2. Introduction
I work in a large primary school within a deprived area of Swansea, it has over
300 children. Many have statements of educational needs or individual learning
education plans. I work mainly in upper key stage two, however I also take
children with additional educational needs for interventions to support their
education with literacy and numeracy. During the intervention time we use an
array of different approaches to enable the children to enhance their learning,
this includes a variety of technology available within the school.
The school has a computer suite with twenty desk tops, there are also two desk
tops in every class room for children to use. Within the classrooms there is an
interactive white board with a third computer dedicated to the teacher. Each
class teacher has an apple I-pad, with a further 25 I-pads for general use. The i-
pads are stored in the office and are booked out as required. There are a further
10 mini I-pads dedicated to the additional learning needs department.
My intention for this assignment is for the children to produce a leaflet to
advertise Welsh club to their peers. They will be able to design and reproduce
their leaflet. Engaging them in writing, improving their ICT skills, and developing
their oracy skills when explaining to the group and their peers about how they
produced their leaflet and about the club.
3. Learning Objectives
By the end of the activity I want the children to have
had a wonderful fun filled hour as this is an after
school club. However I would like them to be able to
use the leaflet maker on purple mash software
confidently and if needed in future use it
independently. By the end of the session be able to
design a leaflet and evaluate their work using a two
stars and a wish. To develop their oracy skills and
explain to the group about their leaflet and to adapt
their writing to advertise in a leaflet that is interesting
and aesthetically pleasing.
4. Class dynamics
There were fourteen children in the group that participated in the
activity. Due to time constraints in school it was easier to undertake the
activity during Welsh club which is after school. However this did pose a
problem when planning because of the different levels and ability
between the children. The children in the club range from reception to
year 6. To overcome this I firstly decided on an activity that could be
differentiated by outcome. All the children use purlpemash in school and
therefore have previous experience of the programme. I did however
help the younger children put their username and password into the
computer. To aid the process I put shortcuts onto the desk tops so non of
the children had to go looking for it on the internet. This was also
advantageous when I explained and reiterated the message on internet
safety. To help the children I produced a sample leaflet enabling them
to look at a finished piece of work, explaining what I wanted from the
activity. In my planning I used the document Key Stage 1 and 2 of the
national Curriculum in Wales (2008). This guided me to what the
curriculum required ensuring that the pieces of work could be used by
the class teacher if required. I was unable to put a level descriptor as
each child would be working at their own level. However, with regards to
the literacy and numeracy framework, each child could fit somewhere
depending on their level. The teacher could assess each piece of work
individually against the national curriculum level descriptors for
foundation phase and key stage 2. The school uses the software
programme INCERTs (2015) to assess the children in all areas of the
curriculum, including ICT. Their web sites states “Incerts is an independent,
non-profit organisation working to transform assessment practices.”
5. Lesson/activity outline
When planning the activity for my session I firstly had to be mindful of when I
could do the lesson without disrupting classes. I tried to initially do a session
with a specific year group, however this became very difficult as the ICT
suite is timetabled and used consistently throughout the day. When there
were slots available other sessions had been planned by class teachers and
it was not convenient to withdraw children for the activity. Therefor I
decided to do the lesson in club time when I knew the ICT suit would be
available.
Having a varied age group attending the club and different levels of ability,
I decided on an activity where each child could attempt and achieve at
the level they were in their year group and ability. I therefore chose purple
mash software, all the children in the school have been introduced to this
and have individual accounts. Purple Mash (2015) advertise on their web
page that the software “covers all core academic subjects and is National
Curriculum 2014 READY!” (p.3). This was of benefit as the lesson was
planned around the national curriculum and literacy and numeracy
framework (LNF).
6. From this I decided that the children could make leaflets to advertise welsh
club. The software has a prepared leaflet that allows the children to write
in, draw pictures and copy and paste pictures. Due to the flexibility of the
software it enabled all the children to be included and participate at their
level. In my lesson plan I have referred to the National Curriculum (2008)
document and the LNF (2014).
The children stated they loved making the leaflets and were eager to share
them with their peers. The activity enhanced their literacy skills as the
leaflets were done in English. It also developed their ICT skills, for the
younger children it introduced a leaflet and how they are set out. For the
older children they were encouraged to extend their vocabulary and also
be make the leaflet aesthetically pleasing. The children complemented the
activity by using a thesaurus and also their reading skills, firstly by looking
over and reading leaflets to get ideas for their leaflets, and secondly by
reading each others leaflets. Their oracy skills were developed by talking
and presenting the leaflets to the group. The final skill developed was
evaluating their work, reflecting on what they had produced. To develop
this skill the children used two stars and a wish.
7. Resources
The resources used for this assignment were the computers in the computer
suite and the purple mash programme. Purple mash is a unique software
which ,” enables children to explore and enhance their knowledge in a fun
and creative way.” Purple mash (2015) The software was bought in by the
school to enhance children's literacy and numeracy skills in a different and
varied way. The software is easy to use and can be used in school and at
home with each child having an individual username and password.
The resource is widely used within the school setting and homework is often
set through this medium. On this software the leaflet programme that I chose
enables the children to concentrate on their literacy skills and their ICT skills,
for example copying and pasting, finding pictures on the world wide web,
enlarging text and experimenting with different fonts. The software has a
template that the children are able to fill in. There are also text boxes and
picture boxes which only allow text or pictures. This has its disadvantages for
the more able children as they are restricted by the programme. If this had
been the case with any of the children in the group I would have directed
them to Microsoft Word or Publisher to extend their learning.
