| As
part of a unit of work on 'How God changes people's lives', with
a starting point in the story of the visit of the angel to Mary,
a Year 3 class used digital video to explore how people's belief
in God today changes their lives.
The
unit of work provided opportunity for pupils to:
enquire into and engage with a concept within their own experience
change
empathise with the feelings of Mary through role play and think
about the questions she might have asked
identify questions to ask Christian visitors from the local community
about changes that belief in God has made to their lives.
What
they did
The
activities took place over five lessons.
Week
1
The
teacher told the pupils the story of the visit of the angel to Mary
(Luke Chapter 1, verse 26f). They then role-played the story, chose
and freeze-framed key moments, and recorded these by taking digital
photographs.
Week
2
Using
the digital freeze-frame images from the previous lesson, the teacher
asked pupils:
What might Mary be thinking?
What might she be feeling?
What would you do in Mary's place?
The
teacher placed an image of an angel on the whiteboard, asked pupils
to suggest questions Mary might have wanted to ask the angel, and
recorded these on the board. Most agreed that Mary would have been
frightened and puzzled and would have asked: 'Why have I been chosen?'
and 'Why me?' Children expressed Mary's questions through pictures
and writing.
Week
3
To
help pupils make a connection between Mary's experiences and the
beliefs of Christians today, the teacher arranged for some Christian
visitors from the school and local church to come to the following
lesson.
To
prepare the pupils for these visitors, the teacher showed children
video clips taken by a Year 4 pupil whose family were active members
of a local church. Following discussion with her family, this pupil
had been loaned a digital camera and asked to record aspects of
her Christian family life both at home and at church. This provided
an engaging resource to start Year 3 pupils asking and responding
to questions about what Christians believe and do.
The
teacher then used a planning diagram made up of a central circle
with two outer rings displayed on the interactive whiteboard.
The first step was to think about what children already knew about
being a Christian. Their ideas were recorded in the centre of
the diagram. This helped pupils to begin to see how religious
attitudes spring from a framework of beliefs they are 'at the
centre' of believers' lives.
The second step was to consider Christian values what sorts
of things did the children think might be important to a Christian?These
were rerecorded in the next ring.
Pupils used sentence starters to help them work out some interesting
open questions they could ask the visitors. These were recorded
in the outer ring.
Week
4
Two
Christian visitors came into the class to be interviewed by the
children using the questions generated the previous week and sent
to the visitors in advance. Using digital video under adult supervision,
the pupils recorded the interviews, which the teacher incorporated
into a presentation along with the main questions children asked.
Week
5
In
the final session the class reflected on experiences of change in
their own lives, using art to illustrate these, and from the questions
they had posed earlier chose one question to answer for themselves.
The question they decided on was: 'How would our lives change if
there was no God?' A range of answers emerged from there being
no presents at Christmas to an increase in global pollution! Children
photographed their work and displayed it via the interactive whiteboard.
This encouraged speaking and listening as children talked about
the ideas they had expressed in their artwork.
Relvance
to the RE curriculum
The
use of ICT:
supported the RE learning objective chosen for the unit (based
on the agreed syllabus) more effectively than traditional resources
would have done
is appropriate to pupils working at level 3 of the QCA's non-statutory
national framework for RE (2004).
By
using ICT pupils were:
encouraged to ask, and respond sensitively to, questions about
their own and others' experiences and feelings
encouraged to use appropriate religious words and phrases to identify
some features of religion and their importance for some people
provided with opportunities for developing respect for all, and
for reflection.
How
ICT enhanced teaching and learning
Commenting
on the use of ICT to meet the learning objectives, the teacher expressed
the following views.
It
was more exciting and more visually stimulating.
It
was extremely innovative and motivating, both for the teacher and
for the children.
The
medium of film was very powerful particularly when the children
viewed the Year 4 child's video.
It
enabled children's work to be recorded in a variety of ways. Children's
practical responses could be recorded instead of it all being written
or oral and unrecorded, resulting in a more inclusive assessment.
Use
of digital video and presentation software increased the self-esteem
of pupils particularly the lower-ability children. They enjoyed
viewing themselves and were proud of the work displayed in the presentation,
congratulating each other when they recognised each other's work. |
