Click to enlarge

The “Which Writer Wins?” initiative takes place each year in Angus and involves around 1200 pupils in 55 primary schools.

P5 pupils are invited to read, or listen to, at least one book by each of three different authors and then to vote for their favourite writer.

This is the third of three cookbooks in which we explore how Glow has added a whole new dimension to this enjoyable and hugely valuable project.

Context

 The “Which Writer Wins?” project aims to provide pupils with opportunities to:

• read for enjoyment
• develop awareness of genre
• reflect on writers’ ideas and crafts
• express their opinions and listen to the views of others.

Pupil's book cover design. Click to enlarge.

Over the course of a term, pupils read books by three selected authors: in 2010, these were Geraldine McCaughrean, Jenny Nimmo and Kaye Umansky.

Multiple copies of the core titles are provided by the council’s Educational Resources Service. Pupils are also encouraged to borrow other titles by the authors from the school or public libraries.

Pupils then discuss the texts they have read, write book reviews and design book covers. At the end of the project, a vote is taken within each cluster.  Representatives from each school are invited to a local meeting , where they share their book reviews with the audience, put up displays of their work and hear the results of their cluster’s vote.

Pupil's book review. Click to enlarge.

In previous years, activities have largely taken place in individual classrooms, and there has been little opportunity for interaction between schools. Voting, and displays of pupils’ work, have all been paper-based.

This year, for the 2010 event, an authority-level Glow Group was created to support the initiative. The Glow Group rapidly became a central hub for the project, as it provided areas where pupils could find background information about the writers, upload their book reviews, voice their opinions, share their creative designs and cast their final vote. Glow stimulated collaboration between the schools and provided pupils with an audience for their work beyond their own classrooms. 

In the video clip below, Gordon Wilson, Angus staff tutor, gives a tour of the Glow Group. “Which Writer Wins?” – part 3

Ingredients

The “Which Writer Wins?” Glow Group was created on the Angus Council site in Glow. All P5 pupils and staff were given membership; pupils had Contributor rights so that they could upload their work, staff Adminstrator rights so that they could moderate the content uploaded by their pupils. Further Glow Groups – one per school – were then added as sub-groups of the main group. These groups contained solely the Survey web part, but the restricted membership of the groups ensured that only the relevant pupils could vote!

The ”Which Writer Wins?” Glow Group was further customised by:

• deleting default pages and adding new ones
• creating hidden pages (which don’t appear as page tabs)
• using Text Editor web parts to display text, images, links and tables
• creating multiple Discussions and Documents web parts, so that each was linked to a single book
• creating a new Picture Library web part to display pupils’ art work
• creating a survey and replicating it in the sub-groups for each of the 55 schools

Recipe

In order to do full justice to the “Which Writer Wins?” Glow Group, the recipe section has been split between this cookbook and two others (Which Writer Wins - part 1 and Which Writer Wins – part 2). Here we’ll focus on how the Voting page of the Group was created.

* A tour of the ‘Votes’ page of the Glow Group “Which Writer Wins?” – part 3

* Creating subgroups and setting the membership “Which Writer Wins?” – part 3

* Creating a table in Text Editor, to display text and hyperlinks “Which Writer Wins?” – part 3

* Creating, viewing and responding to a survey “Which Writer Wins?” – part 3

* Saving a survey as a template “Which Writer Wins?” – part 3

* Recreating a survey, from a saved template“Which Writer Wins?” – part 3

* Managing requests for access to a Glow Group“Which Writer Wins?” – part 3

* A pupil’s view of the ‘Votes’ page“Which Writer Wins?” – part 3

Impact

Through their involvement in the “Which Writer Wins?” activities, pupils have been actively engaging with a range of Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes. These include:

"Beak and Whisker" discussion. Click to enlarge.

LIT 2-01a: I regularly select and listen to or watch texts which I enjoy and find interesting, and I can explain why I prefer certain sources. I regularly select subject, purpose, format and resources to create texts of my choice.

LIT 2-11a: I regularly select and read, listen to or watch texts which I enjoy and find interesting, and I can explain why I prefer certain texts and authors.

ENG 2-12a: Through developing my knowledge of context clues, punctuation, grammar and layout, I can read unfamiliar texts with increasing fluency, understanding and expression.

ENG 2-27a: I am learning to use language and style in a way which engages and/or influences my reader.

“Which Writer Wins?” is a huge project in Angus; however, in its previous paper-only format, it had begun to struggle in recent years.

Gordon Wilson describes the impact of the ‘Which Writer Wins?’ Glow Group“Which Writer Wins?” – part 3

Using Glow to support the project has revitalised it and turned it into a much more interesting topic for the staff and pupils involved. Glow has opened up new avenues to the activities, allowing pupils to collaborate with their peers in other schools. This can be particularly beneficial in the small rural primary schools, where there may only be a handful of P5 pupils.

Pupils have really enjoyed being able to read what other pupils thought of the books, or what characters or incidents they selected as their favourites. Adding a comment or uploading a book review - and seeing other people respond – has proved highly motivational.

Click to enlarge

The “Which Writer Wins?” initiative takes place each year in Angus and involves around 1200 pupils in 55 primary schools.

P5 pupils are invited to read, or listen to, at least one book by each of three different authors and then to vote for their favourite writer.

This is the second of three cookbooks in which we explore how Glow has added a whole new dimension to this enjoyable and hugely valuable project.

Context

 The “Which Writer Wins?” project aims to provide pupils with opportunities to:

• read for enjoyment
• develop awareness of genre
• reflect on writers’ ideas and crafts
• express their opinions and listen to the views of others.

Pupil's book cover design. Click to enlarge.

Over the course of a term, pupils read books by three selected authors: in 2010, these were Geraldine McCaughrean, Jenny Nimmo and Kaye Umansky.

Multiple copies of the core titles are provided by the council’s Educational Resources Service. Pupils are also encouraged to borrow other titles by the authors from the school or public libraries.

Pupils then discuss the texts they have read, write book reviews and design book covers. At the end of the project, a vote is taken within each cluster.  Representatives from each school are invited to a local meeting , where they share their book reviews with the audience, put up displays of their work and hear the results of their cluster’s vote.

Pupil's book review. Click to enlarge.

In previous years, activities have largely taken place in individual classrooms, and there has been little opportunity for interaction between schools. Voting, and displays of pupils’ work, have all been paper-based.

This year, for the 2010 event, an authority-level Glow Group was created to support the initiative. The Glow Group rapidly became a central hub for the project, as it provided areas where pupils could find background information about the writers, upload their book reviews, voice their opinions, share their creative designs and cast their final vote. Glow stimulated collaboration between the schools and provided pupils with an audience for their work beyond their own classrooms. 

In the video clip below, Gordon Wilson, Angus staff tutor, gives a tour of the Glow Group. “Which Writer Wins?” – part 2

Ingredients

The “Which Writer Wins?” Glow Group was created on the Angus Council site in Glow. All P5 pupils and staff were given membership; pupils had Contributor rights so that they could upload their work, staff Adminstrator rights so that they could moderate the content uploaded by their pupils. Further Glow Groups – one per school – were then added as sub-groups of the main group. These groups contained solely the Survey web part, but the restricted membership of the groups ensured that only the relevant pupils could vote!

The ”Which Writer Wins?” Glow Group was further customised by:

• deleting default pages and adding new ones
• creating hidden pages (which don’t appear as page tabs)
• using Text Editor web parts to display text, images, links and tables
• creating multiple Discussions and Documents web parts, so that each was linked to a single book
• creating a new Picture Library web part to display pupils’ art work
• creating a survey and replicating it in the sub-groups for each of the 55 schools

Recipe

In order to do full justice to the “Which Writer Wins?” Glow Group, the recipe section has been split between this cookbook and two others (Which Writer Wins - part 1 and Which Writer Wins – part 3). Here we’ll focus on how the Gallery page of the Group were created.

* A tour of the ‘Gallery’ page of the Glow Group “Which Writer Wins?” – part 2

* Creating a new Picture Library web part “Which Writer Wins?” – part 2

* Compressing image files before uploading to Glow “Which Writer Wins?” – part 2

* Uploading images to a Picture Library web part“Which Writer Wins?” – part 2

* Customising the layout of a Picture Library web part “Which Writer Wins?” – part 2

* Moderating content added to a Picture Library web part “Which Writer Wins?” – part 2

Impact

Through their involvement in the “Which Writer Wins?” activities, pupils have been actively engaging with a range of Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes. These include:

"Beak and Whisker" discussion. Click to enlarge.

LIT 2-01a: I regularly select and listen to or watch texts which I enjoy and find interesting, and I can explain why I prefer certain sources. I regularly select subject, purpose, format and resources to create texts of my choice.

LIT 2-11a: I regularly select and read, listen to or watch texts which I enjoy and find interesting, and I can explain why I prefer certain texts and authors.

