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Engage with some of the 21st century learning design modules on the Microsoft Learn Education Centre.
Choose one of the 21st century skills and create a Sway on some ideas for learning opportunities, to enhance that skill with your pupils.
Write a reflective piece (150 words minimum) as a reply to this post on how you are going to focus on developing the particular skill in your classroom. Include a sharing link to the Sway you have created above (Optional).
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I have picked the collaboration skill as I feel it plays an important role within the classroom and helps students prepare for the future world. Collaboration is a key skill to have, and it will help the student to understand the importance of working as a team and interdependently. Practicing collaboration and teamwork help students understand how to address a problem, pitch solutions, and decide the best course of action. Collaborating will help students to learn and understand that other people don’t always have the same ideas that they do. In fact, as students practice collaboration more and more, they’ll learn that they have almost none of the same ideas that others do. As a teacher, it’s crucial that you encourage students to look at themselves through that second lens. That way, students learn that they should speak up when they have an idea. In my current school, there is a big focus on students collaborating. Let me give a brief description of how collaboration takes place within my classroom.
This year, the students were learning all about the digestive system. To assess their prior knowledge, students were asked to type out the keywords that came to mind when they thought about the digestive system. Using the Nearpod app is an effective and quick way of assessing prior knowledge. A lot of students were familiar, with the mouth, stomach, and teeth. Students were then shown a magnified image of the digestive system and told that it was inside their bodies. In their mixed ability groups, children were asked to describe what they saw and think it might be. Students were able to name and identify the parts but did not know the functions of the organs. Students were asked to carry out research – ordering the parts of the digestive system. They worked collaboratively and used their iPads to explore an animation about the digestive system. After looking at the animation, the students were asked to label the digestive system using the labels that they were given. Students were now able to identify the parts of the digestive system, In the second science lesson, students were asked to think of a question about the digestive system.
Further research – the function of the parts.
The students worked in their groups and each group was allocated a part of the digestive system. They worked with a partner from their group using iPads to learn about the functions of their part. They then shared and compared what they had learned with the rest of their group and decided on the three most important facts they wrote on a large strip of paper and presented it to the class. A range of open-ended questions was posed to each group, and this led to group discussions.
I believe collaboration plays an important role in education as it gives students the opportunity to work and collaborate and grow from each other. From experience, collaboration is a skill that will take time and students often need to learn how to work effectively with others and as part of a team. At the beginning of the school year, we must help students to understand the importance of collaboration. The difference I saw in my students at the end of the year as opposed to the start year was incredible. Through collaborative learning, the students developed higher-level thinking skills, and boost their confidence and self-esteem as well.
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Hi Laura,
Thanks for sharing your science lesson based around the digestive system. From reading the post, I am struck by the sheer breadth of 21st century skills present, as well as the rich learning experiences afforded to your students. You have incorporated digital technologies into all stages of the lesson. I love your use of Nearpod to assess prior knowledge – other platforms such as Menti and Padlet could be used in a similar fashion. There is deep collaboration evident at each stage of the lesson – skilled communication is another 21st century skill that is very prominent here. Using tablets to explore an animation really helps to bring the content to life and this is something we all aspire to do.
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<p class=”MsoNormal” style=”margin: 0cm; font-size: medium; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; caret-color: #000000; color: #000000;”>I have chosen the communication skill as I’ve mentioned in other modules I work in a two tier school and myself and my colleagues are always trying to find ways in which the children can get to know one another better even though we are in a large school community. Children are getting more and more comfortable with ‘screen time’ and I’m noticing more and more than direct conversation and lack of eye contact is becoming increasingly evident; especially in the older classes. We usually play ‘get to know you’ games at school for the first month where we encourage children to ask each child in their class and in their class year three questions each. We also hold ‘conversation stations’ in class every morning where the children have a new partner each day. The station topic changes each week and it gives the children an opportunity to get to know the children in their class on a deeper level. It also supports children that are not confident enough to speak in front of the whole class.</p> -
Hi Eimear,
Thanks for your post – the challenge the you face in your school is relatively unique and one that I would not be familiar with. It’s interesting the observations that you have noted regarding the loss of eye contact, etc. The activity you have described would be very effective at ‘forcing’ everyone in the class to open up and develop their communication skills. Doing this in a friendly, non-overbearing way is very helpful for those children who may be reluctant to share opinions and thoughts in a whole-class situation.
