. This meant that they could be watched by pupils who had not attended SLF and could also be shown to parents. In this instance, this was done by uploading the files to a free online hosting site called screencast.com. This site then provided an embed code which was pasted into the xml web part in the Glow Group. This enabled the videos to play within the web part, simply by pressing the play button. You can see this in the SLF LEGO Glow Group Tour video clip earlier in this cookbook. The recipe section below provides a ‘how to’ video to enable you to learn how to do this for yourself.

Ingredients
In order for the East Dunbartonshire schools attending the Scottish Learning Festival to be able to upload images and videos to the SLF LEGO Glow Group, the following was done:
- A Picture Library was added to the ‘Our Photos’ page
- A new Document Library was created and added to the Documents page
- Text Editor web parts were added to the Videos Page in the Group and the video files of the pupil animations were added to those.

Additional work was done to create the other elements of the Glow Group which have been touched on in the ‘elements of the Glow Group’ section above. These are covered in the other parts of this cookbook series.

Recipe
In the following videos we will look at how to replicate some of the elements mentioned above. In particular, we will look at creating hidden pages and linking to them:

How to add a Picture Library to a Glow Group (2:03)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 4- Pictures and Videos
How to create a second Picture Library for your Glow Group (4:27)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 4- Pictures and Videos
How to change the columns shown in a Picture Library- adding a description field (4:38)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 4- Pictures and Videos
How to embed a video file in the xml web part (3:55)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 4- Pictures and Videos
How to create a new Document Store (5:57)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 4- Pictures and Videos

Impact

Using the Glow Group has had a great impact on the schools involved in the LEGO activities.

They have had a place for communicating and sharing their learning.

Pupils have been able to share with others, both in their own school and outwith, the models they have built, through use of the picture library, Document store for videos, and through their blog posts.

Staff have been able to use the Group to meet virtually using Glow Meet and to plan using this, so eliminating the need to travel to actual meetings. Glow Meet has also enabled the pupils to speak to one another and to the Glow Team, prior to attending the Scottish Learning Festival, which helped reassure them before attending such a large event.

The use of the picture library provides and excellent means of formative assessment, showcasing the work pupils have done and providing an opportunity for peer review.

In all, the Glow Group has been highly beneficial to all who have used it.

Read the other parts of this cookbook series:

Part 1: Focus on – Hidden Pages

Part 2: Focus on – Glow Meet

Part 3: Focus on – Using a Glow Blog

Recently, four schools from East Dunbartonshire volunteered to attend the Scottish Learning Festival to their pupils to take part in a range of activities. To support their preparation for this, a Glow Group was created at Local Authority Level to enable the schools – Bearsden Primary, Killermont Primary, Lenzie-Moss Primary and Oxgang Primary – to communicate, collaborate and share their learning.

In order to look at how the Group was used, this cookbook has been split into four parts. This part, Part 3, looks at the use of Glow Blogs. Part 1 looks at the use of hidden pages in the Glow Group, Part 2 on how the use of Glow Meet and Part 4 on Pictures and Videos. All four parts will contain the same overview in the ‘context’ section, with the different elements being explored in the ‘Focus On’ and recipe sections.

Context

Jan Pollok, Quality Improvement Officer and Glow Key Contact for East Dunbartonshire Council sent out a Targeted News item from the Local Authority site in Glow, asking for schools to volunteer to attend the Scottish Learning Festival (SLF) to take part in LEGO activities. Jan had initially wanted to choose two schools, but after responses came in from schools, she decided to invite the four schools named above.

Jan met with Joanne Connolly, one of the Glow Educationalists from the National Glow Team, to discuss how Glow could support the schools before SLF and also how it could be used during and afterwards.

As a result of this conversation, Jan created a Glow Group at Local Authority level to enable the four schools to have direct sight of it. The layout was then designed and built, after consultation with the schools.

