There are several other sites that offer the same or similar functionality. For simplicity, I would recommend worditout or ABCYA Word Clouds or tagcrowd.

Useful link here

Useful link here

Please share how you have used Wordle in the classroom to support writing. Was is motivational? Was there an impact? What worked well? Would you use it again? Would you do anything differently? What other areas could you use it? Were there any technical problems?

Click here to view or edit the pad in full

Alternatively, view or edit below:

Each post will contain details about how to use one tool. Members of the development group will then plan to use the tool in their classroom and feedback information about how they used it, whether they can see potential for the tool to help enhance writing development, any pitfalls etc. This will primarily take place through a Primarypad ‘pad’ viewable on the same post and be available for anyone to view. All project posts are viewable by clicking the ‘ICT & Writing’ link on the right.

I hope that others outside the school who have used any of the tools before will contribute and each pad will become a rich resource for teachers to develop their use of web 2.0 technologies and children’s writing.

I’ve been trying to work out the most efficient and effective system in using APP for personalised assessment. Previously to this, I have selected 6 children for Maths, Reading and Writing and gathered evidence for them on a termly basis. This has worked fairly well, particularly for Literacy. With Reading, I have then filled out an individual grid for each child in the class which has really helped me track gaps and decide on next steps. I have wanted to use a system that would also work on an individual basis for Writing and particularly Maths as I have found the APP grids for it to be a little less easy to access than the Literacy grids.

I will still gather evidence for 6 pupils but instead of filling out the paper grids half termly then not doing an awful lot with them until the next half term, I will update my assessments for those pupils into a spreadsheet at the end of each Literacy or Maths unit. After this, in the same spreadsheet, I will assess the other members of the class. This will allow me to monitor progress and reflect on the best way to move children on all from one location. I won’t need to thumb through 30 grids and work out where there are correlating gaps or next steps to develop as a group, I can simply sort the spreadsheet by the APP statement within a level.

In short, I want APP to play a crucial role in setting next steps rather than being used purely as a summative assessment. I have made the Google spreadsheets copiable so if this is something you think might help in your classroom, please make a copy by clicking the links below and they will appear in your Google Docs list. Simply add a ‘1′ into any cell where that child has achieved that APP statement. The cell will then turn green allowing you to easily spot gaps or you could sort the column. I don’t know how manageable it will be yet but I believe that the extra effort will be worth it!

Reading APP Spreadsheet

Writing APP Spreadsheet

Maths APP Spreadsheet

By the end of our Creating Images Literacy Unit, the first core element of our Digital Media Theme, the children had created their own ‘hit singles’ complete with CD Covers.

As part of this process they established their own band identities by creating a shared logo.

By focusing on teamwork and leadership skills, despite minor ‘creative differences’, all the groups overcame any disagreements they had. They then had the opportunity for their band  to ‘play live’ and identify skills they would need to be successful. We used Wii Music for this and the children identified skills such as listening, timing, rhythm, teamwork and empathy. The last of these was important and we discussed the ‘ohhhh Brriiiiiaaaaaannn’ problem when poor ‘Brian’ made a mistake, talking through how he felt and what the rest of the band could have done to help him more rather than criticise him. To their credit, the class realized very quicky how they could have been in ‘Brian’s’ position and that working together and supporting each other was the only way to succeed. This ethos was then carried forward for the rest of the theme.

It was then time to switch our focus to the Year 4 Persuasive Texts unit. We started the unit looking at the main features of persuasive texts, focusing on posters and persuasive letters. The children identified what persuaded them and discussed why, creating a list of persuasive features. We discussed the bigger picture (they would be writing to record companies to sign their band, writing to their fans to persuade them to buy their single, creating posters advertising their gigs, creating a TV advert with a voice over). Many ideas came from this fantastic post on the Consolarium website.

To develop my own teaching, I am really trying to build significant Talk for Writing opportunities and deeper peer assessment into the children’s learning at the moment as they clearly make the learning process more overt. For example, the children created their own pitches persuading a record company to sign them. They performed these in front of the class and evaluated them. Subsequently, they went off in pairs to underline clauses and words that persuaded them. They then used the shared success criteria, on display throughout the theme, to discuss and write a positive comment and next steps on each other’s work. There is a great blog post here by Tom Barrett explaining how he has used Voicethread to develop peer assessment.