The issue of ‘screen time’ is an interesting one – some parents in our 2022/2023 DLF surveys noted concerns around this. However, the question must be raised about whether ‘screen time’ on school devices researching and creating curricular content is having an adverse effect, or if it is the passive scrolling on Smartphones, YouTube and video games? It’s certainly an interesting topic, and I’m sure there’s a thesis in it!
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Thank you for the positive feedback Eoghan. This year, I have incorporated a range of technology into my lessons and have also used Padlet. I look forward to trial testing Menti in September.
Below are links I have found beneficial and have worked very well in my lessons.
I believe 21st-century skills are important to students as it prepares them for the future world. Without even realising, we use all of the 21st-century skills in our everyday lessons.
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I agree with what Laura has mentioned above in her very informative post. I think it is very important to prepare our students for life beyond the classroom and by developing 21st century skills we are supporting our students as they prepare for the next step in their careers. I haven’t involved myself yet in this development but I can see that in the coming school year I will also focus on the Collaboration of 21st Century skills approach as Laura so well described in her post.
It is important for our students to develop these skills while they are still in school as they will be very beneficial to have once they get into the workplace. Using Teams I will encourage my students to develop their own teams with their peers where they will have an opportunity to share resources and ideas to support them as they collaborate with each other while they are still in school. They could also learn how to create content in One note and also if they choose to, share this content with each other collaboratively. I feel the students will benefit greatly from this.
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Hi Margaret,
Collaboration is such an important 21st century skill. However, I fell the way the term is often used in schools is anything but 21st century. Often, activities such as ‘comhrá beirte’ and ‘think-pair-share’ are put down as collaborative activities. This is surface level collaboration at best.
The way you have described using Teams is exactly the way in which we should be promoting the 21st century skills. It gives the students real ownership of their learning tasks, and forces a deeper level of skilled communication and collaboration. The children simply have to do this to get their project finished and it is far more self-directed and organic (all of which prepares them for life outside school).
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I chose communication as my skill as I feel it is extremely important to have good communication skills. In today’s world you can be extremely knowledgeable, however if you cannot communicate that information, you are at a disadvantage. In my classroom I have a lectern in the corner. Sometimes I take it out and use it when I am teaching something, just to model the skills I’m trying to teach. When the children are finished a Power Point report on particular topic, they are asked up to the lectern to present. I would then ask the audience what was good and what could be improved (2 stars and a wish). Digitally, whether they are creating a project on PP or OneNote or whatever, they are encouraged to use multi media methods to further develop/ explain their idea or topic. Communication is something that must be taught discretely, from Junior Infants right up to third level. We are getting better at it because we know the value of it when the pupils go to secondary or third level education. Often they are required to present projects, CBA’s etc and if they have no experience of doing that, it can be a very daunting task. As teachers we must be mindful of this and incorporate it more in our everyday teaching and learning.
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Hi Mary,
I love the idea of using the lectern for pupils to present from. It’s a skill that is so difficult, and is something hat many adults find daunting. Having practice at an early age is a huge benefit to the children. You often find that the most outgoing and sociable child can find it difficult to get up and present to their peers. Very often eye contact and enunciation of voices is severely lacking. The incorporation of digital tools, especially within the ‘Speaker Coach’ rehearsal tool within PowerPoint. Perhaps it may be an idea for some children to practice recording their presentations at home and playing them to the class as a scaffold.
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For this module I have chosen to work on the 21st Century skill of Communication.
The aim is for students in 5th/6th class to create their own eBook suitable for children in 1st class using the Book Creator app.
To develop interest in the project we will begin with a class discussion focusing on the value of reading and to determine the types of stories and genres they like to read themselves. This can be done using the Menti app.Next the students work with the first class teacher to get advice on how to pitch the books at an appropriate level. The students will create a google forms document to gather this information.
The next stage would involve a survey of first class students to determine the types of stories they like to read using Kahoot.
As a class the students will collaborate with their teacher to create a rubric in order to guide their work.
Each student will be paired with a first class student to gather information which will guide their planning of the story when it comes to characters and setting.Students will also communicate with their peers, class teacher and LS teacher to get feedback on their eBook throughout the process.
The students will use Book Creator to develop their own story as it allows for multi model communication – develop text, voice record over the text, upload their own artwork or find/create suitable artwork on the app. This project allows students to develop an eBook with a particular audience in mind. The students will develop their story having carried out research at the beginning and during the process with other experts and with the target audience.
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In order to foster collaboration and problem-solving in the classroom, the children will work together to decide what resources we should purchase using our class budget. The details are outlined further in my Sway (https://sway.office.com/HZ23GszUbPWwu8xJ?ref=Link).