Initially, the Primary 7 teachers from the schools met with Jan and Joanne to discuss the activities that the pupils would be undertaking at SLF and to give their input to the Glow Group structure and content. It was agreed that the Group would contain hidden pages, with only the Noticeboard Page visible and links to the hidden pages provided there. This gave the Group a sleek and simple look and made it very easy to navigate around. (find out more about hidden pages in Part 1 of this cookbook series)
We can look at the Group and its layout in the following video:

Tour of the SLF LEGO Glow Group  (11:48)
LEGO activities at SLF – Part 3: Using Glow Blogs

Elements of the Glow Group

The Glow Group was created with hidden pages, and links to these were provided by hot-spotting an image in the text editor web part.  A range of different web parts were then added to the hidden pages in the Glow Group:

Glow Meet

The first part of the Glow Group that was used was the Glow Meet page. It was agreed at the initial meeting that a Glow Meet would be held to enable the children to introduce themselves and become more familiar with Glow Meet. It also provided an opportunity for the schools to check their equipment was working. You can find out more details about it in part 2 of the cookbook series.

Picture Library

Both before and after the Glow Meet, the pupils spent time in their classrooms using the ‘We-Do’ LEGO kits that they had been given to allow them to practise prior to attending SLF. They took photos of the models they built and these were uploaded to the Picture Library on the ‘Our Photos’ page of the Group. A collage of pictures were also uploaded to a Text Editor web part.  Find out more in Part 4 of the cookbook!

Document Stores

There are two Document Stores in the Glow Group.

The first is on the Documents page. This was there to give pupils a place where they could perhaps write instructions on how to build a particular LEGO model and share those with others by uploading to the Document store. It was also discussed that pupils might do creative writing about the models they built and those pieces of writing could also be uploaded and shared.

The second Document store was created through the Advanced Settings link, in order to have a fresh, new, empty web part, rather than just a duplicate of the original Document store on the Documents page. This Document store was named Video Files and was added to the ‘Our Videos’ page. A folder was created for each of the schools, along with a fifth folder for SLF. Schools could use this to upload videos of their LEGO models in action, since the ‘We-Do’ kit includes software enabling the models to be programmed to move and make sounds. Find out more about how this Document store was used in Part 4 of the cookbook series.

Discussion Board

A discussion board was added to the Discussions page. This was originally intended for staff to ask questions about preparations for SLF and for pupils to discuss the activities they had been doing with the LEGO kits. However, the discussions about these activities naturally transferred themselves to the final page of the Glow Group, the Glow Blog.

Glow Blog

A page was created to host the Glow Blog.

The Glow Blog web part on the page enabled pupils to make quick posts about the activities they were doing. It was also used during the Scottish Learning Festival and afterwards. Find out more in the ‘Focus on’ section below.

In the next section, we will focus on one of the elements briefly described above. The others will be focused on in the other three parts of this cookbook series.

Focus on: Glow Blogs

Click to view

In order to aid communication and collaboration, the Glow Blog web part was added to the Blog page in the Glow Group. A blog was then created and named LEGO Blog.

Within the web part, pupils could make quick posts by giving their post a title, typing in the main body of the text, and clicking ‘Publish’.

For those who wanted to add additional content to their posts, such as images, the link to the blog dashboard could be used. However, in order to make this even more accessible, a Page Viewer web part linking directly to the Dashboard was added to the page, enabling staff and pupils to see this in full.

The text editor web part was used to give a visual link to the blog itself.

An image was added to text editor and ‘hot-spotted’ to the blog posts, where all the posts could be read and commented on.

The blog proved to be an excellent way for pupils to record their achievements by writing about the models they had created. It was also a great way of connecting the schools and Joanne, who was able to comment on the photos that the pupils had uploaded to the Picture Library or respond to posts made by the pupils.

During SLF, the blog was used to write posts about the schools that were there (as each attended separately for a half day each) and the activities they were doing. As only 8 pupils per school actually attended the Scottish Learning Festival, this could be read by the rest of the class, making them feel part of the event too.

After SLF, pupils used the blog to write about their experiences there and to say how much they had enjoyed it. As well as writing their own posts, they were able to comment on one another’s, as well as have people comment on theirs, making it a very interactive mode of communication and peer assessment.

