2. A brief overview of the school’s technology - 260 children attend the school, with 143
children in the Infant department. In the infant department there are two interactive boards
that are non-moveable but are of a child friendly height. There are also two recently installed
smart boards that are located in the nursery and year one classrooms. The school recently
invested in 15 iPads that are rotated between classes. A school app was recently purchased
with remaining funds from the ICT budget, this has been very successful in keeping parents
up to date with school life. There are two computers in the area in which I work one based in
the classroom and the other in the playroom but at the moment they are not connected to
our new colour photocopier. Each member of teaching staff has a laptop that is used for PPA
and writing reports. There are also talking tins and a recording station that plays CDs and
cassette tapes. There is a digital camera for capturing class moments.
Your intentions for the activity - I intend to use an app on the iPad called Puppet Pals to
support learning for a Language lesson, the lesson is Oracy based with relevant learning
outcomes. I intend to carry out the lesson with twelve Reception aged children who are
currently working towards outcomes based on their attainment levels. The children are of
average and basic skill ability.
My role – I am employed as a Learning support assistant within the reception class that includes
7 year one pupils, working with children aged 4-6 years. Delivering focused activities to groups of
children that have been planned alongside the class teacher.
Introduction
3. What do you want the learners to achieve by the
end of the session/activity?
› Knowledge : Retell key parts of a fairy tale story
› Comprehension : Discuss and use appropriate dialect
› Application : Apply the skill using iPad’s
› Evaluation : Self assessment and Peer assessment
(what went well/not so well)
Learning Objectives
4. Group of 12 reception children
4-5 years olds
Foundation Phase
LNF/Bridgend County Borough skills ladders
Average and basic skills ability
Class dynamics
5. Introduce the story of Cinderella.
What happens during the story?
Can you retell some of the story with your talk
partner?
Can you use the Puppet Pals app on the iPad with
your partner to retell the story by choosing a
character and recording your conversation?
LNF/Bridgend County Borough skills ladders-
Language, Literacy and Communication
Lesson/activity outline
6. Cinderella Story
iPads
Puppet Pals App
Pictures of instructions
Resources
7. The BIG picture?
Differentiation A f L
R.McGill 2012 - @TeacherToolkit
Learning
Outcomes
jja
along the way….
Use words,
phrases
and simple
sentences
Re-tell key parts
of the story of
Cinderella
Outcome 03
Re-tell in simple form
the main parts of a
familiar or favourite
story.
Outcome 04
Retell own experiences
or stories in the order in
which the occur
LNF
Outcome 03 &
Outcome 04
Pupils
attainment
levels –
Average and
basic skills
Cinderella, Fairy Godmother, Prince
Charming, the ball, Glass slipper
Active
listening,
Group
discussion,
Individual
thinking,
Talk Partners
Previous
learning
experience
Initiate
conversations
about personal
experiences
Active listening –
Listen to the story of
Cinderella read by
the TA.
Group discussion –
discuss charcters
and the roles they
played in the story
of Cinderella.
Individual thinking & Talk
partners - Decide on
appropriate dialect
between the characters
from the story of
Cinderella. Pair work
encouraged.
Record conversations
using Puppet Pals on a
iPad and playback.
Watch and listen as a
group.
8. The Evaluation
As part of my Language, Literacy and Communication lesson plan I decided to
incorporate some aspects of ICT. The lesson was delivered to 12 reception pupils
with average and basic skills abilities. The activity outcomes were based on a LNF
statement for Oracy alongside smaller, enabling steps from Bridgend County
Borough skills ladders. The pupils learning intentions were differentiated into two
outcomes. Outcome (03) – retell in simple form the main parts of a familiar or
favorite stories, and Outcome (04) – Re-tell own experiences and stories broadly in
the order in which they occurred, including some detail. The main objective was to
listen to the traditional fairy tale story of Cinderella that linked to our theme of
‘Weddings’. Then with the aide of an ICT resource the pupils should then be able to
record themselves using similar dialect as the characters in the story, by controlling
the record and pause buttons then playing it back to listen. Galloway (2007) writes,
“Having thought about everyday technology, children can put control into practice,
perhaps by creating and playing back a voice recording”. (P.29)
9. The setting had recently invested in fifteen new Apple iPads for both the infant
and junior department to use collectively. I decided that as part of my main
lesson I would plan for the iPads to be used as one of the main resources.
However on the day of my lesson not all of the iPads were available to me, a
member of staff from the junior department informed me that some pupils had
not finished their work from the previous day and that they would still require
the iPads. After some negotiations between the teacher and myself it was
decided that I would be able to use four of the iPads. Although I was restricted
to how many iPads the pupils were able to access during the activity, I had
however, planned for an element of collaborative work during the main part of
the session. Thornwaite (2014) writes,
Having a small number of iPads works very smoothly for lessons that use
cooperative learning. With cooperative learning, students are set off into
groups, working collaboratively on assigned projects. (P.20)
10. The activity involved the pupils working in pairs re-telling key parts of the traditional
fairytale story of Cinderella that had been read to them earlier, through the use of an
app called Puppet Pals. The app is colorful, child friendly, and has been a hailed a
great success with the junior department when covering topics such as the Tudors.
