Primary - helping capable readers

Activity One – Give Them Responsibility

One of the key complaints from strong readers is that they know how to read and find reading to themselves or to the teacher or parent quite boring. To overcome this you need to give them different challenges and you can do this by identifying opportunities for reading to different audiences. We identified several ways they could do this.

Recitals

We often have music recitals for parents called ‘Tea Time Concerts’ where the members of the school choir or those taking music lessons can play to their parents. We decided to set up a reading recital for our stronger readers. They were asked to choose a chapter of a favourite book and practice reading it aloud for expression, pace and accuracy. They then had to prepare a synopsis of the book and an account of the events that led up to the chapter they were going to read. In the first one hour recital we organised, we had twelve pupils take part and the feedback from the parents was excellent. The pupils found it a little unnerving but loved the experience and we now hold recitals every half term.

Examinations

Drama organisations such as LAMDA operate exams in reciting poetry and prose from nursery and reception right up to age sixteen. There is often a set syllabus the children can choose from and they have to practise, ready to perform in front of an external examiner. Successful children earn certificates they can be proud of.

Reading in Church or at Assemblies

Our school has links with the local church and we have services for the pupils and parents there three times a year, once at the start of the school year, once at Christmas and once for leavers. At each of these there’s an opportunity for children to read a prayer or to read a lesson from the bible. Strong readers who need challenge can be asked to do this. Less confident ones could be asked to read a passage or prayer in assemblies.

Activity Two – Newsround

Readers need practice at different styles for different audiences and situations and this activity helps.
Ask the children to watch an episode of Newsround or another TV news program and to listen to the tone of voice and expression of the newsreader. They should notice a difference when the newsreader is telling about news where deaths or injuries have occurred, where the news is serious but no harm has taken place, sports reports where a team or sportsman has won or lost or a fun item of news.

For a little bit of practice with sports news we listened to the reading of the football scores recorded from a Saturday ‘Final Score’ program and found that we could predict the result from the sound of the reader’s voice.

Now ask the children to research and prepare a news report on a serious issue, either in school, in their town, nationally or internationally and read it to the class sat at a ‘news desk’. You should record their efforts and can even put together a ‘newsreel’ by linking a news program introduction from YouTube with their video using Windows Live Movie Maker. If you need to convert files, they’re easy using the free service www.zamzar.com whilst to make it more life-like you can also use a free, easy to use teleprompter at www.cueprompter.com.

Now you can play the news clips back to the class and evaluate them.

Activity Three – Reading With a Difference

There are lots of other forms of reading to help add variety to children’s reading, try some of these:

Reading classics

Many classic authors wrote books or stories that are accessible to better readers. Not only will they get the chance to read stories written in a different era with subtle and not so subtle differences in style, language and content but they’ll also have the knowledge that they have enjoyed books read by countless children over the years. Good examples are Moonfleet by J Meade Faulkner, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and Black Beauty by Anna Sewell.

Other forms of reading

Try getting some magazines and newspapers into school such as the National Geographic Kids, First News, football or music magazines so the children can see that reading isn’t confined to the book and that some forms can be throwaway or in instalments. You can also try instructions reading, asking the child to explain how something is done in their own words having got to grips with a set of instructions. You can use this is cookery lessons asking them to follow a recipe, in science carrying out a procedure for an experiment, or in sport to explain the rules of a new game.


Dave Lewis
Primary teacher

Secondary Business - A Level AQA Pre-release task

Mergers & Takeovers - AQA Pre-release research task

Download the pre-released task here, for the June 2012 and January 2013 Unit 4 paper:
http://store.aqa.org.uk/qual/gce/pdf/AQA-BUSS4PM-W-QP-JUN12-JAN13.PDF

The unit 4 exam is based on a pre-release case study and it is always a challenge to get student involved, one of the ways I have found is good to get the student involved is to ask them to complete some research in groups - see the template below - and then for them to complete an essay question reinforcing the research they have just completed. I ask my students to complete the boxes with as much detail as possible - which is easy for them to understand, many students have never competed research activities before and tend to cut and paste everything they find - I try to encourage them to read the information and be selective about what is needed.