We can see some of the blog posts in the following short video

Video – A look at the SLF LEGO Glow Blog (3:16)
LEGO activities at SLF – Part 3: Using Glow Blogs

Ingredients

In order for the East Dunbartonshire schools attending the Scottish Learning Festival to be able to access and use the SLF LEGO Glow Group, and in particular, use the Glow Blog, the following was done:

-     A Glow Group was created at Local Authority level
-     Teachers and pupils from the schools were made members of the Group
-     The Glow Blog web part was added to a page in the Group
-     The blog itself was created.

In addition, the following ‘non-essential’ work was done:

-      Page viewer web part was added and linked to the blog dashboard, to give pupils access to this
-      Text editor was added and an image uploaded and hot-spotted to link to the blog articles already posted

Other work was also done to create the other elements of the Glow Group. These will be covered in the other parts of this cookbook series.

Recipe

In the following videos we will look at how to replicate some of the elements mentioned above. In particular, we will look at creating and using a Glow Blog.

How to add a Glow Blog to a Glow Group and create the blog (6:12)
LEGO activities at SLF – Part 3: Using Glow Blogs
How to make a quick post in a Glow Blog (2:10)
LEGO activities at SLF – Part 3: Using Glow Blogs
How to add an image to a blog post (7:10)
LEGO activities at SLF – Part 3: Using Glow Blogs
How to embed a Youtube video in a blog post (4:33)
LEGO activities at SLF – Part 3: Using Glow Blogs
Viewing the Glow Blog dashboard through the Page Viewer web part (3:55)
LEGO activities at SLF – Part 3: Using Glow Blogs
How to read and comment on posts in a Glow Blog (6:15)
LEGO activities at SLF – Part 3: Using Glow Blogs
 

Impact

Using the Glow Group has had a great impact on the schools involved in the LEGO activities.

They have had a place for communicating and sharing their learning.

Pupils have been able to share with others, both in their own school and outwith, the models they have built, through use of the picture library, Document store for videos, and through their blog posts.

Staff have been able to use the Group to meet virtually using Glow Meet and to plan using this, so eliminating the need to travel to actual meetings. Glow Meet has also enabled the pupils to speak to one another and to the Glow Team, prior to attending the Scottish Learning Festival, which helped reassure them before attending such a large event.

The use of the picture library provides and excellent means of formative assessment, showcasing the work pupils have done and providing an opportunity for peer review.

In all, the Glow Group has been highly beneficial to all who have used it.

You may also be interested in reading the other parts of this cookbook series:

Part 1: Focus on – Hidden Pages

Part 2: Focus on – Glow Meet

Part 4: Focus on – Pictures and Videos

Overview

Recently, four schools from East Dunbartonshire volunteered to attend the Scottish Learning Festival to their pupils to take part in a range of activities. To support their preparation for this, a Glow Group was created at Local Authority Level to enable the schools – Bearsden Primary, Killermont Primary, Lenzie-Moss Primary and Oxgang Primary – to communicate, collaborate and share their learning.

In order to look at how the Group was used, this cookbook has been split into four parts., This part, Part 2, looks at the use of Glow Meet. Part 1 looks at the use of hidden pages in the Glow Group, Part 3 will focus on how the Glow Blog was used and Part 4 on Pictures and Videos. All four parts will contain the same overview in the ‘context’ section, with the different elements being explored in the ‘Focus On’ and recipe sections.

Context

Jan Pollok, Quality Improvement Officer and Glow Key Contact for East Dunbartonshire Council sent out a Targeted News item from the Local Authority site in Glow, asking for schools to volunteer to attend the Scottish Learning Festival (SLF) to take part in LEGO activities. Jan had initially wanted to choose two schools, but after responses came in from schools, she decided to invite the four schools named above.

Jan met with Joanne Connolly, one of the Glow Educationalists from the National Glow Team, to discuss how Glow could support the schools before SLF and also how it could be used during and afterwards.

As a result of this conversation, Jan created a Glow Group at Local Authority level to enable the four schools to have direct sight of it. The layout was then designed and built, after consultation with the schools.