This activity fosters collaboration as the children are making decisions and working together, as they rely on each other to complete the task. They are also problem-solving throughout, as they establish a hierarchy of needs, maintain fairness in the decision-making process, and influence their environment.
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Hi Carina,
Thanks for sharing your Sway with us. What I really like about this problem is that it is embedded in a real0life context and is something that the children would get very invested in. The decision-making elements of the task will place a premium on both skilled communication and collaboration. An added bonus is the scope to integrate this with the ‘decision making’ strand unit of the SPHE curriculum.
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I used the Sway app to make a simple presentation. I can see that after exploring the App it can be used a excellent tool for presenting finished work.
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I was interested in 21st Century learning and in particular Self Regulation. On returning to school, I will plan a project for a longer length of time e.g. 4 weeks. I thought the method of teaching about The Human Body given in the course notes was excellent. In the example the pupils initially write the topic vocab on post it notes and place on a mind map. They can find likeminded classmates by writing the area of interest on a post it and teaming up. In One Note, the pupils will be given the Learning Outcomes and the criteria for success. One note can be used to create a page for the Vocabulary and for the creation of statements and questions to clarify what they know and what they want to find out. At this stage their work will be presented to a peer group for feedback. In the example of The Human Body project, the groups had to design an activity and had to make a presentation. Again the work will be evaluated and tested before the pupils make any changes to their final project. Self Regulation enables the learners to consciously organize, monitor and evaluate their learning. It teaches them to take responsibility for their learning and engage in a process which will teach them to be flexible and adaptable in the 21st century. -
The focus of my Sway project was to help the develop the Skilled Communication among pupils in 1st and 2nd class in my multigrade school. Like the exemplar, the pupils will create their own eBook using the Chekhov creator app on Microsoft. The audience of the book will be junior and Senior Infants in our school.
The short sway I created will introduce the pupils to the topic.
NOW GET STARTED Go to this Sway</spaThe pupils will conduct focus groups to discover the interest of the junior/senior infant pupils. These can be done in small groups or one-to-one. The pupils will be given tricky word word lists that JIs and SIs are learning to include in their books.
Pupils will communicate with their peers and teachers in order to get feedback on their eBook throughout the process.
When the story is finished, the pupil will publish the story and read to the Junior/Senior Infant the pupil was paired with. The pupils can also read their book to the entire class.
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Hi Niall,
Thanks for sharing and creating your Sway. It is a brilliant resource that can provide an interactive and engaging way for pupils to showcase work, and for communicating items to members of the school community. The idea of using this for the creation of a book that can be shared with children in younger classes is a lovely idea. Pre-Covid, we used to do a lot of cross-age peer tutoring and it was great experience for the older children, especially those who may have a shy disposition. It’s also something that the younger children love, and I’m sure listening to these great stories would be memorable for them.
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<p class=”MsoNormal”>I have chosen the 21<sup>st</sup> century skill of knowledge construction. My Sway includes some links and ideas that the learners can use as a springboard for their learning.</p>
<p class=”MsoNormal”>I plan to develop the skill of knowledge construction through the use of technology in the coming year. I might start off by using Forms to generate some feedback on the learners’ prior knowledge of the topic (e.g. Spain).<span style=”mso-spacerun: yes;”> </span>I will then use the information to create a Sway which the children can open on the school laptops and work on in pairs to extend their knowledge. <span style=”mso-spacerun: yes;”> </span>They will develop their skills of doing internet research, identifying reliable sources for information, how to present the information in their own words/ways etc. They can then choose their own method of presenting their knowledge, be it their own Sway, a Powerpoint etc.</p>
<p class=”MsoNormal”>I could use a knowledge construction rubric to ensure that the learning process is scaffolded and differentiated for all learners based on their ability levels. I would really try to ensure that I repeat this entire process over the year and integrate the other skills too such as collaboration, skilled communication etc.</p> -
21st Century Learning really integrates IT into learning effectively. The different lessons that were outlined in the YouTube links were amazing and offer so much scope and examples.
Having completed the Sway Activity I can now see how this can work.
My focus is on collaboration and problem solving….
To be able to do this in a special school setting seems impossible until you look at the work that has been done over the years with initiatives such as Green Schools, Junior Entrepreneurs, PickerPals. All encouraging the pupils to take their learning into the wider community…. However we did not plan accordingly to include IT
In focusing on collaboration and problem solving I prepared each activity to include IT as a skill to add on to learning, to enhance learning, to evaluate learning and to make independent learners of the pupils to give them the skills to transfer knowledge in to their lives.
