Activity: How I Spent the Christmas Holidays

Target Group: First and/or Second Class

Prepare oral reports on children's Christmas holidays to be delivered using VC between paired schools. The project should be completed by end of January.

Alternative Topics: About a book I read during Christmas. . .

About a film I saw during Christmas. . . .

Changes we'll see in 1999
 

Objectives:

Technology Implementation
 

To familiarise the class teacher with the use video-conferencing (VC) equipment

To familiarise pupils with the operation of VC equipment

Curriculum Implementation (Language and Communication)

To enable children to plan and deliver a short oral report about themselves

To enable children to listen attentively to oral reports being delivered by others

To enable children to respond to an oral report by asking appropriate follow-up questions

To enable children to contrast their own experiences and views with those of pupils in a different class/school

To enable children to reflect on some qualities of an effective oral presentation

To increase children's vocabulary

Resource Development

To document the benefits of the activity

To document any difficulties that arose during the activity

To share any worksheets or other materials that were useful

To provide suggestions to other teachers for managing the activity effectively

School-based IT-Co-ordinators' Role
 

To select a first or second class to participate in the activity (a teacher who has not used VC equipment before might be invited to participate)

To liaise with twin school on selection of topic and day and time of link up.

To assist with the setting up of video-conferencing equipment

To encourage other teachers at the first/second class levels to try out the activity.

To assist with the completion of an activity evaluation sheet.

Class Teacher's Role

To assist pupils in preparing oral reports. This could entail discussion about the topic, the preparation of brief written notes, and practice in delivering oral reports.

To select a small number of pupils (perhaps 3-4) to present their oral reports using the VC equipment. Children of differing abilities should be selected to present.

To encourage children to follow up oral reports by asking the presenter questions that seek clarification or ask for more information. A small number of pupils should be selected in advance to do this.

To complete an activity evaluation sheet.

Suggestions:

Communication with twinned school should be by e-mail

It may be useful for class teachers to develop a worksheet to assist pupils in organising their ideas (an example is provided below).

It may be helpful to follow up the oral language/reporting activity with an appropriate reading or writing activity

My Christmas Holidays  
 

The best part of my Christmas holidays was when ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________
 

One of the things I did everyday during Christmas was

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________
 

A funny thing that happened during Christmas was when

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________
 

The best television programme I watched during Christmas was

___________________________________________________________________
 

I liked this programme because _________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________
 

I liked going back to school after the holidays because

_________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________
 

1. What class level(s) do you teach?
 
First Class ___   Second Class ____
 
 
2. What topic was selected for the activity? _________________________

3. How many pupils in your class prepared and presented reports on this topic in          preparation for the video-conferencing activity?
 

Boys: _____     Girls: _____
  4. How many pupils in your class presented their reports via video-conference?
  Boys:_____  Girls: _____
  5. Please indicate your view on the extent to which the following objectives were achieved by pupils in your class, using the following scale:   (1) strongly agree
(2) agree
(3) disagree
(4) strongly disagree

6. Please list any other benefits for you or your pupils that arose from the VC activity:

____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________
 
 
 
7.  Please list any difficulties that arose in implementing the VC activity:

___________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________
 
 
8. How could the VC activity be modified and/or improved to achieve the pupil objectives more effectively?

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________
 
 
9. How often do you use computers in your teaching?

6. Almost every day
7. Once or twice a week
8. Once or twice a month
9. Hardly ever/never
10. Would you use VC technology again in presenting an activity like this? Yes ____  No ___
  11. Comments
 
_____________________________________________________________