This doesn’t always have to be in timed conditions this can be to plan in groups and share their ideas? There is a planning sheet attached below to help student focus on theory structure- which has been taken & adapted from www.tutor2u.net

This makes for an excellent double/2 hour lesson and they should then go away feeling confident with that bullet point. This can then be repeated for each of the 6 bullet points.

Also another excellent source of information is –

• http://www.tutor2u.net/blog/index.php/business-studies/C634 who have a dedicated section and ‘news’ feed set up to support the pre-release - which is something that I always ask my students to sign up to. This is something that is updated on a daily basis and is great for both teachers and students to gain information for the pre-release.
  
  

• Another idea in the department was for me to use  a departmental ‘Twitter’ account to send information to students about mergers & takeovers, this is a new concept for us to use – but is something that as a college which seems to becoming more popular with students as this goes direct to their smartphones. 

Research for bullet point 6 - The reasons why governments might support or intervene in takeovers and mergers

Using the links I have provided, complete the table below:

Identify one	Takeover	Merger
Name the businesses involved
What were the details of the merger/takeover?
Who are the competition commission?
Why did the government get involved?
What actions did they take?
Were any other stakeholders involved?
In your opinion is it right for the government to intervene?

Extension question – To what extent should the government support business takeover & mergers?


Links
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2010/04/not_a_cadbury_law_a_utility_ta.html


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/11/british-media-scrambles-prevent-murdoch-takeover-sky-broadcasting/


http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-06-30/entertainment/30081458_1_british-sky-broadcasting-rupert-murdoch-phone-hacking-scandal


http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jun/30/rupert-murdoch-bskyb-takeover-price


http://retailtimes.co.uk/acs-calls-for-oft-to-stop-tesco-and-mills-merger/


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9015340/Competition-concerns-cast-doubt-over-Morrisons-bid-to-buy-Iceland.html


http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/300218/20120217/cisco-appeals-against-microsoft-s-takeover-skype.htm


http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/


http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/media-centre/latest-ews/2012/Feb/construction%20joint%20venture%20threatens%20competition


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/8176145/RBS-timeline-where-it-all-went-wrong.html


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7249575.stm


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7007076.stm


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11652669


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10519120


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5175650.stm

Research for bullet point 6 - The reasons why governments might support or intervene in takeovers and mergers

Read the article below and answer the question that follows:

OFT clears Tesco takeover of Mills Group
Written by Fiona Briggs Monday, 14 March 2011 16:07

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has cleared Tesco’s takeover of the Mills Group through its One Stop convenience chain. However, local shops have expressed anger at the failure of the OFT to refer the merger to the Competition Commission.

ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “If Tesco sought to takeover a company operating 76 large supermarkets then it would most likely be blocked. We fail to see any reason why this merger has been treated differently.

“A series of takeovers of convenience store groups have taken place over the past eight years and none have been subject to a full competition investigation. In that time Tesco has grown from a convenience store estate of around 80 stores to over 1,700 today. The OFT has once again failed to fully consider the implications of this for choice and competitiveness in the long term.

“Most damaging of all is the OFTs failure to engage with the implications of the persisting growth of Tesco’s ‘shadow brand One Stop. They have therefore no answer to whether consumers are at risk of discrimination on price, quality, range and service.”

Using the article above and your own research, to what extent do you agree that government should be involved with the support of takeovers/mergers?

Donna Jestin
Teacher of Business Studies Notre Dame College & Senior Examiner for AQA

Primary - helping struggling readers

These activities use the Collins Big Cat Progress struggling readers scheme books Animals in War, Tigers in Trouble and Africa’s Big Three.

Activity One – Where in the World?

Children like a context to their work and many will question why they’re doing it if they can’t see a point. Sometimes they’ll ask questions about their work, leading it off in a new direction and sometimes, to help them understand, it’s useful to plan a little sub topic which can motivate them to continue with the key concept.