The Sway attached does not enhance the wider world but could be a step towards developing the next step in creating a vegetable garden with our charity – Cope Foundation.
We are currently at stage one of all the 21st Century Learning Goals.
My aim is to work towards making the pupils more independent in creating their own response to IT and how to use it to enhance learning and developing a strategy to work with Cope Foundation to create a vegetable garden on their grounds.
To bring their projects into the world rather than just the school setting makes the learning real and effective.
https://sway.office.com/F4z6ysRn2JOx7DMv?ref=Link
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I have chosen the 21st century skill of knowledge construction. My Sway includes some links and ideas that the learners can use as a springboard for their learning.
<br style=”box-sizing: inherit;” />I plan to develop the skill of knowledge construction through the use of technology in the coming year. I might start off by using Forms to generate some feedback on the learners’ prior knowledge of the topic (e.g. Spain). I will then use the information to create a Sway which the children can open on the school laptops and work on in pairs to extend their knowledge. They will develop their skills of doing internet research, identifying reliable sources for information, how to present the information in their own words/ways etc. They can then choose their own method of presenting their knowledge, be it their own Sway, a Powerpoint etc.
I could use a knowledge construction rubric to ensure that the learning process is scaffolded and differentiated for all learners based on their ability levels. I would really try to ensure that I repeat this entire process over the year and integrate the other skills too such as collaboration, skilled communication etc.
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Hi Laura,
Knowledge construction is such an important 21st century skill and draws on numerous skills from across the 1999 curriculum. I really like your idea of using a rubric to ensure that the learning process is scaffolded and differentiated by all learners.
Research by Dylan William on formative assessment found that the reason many students fail is due to a lack of understanding of what is required of them. The provision of a rubric sets out clear expectations and allows the children to check their progress against this at various intervals.
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The 21st century skill that I have chosen is collaboration. The task that would be assigned to 5th and 6th Class would be to create a team obstacle course for all classes to complete on our Annual School Sports Day, where members of the wider school community would be present. Firstly, the pupils would generate an Excel Sheet of the equipment we have in the PE shed. Based on the equipment in the Excel Sheet, the pupils would create a Padlet or Microsoft Form to get feedback from other classes to see what activities they might like to be included in the obstacle course. The pupils would then, based on the feedback, decide what activities will be part of the obstacle course. Then the pupils would make up the obstacle course and show and explain it to the other classes. This could be presented to the other classes in the form of a Powerpoint Presentation, including photos and explanations, with the pupils presenting the Powerpoint in groups. The pupils would then collaborate with the other class teachers to decide on times and days to practice the obstacle course before Sports Day.
I feel that this module of the course will be extremely influential in my future teaching, as I will be able to refer back to the 21st century skills and their associated rubrics as I plan future lessons. The concept of lifelong learning certainly applies to us all.
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For the purposes of this course, I have chosen the skill of Knowledge Construction. What I like about this skill is that it is a very inclusive way to encourage learning – and is accessible to all students. The learners don’t need to be experts on the particular topic. The fact that it does require them to interpret, analyse, synthesise and evaluate ensures that they are engaging with the material and learning has taken place.
With such a vast and ever-growing array of information available on the internet, the acquisition of the above skill rather than the knowledge of the topic itself is arguably more valuable. Being able to identify good information sources, validate them and communicate (tell the story) is a key skill for learners.
In my Sway, I outlined the approach taken in developing the above skill which I believe to be key to learning in the 21st century.
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Hi Eamonn,
Knowledge construction is such an important skill for children to acquire and hone over their school lives. As you have said, we live in an ‘information age’, with news and information available everywhere we turn. Teaching children to use the internet in a safe and ethical manner, and be able to interrogate resources is so important. It also ties in very well with the ‘critical literacy’ learning outcome of the PLC.
I really like getting the children to use ‘DK Findout!’ to research content. This is a safe, child-friendly encyclopedia style resource. In addition to this, it is not possible to ‘copy and paste’ from the website, and as such, the children have to put what they have learned into their own words.
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The 21st century Skill I chose was collaboration focusing on working together, shared responsibility, substantive decisions and interdependent work. This skill is imperative to the classroom today and as a lifelong learning process of how to work with others cooperatively. It would be beneficial to all children to learn how to listen to others and reflect on what other information people are contributing to the group. Like the exemplar I would allow the children to focus and explore the topic of jungle animals to base research projects on. This would be integrated through literacy genres such as report writing and SESE. The children would work together to research information based on a focused animal and have to report back to the school in an engaging way. This could also be integrated into our Assembly where children could focus on “News Headlines” for whole school presentation and also with smaller groups such as peer class to engage in hands on games and activities alongside the project.
