Planning - IT

Planning in IT

Welcome to my last blog! Today, I will be speaking about the use of IT in planning.

'Effective teaching depends heavily on effective planning. Teachers preparing for IT should be thinking about; children's existing knowledge, previous experience, expectations, scheme of work, time, grouping, cross-curricular links, differentiation and assessment (Sharp, Potter, Allen, Loveless, 2014).'

So... of course planning is extremely important in order to perform an effective lesson, but, how can we use our IT skills to plan?

Using IT for assessment:

We can use IT to assess children's progress with Microsoft word, charts/graphs, excel and more.

Tapestry is an online website that allows teachers to note children's assessment levels, targets, strengths and weaknesses and parents can see this for themselves.
'Tapestry is an easy-to-use online learning journal, Tapestry helps educators and parents to record, track and celebrate children's progress in early years education.'

IT as teaching tool:

We can use IT as a teaching tool with software such as the SMART board, Prezi, online games, programming and Powerpoint presentations.
SMART board offers a range of interactive activities (take a look at my blogpost all about the interactive whiteboard!) I also speak in more detail about Prezi, Powerpoint and programming on other blog posts.

IT in subjects:

Using IT in other subjects supports good practice in teaching the subject, directly related to learning objectives. Learning other subjects through IT develops cross-curricular activities.

To help to plan: 

• National curriculum.
• EYFS document.
• Local authority schemes of work.
• Other schemes such as jolly phonics.
• Long term and medium plans.

Find out prior knowledge:

To find out prior knowledge, you can use IT to create diagrams to ask the children what they already know. Another way to find out prior knowledge is to ask the previous teacher. The National Curriculum is also a brilliant place to look for prior taught topics.

Management of IT:

Don't forget to….

• Check availability/timetable.
• Check software and resources. 
• Check links. 
• Prepare back-up plan. 
• Prepare resources. 
• Manage additional adults.

What goes into a plan?

• Learning objective. 
• Success criteria. 
• Introduction.
• Prior knowledge. 
• Resources. 
• Additional adults. 
• Differentiation. 
• Time allowance. 
• Direct teaching. 
• Key questions. 
• Evaluation/plenary. 

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I hope that you have taken away some useful information and ideas!

References

Sharp J., Potter J., Allen J., and Loveless A., (2014) Primary Computing and ICT - Knowledge, Understanding and Practice Exeter, Learning Matters Ltd.