Curious Minds

Hope Academy Get Creative with Digital Media

How can the creative use of digital media be used to develop year 7 pupils’ thinking skills within a Humanities course?

Hope Academy (Formerly St Aelreds Catholic Technology College) wanted to improve pupil uptake to Key Stage 3 Humanities, it was felt the curriculum was uninspiring and uptake of History and particularly Geography at Key Stage 4 was poor. A Learner Focus Group made up of KS3 and KS4 pupils indentified that attitudes towards the subject were generally negative.

Creative practitioner Paul Main, whose previous work within the science department raised the levels of engagement, worked closely with a recently qualified teacher Claire Cooper.

The main aims of the project were:

- To engender more positive attitudes towards the subject area.

- To raise staff skill levels in the areas of digital media and Personal Learning and Thinking Skills.

- To develop the confidence of a recently qualified member of staff.

- To enable staff to develop links with staff at their federated school, Newton High School.

- To utilise online learning tools.

- To create a bank of learning resources that the students create for other students.

The topics covered included The Battle of Hastings and Global Warming.

Examples of activities:

- Making TV adverts for awareness of Global warming.

- Problem solving involving creating inventions to solve global warming

- Surveys into what people are recycling.

- Creating alternative endings to the Battle of Hastings (looking atthings from different perspectives).

- Adverts for recruitment of soldiers (persuasive writing).

- Web quest using - normanconquest.co.uk.

- Tours around school to look for areas where energy is being wasted/compare with new school.

- Posters to help reduce energy wastage in homes.

Paul helped to break tasks down so that pupils' research could become more focused. He had excellent ICT skills and was able to build on to existing schemes of work. He created a relaxed atmosphere, allowing the pupils to be more willing to contribute. He also contributed ideas to extend the pupils' learning by comparing historical events with current affairs (e.g. The Battle of Hastings with the general election).

In interviews pupils stated that enjoyment was high. The class form tutor, noticed that pupils chatted about the project during form time and that they were very responsive to tasks set for homework.

The teacher felt that pupils had a deeper understanding of historic events due to the association with the 2010 election and that they could compare and contrast the two events. Pupils felt that the online thinking tools had helped them to become more independent in their thinking and that they had learnt more.

Pupils particularly enjoyed working with other people and felt that they developed their co-operation skills. The teacher felt that pupils' imaginations were developed through the project and that they were able to see the significance of what they were learning.

In terms of teacher learning, the practitioner brought lots of new ideas and ways of working that are transferable and will be used again. For example, Claire now has a deeper understanding of the Personal Learning and Thinking Skills, evidenced by the fact that she now incorporates them into lesson plans.

In answer to the original question it is clear that during this project the pupils felt that their thinking skills have been improved and also their ability to work independently.
The teacher had noticed that pupils had developed a positive attitude towards the topic and that they showed increased confidence through their willingness to get involved in discussions. She also felt that their listening and teamworking skills improved.

Linda Meagor
Curious Minds