Case Study: j2e at Stoberry Park School
j2e is one of the factors that has contributed to the enthusiasm for writing which has seen the group of reluctant boy writers choose to do additional writing of their own accord. A pupil arriving at the school as a level 2 / 3 writer at the beginning of year six produced a 4C piece of work at the beginning of the summer term.
Children's views
Year five and six pupils talked about their enjoyment of creating their own web pages and commenting on each other’s. They were keen to demonstrate how they could create interesting looking pages using the tools in j2e.
They liked showing others what they had learnt. Francesca in year five chose to publish her own teaching page on apostrophes which could then be commented on by a teacher.
Matthew, in year six, compared j2e very favourably with other website creation tools he had used at home. He appreciated the potential of being able to access his work in school and at home. Joey, another year six pupil, liked being able to publish his work in a way that ‘showed it up better’. The ease of adding a colour background so that you weren’t starting to do their work on a blank page was something that was also commented on by Emma in year five.
Teacher’s views
Year five and six teachers liked the way j2e allowed children to present their work to each other and the way in which they could develop peer assessment through getting children to comment on each other’s work.
‘It is much more today than PowerPoint’ was one of the observations made recognising the way in which it allowed children to develop learning as part of the social networking culture that is part of their home use of technology. Another member of staff refered to the contribution it can make to raising achievement through the recognition of the quality of work which can be published.
The potential for supporting project work was discussed together with the way it could be used to allow homework tasks to be developed over a number of weeks.
The on-going challenge is to have the time to explore its use sufficiently to see how it fits in with everything else which is part of the repertoire to develop learning opportunities.
The school is looking forward to developing the use of JIT with key stage one learners.
j2e has contributed to the raising of attainment for a group of reluctant boy writers, provided an opportunity for pupils to share their learning and made a link with home uses of technology.
It is still early days for teachers to embed its use within their planning across the curriculum but they recognise its potential and are looking forward to including it as part of their 'teaching repertoire' next year.
The setting up for pupil use was simple with a csv file exported from SIMS and key stage two children were quick to discover the many possibilities provided by the tools within j2e. The jigsaw tool is particularly popular. Usernames and passwords were an issue for year three and four use within school. The balance between ease of use and a secure password is an important discussion to have. Teachers can see work pending and make decisions about what is published for others to see.
It is still early days for teachers to embed its use within their planning across the curriculum but they recognise its potential and are looking forward to including it as part of their 'teaching repertoire' next year.
The setting up for pupil use was simple with a csv file exported from SIMS and key stage two children were quick to discover the many possibilities provided by the tools within j2e. The jigsaw tool is particularly popular. Usernames and passwords were an issue for year three and four use within school. The balance between ease of use and a secure password is an important discussion to have. Teachers can see work pending and make decisions about what is published for others to see.
