In this case study teacher Gemma Fordyce used ICT to build confidence and improve writing skills with a Year 8 class, some of whom have learning or behavioural difficulties. Over the course of four lessons pupils:
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Lesson 1 - Whole-class teaching: using the interactive whiteboard to review daily routine and opinions
The goal of producing a comic strip for wall display was outlined to the pupils who were already familiar with one completed by another class and displayed on the wall. As the linguistic range of the pupils is quite restricted and the language of the topic can be somewhat repetitive a highly interactive approach to teaching and learning was adopted. Initially, actions, gestures and games were used to help pupils associate language with specific movements and thereby aid recall. The interactive whiteboard was used to create a series of activities which involved pupils fully and allowed the teacher to monitor progress for the whole class and for individuals. Finally, pupils responded to verbal stimuli from the teacher by writing their opinion in French on a mini whiteboard which they held up.
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Lesson 2 - In the ICT suite: consolidation and script writing.
In the ICT suite pupils consolidated language learnt with a series of interactive exercises created with authoring software Linguamate before progressing to a more challenging multiple-choice drop-down menu activity created in Word. Finally, they began writing the scripts for their stories using a grid template created in Word by the teacher and placed on the school network.
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Lesson 3 - Hands-on: creating models
Pupils next created their plasticine models to match the scripts for their comic strips. The teacher had printed several photos which could be used for backgrounds on which to place the models. Digital cameras, set at low resolution to reduce final file size, were then used by the pupils to photograph the models against their preferred backgrounds. The photos were placed on the school network by the teacher for pupils to download later and incorporate into their final comic strips.
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Lesson 4 - Editing, finalising and printing
The final stage of the project was for pupils to:
- edit their scripts;
- insert their pictures;
- add call-outs expressing opinions;
- save and print their work.
It was important that pupils worked as independently as possible and that weaker members of the class enjoyed adequate support and that all had the opportunity to extend their writing. To ensure that these goals were met pupils were guided to use the:
- spelling and grammar checks set to French in Word;
- translation function in Word;
- support sheet prepared by the teacher and placed on the network.
Pupils used the support sheet to extend their writing to include connectives and time phrases. Weaker pupils were able to copy and paste useful language.
Having edited their scripts pupils accessed their photos which had been placed on the network by the teacher. Pupils selected their photos and inserted them into their stories. Call-outs from the AutoShapes in Word’s Drawing toolbar were added and opinions typed in to give the final comic strip effect. Work was saved and printed.
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Summary
Gemma considers the advantages, challenges and potential of a comic script project. She feels that a project such as this:
- can be achieved with limited resources;
- is relatively easy to organise;
- can be undertaken by more advanced classes who can use more complex language;
- lends itself to more ambitious use of ICT to include animations or audio.
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