ENG 2-12a: Through developing my knowledge of context clues, punctuation, grammar and layout, I can read unfamiliar texts with increasing fluency, understanding and expression.

ENG 2-27a: I am learning to use language and style in a way which engages and/or influences my reader.

“Which Writer Wins?” is a huge project in Angus; however, in its previous paper-only format, it had begun to struggle in recent years.

Gordon Wilson describes the impact of the ‘Which Writer Wins?’ Glow Group“Which Writer Wins?” – part 2

Using Glow to support the project has revitalised it and turned it into a much more interesting topic for the staff and pupils involved. Glow has opened up new avenues to the activities, allowing pupils to collaborate with their peers in other schools. This can be particularly beneficial in the small rural primary schools, where there may only be a handful of P5 pupils.

Pupils have really enjoyed being able to read what other pupils thought of the books, or what characters or incidents they selected as their favourites. Adding a comment or uploading a book review - and seeing other people respond – has proved highly motivational.

Click to enlarge

The “Which Writer Wins?” initiative takes place each year in Angus and involves around 1200 pupils in 55 primary schools.

P5 pupils are invited to read, or listen to, at least one book by each of three different authors and then to vote for their favourite writer.

This is the first of a series of cookbooks in which we’ll explore how Glow has added a whole new dimension to this enjoyable and hugely valuable project.

Context

 The “Which Writer Wins?” project aims to provide pupils with opportunities to:

• read for enjoyment
• develop awareness of genre
• reflect on writers’ ideas and crafts
• express their opinions and listen to the views of others.

Pupil's book cover design. Click to enlarge.

Over the course of a term, pupils read books by three selected authors: in 2010, these were Geraldine McCaughrean, Jenny Nimmo and Kaye Umansky.

Multiple copies of the core titles are provided by the council’s Educational Resources Service. Pupils are also encouraged to borrow other titles by the authors from the school or public libraries.

Pupils then discuss the texts they have read, write book reviews and design book covers. At the end of the project, a vote is taken within each cluster.  Representatives from each school are invited to a local meeting , where they share their book reviews with the audience, put up displays of their work and hear the results of their cluster’s vote.

Pupil's book review. Click to enlarge.

In previous years, activities have largely taken place in individual classrooms, and there has been little opportunity for interaction between schools. Voting, and displays of pupils’ work, have all been paper-based.

This year, for the 2010 event, an authority-level Glow Group was created to support the initiative. The Glow Group rapidly became a central hub for the project, as it provided areas where pupils could find background information about the writers, upload their book reviews, voice their opinions, share their creative designs and cast their final vote. Glow stimulated collaboration between the schools and provided pupils with an audience for their work beyond their own classrooms. 

In the video clip below, Gordon Wilson, Angus staff tutor, gives a tour of the Glow Group. “Which Writer Wins?” – part 1

Ingredients

The “Which Writer Wins?” Glow Group was created on the Angus Council site in Glow. All P5 pupils and staff were given membership; pupils had Contributor rights so that they could upload their work, staff Adminstrator rights so that they could moderate the content uploaded by their pupils. Further Glow Groups – one per school – were then added as sub-groups of the main group. These groups contained solely the Survey web part, but the restricted membership of the groups ensured that only the relevant pupils could vote!

The ”Which Writer Wins?” Glow Group was further customised by:

• deleting default pages and adding new ones
• creating hidden pages (which don’t appear as page tabs)
• using Text Editor web parts to display text, images, links and tables
• creating multiple Discussions and Documents web parts, so that each was linked to a single book
• creating a new Picture Library web part to display pupils’ art work
• creating a survey and replicating it in the sub-groups for each of the 55 schools

Recipe

In order to do full justice to the “Which Writer Wins?” Glow Group, the recipe section has been split between this cookbook and two others (Which Writer Wins - part 2 and Which Writer Wins – part 3). Here we’ll focus on how the Author and Book pages of the Group were created.

* A tour of the Author and Book pages in the Glow Group “Which Writer Wins?” – part 1

* Adding, editing and deleting pages in a Glow Group “Which Writer Wins?” – part 1

* Displaying text and images in a Text Editor web part “Which Writer Wins?” – part 1

* Creating a table in Text Editor “Which Writer Wins?” – part 1

* Creating hidden pages, part 1 “Which Writer Wins?” – part 1

* Creating hidden pages, part 2: Adding hyperlinks to a Text Editor web part “Which Writer Wins?” – part 1

* Creating new Discussions and Documents web parts “Which Writer Wins?” – part 1

* Moderating content added to Documents and Discussions web parts“Which Writer Wins?” – part 1

 Impact

Through their involvement in the “Which Writer Wins?” activities, pupils have been actively engaging with a range of Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes. These include:

"Beak and Whisker" discussion. Click to enlarge.

LIT 2-01a: I regularly select and listen to or watch texts which I enjoy and find interesting, and I can explain why I prefer certain sources. I regularly select subject, purpose, format and resources to create texts of my choice.

LIT 2-11a: I regularly select and read, listen to or watch texts which I enjoy and find interesting, and I can explain why I prefer certain texts and authors.

ENG 2-12a: Through developing my knowledge of context clues, punctuation, grammar and layout, I can read unfamiliar texts with increasing fluency, understanding and expression.

ENG 2-27a: I am learning to use language and style in a way which engages and/or influences my reader.

“Which Writer Wins?” is a huge project in Angus; however, in its previous paper-only format, it had begun to struggle in recent years.

Gordon Wilson describes the impact of the ‘Which Writer Wins?’ Glow Group“Which Writer Wins?” – part 1

Using Glow to support the project has revitalised it and turned it into a much more interesting topic for the staff and pupils involved. Glow has opened up new avenues to the activities, allowing pupils to collaborate with their peers in other schools. This can be particularly beneficial in the small rural primary schools, where there may only be a handful of P5 pupils.

Pupils have really enjoyed being able to read what other pupils thought of the books, or what characters or incidents they selected as their favourites. Adding a comment or uploading a book review - and seeing other people respond – has proved highly motivational.

All Glow and no action? “Can GLOW be used as a purposeful learning and teaching tool to increase participation and attainment levels in Literacy? Using the same stimulus, how do the findings compare between two Primary Six classes in Dumfries and Galloway with different socio-economic catchment areas?”

click here to enlarge

These were the title and the original aims of Lindsay Sim and Barbara Chierici’s Probationer Mini-Research Project running in the year 2008/2009. Literacy had been a focus on the School Improvement Plans at both Calside and Hecklegirth Primary Schools and therefore was an ideal curricular area to develop. Literacy was also a very important area identified on Dumfries and Galloway’s Service Improvement Plan. Staff development and cluster days had targeted this and Lindsay and Barbara believed the introduction of Glow, could be used as a stimulus to enhance literacy at both schools. It was very important to the project that Literacy was initially identified before Lindsay and Barbara decided to use Glow. Glow was identified as the best way the teachers could see of introducing a collaborative element to the project. They wanted more collaboration than the teachers simply staying in touch; they wanted the pupils to be able to collaborate with each other. Glow provided this purposeful link for both the pupils and the teachers. The teachers were keen that Glow could allow them to focus on the main aims in Dumfries and Galloway of

“attainment, achievement and participation”.

In a series of Cookbooks we will look at the work Lindsay and Barbara undertook for the project and the Glow Group they built to facilitate this.

In this cookbook, we will find out:
• What the P6 Literacy Project Glow Group looks like
• How Lindsay and Barbara used vokis with the pupils
• What they feel the impact of using the vokis was

Context

click to enlarge

Glow had only just been introduced to the schools in Dumfries and Galloway and Lindsay and Barbara thought it was something they could develop with their classes and use for their own CPD at the same time. They wanted to use Glow as a learning and teaching tool to help improve literacy in their schools. For the pupils, the excitement was very much about using Glow and with the pupils the teachers played on this and played down their main aim of improving literacy. They knew, through the pupils’ motivation for the tasks, that literacy skills were definitely being improved as part of the project. The first phase of the project centred on writing with the focus shifting in the second phase to reading, listening and talking.

Please visit the Cookbook All Glow and No Action? Background to a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway for more detailed background to and context of the Project.

Before Lindsay and Barbara introduced Glow to the two classes they used a traffic light system to survey their pupils about whether they would like to take part in a Burns Poetry competition being run within the authority. They were shocked by the results which they believed was an accurate measure of the pupils’ enthusiasm for literacy. Across the 2 primary 6 classes only 26% said they would like to take part, 60% said they wouldn’t like to and 14% weren’t sure.