Recently I have also looked at how to further support target development. I have modified how I mark writing so that in the margin, if a child attempts to add in what their target is (e.g. dropping in a clause) they put a ‘T’. I will then put a circle, triangle or square around it like a traffic light, telling them if they have used it correctly. I have always encouraged the children to use the same system to self assess each peice of work they do against the lesson’s success criteria and I do the same next to theirs which they can use to evaluate the accuracy of their self assessment. I think it’s important to separate effort and attainment during feedback so I put a number inside the circle, triangle or square which indicates their effort level and is linked to a class reward system.

Another element of the theme was to create band t-shirts (art printing skills). This was clearly a highlight for the children and if I do the theme again I will definitely increase the amount of opportunities for Art and also Geography as these will give more balance to the Literacy heavy theme.

Finally, we slipped in few days at the end of the theme to create Narnia film trailers (which was at the expense of their band promo films) it worked really well last year so I thought it would be a great way of assessing their persuasion and ICT skills. We will be making the long trip over to Bradford to the National Media Museum in a week’s time, participating in a TV advertising workshop. I’d recommend it hugely, the children and parents from last year absolutely loved it and several have taken their children back there since.

I’d love to hear people’s opinions on the Digital Media theme as well peer assessment, target development and anything AFL focused that you think is worth sharing!

The idea started off last year when I thought that it would be really interesting to explore the ‘Creating Images’ unit through music and song writers rather than traditional authors of poetry. Children could record their songs/poems, add background music and print onto paper to create CD covers. Persuasive texts would then follow on, approached as the framework guidance suggests, by creating a film trailer.  This was taken a little further, splicing up the film version of our class novel at the time, ‘The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe’, getting children to add titles, music and order the spliced clips for effect on the viewer in Windows Movie Maker. The theme was finished off with a bang when we visited the fantastic National Media Museum in Bradford, which included a workshop working with a professional producer to create their own advert.

That was last year… I obviously wanted to improve on what was started then so in anticipation over Christmas I asked the mighty voice of twitter for band and film suggestions. Particular thanks to @missbrownsword who suggested Hawkmoon 269 by U2 as a great source of similes, which led us to focusing mainly on U2 songs during Creating Images. Whilst in the middle of that process it clicked that the whole theme could be music focused rather than just the Creating Images section; the children could be part of a band, which would mean it would need advertising, persuasive TV adverts to buy their album, T-Shirts with prints on etc. Just after, I came across work using Guitar Hero on the inspirational consolarium website and thought I could ’steal’ quite a few of the ideas there and apply them to a Year 4 Writing context. For example, a rock star blog, advertising a concert, creating a music video and use of Guitar Hero and Wii Music to give the children first hand experience of the tension, excitement and thrill of being in a band, which would then inform their ideas and writing quality.

I’m writing this one full week into the theme (thanks to the snow!). We’ve gone into depth looking at song writer’s word choices and imagery in the following songs:

• Hawkmoon 269, Vertigo, With or without you and elevation by U2
• Quick Fade by Feeder
• Bridge over troubled water by Simon and Garfunkel
• Candle in the wind by Elton John
• Bullet with butterfly wings by The Smashing Pumpkins
• Wonderful by Everclear

This was then followed by examining instrumental songs with a particularly strong emotion. At this point children began planning for their own songs/poems, choosing an emotion to focus on. They worked as a group, listening to the instruments and mapped out possible adjectives, adverbs, well chosen verbs, times where they have felt that emotion strongly, similes and metaphors. I was surprised at how much more motivated they were in carrying this out compared to analysing the previous songs, although I don’t think they would have been had they not had the time spent previous on the other songs. I was extremely impressed with the range and quality of imagery used, particularly by the lower attaining children. I’d given them exactly the same task but the only difference compared with the higher attaining children was the quantity, not the quality of their ideas. Here are the instrumentals used:

• El Distorto de Melodica by Everclear (anger)
• Rise by Craig Armstrong (anticipation)
• Spybreak by Propellerheads (excitement)
• Mellon Collie and the Infinate Sadness by The Smashing Pumpkins (Melancholy)
• In a Heartbeat by John Murphy (Moody)
• A random chillout tune (Relaxed)
• Balcony Scene by Craig Armstrong (Sad)

During the week I carried out guided writing with each group, developing their understanding and skills of how to create similes for effect and on Friday, after the build up all week, we finally got to create the first drafts of our songs/poems.

