| Having
reflected on special objects in their own lives, pupils found out
about how Hindus worship at home.
They
watched a digital video recording made by the father of a classmate
about Hindu worship at home. The class prepared questions stimulated
by this video and emailed these to the pupil's father. They used
the replies to write up responses to the questions they had posed
earlier.
Using
digital video, pupils recorded a visit to contrast worship at the
mandir with worship at home. Prior to the visit, the pupils reflected
on the sights, sounds, tastes and smells they were likely to experience
and organised three groups to record the temple experience. The
teacher edited the video and pupils' responses into a presentation,
which they then used to reflect on what they had learned about why
and how Hindus worship at home and at the mandir.
What
they did
The
activities took place over six lessons.
Weeks
1 and 2
To
help children understand that some objects are special for religious
reasons, pupils reflected on items special to themselves. They made
display tiles to reflect these and explained to camera why their
object was special to them and how they cared for it. The teacher
edited these video clips into a presentation and then used this
to stimulate discussion about the purpose and significance of a
shrine in a Hindu home.
Speaking
and listening is a whole-school improvement target for this school
with substantial numbers of pupils for whom English is an additional
language and pupils who have special educational needs. The use
of the video camera encouraged otherwise unconfident and inarticulate
children to talk about their special things, and it was felt more
important to celebrate this than to re-record sequences at this
early stage of the work. When reviewing the work, however, the children
identified for themselves the need to speak clearly and audibly.
Week
3
Prior
to the lesson a Hindu child from the class took home a digital video
camera on loan. His father used this to record the shrine and his
mother worshipping, and the child took photographs using the same
camera. The teacher used the video and photographs, along with a
commentary that the child had recorded, to produce a presentation.
Children watched this avidly. They each wrote down three questions
they would like to ask, emailing their questions to the family using
the class computer and the interactive whiteboard.
Being
able to watch worship in a local Hindu family engaged the pupils,
improved their questioning skills and made the learning experience
more personal. Compared with classes in similar lessons during previous
years, the pupils in this class were very motivated to deepen their
understanding by forming appropriate questions. They genuinely wanted
to know the answers.
Relvance
to the RE curriculum
ICT
supported the achievement of the RE objectives by providing local
resources which stimulated children's interest and questions, and
by giving children the means to express their insights, questions
and ideas visually and orally. Assessment became a more inclusive
activity as reading and writing difficulties did not limit pupils.
Learning became more active and experiential.
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
Children
found using the video cameras both exciting and frightening. It
was the first time the teacher and the pupils had used much of the
equipment, so developing the skills required was time consuming.
Nevertheless it was worthwhile, not least because the skills would
be transferable to other activities in the future.
The
use of a digital video camera enabled pupils to:
record an oral explanation about their own special objects, removing
the obstacle of explaining in writing, which would have been a
real challenge for many in the class
watch a video made inside a local Hindu family home which both
informed the class and provided an excellent stimulus to make
the children think more deeply about what they saw
identify significant aspects of Hindu worship and record these
themselves during a visit to a Hindu temple
use the video recording to reflect on their learning and experiences
while visiting a place of worship.
The
use of email was a very effective way of making learning more personal
and improving the quality of pupils' questioning. |