Collaboration

click here to enlarge

To introduce the pupils to Glow they took a space topic and began some joint work. They matched each pupil from one school up with a pupil in the other school and they had access to their “e-buddy’s” email address. However, most of the time they used the discussion web part in Glow to communicate. They initially were set the target of talking about things they had learned in the space project and getting to know their e-buddy. This was deliberately kept very informal by Barbara and Lindsay to start with. Both teachers uploaded some photographs of what they were doing in the space topic and also put some web links to information and games there for the pupils to access. The teachers also put up discussion starters to get the pupils going. This gave them prompts to inform their discussions with each other. This was their taster of Glow and the teachers believed this really captured the pupils’ interest.

Barbara comments on this, “they were so excited to have another P6 pupil to make contact with in another town.”

Poetry sneaks in!

With the teachers having in mind that their objective was the Burns Poetry competition they started to introduce this through the ‘back door’ by getting them to write poems about space. They began to introduce different types of poetry format with Cinquain, Haiku and Tanka, metaphor and simile. In order to improve the strength of their link with their e-buddy the teachers asked them to publish their poem on Glow and to peer assess each other’s work. The pupils were then asked again about entering the Burns Poetry competition and told that this would be done in collaboration with their e-buddy. This time, only a short while after first being asked the numbers were completely different with almost 100% saying that they were keen to take part.

click here to enlarge

Building upon the way they had learned to work with each other, the teachers began to get them working on poems for the competition. This was going to be the end of the project but Lindsay and Barbara thought it worked so well and that the pupils had enjoyed it so much that they decided to extend it. Both Lindsay and Barbara could see that literacy levels in their classes were definitely improving through this process. They felt that the level of participation and enthusiasm they were experiencing from the pupils warranted the continuation of the project.

Project Extension
For the continuation of the project the teachers decided to take the focus away from writing and onto other aspects of literacy. They decided they would use the novel Wheels by Catherine MacPhail as the focus for the next section of the project. Initially they took a Writer’s Craft approach to this, stopping at the same point and asking the pupils to write the continuation of the next part of the story. The pupils would upload this onto Glow and then take part in further peer assessment with their e-buddies, adding another stage of the story and peer assessing this backwards and forwards. Another Cookbook is available with a focus on the peer assessment aspect of the project and can be viewed here – All Glow and no action? Peer Assessment in a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Introducing themselves using Vokis

click here to enlarge

To work on talking and listening the classes worked on creating their own Voki and putting this onto Glow. A Voki is a small animated character that can be customised and can speak inside a small TV styled frame as if they are a newsreader. This was an acitivity designed by the teachers as the next step for the pupils of introducing themselves to their e-buddy. The collaboration with their e-buddy through vokis was the second stage in the collaborative element of the project. They had previously spoken through a mixture of email and discussions boards, then came designing vokis and finally the Glow Meet. They had to create a voki character in order to further introduce themselves to their e-buddy. They were given basic questions as a structure: your name; your age; what are your hobbies? These were all things their e-buddy would know through email but adding a voice and visual effects put another dimension to it. They had also been asked to talk a bit about the novel they were reading together. Initially Barbara and Lindsay had to work with the authority in getting access to the voki site in schools as this was originally a website which wasn’t available through the filter. This was however made available and the pupils could get started. Barbara notes that the pupils really enjoyed this activity and it gave them more motivation for proceeding with their writers crafts activities.

After the pupils created their own vokis using the voki website they made use of xml web parts to embed their vokis on the page in the Glow Group. This is a simple process of copying a code from the voki site and pasting this into an xml web part. There are videos to take you through this process below.

Ingredients
In order to set up the Glow Group in the first place Lindsay and Barbara attended Glow 1,2 and 3, twilight sessions run by Dumfries and Galloway Glow Support team.

What did the teachers need to do within Glow to allow the pupils to collaborate with each other?

• A local authority level Glow Group for the P6 Literacy Project
• Administrator membership for the 2 teachers involved
• Contributor membership for the P6 pupils
• A new page within the Glow Group for vokis
• xml web parts to enable the pupils to embed their vokis onto the page

Recipe
The videos below are part of a virtual tour by Barbara Cherichi and Lindsay Sim of the P6 Literacy Project collaborative Group. The videos which then follow take you through how to recreate some of the elements in Lindsay and Barbara’s Glow Group. Details are:

The Noticeboard Tour (1:29)
Vokis in a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Tour of the Wheels, Meet Zone and Voki Pages (3:46)
Vokis in a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Tour of the Document Library and Discussion Board (3:30)
Vokis in a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

A Closer look at the Vokis page (1:50)
Vokis in a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Changing the Page names and closing web parts (2:58)
Vokis in a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Creating a Voki (3:26)
In this video you will see how to create the character on the voki website
Vokis in a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

This clip shows you how to incorporate a Voki into a Glow Group (2:28)
Vokis in a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Impact

Both Barbara and Lindsay were very keen that their project was viewed as a Literacy project and not as an ICT project as other teachers might tend to view it.

They noted that the level of writing was definitely improving as part of the project:

Lindsay Sim, “I think when it’s that external person […] giving them that feedback and ways which they can improve that they were just falling over themselves to actually improve it. Then they were desperate for more feedback to come back, thinking, look, I’ve taken on your advice and improved it, what do you think now?”

What the teachers also found interesting is that the pupils took the collaboration outwith the school, often logging on from home and speaking to each other, contributing to the discussions and even coming up with poems at home. None of this process and the decisions the pupils were making was being directed by the teachers.

click here to enlarge

The Vokis were central to the pupils’ enjoyment of the project. They allowed Barbara and Lindsay to expand the project away from writing and have more of a listening and talking focus, along with reading for the novel, Wheels. The pupils were getting lots of personalisation and choice in this activity and having to think of themselves in terms of how other people would see them and what they’d like to present to that other person. They could personalise the style of character they chose, hair colour, eye colour, hairstyle, background, jewellery etc. The could also take this forward to accent and language as we have seen.

As Lindsay says, “they were all very different, they all took a different approach.”

Lindsay uses Glow with her current class in her new school, Newington Primary, in Annan. However, she feels what really drove forward the use of Glow and literacy gains for the pupils at Hecklegirth and Calside was the collaborative nature of the project. They feel that participation and attainment in all areas of literacy was improved for their pupils. All pupils participated fully in the project.

Lindsay notices that, “going back to our original aims of attainment, achievement and participation, we can categorically say that every child had achieved those 3 basic aims. I don’t think it would have been anywhere near as successful if we’d just done it individually and there wasn’t that collaboration and correspondence between us and the pupils.”

Barbara adds to this, “the children were motivated because of their e-buddies… We might have stopped at the end of the first phase if we were doing it on our own [without Glow].”

In the poetry competition two of Barbara’s pupils came second and third and had their entries published in a book about the competition.

Their Glow Group is also frequently used in Glow training and support sessions in Dumfries and Galloway.

The project ran in the 2008/2009 year and was whilst Barbara was at Calside and Lindsay was at Hecklegirth. Lindsay is now at Newington Primary, Annan and Barbara is at St Andrew’s RC Primary School, Dumfries.

The next section has various video clips where Lindsay and Barbara talk about various aspects of the set-up and impact of the project.

How the project came about (3:18)
Vokis in a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Setting up the first part of the project (4:37)
Vokis in a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Extending the project to another phase (1:51)
Vokis in a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Using Vokis for Listening and Talking (1:31)
Vokis in a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Summing up the project (1:57)
Vokis in a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Lindsay sums up the project for us,

“I think it was not that we did the poetry competition and not that we did [the novel] Wheels, it’s that we did it through Glow that we’ve got these results [where the pupils describe their literacy skills as being enhanced]. If we had done this without the technology side we wouldn’t have these results, at all. It just shows how literacy and ICT can work together as a purposeful learning and teaching tool.”

Links to the other Cookbooks on the Project will be placed here as these Cookbooks are completed.

Click here if you wish to visit the Cookbook containing more background information for the Project – All Glow and No Action? Background to a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Click here if you wish to visit the Cookbook focussing on the use of peer assessment within the project – All Glow and No Action? Peer Assessment in a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Identified Experiences and Outcomes –
Through their involvement in the P6 Literacy Project Glow Group, the pupils have been actively engaging with a range of Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes. Although they are placed as tags to this Cookbook you will find expanded information in the Background Cookbook for the project.

Overview

All Glow and no action? “Can GLOW be used as a purposeful learning and teaching tool to increase participation and attainment levels in Literacy? Using the same stimulus, how do the findings compare between two Primary Six classes in Dumfries and Galloway with different socio-economic catchment areas?”

Click here to enlarge

These were the title and the original aims of Lindsay Sim and Barbara Chierici’s Probationer Mini-Research Project running in the year 2008/2009. Literacy had been a focus on the School Improvement Plans at both Calside and Hecklegirth Primary Schools and therefore was an ideal curricular area to develop. Literacy was also a very important area identified on Dumfries and Galloway’s Service Improvement Plan. Staff development and cluster days had targeted this and Lindsay and Barbara believed the introduction of Glow, could be used as a stimulus to enhance literacy at both schools. It was very important to the project that Literacy was initially identified before Lindsay and Barbara decided to use Glow. Glow was identified as the best way the teachers could see of introducing a collaborative element to the project. They wanted more collaboration than the teachers simply staying in touch; they wanted the pupils to be able to collaborate with each other. Glow provided this purposeful link for both the pupils and the teachers. The teachers were keen that Glow could allow them to focus on the main aims in Dumfries and Galloway of

“attainment, achievement and participation”.

