Planning for Learning through ICT

Rachel Sparks Linfield

Description

Planning for Learning through ICT aims to introduce young children to what ICT is, and provides over six weeks worth of activities that explore a range of technologies suitable for children 3-5. The book provides ideas for helping children learn about the different purposes of ICT and explores how to use ICT to create, to find information, to play, to shop. The book focuses in particular on how to use ICT creatively as well as outdoors. Whatever your daily learning, this book aims to show how ICT can be easily and appropriately included in your everyday play and learning.

Sujets

• ICT

Informations

• Publié par: Andrews UK
• Date de parution: 26 septembre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781909101289
• Langue: English

Extrait

Title page
Planning for Learning through ICT
by Rachel Sparks Linfield and Debra Maltas
Illustrated by Cathy Hughes



Copyright page
Originally published by Practical Pre-School Books, A Division of MA Education Ltd, St Jude’s Church, Dulwich Road, Herne Hill, London, SE24 0PB Tel. [phone]
© MA Education Ltd 2010
2012 digital version by Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
www.practicalpreschoolbooks.com
Front cover image © iStockphoto.com/Dejan Petkovski.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopied or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.



Making plans
Why plan?
The purpose of planning is to make sure that all children enjoy a broad and balanced curriculum. All planning should be useful. Plans are working documents that you spend time preparing, which later should repay your efforts. Try to be concise. This will help you to find information quickly when you need it.
Plans will range from policies that outline your setting’s vision for areas such as ‘Health and Safety’; ‘Individual needs’ and ‘ICT’ to those made for a particular year, term, week and day. Some plans can be written before children come to a setting whilst others must be based on observations of the children. For example, plans for ‘continuous provision’ consider areas such as the physical environment and the resources and adult help available. Such plans help to make use of all the available space and resources and monitor the time that children spend in each area. These plans can be made before the needs of individual children are known. Plans for enhanced provision are based on observations of the children in the areas of continuous provision. The enhanced provision might be to introduce an additional resource; to modify or change a resource or to set children a challenge. Plans for focused activities again should be based on observation and the needs of the children (for more detail see ‘Focused area plans’).
Whilst the importance of planning based on observation must be recognised, making provisional, long and medium-term plans allows groups to gather resources and consider how best to use the available time.
Long-term plans
Long-term plans map out the curriculum during a year and help to ensure that you are providing a variety of topics and are meeting the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (2007).
Long-term plans need not be detailed. Divide the time period over which you are planning into fairly equal sections, such as half terms, with a topic for each section. It is important that the topics reflect the interests and needs of the children, and allow the children to make links between the new ideas they encounter and previous knowledge and skills. Some early years settings choose topics with the children. Other settings select the topics and then involve the children in helping to plan and initiate some of the activities.
Although each topic will address all the learning areas, some could focus on a specific area. For example, a topic on ICT would lend itself well to activities relating to Knowledge and Understanding of the World. Another topic might particularly encourage the appreciation of stories. Try to make sure that you provide a variety of topics in your long-term plans such as:
Autumn 1
Nursery Rhymes
Autumn 2
Autumn/Christmas
Spring 1
Weather
Spring 2
ICT
Summer 1
Shopping
Summer 2
The Sea
Always consider the time of year in which you plan to do a topic. ‘Minibeasts’, for example, would not be very successful in November!
Medium-term plans
Medium-term plans outline the contents of a topic in a little more detail. One way to start this process is by doing a ‘thought shower’ on a large piece of paper of all the activities, which are relevant to the topic. As you do this it may become clear that some activities go well together. The topic of ‘ICT’, for example, has themes such as using ICT for information; for creating; for playing; for shopping and using ICT out of doors.
Medium-term plans must be based on observations of the children’s developing needs and should always include a balance of child-initiated and adult-led activity. Make a chart by writing the themes down the side and put an area of learning at the top of each column. Involve the children in making suggestions for activities. Children could, for example, be introduced to a theme in a group sharing time and be asked what kind of things they would like to do. Alternatively, when children are engaged in their own independent endeavours it may become clear that they have a desire to take an activity further. Going on a bug hunt might lead one child to want to use the computer to search for unknown creatures, a second child to want to make a bug house and a third to chalk a giant minibeast outside. In addition, ensure there is space for unexpected, special events that play key parts in children’s lives such as celebrations, seasonal events and snow.
Focused area plans
The plans you make for each day will outline areas of continuous provision, enhanced provision and focused, adult-led activities. Plans for focused area activities need to include aspects such as: resources; the way in which you might introduce activities; individual needs; the organisation of adult help; size of the group; timing; safety and key vocabulary.
Identify the learning and the ELGs that each activity is intended to promote. Make a note of any assessments or observations that you are likely to carry out. After carrying out the activities, make notes on your plans to say what was particularly successful, or any changes you would make another time.
A final note
Planning should be seen as flexible. Not all groups meet every day, and not all children attend every day. Any part of the plan can be used independently, stretched over a longer period or condensed to meet the needs of any group. You will almost certainly adapt the activities as children respond to them in different ways and bring their own ideas, interests and enthusiasms. The important thing is to ensure that the children are provided with a varied and enjoyable curriculum that meets their individual developing needs.
Using the book
Planning for Learning through ICT offers ideas for a wide range of focused activities that encompass all areas of learning. They recognise the importance of involving children in practical activities and in giving them the opportunity to follow their own interests and needs. It is important though to appreciate that the ideas presented in this book will only be a part of your planning. Many activities that will be taking place in your group each week, as part of areas of continuous provision, may not be mentioned. For example, it is assumed that sand, dough, water, puzzles, floor toys and large-scale apparatus are part of the ongoing early years experience. Role-play areas, stories, rhymes, singing, and group discussion times are similarly assumed to be happening in each week, although they may not be a focus for described activities. It is hoped that settings can dip into the activities choosing the ones that best meet the needs of the children, balancing these activities with child-initiated activities.
Read the section which outlines links to the Early Learning Goals (pages 4-7) and explains the rationale for the topic of ‘ICT’. For each weekly theme two activities are described in detail as examples to help you in your planning and preparation. These more detailed examples identify key vocabulary, questions and learning opportunities.
Find out on page 20 how the topic can be brought together in an ‘All about me’ day.
Use page 21 for ideas of resources to collect or prepare. Page 22 provides information on websites and ICT resources that could prove useful, not only within the ICT topic but for others as well. Planning for Learning through ICT assumes that settings will have access to digital cameras, timers and scales; computers, Bee-Bots™ and CD players and, for one activity, a digital microscope. Other ICT resources, though useful, are not required.
The skills overview chart on page 23 will help you to see at a glance which aspects of children’s development are being addressed as a focus each week.
As children take part in the topic activities, their learning will progress. ‘Collecting evidence’ on page 24 explains how you might monitor children’s achievements.
There is additional material to support the working partnership of families and children in the form of a photocopiable Parent’s Page found inside the back cover.
Health and Safety
Every early years setting should have their own policy regarding the use of ICT with children. It is vital that whenever ICT is used directly with children risk assessments have taken place. Further advice on health and safety issues can be found in Using ICT in the Early Years by Alex Morgan and John Siraj-Blatchford (Practical Pre-School Books). It should also be recognised that the content of websites may be changed and all sites should always be checked thoroughly before being used directly with children.



Using the Early Learning Goals
Using this book in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales
Although the curriculum guidelines in England, Northern Irelan