Often some of the best work in the RE classroom is done as one of the "3 D's"; dialogue, discussion or debate and this can be lost when it comes to assessing children's work and making judgments about their ability levels. "If it is not written then it does not exist", is often the mantra and you might have even had the experience where a student has said, "I really enjoyed that lesson, we didn't do any work", when nothing was done in books.

It is important to be able to capture some of the high level work that can take place when children are working in non-textual formats and often the best way to do that is to use a voice recorder or video recorder.

Practical Issues

You need to develop a way of sorting and categorising the files that you will keep as well as some practice in using the equipment.

Activity Description

The students have been looking at the Psalms and have been introduced to the idea of the Psalms as communication with God. So, they have looked at a range of Psalms and the kind on things that they would say to God if they had the chance.

They now have to construct their own Psalm and they are able to do this through whichever medium they think is most appropriate. Most of the class choose to compose a song thought some want to do this via poetry or dance / drama.

The teacher decides that they will film the finished "shorts" and these will then be peer assessed using criteria agreed with the students.

ICT resource used

• Video Camera
• Whiteboard

Learning Objectives

• To consider what it would be appropriate to say to God
• To develop an appropriate mechanism for doing this.

Commentary on the ICT use

The use of film allows the "action" to be captured and then for the teacher and the students to be able to show, pause and allow the participants to explore and explain their work in a medium much more appropriate to the task then a writing task.