In a series of Cookbooks we will look at the work Lindsay and Barbara undertook for the project and the Glow Group they built to facilitate this.

In this cookbook, we will find out:
• What the P6 Literacy Project Glow Group looks like
• How Lindsay and Barbara put together the project
• What they feel the impact of the project has been

Context

Click to enlarge

Glow had only just been introduced to the schools in Dumfries and Galloway and Lindsay and Barbara thought it was something they could develop with their classes and use for their own CPD at the same time. They wanted to use Glow as a learning and teaching tool to help improve literacy in their schools. For the pupils, the excitement was very much about using Glow and with the pupils the teachers played on this and played down their main aim of improving literacy. They knew, through the pupils’ motivation for the tasks, that literacy skills were definitely being improved as part of the project.

The first phase of the project centred on writing with the focus shifting in the second phase to reading, listening and talking.

Before Lindsay and Barbara introduced Glow to the two classes they used a traffic light system to survey their pupils about whether they would like to take part in a Burns Poetry competition being run within the authority. They were shocked by the results which they believed was an accurate measure of the pupils’ enthusiasm for literacy. Across the 2 primary 6 classes only 26% said they would like to take part, 60% said they wouldn’t like to and 14% weren’t sure.

Collaboration

The Glow Group pages – Click here to enlarge

To introduce the pupils to Glow they took a space topic and began some joint work. They matched each pupil from one school up with a pupil in the other school and they had access to their “e-buddy’s” email address. However, most of the time they used the discussion web part in Glow to communicate. They initially were set the target of talking about things they had learned in the space project and getting to know their e-buddy. This was deliberately kept very informal by Barbara and Lindsay to start with. Both teachers uploaded some photographs of what they were doing in the space topic and also put some web links to information and games there for the pupils to access. The teachers also put up discussion starters to get the pupils going. This gave them prompts to inform their discussions with each other. This was their taster of Glow and the teachers believed this really captured the pupils’ interest.

Barbara comments on this, “they were so excited to have another P6 pupil to make contact with in another town.”

Sometimes it was quite difficult to get computer suite time in their schools to allow the pupils to get onto Glow and contact their e-buddy. Lindsay and Barbara were very careful on the pairings of children they made between the 2 classes. In Lindsay’s class she had 6 Polish pupils, 2 of whom needed a lot of support with their English.

Poetry sneaks in!

One of the pupil's poems – Click to enlarge

With the teachers having in mind that their objective was the Burns Poetry competition they started to introduce this through the ‘back door’ by getting them to write poems about space. They began to introduce different types of poetry format with Cinquain, Haiku and Tanka, metaphor and simile. In order to improve the strength of their link with their e-buddy the teachers asked them to publish their poem on Glow and to peer assess each other’s work. Another Cookbook on this project will give more detail about the peer assessment element.

Peer Assessment on poetry – Click to enlarge

The pupils were then asked again about entering the Burns Poetry competition and told that this would be done in collaboration with their e-buddy. This time, only a short while after first being asked the numbers were completely different with almost 100% saying that they were keen to take part. Building upon the way they had learned to work with each other ,the teachers began to get them working on poems for the competition. This was going to be the end of the project but Lindsay and Barbara thought it worked so well and that the pupils had enjoyed it so much that they decided to extend it. Both Lindsay and Barbara could see that literacy levels in their classes were definitely improving through this process. They felt that the level of participation and enthusiasm they were experiencing from the pupils warranted the continuation of the project.

On the Radio!
At this point, Create, the creative Arts Team in Dumfries and Galloway contacted the teachers. They were particularly interested in what they were doing with Glow and asked to come along and record some audio of the pupils for a local radio show on West Sound. All pupils were over the moon to participate in this, including a pupil with a communication disorder, who surprised Barbara with his willingness to take part.

Project Extension

Extending the Project – click to enlarge

For the continuation of the project the teachers decided to take the focus away from writing and onto other aspects of literacy. They decided they would use the novel Wheels by Catherine MacPhail as the focus for the next section of the project. Initially they took a Writer’s Craft approach to this, stopping at the same point and asking the pupils to write the continuation of the next part of the story. The pupils would upload this onto Glow and then take part in further peer assessment with their e-buddies, adding another stage of the story and peer assessing this backwards and forwards.

Vokis

Using Vokis – click to enlarge

To work on talking and listening the classes worked on creating their own Voki and putting this onto Glow. This was the next step of introducing themselves to their e-buddy who they had only spoken to through email and discussion boards so far. Another Cookbook is available with a focus on this aspect of the project.

Glow Meet

Learning Intentions for Glow Meet – click to enlarge

With support from development officers in the local authority they decided that the next logical step would be to have a Glow Meet between the two classes. They felt it was the next natural step for the e-buddies to be able to see each other. They also wanted the pupils to have the experience of using more of the functionality within Glow. The Glow Meet was based on the novel study. Another Cookbook is available with a focus on this aspect of the project.

Survey

Lindsay and Barbara also used the survey tool within Glow to evaluate the literacy project. Another Cookbook is available with a focus on this aspect of the project.

Ingredients
In order to set up the Glow Group in the first place Lindsay and Barbara attended Glow 1,2 and 3, twilight sessions run by Dumfries and Galloway Glow Support team.

What did the teachers need to create within the Glow Group to allow the pupils to collaborate with each other?

• A local authority level Glow Group for the P6 Literacy Project
• Administrator membership for the 2 teachers involved
• Contributor membership for the P6 pupils
• A document library for uploading poems
• A poetry discussions web part
• Vokis created and uploaded onto the Group
• A Glow Meet web part
• Videos created and uploaded onto the Group
• Document web part with Writers’ Craft Task stories uploaded and commented on
• A Survey web part

Recipe
The videos below are part of a virtual tour by Barbara Cherichi and Lindsay Sim of the P6 Literacy Project collaborative Group. Details are:

The Noticeboard Tour (1:29)
Background to a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Tour of the Wheels, Meet Zone and Voki Pages (3:46)
Background to a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Tour of the Document Library and Discussion Board (3:30)
Background to a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Further How-To videos are available in the other Cookbooks on this project.

Impact
Both Barbara and Lindsay were very keen that their project was viewed as a Literacy project and not as an ICT project as other teachers might tend to view it.

They noted that the level of writing was definitely improving as part of the project:

Lindsay Sim, “I think when it’s that external person […] giving them that feedback and ways which they can improve that they were just falling over themselves to actually improve it. Then they were desperate for more feedback to come back, thinking, look, I’ve taken on your advice and improved it, what do you think now?”

What the teachers also found interesting is that the pupils took the collaboration outwith the school, often logging on from home and speaking to each other, contributing to the discussions and even coming up with poems at home. None of this process and the decisions the pupils were making were being directed by the teachers.

Barbara also felt that using Glow, for the teachers was so much easier than having to consult 32 different jotters for the pupils’ work.

“It’s good for teachers as well because you’ve got everything on the site. Glow makes it much easier for us as practioners.”

Glow Meet Assessment – Click to enlarge

“Their literacy skills developed immensely, not to mention their ICT skills. This was things they could not do before.” Lindsay Sim.

The teachers then used video cameras to record pupil evaluations of this whole process and upload these into the Group.

Wall display for the conference – Click here to enlarge

Lindsay and Barbara were asked to present on their project at the Probationers Conference in Dumfries and Galloway. It was almost unheard of to bring pupils along to this event and they had never been anywhere like this with hundreds of people there to hear what they had to say. The pupils were able to take questions from the audience about their learning. They took the whole thing in their stride and this speaks well of the confident learners they had been encouraged to become as part of the whole collaborative project.

Lindsay uses Glow with her current class in her new school, Newington Primary, in Annan. However, she feels what really drove forward the use of Glow and literacy gains for the pupils at Hecklegirth and Calside was the collaborative nature of the project. They feel that participation and attainment in all areas of literacy was improved for their pupils. All pupils participated fully in the project.

Lindsay notices that, “going back to our original aims of attainment, achievement and participation, we can categorically say that every child had achieved those 3 basic aims. I don’t think it would have been anywhere near as successful if we’d just done it individually and there wasn’t that collaboration and correspondence between us and the pupils.”

Barbara adds to this, “the children were motivated because of their e-buddies… We might have stopped at the end of the first phase if we were doing it on our own [without Glow].”

In the poetry competition a few of Barbara’s pupils came second and third and had their entries published in a book about the competition.