Looking at the books from the Struggling Readers range I’ve chosen three which can be linked together along the theme of animals. This year has seen the release of the film War Horse based on the book by Michael Morpurgo and many children will have been to the cinema to see it.

Tigers are beautiful creatures but even their power and strength can’t save them from the hunters and loss of their habitat.

Africa’s Big Three tell children all about the three biggest animals in Africa, the elephant, the rhino and the hippo.

Linking the books together and thinking of the questions children will ask, a good idea is to start with geography and where in the world these animals can be found. Start with Africa’s Big Three and Tigers in Trouble.

For younger readers there’s no need to go into precise details of countries, especially as they have difficulty with reading. Instead work with a large scale map of the world with the continents written on it and talk about which continents the book say that these creatures come from. Find them on the maps by writing the words on the board and looking letter by letter at how they’re spelt. Once the continents are found, talk about what the environment is like for the animals as shown in the books.

They’ll notice savannah for Africa’s Big Three and jungle for India’s tigers. Ask the children if they know what the environment is like in North Africa and use Egypt as an example. Most should know that it is hot, dry and sandy. Then show them pictures on the board or interactive white board of the jungles of central Africa and ask if the environment looks like where the ‘Big Three’ might live. Eventually you’ll be able to narrow it down by looking at photographs of South Africa and Kenya and the children can add the animals to their map. Likewise in India, which has a range of environments, show them pictures of the different regions and discuss where tigers might be found, marking them in on a map.

Activity Two: Animals in War

This activity links in with our use of Africa’s Big Three and Tigers in Trouble. Using the Animals in War book is a little different and I ask the children to tell me why the different animals were used; pigeons for messages, dogs to sniff out mines and horses to ride and to pull artillery. Then, referring to some of the animals we know, including those from the other books, ask whether any other animals might be useful in wartime. My class often say that elephants would be good for trampling or pulling heavy loads or for use as battering rams but other examples come up such as the geese who saved Rome, setting lions as attackers to frighten the enemy or dolphins to attach mines.

I’ll ask the children to draw a poster of the different animals they think of and how they can be used. After it’s complete, the children present their ideas to the class.

Activity Three: Is it Fair?

There’s a danger in the previous activity of trivialising or glorifying war which is why the book deals only with animals that don’t take on a combative role. With the ideas from the book and those from Activity Two, I ask the children to consider the moral issues of using animals in wartime. Often you’ll get the girls who think it’s cruel that animals are put in danger to help humans kill each other whilst the boys tend to disagree.
Using a session to talk about the rights and wrongs of the issue is very worthwhile and allows the children to refer to parts of the books to give credibility to their ideas.

With enough time, you can turn the ideas from Activity Two around to ask whether the animals they suggested could be used to help deal with the tragedies of war such as elephants helping to clear damaged buildings or dogs and cats helping to rehabilitate injured people.

Dave Lewis
Primary teacher

Primary - reading

Reading is a key part of the literacy curriculum and a vital part of the whole curriculum. Over the decades and even centuries there have been many different approaches to the topic with some of them working better than others. Everyone accepts that until a child can read effectively, large parts of any curriculum and indeed aspects of life will remain out of their reach. This year we have the first of the national assessments for phonics which have been generally well received despite the media frenzy over the usefulness of nonsense words. How well they’ll improve reading standards is yet to be seen but the promise is there that it should help.

Like many teachers in the UK, I have to teach reading and writing to children from other countries and I’m fascinated by how they are riveted to the formation and pronunciation of phonemes and letter sounds from their native languages. The fixation they have with using phonemes to say a word fills me with the conviction that the phonemic approach should be the bedrock on which we teach children to read. We all recognise that as this approach takes hold in the child’s mind, other approaches will be used by them to read new words or to consolidate ones they are almost fully confident with.

In practising reading, my main concern is the abstractness of some reading schemes and how, once they’ve been read, that’s it, finished with that topic or scenario and move on to another, often a completely different one.