As the pupils in my group were of a younger age (4-5 year olds) the important part of
using this app was making sure that the pupils were listening, whilst I demonstrated
what they would have to do. There were lots of instructions to remember as the pupils
accessed the different screens. To help with this I decided to photograph and print out
stills of each screen and with the help of the pupils at the beginning of the lesson
order them correctly on the board for them to use during the lesson if required. The
use of pair work and talk partners appeared positive with the pupils, and they had
great interest in the characters that they had selected. The pupils were able to reflect
on the characters and decide which part of the story they would want to portray,
dialect was sometimes negotiated with some conflicts of opinion on who should speak
first. These conflicts were resolved with intervention from myself, I encouraged the
pupils to reflect back on the key parts of the story. This then enabled the children to
decide on who should speak first, before the pupils finally began recording
themselves. There were no scripts and the pupils were encouraged to use expressive
language that related to key elements of the story of Cinderella. McKeown and
McGlashon (2012) write, “The joy of multimedia for many learners is that it does not
require good reading skills and it appeals to a range of learning styles”. (P.38).
11. The decision to use iPads during the Language lesson had come from assessments
during a previous learning experience. Assessment notes had allowed me to see
that the pupils were confident in using the iPads, and in particular the app sandraw
that had been used for a letter formation activity. It became apparent from the last
activity when I used the iPads most of the group had access to an iPad at home or
similar tablet device. Leask and Meadows (2000) write, “Many pupils also live in
homes which are rich in ICT, using computers, CD-ROMs and the Internet regulary
with the help of siblings and parents”. (P.5). The Puppet Pals app was a more
complex app compared to sandraw, with the children having to choose characters
and backdrops, making decisions themselves based purely on a fairytale story.
There were some errors made when it came to the children recording their voices.
Some of the children forgot to press the record button while others could not
remember what they wanted to say and needed a gentle reminder from their
partner. The children were able to scaffold each other during this period and if
further help or guidance was needed I was also there to support and encourage. As
a teaching assistant it was important that I had knowledge of the app prior to using it
with the pupils and that I had taken part in sufficient iPad training to be able to
support the pupils. A whole school iPad training session took place in November
2013, without this prior training I may have been apprehensive about using this
particular ICT resource. This, in turn would have affected my ability to deliver the
task effectively to my group. Thornwaite (2014) writes, “Within schools, whichever
scenario is being played out, adequate training for the involved educators is crucial”.
(P.22)
12. The iPads were a very good ICT resource to aide with the oracy lesson and it
appeared that the pupils were fully engaged in the process and I was able to establish
if outcomes were met or not. However, levels of noise in the classroom from other
children were present when the children played back their conversations, although this
was to be expected when working with a group of pupils. Whilst preparing the
resources for the activity, I knew immediately there would not be enough iPads for
everyone to use, so I decided to set up the interactive board for the remaining pupils
until iPads became available.
The pupils seem to enjoy using a package called 2simple when accessing the class
computer, so I decided to set up 2animate a storyboard animation package from the
program, on the interactive board. I demonstrated to the children first what they would
need to do, as this package was new to them. Then I asked the children to create
Cinderella, and to think about her emotions and facial expressions at the beginning of
the story compared with at the end. The children again worked in pairs and took it in
turns to alter every other frame using the coloring pens at the side of the screen.
13. However, some difficulties arose when using the mouse, some of pupils found it
difficult to control the mouse, with the curser on screen becoming lost on several
occasions and the picture envisioned has not been achieved. Fulton (2013) writes,
Children have difficulty controlling the mouse when using a painting program and
can become frustrated that the picture they are trying to draw does not appear as
intended. (P.21)
Notes of this were made in the pupils assessment file alongside the oracy
outcomes and it was later discussed with the class teacher. Although the learning
outcomes were oracy based, I was also able to assess the pupils on their ICT
competence, this then allowed for future planning for ICT to become integrated
more frequently into everyday lessons. Dcells (2008) state, “Children’s progression
in ICT capability should be observed with an understanding of child’s development
and the stages children move through”. (P.10). Dialect between the pupils was very
good and as a non-participant observer I was able to assess the pupils from the
language they were using while accessing 2animate. New skills had also been
acquired from using the ICT resource, by the end of the session the pupils were
creating their own animations. It has now become a popular choice of the pupils in
the reception class, with pupils from the group initially scaffolding others whilst
using it. Potter et al (2010) writes, “often the most successful technologies have
been add-on’s to the main classroom experience…some painting and drawing
packages”. (P.6)
14. References
Bennett, R. (2013) Learning ICT with English. London: David Fulton.
DCELLS (2008) Information and communication technology in Wales. Cardiff:
WAG.
Galloway, J. (2008) Primary ICT for teching assistants. Oxford: Routledge.
Leask, M and Meadows, J. (2012) Teaching and learning using ICT in the
Primary School. London: RoutledgeFalmer
McKeown, S and McGlashon, A. (2012) Brilliant ideas for using ICT in the
inclusive classroom. Oford: Routledge
Potter, J and Cranmer, S and Selwyn, N. (2010) Primary schools and ICT:
Learning from the pupil perspectives. London: Continuum.
Thornthwaite, C. (2014) Not a Toy, but a Tool: An Educators Guide for
understanding and using iPads. Plymouth: Rowman and Littlefield.
