This
book of materials has been developed by teachers in response to specific needs, identified
by teachers themselves. The teachers wanted ideas for:
- integrating Literacy, Numeracy and ICT in the primary classroom;
- developing the control strand of the IT National Curriculum which is currently poorly covered in many primary schools;
- making effective use of Internet and email throughout the curriculum to enhance teaching and learning.
The book contains 24
distinct activities, each of which is clearly and attractively presented in full colour on
a double page spread. The wide ranging nature of these activities (they cover Reception up
to Year 9) means that the book is likely to be of particular interest as a source book for
ICT coordinators who are developing schemes of work for their schools. Subjects covered
are the use of floor turtles and screen logo, datalogging, databases, multimedia
authoring, email, creating web pages and using the Internet for research. All the
activities make use of generic software and should thus be accessible by any school (two
of them use Microworlds 'Geoboards' - logo based activities which can be downloaded free
of charge from the LCSI website www.microworlds.com/library/math/index.html).
Copious illustration makes the book very 'browsable' and the page layout makes it easy to understand each activity at a glance with headings such as: Context (Pupils' prior experience); Task Description; Learning Intentions; Teaching Approach; Links with other curriculum areas; and Form of Assessment.
Examples of pupils' work and teacher evaluations are shown and I particularly like the teachers' assessment (with reasons) of the levels of attainment shown by pupils in some of the activities. This should be helpful for whole school training sessions on leveling.
At the back of the book are a number of proformas for activity planning, assessment and evaluation. There are also some Computer Diaries for children to complete (a separate one for KS1, 2 and 3). All of these materials can be freely copied for school use and are also available in electronic form from the Lewisham ICT Centre website: www.lewisham-pdc.org.uk.
This is a useful and attractive resource book. Congratulations to the team of classroom teachers, ICT coordinators and advisory teachers who produced it.