In this case study teacher Fiona Hilton used ICT to develop creativity and independence in Yr 10 pupils and to focus attention on success criteria in French. She wanted to introduce pupils to new ways of learning: they were to focus on effective use of language to produce higher-level French within the context of creative project work. The aim was to “hand over” and enable pupils to accept responsibility for successful learning within an engaging and structured framework of creative collaborative project work with ICT. Over the course of the unit of work ICT was used to:
 |
Building for success
The end goal of the project was clear: pupils were to create presentations and work with audio or video to explore the topic of the environment. It was also important that pupils understood and applied the success criteria necessary for producing higher-level French at GCSE. The Internet was used to good effect for the purposes of exploring the topic and identifying useful topic-specific language and higher-level expressions. The interactive whiteboard was used to build pupils’ understanding of what makes for good French and how they might incorporate elements such as opinions, cognates and near-cognates into their work. Having established a clear dual focus, both topic-related and linguistic for their project work, pupils would be free to work creatively and collaboratively towards the end goal identified by the teacher.
View video |
 |
Freedom to succeed: creativity, collaboration and independence
Pupils were given the freedom to form their own groups and decide which aspect of the environment they wished to explore. They were responsible for all project planning and research for images and useful text. The teacher took an advisory, guiding role. Camcorders were used by some pupils, others included relevant images researched on the Internet and others took a different approach, using digital photos to exemplify issues, such as water pollution in Cornwall. Additionally, groups used audio to explore success criteria such as the use of tenses, or complex language. These audio resources, created with voice recorders and Audacity (free downloadable audio editing software) took the form of a radio broadcast and were to be placed on the school’s VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) for other pupils to access
View video |
 |
Evaluating for success
A key aim with this top set Yr10 group was to use the topic of the environment as a vehicle for drawing attention to the criteria which make for good French at GCSE in both oral and written work. Pupils aimed to meet as many of the success criteria as possible in their independent work. Having completed their projects, pupils reviewed with their teacher the success criteria for good quality French, and evaluated each other’s work in a teacher-led discussion, commenting on the ways in which the project and the focus on success criteria helped them improve their French. This clip shows a range of work produced by pupils, focusing both on the topic of the environment and successful use of French. While pupils are given great freedom when working independently, they are in fact operating within a structured framework and are aware of the need to meet certain objectives.
View video |
