TEACHING & LEARNING
Audacity
The Silent Teacher
Here are a few tried and tested ideas from the ICT department. The ideas discussed have been observed in lesson observations and all resources have also been added for your use.
For my last observation I attempted a "silent teacher" lesson. So from the moment the kids saw me in minute 1 of the lesson all the way up until they left the room I didn’t say a single word.
The pupils were immediately intrigued as to why this was happening and I knew I had their complete attention. Delivering the theory section of the lesson was actually not too much trouble as I signalled for one of the more "extroverted" member of the class to read from the Powerpoint on the board. If a pupil had a question then I would open it up to the rest of the class, luckily the couple of times this happened there was another pupil who managed to provide a sufficient answer - but I could always have set this as an extension task if need be.
While pupils were working I circulated around the room with an ipad that already had a range of questions divided into different levels appropriate for the class.
The lesson required lots of intensive planning and probably could only be performed very rarely due to the gimmick wearing off fast, but as a standalone lesson it can tick many boxes and is most definitely "pupil-led"!
By Dan Evans
I was introducing a lower ability year 7 class to Audacity in order to create a radio jingle. The main focus of the lesson was independent learning to make sure students would retain the information learned. For an entry ticket students had to attempt questions on Audacity to gauge previous knowledge this was also used as an exit ticket to see what progression had been made. During the lesson I enforced 3B4ME if students were still struggling I directed them to hint sheets to try and guide them. If they were still struggling then I had help sheet resources set-up to show them the specific techniques to complete the section they were struggling with. This created a real buzz of excitement in the class and every student was working really hard. Here are some of the resources I used within this lesson.
By Darren Cooper