My preference is for reading schemes which help emergent or struggling readers to maintain an interest in what they’ve just read and consolidate it through activities that will involve meeting those words, phrases and ideas again and again but not in the repetitive way that some schemes do it but through additional activities that broaden the learning around the books in the reading scheme. That’s why I like the Big Cat series of reading books.

Whilst still in its early days, time and trouble has been taken to offer variety, but of a connected kind, within the levels. Additional material, both free and to purchase, reinforces the children’s progress with activities where they meet the words again but in a motivating and creative way.


Dave Lewis
Primary teacher

Health and Social Care - Suspecting Abuse in Vulnerable Adults

What should care workers do if they suspect abuse?
Most people working in health and social care settings are familiar with the terms ‘abuse’ and ‘vulnerable adult’, but what should a care worker do if they suspect a vulnerable adult is being abused?

Who are vulnerable adults?
A vulnerable adult is a person aged 18 or over who is:

• In need of community care services by reason of their age, or their mental or other disability
• Unable to take care of him or herself
• And is unable to protect him or herself against significant harm or exploitation

This definition includes older people, adults of working age who may have a learning disability, mental health issues or any other condition which makes them temporarily or permanently vulnerable.  It is the inability to protect themselves from significant harm or exploitation that makes individuals vulnerable to abuse.

Abuse is the intentional harm done to another person through mistreatment or ill-treatment, or failing to act to prevent harm.  It affects all groups, all social classes, both genders; all ages; all abilities, all cultures and ethnic groups.  

How might a care worker spot abuse?
It is not easy to identify abuse; being one reason it is so prevalent.  However, there are actions care workers can take to minimise or preclude abuse being inflicted on individuals in their care.

1. Be aware of the potential for abuse.  Is the individual living in an environment where there has been, or is, domestic violence, drug or alcohol misuse, or financial strains?
   
   
2. Share any concerns they might have that an individual is being abused.  Things to look out for include:
   - Physical abuse: burn or scald marks, bruising or unexplained bone fractures and other injuries
   - Psychological and emotional abuse: poor or a loss of confidence, or appearing frightened or worried.
   - Material and financial abuse: possessions going missing or being ‘borrowed’, not having any money or another person having access to their bank account
   - Neglect or omission: is the individual clean and dressed appropriately for their age, gender or the weather? Are they hungry or showing signs of dehydration or malnutrition?
   - Sexual: are they in pain sitting or walking with a strange gait?
   - Discriminatory: are they being treated with the same consideration as other people of a different ethnic or cultural background, or because of their sexuality?
   - Institutional: do any of the above occur in a hospital, care home or other institution where they are living or being treated?
   
   
3. If a care worker suspects abuse they should record their suspicions and tell someone – usually their line manager
   
   
4. Make sure that any reporting is followed up.  Ask if it was investigated
   
   
5. Most importantly, do something – don’t just do nothing if you suspect abuse 

John Rowe works for the Open University and has a wealth of practice experience in health and social care settings.

Secondary History - Women and Children First

Whenever I hear the phrase ‘women and children first’ I always think of the Titanic, the unsinkable luxury liner that sank after hitting an iceberg in the Atlantic 100 years ago, with the loss of over 1500 lives. Outdated regulations meant there didn’t have to be a space in a lifeboat for everyone on board – in fact there were lifeboats for only about half of the complement. One of the enduring stories of the tragedy is that the band played on as the Titanic sank, helping to keep passengers calm. The 1997 feature film ensures the story of the Titanic lives on in popular culture, indeed a new Titanic Museum has just opened in Belfast, Titanic’s home port.

But the phrase ‘women and children first,’ and even the idea of an unsinkable ship, is much older than 1912. In 1845 HMS Birkenhead, one of the first iron steam ships built for the Navy, was ordered. She had 12 watertight compartments, designed to prevent her sinking if she was holed. Unfortunately she was obsolete before she was launched as trials in 1845 showed that screw propellers, rather than paddle steamers which powered her, were much more efficient. In 1848 HMS Birkenhead was transformed into a troop ship and used to carry troops to Africa.