I was a little concerned about the images the children might use to create effective similes / metaphors, as I wanted them to draw on emotional extremes. Reading their first drafts, there are certainly images which fit that bill, such as referring to ‘when someone died’. However, after discussing this image with the child, they said they were talking about someone not being there anymore, not actually dying. I think the quality of writing in their first draft, which was far higher than normal, validates the week’s work. It will be interesting next week to see how they go about explaining the images they have used, i.e. how much thought was put into the images, were they selected for purpose or was it a stream of conciousness?

Here are lines and complete first drafts from each member of the class. The only thing I’ve altered is the spelling. I’d be really interested to hear other peoples comments:

She felt like her blood was shaking.

Butterfly surfing, they surf thousands of miles to the end of earth.

I was a dark night, I felt like a tornado was crossing my heart like a spinning top.

I’m just a normal mammal but people treat me like I’m a miniature bug.

It’s just like the lightning outside when you don’t want to be there.

I felt like a ghost was going to scrape its claws right on my spine.

I heard you go down to rock and roll heaven.

Each step I walked felt like I was fainting slowly.

You turn into rockets flying like a spaceship.

The desert was so hot I could barely walk.

There is a ghost about to scare you, like a memory.

It started to turn into a vicious fight, like a caged tiger.

Like a shining star above my head, sparkling down from heaven.

In the darkness of my dream, the stalker took my happiness and replaced it with darkness.

His teeth were as sharp as a knife.

My eyes flash red and I’m out of control.

A shark was coming at me like an erupting volcano.

Happiness is like a new born baby has just arrived to you.

When I go sledding at the pit, I feel like I am riding on happiness.

Rain Drops
Alone in the dark
The moonlight above me
Nobody around
Stars are shining.

When you died in the countryside
The waves are fading, the fish swimming with them.
My tears were my heart
You just went without me watching you.

My heart beat was like raindrops dripping from the sky.
Rain drops dripping
Rain drops dripping
Rain drops dripping from the bright blue sky.

You’re like a candle flame
You’re like a candle flame

We were walking smoothly with the bright moon in the sky.

But You Were Always There For Me
The moonlight above me,
When the stars are in the sky,
My tears are my heart,
When the candles are lit,
And the waves have faded away.

But you were always there for me,
When I looked down,
When I looked up,
When I looked to the sides,
When I looked everywhere you were always there for me.

When you disappeared it was like
My heart was cut so I cried and cried
And it never went away when you want,
It was like a mouse
Trying to escape.

But you were always there for me,
When I looked down,
When I looked up,
When I looked to the sides,
When I looked everywhere you were always there for me.

The waves came up
And the stars went down
And the candle went out
My head was like a bomb shooting down to earth.

But you were always there for me,
When I looked down,
When I looked up,
When I looked to the sides,
When I looked everywhere you were always there for me.

When the sun shone brightly,
When the river splashed quietly,
The cat meowed loudly,
The dog barked slowly,

You were always there for me.

Happiness
I’m like a bird gliding in the pool,
I’m like a bright star drifting in the sky,
I’m like a flower waving in the air,
I’m like a necklace dangling on your chest,
I’m like a plane floating in the air,
I’m like a bobble holding up your hair,
I’m like a helper helping you to work and
I’m like a friend with you all the time.

I like a smile,
I like a laugh,
I like a sleep,
I like a rest.

Swirl World
I’m Outside my house smiling excitedly,
Like a dolphin swimming gracefully under the sea,
I find a lake and ride on the beautiful dolphin,
It keeps spinning round and round,
It’s like i’m in swirl world.

I feel the waves splashing on me,
Everywhere I go I keep seeing swirls,
Even in the sky,
I’m definitely in swirl world.

But then the dolphin goes under the sea,
I have to hold my breath,
The dolphin goes into a cave,
But still I see swirls,
Even inside the cave,
I’m still in swirl world.