Initially, the Primary 7 teachers from the schools met with Jan and Joanne to discuss the activities that the pupils would be undertaking at SLF and to give their input to the Glow Group structure and content. It was agreed that the Group would contain hidden pages, with only the Noticeboard Page visible and links to the hidden pages provided there. This gave the Group a sleek and simple look and made it very easy to navigate around. (find out more about hidden pages in Part 1 of this cookbook series)
We can look at the Group and its layout in the following video:

Tour of the SLF LEGO Glow Group  (11:48)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 2 – Glow Meet
 

Elements of the Glow Group

The Glow Group was created with hidden pages, and links to these were provided by hot-spotting an image in the text editor web part.  A range of different web parts were then added to the hidden pages in the Glow Group:

Glow Meet

The first part of the Glow Group that was used was the Glow Meet page. It was agreed at the initial meeting that a Glow Meet would be held to enable the children to introduce themselves and become more familiar with Glow Meet. It also provided an opportunity for the schools to check their equipment was working. You can find out more details about it in the ‘focus’ section of this part of the cookbook series.

Picture Library

Both before and after the Glow Meet, the pupils spent time in their classrooms using the ‘We-Do’ LEGO kits that they had been given to allow them to practise prior to attending SLF. They took photos of the models they built and these were uploaded to the Picture Library on the ‘Our Photos’ page of the Group. Find out more in Part 4 of the cookbook!

Document Stores

There are two Document Stores in the Glow Group.

The first is on the Documents page. This was there to give pupils a place where they could perhaps write instructions on how to build a particular LEGO model and share those with others by uploading to the Document store. It was also discussed that pupils might do creative writing about the models they built and those pieces of writing could also be uploaded and shared.

The second Document store was created through the Advanced Settings link, in order to have a fresh, new, empty web part, rather than just a duplicate of the original Document store on the Documents page. This Document store was named Video Files and was added to the ‘Our Videos’ page. A folder was created for each of the schools, along with a fifth folder for SLF. Schools could use this to upload videos of their LEGO models in action, since the ‘We-Do’ kit includes software enabling the models to be programmed to move and make sounds. Find out more about how this Document store was used in Part 4 of the cookbook series.

Discussion Board

A discussion board was added to the Discussions page. This was originally intended for staff to ask questions about preparations for SLF and for pupils to discuss the activities they had been doing with the LEGO kits. However, the discussions about these activities naturally transferred themselves to the final page of the Glow Group, the Glow Blog.

Glow Blog

A page was created to host the Glow Blog.

The Glow Blog web part on the page enabled pupils to make quick posts about the activities they were doing. It was also used during the Scottish Learning Festival and afterwards. The use of Glow Blogs is the focus of Part 3 of this cookbook series.

In the next section, we will focus on one of the elements briefly described above. The others will be focused on in the other three parts of this cookbook series.

Focus on: Glow Meet

Glow Meet was used in the Glow Group on several occasions and for a range of purposes.

Once the Glow Meet web part had been added to the Glow Group and the Meeting Room created, the first use that was made of it was for the teachers in the four schools simply to test it out. The teachers wanted to check that they could access it successfully from their classroom machines. This was particularly important for two of the teachers who were using new computers. They needed to check that they still had the correct version of Java on their machine as Glow Meet requires a specific version of Java (version 5.11) to be installed for it to work. (You can find out more about this in this Helpsheet:  Java for Glow Meet  )  This was particularly useful and meant that teachers could hold a meeting without needing to take time to travel.

The second use of Glow Meet was for the pupils from the four schools to introduce themselves to one another and to show the LEGO models they had been making. This Glow Meet session was recorded and subsequently added back into the Glow Group. This was done by using screencapture software, uploading to an online hosting site and then embedding the video into the Text Editor web part. You can find out how to do this in the ‘how to’ videos below.

By adding the recording of the Glow Meet, pupils were able to access this from home and show heir parents what they had been doing in school that day.

During the Scottish Learning Festival itself, Glow Meet was used to broadcast back to the East Dunbartonshire schools, the activities being undertaken by the pupils who were there. The four schools attended for half a day each and only eight pupils from each school were able to attend. By using Glow Meet, the other classmates were able to watch the activities live, and still feel part of the event. All four sessions were recorded and the recordings will be uploaded to the Glow Group so that they can be watched back at any time.