Their Glow Group is also frequently used in Glow training and support sessions in Dumfries and Galloway. They noted that it was difficult to move people to appreciating that all the evidence in terms of the project and the pupils’ work was online in the Glow Group. People were still looking for a lot of paper based evidence. Throughout the project Barbara and Lindsay often used Glow in their search for good practice across Scotland, keeping an eye out for national targeted news items and the like.

In terms of future planning and challenges Barbara and Lindsay would both like parents to be more involved in their children’s learning on Glow. They also worry about their previous pupils getting so much out of Glow and this not being followed up as the pupils move on to other teachers and secondary school.

The project ran in the 2008/2009 year and was whilst Barbara was at Calside and Lindsay was at Hecklegirth. Lindsay is now at Newington Primary, Annan and Barbara is at St Andrew’s RC Primary School, Dumfries.

The next section has various video clips where Lindsay and Barbara talk about various aspects of the set-up and impact of the project.

How the project came about (3:18)
Background to a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Setting up the first part of the project (4:37)
Background to a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Extending the project to another phase (1:51)
Background to a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Children presenting their project for the local radio programme (1:19)
Background to a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Evaluation the experience on video with the pupils (0:39)
Background to a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Presenting at the Probationers’ Conference (1:16)
Background to a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Summing up the project (1:57)
Background to a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Lindsay sums up the project for us,

“I think it was not that we did the poetry competition and not that we did [the novel] Wheels, it’s that we did it through Glow that we’ve got these results [where the pupils describe their literacy skills as being enhanced]. If we had done this without the technology side we wouldn’t have these results, at all. It just shows how literacy and ICT can work together as a purposeful learning and teaching tool.”

Links to the other Cookbooks on the Project will be placed here as these Cookbooks are completed.

Click here if you wish to visit the Cookbook focussing on the use of peer assessment within the project - All Glow and No Action? Peer Assessment in a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Click here if you wish to visit the Cookbook containing more information on the use of Vokis in the Project - All Glow and No Action? Pt 3 Vokis in a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Identified Experiences and Outcomes –

Links to the other Cookbooks on the Project will be placed here as these Cookbooks are completed.

Through their involvement in the P6 Literacy Project Glow Group, the pupils have been actively engaging with a range of Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes. They include:

Expressive Arts – Art and Design

EXA 2-02a – I have the opportunity to choose and explore an extended range of media and technologies to create images and objects, comparing and combining them for specific tasks.

Literacy and English – Listening and Talking

LIT 2-02a – When I engaged with others, I can respond in ways appropriate to my role, show that I value others’ contributions and use these to build on thinking.

LIT 2-03a - I can recognise how the features of spoken languages can help in communication, and I can use what I learn.

I can recognise different features of my own and others’ spoken language

LIT 2-04a – As I listen or watch, I can identify and discuss the purpose, main ideas and supporting detail contained within the text, and use this information for different purposes.

LIT 2-10a – I am developing confidence when engaging with others within and beyond my place of learning.  I can communicate in a clear, expressive way and I am learning to select and organise resources independently.

Literacy and English – Reading

LIT 2-16a – To show my understanding across different areas of learning, I can identify and consider the purpose and main ideas of a text and use supporting detail.

LIT 2-19a -I can:

• discuss structure, characterisation and/or setting
• recognise the relevance of the writer’s theme and how this relates to my own and others’ experiences.
• discuss the writer’s style and other features appropriate to genre.

Literacy and English – Writing

LIT 2-20a - I enjoy creating texts of my choice and I regularly select subject, purpose, format and resources to suit the needs of my audience.

LIT 2-24a – I consider the impact that layout and presentation will have and can combine lettering, graphics and other features to engage my reader.

LIT 2-26a – By considering the type of text I am creating, I can select ideas and relevant information, organise these in an appropriate way for my purpose and use suitable vocabulary for my audience.

LIT 2-27a – I am learning to use language and style in a way which engages and/or influences my reader.

LIT 2-31a – Having explored the elements which writers use in different genres, I can use what I learn to create stories, poems and plays with an interesting and appropriate structure, interesting characters and/or settings which come to life.

Technologies – ICT to enhance learning

TCH 2-03a – As I extend and enhance my knowledge of features of various types of software, including those which help find, organise, manage and access information, I can apply what I learn in different situations.

TCH 2-03b – Throughout all my learning, I can use search facilities of electronic sources to access and retrieve information, recognise the importance this has in my place of learning, at home and in the work place.

TCH 2-04a – I explore and experiment with the features and functions of computer technology and I can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different contexts.

TCH 2-04b – I can create, capture and manipulate sounds, text and images to communicate experiences, ideas and information in creative and engaging ways.

Overview
Primary 5 in St Mary’s Primary School in Bannockburn were recently learning about the Scottish Wars of Independence. Their class teacher, Bernadette Cassidy, was keen to find innovative ways to engage the children and really make the learning come alive for them. Luckily, help was at hand in the form of the fictitious Mr Browne from the ‘Scottish Tourist Board’!

Context

Bernadette Cassidy had already provided a wide range of interesting and stimulating learning activities for her Primary 5 class as part of their topic of The Scottish Wars of Independence, but still felt she wanted to engage the children further . She then came up with the idea of sending a letter to the class from a fictitious Head of the Scottish tourist board, Mr Browne.

Bernadette explains this in her own words:

“Our P5 topic last term was the Scottish Wars of Independence. Since the P5 classroom is in a new build section of the school, there are a few restrictions on the things that are put up on the classroom walls etc, so it would have been impossible to transform the classroom into a medieval castle, as I have done in the past for ‘Connecting the Learning’ Topics. 

So, I sent the children a letter from ‘ Mr Browne’ of the ‘Scottish Tourist Board’ asking them to help with developing tourism brochures, leaflets, guides and maps for the Stirling area. The class then became more of an ‘office’ for tourism. The children received the letter half way through the topic; they were very excited and became hooked on the idea of who Mr Browne was (this mystery person had them very intrigued). There was some correspondence between the class and ‘Mr Browne’ by letter and he ‘visited’ our classroom one afternoon at the end of last term and left a note in our visitors book.  

As part of the topic the children created a film advertisement and a brochure with a Digital Artist on tourism in Stirling. We visited the Wallace Monument and Stirling Castle on a class trip, we built a small medieval castle from large pieces of cardboard in our classroom, we made poster presentations and displays on Medieval Life, Feudalism, Medieval Jewellery and Armour and Heraldry. The class also created a Timeline wall with lots of information about the Wars of Independence. During our Open Afternoon, they hosted a cafe to raise funds for SCIAF and they did a table quiz with parents as well as presenting all of their work and showing the advertisement.

P5's Tourist Brochure

The role of Mr Browne in all of this was to give them a focus on the tourism side of how to learn about the Wars of Independence, as a foreigner or local tourist to Stirling. He asked them to help advertise the area by creating posters, leaflets and presentations about it, on behalf of the ‘Scottish Tourist Board’. The children were so fascinated by Mr Browne that I thought having a Glow Meet would be a great way of giving them a chance to talk to him whilst still keeping it all a bit mysterious and exciting. They still believe that they were asked by the Scottish Tourist Board to do this work!!

Bernadette talks about this in the following video:

Bernadette Cassidy: Why we used Glow Meet (0:56)
Your Tourist Board needs you! – P5 Social Subjects topic

Glow Meet with ‘Mr Browne’
Bernadette arranged for someone to play the part of Mr Browne, and agreed a time for the Glow Meet to take place. Mr Browne was actually in ‘Riverside’, home to the Stirling ICT team, and bore a remarkable resemblance to the husband of one of the team members!

P5's Tourist Brochure

The room he was in had been decorated to look like it might be a tourist office, as it had posters and leaflets on the wall behind him. The leaflet produced by the children was on display there, adding authenticity to the set.

‘Mr Browne’ had been briefed on the work that the pupils had done and questions thought up by the pupils had been sent to him ahead of time, so that he had time to prepare his answers!

Mr Browne uploaded images to the whiteboard in the Glow Meet room, which he used during the Meet to ask pupils about aspects of the Scottish Wars of Independence.

The pupils did a lot of research and preparation for the Glow Meet, and during the event, they took turns in coming to the web cam to ask their questions. They also took part, in two groups, in a quiz set by Mr Browne.

The Glow Meet session was recorded, and the pupils were able to watch this back later, which really thrilled them.

For the Open Afternoon, the classroom was transformed into a ‘Tourist Office’ which was split into different areas. In one area was a model of a Medaeval Castle built by the pupils; in another was a lego model of the Wallace Monument that they had made; in the middle of the room was a suitcase, filled with the clothing and other items that the pupils felt should be packed by visitors planning to visit the Stilring area. The pupils acted as Tour Guides for the afternoon and were able to share lots of information about Wallace and Bruce with the visitors who included parents/guardians and family as well as pupils from other classes. There was also a café selling homemade Scottish shortbread in the Tourist Centre, as the pupils all felt that this was an essential element of any good tourist experience!