8. Session Plan – Key Stage 2
C1b
Name of trainee: Nicola Lockhart (p138848) Session ref:
Year group: reception-
year 6
No. of learners: 14 ALN: 0
Additional adults:
Learning objective(s):
WALT: To use leaflet maker on purple mash to create
an advertisement leaflet for welsh club.
Success criteria:
1. For each child to log on successfully to
purple mash.
2. For each child to find the leaflets to be
filled in, under the heading themes.
3. For each child to create a leaflet.
(depending on ability due to age range)
Links to previous learning: All the children attend welsh club and are aware of the activities during the
session. All the children have previously used purple mash.
Curriculum coverage (range, skills)
National Curriculum
Key stage 1
1. Children should be taught to generate and communicate their ideas in different forms, using text,
tables, pictures and sound as appropriate.
2. Enter and store information
Key stage 2
1. Use ICT equipment and software to communicate, share and exchange ideas and information in a
variety of forms, incorporating text, graphs, pictures and sound, as appropriate, showing sensitivity
to the needs of their audience.
LNF
1. Element: writing to create a document with organized ideas and information.
ICT Use of the computers and
the programme purple mash
Thinking How we are going to
set out the leaflet and make it
interesting for the reader.
ESDGC YCC: welsh orally during
session
Key vocabulary(English/Welsh):
Planning
9. Ti
m
e
Session activities, organisation and management
Key questions & Assessment for Learning opportunities
15
m
in
s
Introduction
1. Show the children where to find purple mash login.
2. The children login with their personal username and password, I have all this information.
3. I explain to the children how find the template for the leaflet and show them on the computer.
4. I explain to the children that I would like them to create a leaflet to advertise welsh club.
5. I explain they can use pictures, words or both.
1. Peer support, the older children show the younger
children.
2 Allow time for questions
3. The children use thumbs up or down to show
understanding.
1. Peer support the older children help the younger
children.
30
m
in
s
Main activities
1. The children login to purple mash, find the leaflet template and go onto designing.
2. The children use pictures on purple mash to help create the leaflet.
3. The children successfully print their leaflet.
15
m
in
Evaluation
1. Each child takes it in turn to show their completed leaflet.
2. Each child states orally their two stars and a wish to assess their own work.
3. Each child is assessed against national curriculum level indicators depending on key stage.
Planning continued
10. The Evaluation
The lesson was a very positive experience for me, I rarely take
the opportunity to do activities on the computers and the club
would normally play games in the hall or use the I-pads. The
children were very enthused when they found out they were
going to use the computers. My first concern was internet
safety. I therefore read the policy in the school on internet
safety. It states that children should be supervised when using
the internet, this was done throughout the session, with myself
putting the correct page up first, the children then only had to
enter their user name and password. This document will not be
referenced to ensure confidentiality. The document risk and
safety on the internet (2011) also discusses in great depth how
to keep children safe. With this in mind the children were
encouraged to stay on the purple mash site, however one or
two did want to get pictures from other sources, this I allowed
them to do with myself supervising them. The children explored
the leaflet maker and very quickly were proficient using it.
Questions were asked and a lot of peer support was used by
the younger children asking the older children. The peer support
was invaluable as many had used the program several times in
the past.
11. Primarily all the children had fun with the activity, however the learning that
occurred was substantial. All the children were reminded of internet safety
and the pros and cons of the internet, this is frequently reiterated to the
children. For some of the children this was the first time they had used this
software and that was their learning curve. The younger children had
never made a leaflet before and were able to experience this for the first
time. For the older children they were able to extend their knowledge of
the software, experimenting with the programme and enhancing their
learning and the product they produced at the end. Their literacy was
extended as before we started we explored vocabulary that we could use
in a leaflet and then extended this further with the use of a thesaurus. Many
of the children had not encountered a thesaurus before and had fun
looking up words and seeing other words they could use as an alternative.
All this learning was happening however the children appeared to be
unaware of the learning due to being on the computers. I observed that
they were enthusiastic about writing. One child who is a regular to Welsh
Club and has difficulty in writing in his book and finishing his work,
completed the task with enthusiasm. Fulton (2007)summarizes this saying
“Computers and all their associated paraphernalia makes the curriculum
more accessible for pupils who find learning difficult and also makes
learning richer” (p.73) My interventions throughout the session was minimal
as the children had fun exploring and finding out and also they were
supporting each other. My support was needed more when they thought
they had lost their work, they then learnt how to go back and retrieve their
work
12. The whole module has been an amazing time of learning for me.
My skills on word have improved, I have learned to blog and how
to use this mode of social media. The whole module can only
improve my teaching ability and enhance what I do with the
children. I am far more confident and am willing to try new things
using any medium of ICT. If I were to do the activity again I would
give the children the choice of what medium they used to make
their leaflets. I went for the option that I knew the best but after
doing this module on ICT, I would give the children different ICT
devices and programs, for example the iPads and the use of
publisher.
14. Reference List
DCELLS (2008), Key stage 1 and 2 of the National Curriculum for
Wales. Cardiff:WAG
DCELLS (2013), National Literacy and Numeracy Framework.
Cardiff : WAG
Fulton, D. (2007), Primary ICT for Teaching Assistants. Abingdon :
Routledge
Incerts (2015), “Assessment : The Next Generation”,(ONLINE -
http://www.incerts.org/) Accessed : 11/05/2015
Purple Mash (2015), “Raising standards through creativity”,
(ONLINE – http://www.2simple.com/purple-mash) Accessed :
06/05/2015
Livingstone, S., Haddon,L., Gorzig, A., and Olafsson, K., (2011), “
Risk and safety on the internet”, (ONLINE –
http://www.eukidsonline.net) Accessed : 09/04/2015