Ingredients

In order for the East Dunbartonshire schools attending the Scottish Learning Festival to be able to access and use Glow Meet in the SLF LEGO Glow Group, the following was required:

-    The Glow Meet web part was added to one of the hidden pages in the Glow Group and a meeting room was created
-    Schools required web cams, microphones and speakers
-    Computers to be used for Glow Meet needed to have the correct version of Java installed (v5.11)

Additional work was done to create the other elements of the Glow Group which have been touched on in the ‘elements of the Glow Group’ section above. These will be covered in the other parts of this cookbook series.

Recipe

In the following videos we will look at how to replicate some of the elements mentioned above. In particular, we will look at the use of Glow Meet, recording sessions and embedding the recordings in a Glow Group.

How to set up a Glow Meet in a Glow Group (5:36)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 2 – Glow Meet
How to join and take part in a Glow Meet (3:38)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 2 – Glow Meet
How to use the video, audio and chat facility within a Glow Meet meeting room (6:19)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 2 – Glow Meet
How to record a Glow Meet (2:09)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 2 – Glow Meet
How to play back a previously recorded Glow Meet (3:22)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 2 – Glow Meet
How to embed a video of a recorded Glow Meet into the xml web part (8:45)
LEGO activities at SLF: Part 2 – Glow Meet

Impact

Using the Glow Group has had a great impact on the schools involved in the LEGO activities.

They have had a place for communicating and sharing their learning.

Pupils have been able to share with others, both in their own school and outwith, the models they have built, through use of the picture library, Document store for videos, and through their blog posts.

Staff have been able to use the Group to meet virtually using Glow Meet and to plan using this, so eliminating the need to travel to actual meetings. Glow Meet has also enabled the pupils to speak to one another and to the Glow Team, prior to attending the Scottish Learning Festival, which helped reassure them before attending such a large event.

The use of the picture library provides and excellent means of formative assessment, showcasing the work pupils have done and providing an opportunity for peer review.

In all, the Glow Group has been highly beneficial to all who have used it.

You may also be interested in reading the other parts of this cookbook series:

Part 1: Focus on – Hidden Pages

Part 3: Focus on – Glow Blogs

Part 4: Focus on – Pictures and Videos

Kerry Malcolm

Kerry Malcolm is P1-4 teacher at Fisherton Primary School. Her 09-10 class had 22 pupils. Kerry received an hour’s introductory training session from a Glow Mentor. Being quite computer literate to start off with Kerry immediately saw the potential within Glow for the pupils to enjoy using it and to expand learning in her classroom. She was keen that Glow would encourage pupils to be more involved in their own learning and help them become more independent learners. She notes that working in a multi-composite class there is always the challenge of gaining more time to work with pupils and ensuring that they are always focussed and on-task. She could see that using Glow would help achieve this.

Click here to enlarge

There are 2 Cookbooks available on Fisherton Primary’s use of Glow. You will find one on their use of Glow Chat for Book Detectives here – Using a Glow Chat for Book Detectives work at Fisherton Primary.

In this cookbook, we will find out:
• What the Fisherton Primary P1-4 Glow Group looks like
• How Kerry made use of a page in the Glow Group for Learning Zone information

Context

Click here to enlarge

Kerry was discovering at parents’ meetings that the parents really weren’t very sure about what was going on in their child’s class and with their learning. Being a parent herself, she knows it is hard to get information from your own child about what they are learning in school. Although the Fisherton parents don’t yet have Glow log-ins, the school are about to set up a parent workshop on Glow. In this workshop they will explain what it is and how the pupils are using it in class.

She knows the pupils are accessing Glow at home and the parents will see this but feels the parents are still a bit baffled by Glow. To help combat this Kerry has also set up a Learning Zone page in Glow so that the parents would have an idea of what is going on in school. The school does send out a termly newsletter stating what the pupils are going to be learning that term. However, Kerry though that using web parts on a page in Glow would allow the facility of breaking this information down and being able to share it with parents through their child logging on to Glow from home. Parents are able to become, as Kerry puts it, “co-educators”. They can ask questions of their child about what’s on the Learning Zone page and help with homework.

To decide what goes into the Learning Zone Kerry will have a look at her Forward Plans and work out what they’re going to be doing for the next month. She will then put this into more ‘child-friendly’ language. The pupils then use this space as a guide for what will be coming up next and will often discuss what’s coming up with Kerry in the classroom. They are then more motivated and involved in their own learning themselves. It helps them know what is coming up and what to prepare for.