The pupils’ research, preparation and participation in the Glow Meet itself allowed Bernadette to incorporate a range of Literacy and English experiences and outcomes into the topic work:

LIT 2-09a When listening and talking with others for different purposes, I can:

• share information, experiences and opinions
• explain processes and ideas
• identify issues raised and summarise main points or findings
• clarify points by asking questions or by asking others to say more.                                                        

LIT 2-10a / LIT 3-10a I am developing confidence when engaging with others within and beyond my place of learning. I can communicate in a clear, expressive way and I am learning to select and organise resources independently.

LIT 2-15a I can make notes, organise them under suitable headings and use them to understand information, develop my thinking, explore problems and create new texts, using my own words as appropriate.

LIT 1-20a/LIT 2-20a I enjoy creating texts of my choice and I regularly select subject, purpose, format and resources to suit the needs of my audience.

LIT 2-23a Throughout the writing process, I can check that my writing makes sense and meets its purpose.

LIT 2-24a I consider the impact that layout and presentation will have and can combine lettering, graphics and other features to engage my reader.

LIT 2-25a I can use my notes and other types of writing to help me understand information and ideas, explore problems, make decisions, generate and develop ideas or create new text.              I recognise the need to acknowledge my sources and can do this appropriately.

LIT 2-26a By considering the type of text I am creating, I can select ideas and relevant information, organise these in an appropriate way for my purpose and use suitable vocabulary for my audience.

ENG 2-27a I am learning to use language and style in a way which engages and/or influences my reader.

LIT 2-28a I can convey information, describe events, explain processes or combine ideas in different ways

They also, of course, covered many Social Studies Experiences and Outcomes, including:

SOC 2-01a I can use primary and secondary sources selectively to research events in the past.

SOC 2-02a I can interpret historical evidence from a range of periods to help to build a picture of Scotland’s heritage and my sense of chronology.

SOC 2-03a I can investigate a Scottish historical theme to discover how past events or the actions of individuals or groups have shaped Scottish society.

SOC 2-06a I can discuss why people and events from a particular time in the past were important, placing them within a historical sequence.

Using Glow and in particular Glow Meet, helped pupils engage with a range of Technologies experiences and outcomes too:

TCH 1-04a / TCH 2-04a I explore and experiment with the features and functions of computer technology and I can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different contexts.

TCH 1-08a / TCH 2-08a I am developing my knowledge and use of safe and acceptable conduct as I use different technologies to interact and share experiences, ideas and information with others.

Many other experiences and outcomes from other curricular areas, such as Expressive Arts, were also covered throughout all of the topic work, making this a truly integrated learning experience for the pupils.

The entire Glow Meet with Mr Browne lasted for around 45 minutes. Let’s take a look now at excerpts from this.

Excerpts from P5’s Glow Meet with Mr Browne

Excerpt 1: A question from Emma (3:29)
Your Tourist Board needs you! – P5 Social Subjects topic
Excerpt 2: A question from Martin (3:08)
Your Tourist Board needs you! – P5 Social Subjects topic
Excerpt 3: A quiz from Mr Browne (7:45)
Your Tourist Board needs you! – P5 Social Subjects topic
Excerpt 4: Pupils reciting Scots wha hae (1:54)
Your Tourist Board needs you! – P5 Social Subjects topic
 

Bernadette tells us what the pupils got out of this event:

Bernadette Cassidy: What the pupils got out of it (2:10)
Your Tourist Board needs you! – P5 Social Subjects topic

Ingredients

What did Bernadette Cassidy need to do to hold the Glow Meet with ‘Mr Browne’?
- Have a Glow Group
- Add the Glow Meet Web Part to the Group
- Have a web cam, microphone and speakers

We’ve already seen excerpts from the Glow Meet in the video above, so how could you replicate this? Watch the following ‘how to’ videos to learn how to set up and use Glow Meet within your own Glow Group:

 How to set up a Glow Meet in a Glow Group (5:36)
Your Tourist Board needs you! – P5 Social Subjects topic
How to join and take part in a Glow Meet (3:38)
Your Tourist Board needs you! – P5 Social Subjects topic
How to use the video, audio and chat facility within a Glow Meet meeting room (6:19)
Your Tourist Board needs you! – P5 Social Subjects topic
How to use the shared whiteboard in a Glow Meet meeting room (8:25)
Your Tourist Board needs you! – P5 Social Subjects topic
How to record a Glow Meet (2:09)
Your Tourist Board needs you! – P5 Social Subjects topic
How to play back a previously recorded Glow Meet (3:22)
Your Tourist Board needs you! – P5 Social Subjects topic

Impact

Perhaps the main impact that holding the Glow Meet had, was the enthusiasm and excitement that it created amongst the pupils in the class. They became thoroughly engaged with the research they did, knowing that it would be looked at by the ‘Tourist Board’, and being able to talk to Mr Browne himself made it even more of an important task for them and gave them a real purpose for their learning. The topic became much more than simply learning about events from history.

Bernadette talks about the impact she feels it had:

Bernadette Cassidy: Impact (2:01)
Your Tourist Board needs you! – P5 Social Subjects topic

 Find out how Bernadette evaluated elements of this topic using a Glow Survey in the  ‘Using a Glow Survey to evaluate ‘Connecting the Learning’ shared homework tasks’  cookbook

Wilma Gordon is the ICT teacher at Mid Calder Primary in West Lothian.

As well as working with pupils to develop their ICT skills, Wilma is greatly involved in International education projects within the school. She has used Glow in many ways to support this and we will look at one of these here.

Context

International education is embedded throughout learning within Mid Calder Primary school, due to the school’s great involvement in the British Council’s e-twinning project and the Comenius project. Through these and other initiatives such DFID, Global School Partnerships, eLanguages and the British Council’s Connecting Classrooms project, the school has developed strong links with a wide range of countries, including Romania, Thailand, Turkey and France, leading to them winning an International School Award in 2009.

In 2008, Wilma began an e-twinning project with a school in France, to help develop pupils’ language skills and also their understanding and appreciation of the culture of the country. She worked with the teacher in the French school, Ecole Antoine Pizon, to come up with an innovative and stimulating way to help capture pupils’ interest and develop their language skills.

The project, called ‘A Novel Idea’, and now in its third year of implementation, involves the Primary 7 pupils in Mid Calder jointly writing a book, chapter by chapter, in English and French, with the pupils in the French school.

The pupils themselves decided that the theme of the novel this time would be ‘fantasy’. The children from Ecole Antoine Pizon in France wrote the first chapter, in French. They emailed this to Wilma, who uploaded it into the document store in the International Education Glow Group, so that the pupils – who were eagerly awaiting its arrival – could access it.

The Mid Calder pupils then had to translate the chapter, initially picking out words they already knew to get a general understanding of it, before then finding the meaning of words they were not familiar with. This gave the pupils a real purpose for learning new French words, and they were keen to do so, otherwise, they would not be able to write the next chapter if they didn’t understand the French one.

The next chapter was then written in English and sent back to France, and so the process continued until the book was complete.

It was then decided to take the book one step further, by turning it into a talking book.

The French children read the French chapters and recorded these as MP3 files, sending them back to Mid Calder, who in turn read, recorded and sent the English chapters to them. Hearing the French childrens’ pronunciation of the words helped to improve the speaking skills of the pupils in Mid Calder, as they were hearing French being spoken by native speakers.

A physical talking book was made, with the MP3 files inserted, along with the illustrations which were done by the pupils in both schools.

The book and audio files were also uploaded to a wiki. The link to this wiki was added to a text editor web part in the Glow Group for all to access.

In addition, Wilma uploaded the audio files into the text editor web part too, completing it with a photo of the French pupils.

We can hear Chapter 1 (in French) of “The little red book” here:

Chapitre 1 Téruvia

The project has enabled the pupils to engage with a range of both Modern Languages and English/Literacy Experiences and Outcomes. Many of these are beyond the level that might ordinarily be expected of a Primary 7 pupil, as Wilma mentions in the ‘impact’ section further on in this cookbook. There has also been opportunity to integrate Technologies experiences and outcomes into the project:

Modern Languages Experiences and Outcomes
MLAN 3-01a I can listen to and show understanding of mainly familiar language and instructions from a variety of sources, where the sentences are longer and where there may be more than one speaker.
MLAN 2-06b I have worked with others, using a variety of media including ICT where appropriate, and can contribute successfully to a presentation in English, supported by use of the language I am learning, on an aspect of life in a country where the language I am learning is spoken.
MLAN 3-06b I can deliver an individual presentation in the language I am learning, using a variety of media including ICT where appropriate.
MLAN 3-08a I work on my own and with others to understand text using appropriate resources. I can read and demonstrate understanding of more complex texts which contain familiar and unfamiliar language.
MLAN 3-09a I work on my own and with others to read and explore texts in the language I am learning. I can demonstrate my knowledge about life and culture in some of the countries where the language I am learning is spoken.
MLAN 2-11c I experiment with new language, working out the meaning of words and phrases using vocabulary I have learned so far.
MLAN 4-11a I can use my knowledge about language and other strategies to help me to understand and analyse more detailed texts, containing some unfamiliar language and more complex structures.