In January 1852 she left for South Africa with about 643 men, women and children on board – no one is sure quite how many. On leaving Cape Town, heading for Algoa Bay, HMS Birkenhead hit a rock and sank within 20 minutes. Despite the captain giving the order to abandon ship, Lieutenant-Colonel Seton, the highest ranking Army officer on  board, insisted on the men assembling on deck and assisting the women and children into the boats. Every woman and child on board was saved. As there were not enough boats for everyone, many of the soldiers – mostly new recruits - knew they were going to die but still complete order prevailed. The band played as the ship sank. Nearly 100 men were saved, some swimming the 3 miles to shore through shark-infested waters, others by clinging to the rigging until help arrived the next day.

At the time the men on board HMS Birkenhead were hailed as heroes. Queen Victoria ordered a memorial to them to be built in Chelsea Hospital. The Kaiser of Prussia had an ‘order of the day’ read out to every one of his soldiers asking them to ‘act like those on the Birkenhead.’ Later, Kipling wrote a poem about the ‘Birkenhead Drill’ – ‘to stand and be still, like the Birkenhead drill, is a damn tough bullet to chew.’ Paintings of the event, copies of which you can easily find online, adorned most Victorian classroom walls.

So why do we not know about these events today? Why do we remember the Titanic, and not HMS Birkenhead? HMS Birkenhead is credited with starting the tradition of ‘women and children first,’ and the parallels between both events are striking. It made me wonder which other events, famous or infamous at the time, no longer appear in our national story. Why do we remember some things and not others? And who decides what we remember, or what we teach? At a time of Curriculum Review perhaps we ought to be asking these kinds of questions about what we teach and why we teach it.

Alf Wilkinson

CPD Manager for the Historical Association and previously National Strategist for Key Stage 3 History. Alf has over 30 years history teaching experience and was lead author for Collins Key Stage 3 History resources.

Secondary English - The Language of Metaphor

Teaching the language of metaphor can be a real hurdle, even with the most able students. Sometimes we can forget that in an average day, our students have had four or five blocks of learning in subjects where content tends to drive the curriculum – when they arrive at their English lesson, hoping to be given some ‘things to learn’ to help them pass their exams, it can be quite disconcerting to be confronted with the ‘what do you think?’ approach that English teachers know works best. Because we teach a skills-based curriculum, especially at Key Stage 4.

One of the poems in the AQA Moon on the Tides Anthology is a great piece of polemic called ‘Checkin’ Out Me History’ by John Agard. This poem prompted one of the best lessons I have ever had the privilege to see in terms of opening students’ eyes to the ways that the language of metaphor is open to interpretation.
It started with the word ‘beacon’ on the board. The whole-class activity was to simply throw ideas at the board (this was done with sticky notes, but could be done in a variety of alternative ways) about what this word might suggest. At the end of five minutes, the board was full.

Students were then put into pairs. Each pair had a sheet of A3 paper with one of the following phrases from the poem. Their task was the same – five minutes to come up with as many ideas that their phrase suggested. At the end of five minutes, the A3 paper was passed to the next pair…and so on.
• see-far woman
• of mountain dream
• fire-woman struggle
• hopeful stream
• to freedom river
• a healing star
• a yellow sunrise

The activity lasted for the whole lesson. At the end, the instruction was to choose one phrase which the students had particularly liked, and write a paragraph explaining what the use of that phrase suggested about the ideas in the poem. As you might expect, the results were astonishing.

The most significant part of the learning experience for the students was that their ideas have weight and merit, and that one of the key aspects to becoming a successful Literature student is having the confidence to explore their own ideas – that there is no ‘right answer’, and it is always what the student thinks that is far, far more interesting than what the teacher thinks!

Sarah Darragh
English Teacher and author of A Bridge to GCSE English