Kerry was given some time out of class for a one-to-one introduction of Glow to every pupil. She did some more focussed training with a particular P6 pupil who supports their own P5-7 teacher and class with Glow and also occasionally gives support to the P1-4 class. Pupils had home access right from the start of using Glow although not all pupils are able to access it from home. The pupils were encouraged to keep their Glow username and password in their homework diaries and this has worked well.

Ingredients

The Learning Zone page

Image web part

At the top of the page is an image web part to set the scene and make the page more attractive for the pupils and their parents

Learning Zone text editor web part

Click here to enlarge

This contains bold text to invite parents and pupils to check out the learning intentions for the coming month

Text editor web parts for Maths and Language

Click here to enlarge

These web parts are divided into a colour coded section for each year to give information for what’s coming up. At the start of term, at the moment, they have yet to be filled with the learning intentions.

Text editor web parts for Health and Wellbeing and Social Subjects

Click here to enlarge

The topic for the coming months will be listed in each of these web parts.

What did Kerry need to do to allow her class Glow Group to act as a hub for the P1-4 pupils?

• A Glow Group built at school level
• Set Contributor membership for all the pupils in the class
• Create a new page for the Learning Zone
• Add an image web part with an image to the top of the page
• Add 5 text editor web parts to contain information

Recipe

The first two videos below act as a virtual tour by Kerry of the Fisherton Primary School P1-4 Glow Group. Please note that the audio for this tour was recorded before the end of the 2009/2010 session but the video to go along with it was recorded at the start of the 2010/2011 session. As a result some of the aspects that Kerry describes for a page have been slightly changed for the start of the new term. The videos that then follow show how the elements within the Learning Zone page can be recreated. Details are:

Tour of the Group Part 1 (5:14)
Sharing Learning Intentions with pupils and parents

Tour of the Group Part 2 (5:09)
Sharing Learning Intentions with pupils and parents

Creating a new page in the Glow Group (1:14)
Sharing Learning Intentions with pupils and parents

Adding an image web part to the page (4:49)
Sharing Learning Intentions with pupils and parents

Adding the 5 text editor web parts to the page (1:24)
Sharing Learning Intentions with pupils and parents

Changing the titles of the web parts (1:40)
Sharing Learning Intentions with pupils and parents

Adding information to the text editor web parts (5:03)
Sharing Learning Intentions with pupils and parents

Impact

Click here to enlarge

Kerry feels that sharing the Learning Zone page through pupils logging onto Glow with their parents from home allows the parents to participate in their child’s learning. Kerry is keen to get parents set up with their own log-ons for Glow and to this end she will be setting up a parents workshop on Glow in the near future.

Kerry speaks about the Learning Zone (2:26)
Sharing Learning Intentions with pupils and parents

Laurel, Heather, Roisin and Emily speak about using Glow at Fisherton (2:14)
Sharing Learning Intentions with pupils and parents

Laurel, Heather, Roisin and Emily talk about the Learning Zone page (0:38)
Sharing Learning Intentions with pupils and parents

Overview

click to enlarge

Robyn Moonie teaches P6 in Glencairn Primary in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire. She is a Glow Mentor for North Lanarkshire and began to use Glow with her previous P7 class for the last month of term. With her P6 class, she had been using Glow since August 2009 and had found it a purposeful way to extend learning in a new context. She wanted to use Glow to allow the pupils to be able to share and extend their learning in Maths. She decided to use a page of the class Glow Group to enable this to take place. She was keen that this method would allow classes within the school to be able to share and store evidence of their work but that also this would allow a mechanism to enhance their learning on particular concepts in Maths. She was also very clear that the approach for the way she had structured the Maths page would promote far more self-directed learning from the pupils. This is the fourth of 4 Cookbooks looking at Robyn’s P6 Glow Group. Other Cookbooks explore using Glow to set out Learning Intentions and Curriculum for Excellence Outcomes; using Glow for celebrating Responsibilities and Achievements and Using Glow to enhance teaching and learning of Novel Study in the classroom.