Literacy and English Experiences and Outcomes
LIT 2-10a / LIT 3-10a I am developing confidence when engaging with others within and beyond my place of learning. I can communicate in a clear, expressive way and I am learning to select and organise resources independently.
LIT 2-13a I can select and use a range of strategies and resources before I read, and as I read, to make meaning clear and give reasons for my selection.
LIT 3-16a To show my understanding across different areas of learning, I can:
• identify and consider the purpose, main concerns or concepts and use supporting detail
• make inferences from key statements
• identify and discuss similarities and differences between different types of text.
LIT 1-20a/LIT2-20a I enjoy creating texts of my choice and I regularly select subject, purpose, format and resources to suit the needs of my audience.
LIT 2-23a Throughout the writing process, I can check that my writing makes sense and meets its purpose.
LIT 2-24a I consider the impact that layout and presentation will have and can combine lettering, graphics and other features to engage my reader.
ENG 2-27a I am learning to use language and style in a way which engages and/or influences my reader.
ENG 2-31a Having explored the elements which writers use in different genres, I can use what I learn to create stories, poems and plays with an interesting and appropriate structure, interesting characters and/or settings which come to life.

Technologies Experiences and Outcomes
TCH 1-04b / TCH 2-04b I can create, capture and manipulate sounds, text and images to communicate experiences, ideas and information in creative and engaging ways.
TCH 3-04a I enhance my learning by applying my ICT skills in different learning contexts across the curriculum.

Ingredients

What did Wilma need to do to give pupils access to the book’s chapters and audio files?

• Have a Glow Group at school level
• Upload the chapters to a document store
• Add the link to the wiki in the text editor web part
• Upload the audio files to the text editor web part

In the following videos we will look at the International Education Glow Group to get an overview of it, then find out in subsequent videos how to include replicate some of the features in it.

Overview of the International Education Glow Group (5:28)
Creating a Talking Book – Modern Languages in a Primary school
How to add a hyperlink in the Text Editor web part (5:17)
Creating a Talking Book – Modern Languages in a Primary school
How to upload an audio file to Text Editor (6:31)
Creating a Talking Book – Modern Languages in a Primary school

Impact

Having a real and stimulating purpose for learning French has really engaged the pupils in their language learning. They have also had a real purpose for using ICT, learning amongst other things how to record and upload their mp3 files to enable the French pupils to access them.

More impressively though, the project has been so well received and was so successful that in 2009 it won a European Award for Languages  from CILT – The National Centre for Languages for it. The award  “recognises creative ways to improve the quality of language teaching, motivate students and make the best of available resources”    source: CILT.org.uk

Wilma sums up the impact the talking book project has had:

“the pupils were enthusiastic and motivated to learn French. The innovative approach gave the children a structure which enabled them to take control and this autonomy drove them to improve their work. The story allows healthy competition and the literacy levels are way above what you would expect of a ten to eleven year old. I believe this is partly because of the motivation and because the pupils are aware they have a wider audience. Even making the MP3s were made and then improved because other people would listen and they had to be good.”

She goes on to explain why using Glow added to the project:

“ Glow was great because as each chapter was posted the children could read this with their parents, even the ones written in English were exciting as they could be shared at home. They also used the page to discuss the best title for the novel. Originally, it was called Teruvia, but through discussions on GLOW it was decided to call it the Little Red Book.”

This has been an extremely successful and enjoyable project and one which Wilma and the rest of the staff at Mid Calder hope to continue for quite some time to come.

Art into Words – Assessment is for Learning (AiFL)

Overview
Claire Reynolds is Principal Teacher at Holy Family Primary school in Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire. As part of her remit she is responsible for a Primary 7 class 0.8. David Miller is an English Teacher at St. Ninian’s Secondary in Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire. David had entered his S1 class in an National Competition run by National Art Gallery in Scotland.
In this cookbook we’ll look at how Claire and David used a Glow group and Glow Meet to develop writing skills with Primary 7 pupils with support from S1 and David. The project involved a continuation of the concept behind the National Art Gallery competition and use classical art as a stimulus for writing.

Context
Holy Family PS has a very structured programme for writing and follows a writing scheme as well as incorporating topic and thematic writing for pupils. At a sharing of good practice event the HT and DHT met David Miller who was showcasing writing. Some of the excellent pieces of writing had been created by former pupils of Holy Family Primary School and the SMT members were delighted to see such a high standard. From there a discussion took place with Mr Miller using a similar approach and working with the P7 pupils to produce some literature and to develop Primary teachers skills in delivering writing in this way.
It was decided to use Glow as the communication base for the project as the functionalities within Glow suited the purpose of the project. Mr Miller was able to meet with the Class Teacher and SMT to set up the project using the Glow Meet web part. This meant that time was not taken with travelling and all time spent on the project was productive. Through discussion and experience of Glow and the requirements of AiFL to support writing it was decided to set up a number of web parts within the group. There was a Web Links part with links to the National Gallery, A Discussion Web Part for S1 and P7 to have on line discussions and A Document Store as well as a Glow Meet.
The project ran for the length of Term 1 in session 2008-2009. Pupils from St. Ninian’s shared their work, which had been inspired from pictures at the National Gallery, with P.7 pupils through a Glow Meet session with S1 reading their work while displaying the art on the Whiteboard part of the Glow Meet. The work they produced was also uploaded to the document store of the Glow Group. Mr Miller then shared pictures with the P.7 pupils via a Glow Meet and asked them what the pictures might mean and bring to mind. Some excellent lessons took place in these sessions and the children became much more able to examine art.
The next part of the project involved the Primary 7 pupils searching the National Gallery for a picture via the web link on the Glow group and then writing a short story, descriptive passage or poem about it.
Primary 7 then uploaded their work to the Glow Group in the document store. S1 pupils who had read their work would comment on it on the Discussion web part using AiFL strategy, ’Two stars and a wish’, the formative assessment strategy in use at Holy Family PS for writing. BY using Glow and the components within it and in taking part in this project the following Curriculum for Excellence outcomes where experienced by the learners.

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When I engage with others, I can respond in ways appropriate to my role, show that I value others’ contributions and use these to build on thinking. LIT 2-02a
When I engage with others, I can make a relevant contribution, encourage others to contribute and acknowledge that they have the right to hold a different opinion. I can respond in ways appropriate to my role and use contributions to reflect on, clarify or adapt thinking. LIT 3-02a
When listening and talking with others for different purposes, I can:
• share information, experiences and opinions
• explain processes and ideas
• identify issues raised and summarise main points or findings
• clarify points by asking questions or by asking others to say more. LIT 2-09a

When listening and talking with others for different purposes, I can:
• communicate information, ideas or opinions
• explain processes, concepts or ideas
• identify issues raised, summarise findings or draw conclusions. LIT 3-09a

I am developing confidence when engaging with others within and beyond my place of learning. I can communicate in a clear, expressive way and I am learning to select and organise resources independently. LIT 2-10a / LIT 3-10a

I can:
• discuss structure, characterisation and/or setting
• recognise the relevance of the writer’s theme and how this relates to my own and others’ experiences
• discuss the writer’s style and other features appropriate to genre. ENG 2-19a

I can:
• discuss and evaluate the structure, characterisation and/or setting using some supporting evidence
• identify the main theme of the text and recognise the relevance this has to my own and others’ experiences
• identify and comment on aspects of the writer’s style and other features appropriate to genre using some relevant evidence. ENG 3-19a

I enjoy creating texts of my choice and I regularly select subject, purpose, format and resources to suit the needs of my audience. LIT 1-20a / LIT 2-20a

I enjoy creating texts of my choice and I am developing my own style. I can regularly select subject, purpose, format and resources to suit the needs of my audience. LIT 3-20a / LIT 4-20a

By considering the type of text I am creating, I can select ideas and relevant information, organise these in an appropriate way for my purpose and use suitable vocabulary for my audience. LIT 2-26a

By considering the type of text I am creating, I can independently select ideas and relevant information for different purposes, and organise essential information or ideas and any supporting detail in a logical order. I can use suitable vocabulary to communicate effectively with my audience. LIT 3-26a / LIT 4-26a

I am learning to use language and style in a way which engages and/or influences my reader. ENG 2-27a

I can engage and/or influence readers through my use of language, style and tone as appropriate to genre. ENG 3-27a / ENG 4-27a
I can persuade, argue, explore issues or express an opinion using relevant supporting detail and/or evidence. LIT 2-29a

I can persuade, argue, evaluate, explore issues or express an opinion using a clear line of thought, relevant supporting detail and/or evidence. LIT 3-29a

As I write for different purposes and readers, I can describe and share my experiences, expressing what they made me think about and how they made me feel. ENG 2-30a

Discussion was on going throughout the topic between teacher, learner and supporter. The writing was then redrafted as a result of this feedback. The project concluded with P.7 reading their final work to S1 via a glow meet.
The pieces of writing were of a very high standard and both teachers and pupils were delighted with the outcome of this project.
In this cookbook, we will find out:
• What the ‘Art into Words Glow Group looks like
• How to create a Glow Group and add members to the group from other establishments
• How to use the documents store and discussion forum to support AiFL

Ingredients

What did Claire and David need to create the elements of the Glow Group?

