exemplar activities

Unit 1 Activity 2 - Making books for pupils - Exemplar 1

Introduction

I teach a group of 8 K/S 3 pupils (6 SLD & 2 MLD). Four pupils in the class are beginning to read and write independently but the others rely heavily on pictures and visual clues to make sense of text. All of the pupils have problems with organisational skills.

Our work in Literacy

Our focus in Literacy for this term is the use of instructions. By the end of the term I would like the pupils to be more aware of the structural features of instructions and to be able to follow a sequence of steps to produce a simple snack independently. In order to assist them in this task I decided to create and print books containing photographs of the pupils involved in the steps needed to make a mousse, a cup a soup and a jelly.

Making the books

Listed below are the steps I took to produce the books.

1. Improve my own skills and knowledge so that I could

• use the school's new digital camera
• transfer photographs on to a computer
• insert photographs into a document
• enlarge / reduce / crop photographs as required

I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I acquired these new skills (a couple hours playing around at home!).

2. Take photographs of the pupils engaged in each stage of the making process for the snacks.

3. Download the photographs on to the computer and insert into a word document where I could then add text. At present we are unable to insert photographs into our WWS programme. I therefore had to print out symbol enhanced text, print the photographs separately and then resort to a Pritt stick to produce the end result. (An update for WWS is currently on order). I have enclosed a scanned copy of a page to show this work.

4. Laminate and spiral bind to produce good quality durable books.

Using the books with the pupils

• We began by looking at the books together. The pupils were keen to spot themselves which was a good motivating factor. The photographs were clear and all pupils were able to say what was happening in each picture.
• I then split the pupils into small groups, gave each group a book and asked them to follow the steps to make the snack. Most groups were able to work quite independently - especially the early readers. The less able group were given the symbol enhanced text but still needed a lot of verbal prompting. They did not seem to appreciate the need to turn the page but the other groups were fine with this.
• When the snacks were completed each group then attempted to recount the steps they had taken in the correct order. The other pupils checked the order by following through the relevant book. They were encouraged to prompt each other when mistakes were made.

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages

• Photographs proved highly motivating / good memory jogger.
• Made a recipe more accessible to the pupils.
• Helped to increase independence.
• Relatively quick and easy to make. (I got a little quicker with each book!)
• Pupils are beginning to notice sequential instructions in published recipe books - I feel that the home made books helped with this.

Disadvantages

• Producing the books (i.e. taking the photographs) tended to distract from the lesson in hand.

The next step

• Encourage regular use of these books in order to increase independence skills.
• Involve the pupils in taking the photographs themselves and producing their own book following the same model. I intend to try this work when making a fruit salad.
• Familiarise myself with the updated WWS programme so that I can insert photographs.

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