You will find the other Cookbooks here:

Using Glow for Responsibilities and Achievements in Glencairn Primary School

Using a Glow Group for Novel Study at Glencairn Primary School

Using web parts to share Learning Intentions and CfE Outcomes in P6 Glencairn Primary

In this cookbook, we will find out:
• What the Glencairn Primary P6 Glow Group looks like
• How a range of web parts have been used within the Maths Page
• How to replicate the Maths Page
• What the impact was

Context

Robyn Moonie

Glencairn Primary school has a role of approximately 180 pupils, not including the role from the attached nursery school. Robyn received training as a Glow Mentor in Phase 2 of North Lanarkshire’s rollout in May 2009. She started with her P7 and Glow in the summer term of 2009 with joining some transition Glow Meets but since the start of the new term in August 2009 she has embedded Glow throughout the curriculum rather than it appearing as a one-off lesson for the pupils. She introduced her P6 class to Glow with some specific tasks in the group 2/3 times per week and it has grown from there. Home Access was made available to the pupils in March 2010 and P6 were trialling this for the rest of the school.

click to enlarge

Home Access has been sourced for the pupils by making sure they can access Glow if not at their own home then at friends/grandparents or other relatives. Robyn feels that Glow is helping with partnership with parents, where previously jotters went home to help with this and might not always have made it back into school, all information and progress can be shared through the class Glow Group. P6 are also acting as Glow Buddies in the school and introducing it to pupils in other classes to get them logged on to Glow. All of the pupils from P3 upwards have logged into Glow. Robyn is also involved in training all the staff in the school and has set up all of the Glow Groups on the school site. Other teachers are being influenced by the success of Robyn’s class in using Glow and as a policy within the school, all staff have access to the group. Robyn’s P6 group is also linked to from North Lanarkshire’s Glow Showcase Group with membership set for all staff in North Lanarkshire. Glow Development Officers, Scott Clark and Eileen Mallaghan had regularly used Robyn’s Group for supporting staff across the authority in developing their use of Glow. To find out more about this local authority Glow Group please click here to see the

North Lanarkshire Glow Showcase Cookbook.

In this cookbook, we will look at how Robyn set up the Maths page in her group using Discussion web parts, Picture Libraries and web links web parts amongst others.

Ingredients

Click to enlarge

The Maths page is visually stimulating within the Group. It includes web parts such as text editor to allow images and information on learning intentions and CfE Outcomes to be shared; Discussion Boards used to expand thoughts and opinions on mathematical concepts; a Picture Gallery allows pupils to reflect on more Active Maths and by its very visual nature is more accessible for pupils with reading difficulties.

Learning Intentions and Curriculum for Excellence Outcomes

The pupils refer to these web parts all the time in their learning, to check on what they are learning and become familiar with the language of Curriculum for Excellence.

Useful Maths websites

The majority of these links have been suggested by the pupils. Alternatively they may have asked for a game to help them with a particular aspect of Maths that they may be finding difficult. They access these both in class time and at home to give them practice with different skills.

Click to enlarge

Links from the National Site

Robyn has expanded on the “I can” statements from a Curriculum for Excellence by using the notes aspect of a web links web part. She has linked these into Maths Games from external websites to illustrate the statements and concepts for the pupils. As she notes,

“It’s a really useful web part for the pupils to look at to get an overview of all of level 2 in CfE Maths”.

Pupils can follow the description or notes to identify what they are struggling with and then follow the link through to play a game for practice on this aspect.

Maths Comments

The page also includes a discussion board where pupils set their targets at the start of the term and then went back and reviewed these targets and reset them. Robyn has also used this web part to set Maths tasks and challenges for pupils and notes that they enjoy checking to see if there are any new problems for them to solve.

Active Maths Picture Gallery

Click to enlarge

The picture gallery showcases a variety of active maths tasks which have been completed by the pupils and gives an overview of the kinds of things they undertake in Maths. It allows the pupils to be able to reflect on the way various tasks were set and what was learned from them.

What did Robyn need to do to give pupils access to be able to extend their learning in new contexts on the Maths page in the class Glow Group?