1. A Glow Group
2. Access to Glow Group for staff, P.7 and S1 pupils in the English class
3. Web cam with microphone and speakers

It was necessary to ensure staff had Administrator rights within the Glow Group to enable them to make changes to the Glow group and add members to the Group and the learners all has contributor rights to comment on the discussion board and upload work to the document store.

In the next section, we will take a look at the ‘Art into Words’ Glow Group and learn how to recreate elements within it.

Recipe

The video below shows the ‘Art Into Words Glow Group. The videos that then follow show how these elements can be recreated. Details are:

*What does the Art Into Words Glow Group look like?
Art into Words – A Primary/Secondary writing project to support AiFL

*How to add pages and change titles.
Art into Words – A Primary/Secondary writing project to support AiFL

*How to add membership within your own establishment to a Glow Group
Art into Words – A Primary/Secondary writing project to support AiFL

*How to add membership from another establishment to a Glow Group
Art into Words – A Primary/Secondary writing project to support AiFL

*Using Discussion Board for AiFL
Art into Words – A Primary/Secondary writing project to support AiFL

*How to organise content on a document store for a joint project
Art into Words – A Primary/Secondary writing project to support AiFL

*Success of AiFL Strategies
Art into Words – A Primary/Secondary writing project to support AiFL

Impact
The impact of using Glow to deliver communication to staff has been outstanding and recognised by HMIe on their visit to Holy Family PS and St. Ninian’s Secondary.
The ability to share the expertise of fellow professionals and learners has been purposeful and provided an excellent CPD opportunity.
The learners not only developed skills in Art, Art History and Literacy but also in communication and supporting each other. Through using Glow they have developed life long skills in the use of ICT to support learning.
*Impact of Project from Claire Reynolds P.7 teacher Holy Family PS
Art into Words – A Primary/Secondary writing project to support AiFL

Hear Sarah tell us more about this:

Sarah Burton: Why I use Glow 0:23
Peer Assessment within 2nd Level Literacy and Language

Context
The Glow Group for P6B in Harrysmuir Primary has been growing throughout the year. Sarah initially wanted to use the Group to share information with pupils, such as Homework tasks, or about activities that the class would be doing. She soon found though that she could make more use of the Group and the web parts available.

One area that Sarah chose to use Glow for, was facilitate peer review and assessment within the class’s literacy and language activities. She found that she was able to utilise a range of simple web parts within Glow to help support this.
In this cookbook, we will focus on how Sarah and the pupils in P6B use the Glow Group as part of their literacy and language learning. In separate cookbooks, you can see how the Glow Group is also used to support Numeracy and Social Studies and how Glow Meet has been used to develop literacy skills.

So, how was the Glow Group used to support these activities?
Sarah tells us a little bit about this:

Sarah Burton: Literacy and Numeracy pages 0:10
Peer Assessment within 2nd Level Literacy and Language

Let’s look now at the Literacy page within the Group to find out more.

How is the Literacy Page in the P6B Glow Group used?

There are a number of web parts within the Literacy page.

Announcements
The Announcements web part is used to share weekly targets with pupils. These are written in the form of ‘I can’ statements, to mirror Curriculum for Excellence outcomes. This gives pupils access to learning intentions, both in school and at home.

Document Stores
There are currently two Document stores on the Literacy page. As there were already other Document stores on other pages within the Glow Group, Sarah had to create the Literacy ones from scratch, to avoid having duplicates of any of the existing ones.

The Document Stores have been used to upload pupil work, which can then be peer-reviewed.

One of the Stores contains documents uploaded by pupils following a Modern Languages task they completed. The pupils had to design a German Board game for pupils in P2 and then write the instructions for the game in English in language that could be understood by the P2 children. This forced the P6 pupils to consider their audience and adjust their vocabulary accordingly, so enabling Sarah to address, amongst others, the 2nd level literacy across
learning outcomes

Lit 2-23a Throughout the writing process, I can check that my writing makes sense and meets its purpose.

Lit 2-26a By considering the type of text I am creating, I can select ideas and relevant information, organise these in an appropriate way for my purpose and use suitable vocabulary for my audience.

Lit 2-28a I can convey information, describe events, explain processes or combine ideas in different ways.

The other Document store contains Desert Island stories that the pupils wrote. This creative writing exercise was done as part of the pupils work on the 2nd Level Literacy and Language outcomes:

Lit 2-20a I enjoy creating texts of my choice and I regularly select subject, purpose, format and resources to suit the needs of my audience.
Lit 2-21a I can spell most of the words I need to communicate, using spelling rules, specialist vocabulary, self-correction techniques and a range of resources.

Lit 2-22a In both short and extended texts, I can use appropriate punctuation, vary my sentence structures and divide my work into paragraphs in a way that makes sense to my reader.

Lit 2-23a Throughout the writing process, I can check that my writing makes sense and meets its purpose.

Eng 2-27a I am learning to use language and style in a way which engages and/or influences my reader.

Discussion Board
As there are other Discussion Boards within the P6B Glow Group, Sarah had to create this one from scratch, to avoid having a duplicate of any of the other existing ones. The Discussion Board on the Literacy Page has been used by pupils to peer assess the Desert Island stories that they uploaded into the Document Store. They use ‘2 stars and a wish’ to comment on each others’ work.

Text Editor

There are a number of Text Editor web parts on the page. These have been used to upload photos of pupils taking part in a range of learning activities and serve as a form of evidence of pupil participation. They also allow pupils to have a visual reminder of topics they have been learning about previously, rather like an online wall display.

It must also be mentioned that the class’s literacy and language work is not confined to the Literacy page. Sarah embeds Literacy (and Numeracy) throughout all topic work, and examples of this can be seen throughout the pages in the Glow Group. There is a great deal of Literacy work within the Europe topic page and on the Norwegian penpals page, to name but two.

In this cookbook, we will look at
• The Literacy Page in the P6B Glow Group
• How to create an Announcements web part
• How to create a new Document Store
• How to create a new Discussion Board
• How to upload an image to the Text Editor web part

Ingredients

What did Sarah Burton need to do to design and create content on the Numeracy Page?
• A Glow Group at school level
• Add only all of the P6 pupils
• Rename and add pages
• Create an Announcements web part
• Create a Document library
• Create a Discussion Board
• Add text editor web parts to upload images

In the following videos, we will take a look at the P6B Glow Group and then find out how to replicate some of its structure and content.

What does the P6B Glow Group look like? 8:29
Peer Assessment within 2nd Level Literacy and Language
What is on the Literacy page? 2:23
Peer Assessment within 2nd Level Literacy and Language
How to edit and add pages in a Glow Group 3:08
Peer Assessment within 2nd Level Literacy and Language
How to create an Announcements web part 6:39
Peer Assessment within 2nd Level Literacy and Language
How to create a new Document store 5:36
Peer Assessment within 2nd Level Literacy and Language
How to create a new Discussion Board 7:02
Peer Assessment within 2nd Level Literacy and Language
How to upload an image into the Text Editor web part 8:49
Peer Assessment within 2nd Level Literacy and Language

Impact

The P6B Glow Group in general allows pupils to have a permanent record of the work they have been doing. They can access this from home and share their learning with their parents. Through the security of the Group, they can take part in collaborative activities and have a forum for sharing their work.
Hear Sarah tell us about this.

Sarah Burton: Home use and Parental comments 0:11
Peer Assessment within 2nd Level Literacy and Language

In addition, all staff have membership of the P6B Glow Group, enabling the sharing of ideas, resources and good practice. Since the Headteacher is also a member, she has been able to see the work that the children have been doing and has taken the opportunity to comment on it and praise them for their efforts.

Related cookbooks

There are currently three other cookbooks relating to other aspects of the P6B Glow Group in Harrysmuir Primary School.

Click on the link to view each one:

Developing literacy and presentation skills through use of Glow Meet

Incorporating principles of AifL into 2nd level Numeracy

Incorporating formative assessment and critical skills within 2nd level social studies