Knock Out
There in the white moonlight,
My match was lost,
The blood in my body
Bails like an erupting red volcano

On a curb,
The building lamp post shot powerful rage,
Into me,
Like a roaring fire.

My match was lit brightly,
My heart beats like a terrifying lion roar.

Blocked Out
I’m sitting in a chair,
A ghostly shadow scampered past
Whimpering it paused suddenly,
All the lights blew out.

I’m trapped I can’t get out
I can’t breathe
My body is boiling with rage
I explode like a rocket.

I found a loose brick behind a famous picture
I crawled through,
It ended in the millionaire queen’s dining room,
She did not know, it was like she could not see me.

During the week we also created CD Covers together using a Photoshop Elements template. We imported appropriate images to convey the emotion of the song, developed our understanding of layers, added song titles and exported our final designs as jpegs to be uploaded and discussed on our learning platform, Studywiz. I had planned to use effects to further enhance the images rather than just lift them from the internet but we ran out of time. Here are a few of their covers:

I know I started the wrong way round in looking at things (I should have started with what the children needed to learn rather than what tech shall I use) but come on, it’s not every day you get a snow day! I decided not to use the inbuilt chat in our learning platform, Studywiz, as I wanted to be able to try and use some of the same teaching strategies that I use on a day to day basis to see if they will transfer online. In particular, modelling the writing process through shared writing. I therefore needed a tool that would allow drawing and writing to be seen and used at the same time as audio and chat. For this purpose I decided to give Twiddla its first ever ‘work out’. Currently, you can register for educational use on the site and get a pro account for free, details at the bottom of this page.

So, I embedded a Twiddla meeting into a Studywiz discussion activity so that after all the fancy real time stuff they would be able to create their descriptive writing and post it onto the discussion. The lesson had to be very generic as I was opening it to anyone from year 1 to 6. I therefore planned to start by get them to share some descriptive language about an image then move on to discussing an existing text, shared write the start of a new one before they created their own.

So, how did it go? I’m going to keep it brief as you can click here for a replay of the lesson (starts at about 350) and there is an image of the #snowlesson twitter hash tag I used to keep track of my thoughts at the bottom of the page.

The collaboration they carried out in the chat was great, and i’m sure adding to the image and annotating at the same time was motivating for them. As for the shared writing, I had issues with audio (i.e. I couldn’t get it working!) so I could only use the chat. It was therefore pretty difficult to get the shared write going – I had to give up in the end as some other users could still see the image which was obscuring their view of the writing. However, if their had been no technical hitches then I think the shared write would have worked really really well with audio. It almost makes more sense than in a standard class setting. With all pupils able to comment and discuss in the chat the writing process that was illustrating, whilst it was occurring, it would certainly make it more overt. Finally, it is worth mentioning that this method also encourages Talk for Writing and AFL through deep questioning and peer reviews.

Here is a couple of amalgamated screen shots of the lesson mid flow – mixed with the first few replies in the discussion:

Here is a snapshot of the #snowlesson twitter hash tag. Alternatively, Click here for the latest.

Instead, as I am incredibly passionate about music i’ve decided to list what I humbly believe to be the greatest songs of the decade. I don’t expect anyone to agree, particularly as I’ve been told on more than one occasion that I have slightly alternative taste in music! However I hope by posting this at least one person discovers a great song or band that they hadn’t heard of before.

Restrictions:

• I have only included songs in my own music collection.
• I have tried to be as impartial as possible, distancing myself from any emotional attachments that may sway me (although detachment kind of defeats the point of music!)
• Only original songs are included, no covers.
• Only one song per artist can be included.

10 Live – Heaven

9 Everclear – Blackjack

8 Smashing Pumpkins – Tarantula

7 The Prodigy – Omen

6 The Killers – All These Things That I`ve Done

5 Black Car – Asleep at the wheel

4 Muse – Knights of Cydonia

3 Enjoy Destroy – Lobby Pianist or link for whole song if you have Spotify installed

2 Fightstar – Mono

1 Feeder – Buck Rogers

]]> http://primarypete.net/top-10-songs-of-the-decade/feed 1