• A Class Glow Group for P6
• Set pupils with membership allowing Contributor access to the group
• Create a new page in the Glow Group for Maths
• A text editor web part for the header and images on the page
• Separate text editor web parts for Learning Intentions and CfE Outcomes
• A web links web part with links to various Maths games
• A web links web part with further national links to Curriculum for Excellence information and external websites
• A Discussion Board for pupils to set and review targets and for Maths Challenges to be set
• A Picture Gallery for showcasing Active Maths work with pupil description

Recipe

The first video below shows the Maths page of the class Glow group and the uses made of a range of web parts. (3 vidoes making up the tour of the P6 Glow Group can be seen in the Impact section.) The videos that then follow show how some of these elements can be recreated. Details are:

The Maths page within the Glow Group (2:17)
Maths is Fun at Glencairn Primary

How to add images into a table in a text editor web part (5:53)
Maths is Fun at Glencairn Primary

How to create a new web links web part (3:34)
Maths is Fun at Glencairn Primary

How to add notes and links to other websites and change the view to display these (4:17)
Maths is Fun at Glencairn Primary

Details on how to do other things within the Maths page. For example, using a Picture Gallery to showcase work and add descriptions, can be seen within the other Cookbooks on this Glow Group.

Impact

Active Maths Discussion – click here to enlarge

Robyn feels that  the way Glow allows the pupils to present their learning gives them a pride in the ownership of their learning. It promotes independent learning and allows them to direct their own learning and actively participate in the learning in their group.

Robyn notes that they change the web links to activities regularly depending upon what is being looked at, at the time. Children may come to her and ask for additional help with a particular concept and Robyn will search out mathematical games from websites related to that. Some pupils are using the games at home with their parents and Robyn feels this is working very well for the parents to become involved in their own child’s learning.

Review of Maths Targets – click here to enlarge

Robyn puts in the language from Curriculum for Excellence in the web links as she feels its really important that the pupils know exactly where they’re going with their Maths and what they have to work on. They can then follow links to games for practice.

“They can see the overview of what they’re going to be doing throughout that stage that they’re working towards. The children are familiar with the language, I can, I will be able to, and are more confident in referring to these. And when they set their own targets, these are the statements they use.”

Robyn feels that the picture gallery was an important web part for recording achievement and storing evidence for active maths.

“They are doing more and more active maths now and this web part is a very useful way for others to see what the children are doing.”

The pupils are also asked to update the description part of the picture gallery and have to then reflect on their own learning and decide why and how the activity had an impact on them. They are also commenting upon why they enjoyed a particular activity in this web part. Robyn feels that because the pupils know that this web part is there, they are far more motivated during the activities. She tells us,

“They want their photo to go up onto Glow and enjoy looking back at them.”

Emily, Caity and Michael

She also recognises that it suits perhaps more reluctant learners, those who wouldn’t be keen to take part in class discussion giving their opinions, to fully participate using the web parts available. For example they are much more keen to take part in peer and self assessment using the discussion boards provided by Robyn in the Maths page. She also feels that the pupils are aware that their work on Glow can be accessed by other pupils, teachers from across the school and parents. This encourages them to be more reflective and evaluate more deeply what they are working on as they have a real audience,

“I feel that they try harder on Glow because they know that other people are watching and looking at what they are doing.”

Robyn Moonie speaks about the Maths page (3:20)
Maths is Fun at Glencairn Primary

Michael, Emily and Caity speak about the Maths page (4:02)
Maths is Fun at Glencairn Primary

Head Teacher, Lorna Galbraith speaks about P6 using Glow at Glencairn (1:04)
Maths is Fun at Glencairn Primary

North Lanarkshire Glow Development Officers Eileen and Scott speak about Robyn’s Group
Maths is Fun at Glencairn Primary

The P6 Glow Group at Glencairn as a whole
Part 1
Maths is Fun at Glencairn Primary

Part 2
Maths is Fun at Glencairn Primary

Part 3
Maths is Fun at Glencairn Primary

Visit the other Glow Cookbooks on Glencairn Primary School:

Using Glow for Responsibilities and Achievements in Glencairn Primary School

Using a Glow Group for Novel Study at Glencairn Primary School

Using web parts to share Learning Intentions and CfE Outcomes in P6 Glencairn Primary