I have found in the past that as our school is a junior school often the children would require guidance to direct them to links or websites which are suited to the topic so this could be available to them upon starting their projects and therefore offers them the opportunity to make decisions about what information is most essential to present in their projects.
https://sway.office.com/K7SoZKqjFNZcvzTS?ref=Link
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The 21st Century Skill which I have chosen to focus on is the skill of collaboration. Quite frankly, it is my belief that collaboration has become somewhat of a buzzword in educational practices and the true sense of the word and the practice has been lost. Strategies such as think, pair, share and even the traditional group research projects are fantastic ways of ticking the collaboration box on a CM/planning template but in reality is true collaboration occurring? Are each of the students involved in these activities truly equally active participants in the learning experiences and activities taking place? Without explicit teaching of skills such as negotiation, problem solving, active listening, oral language presentation etc. we cannot possibly expect our students to fully engage and develop this highly valuable skill which they require for full participation in this 21st century world.
The requirement to explicitly teach and model these skills became abundantly clear to me this year with my present 5th class. One would assume at this stage in the education that they would have had the opportunity to explore and enhance their collaborative skills and meaningful collaboration would be less of a challenge for a class of this age. Unfortunately, their opportunities to develop these skills were severely hampered in 3rd and 4th class due to school closures. With the constant threat of another wave possibly forcing us to return to distance learning, I chose to make use of digital tools to develop the skill of collaboration so that even if a child was forced to self-isolate they could continue to participate meaningfully in our group reciprocal reading activities for our class novel.Students were tasked with collaboratively participating in the following tasks which combined would form their shared understanding of the chapter;
• Animator – create stop motion film based upon the events of the chapter
• Question Master – create a Kahoot! Quiz for 5th and 6th class students based on the events of the chapter
• Word Master – create a word map with new vocabulary and phrases which were presented in the chapterI supported their development of collaborative skills by
• Defining the role of each member of the reciprocal reading group using a PowerPoint presentation ensuring that I highlighted that each role was interdependent and of equal importance.
• Modelled how one would execute their role using teacher in role and recorded this using iMovie. These recordings were available to students on our class Google drive.
• Provided visual supports to scaffold the execution of the task which were presented as PDFs on class ipads but also available via the drive.
• Shadowed each group as they participated in the task
• Engaged in pupil led self-assessment using Forms to engage with a self-reflection questionnaire.
The results of pupil reflections after each RR session and my observations formed the basis of my mini-skills lesson for the next RR session. It became apparent that conflict resolution, negotiation and active listening were areas that required specific intervention. Truly engaging with this child centred approach enabled me to cater for the needs of my students and develop their ability to work collaboratively in a meaningful manner. I will be teaching this class again this year in 6th class and will continue to develop this skill bearing in mind some of the fantastic suggestions above and the suggestions outlined in the model. The rubric in particular is a very useful document which I will utilise going forward.-
Hi Emma,
Collaboration is certainly a buzz word and currently very much in vogue in education. However, as you’ve alluded to, it’s very often a check box that’s ticked without due consideration of what exactly collaboration is. I agree, one of the key questions is ascertaining are the all collaborators equally active and in reality this can’t be achieved without explicitly teaching the students other 21st century skills like problem solving, self-regulation etc. Maria Garvey at TCD has done extensive work around collaboration and cooperative learning and what strategies teachers can use to ensure real and equal collaboration is taking place. For more on Maria’s work in this area see cooperation.ie
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The skill I’m going to look at developing in my class this year is collaboration. As others have mentioned, collaboration is often referred to and included in class planning but when looked at more closely is not true collaboration.
I plan to have the children do a collaborative project with each member of the group contributing an individual piece which when all put together will complete the project. The children will work together to make substantive decisions about the topic and decide what elements of the topic each of them will be responsible for. The children will decide together how they would like to present their project. Will they use IT eg. Sway or PPT or present it a different way? I think a jigsaw technique would be really useful in this situation.Whilst the skill I will be focusing on developing is collaboration, knowledge construction and self-regulation will also be important 21st century skills that will be developed when doing project work.
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Hi everyone,
The 21st Century Skill that I have chosen is Collaboration. My Sway link is: https://sway.office.com/nYv2spPlWLadDIx0?ref=Link
The way in which I will get my class involved in a Mystery Skype project. Mystery Skype/Zoom is a 45-60 minute challenge that the class takes part in while Skyping/Zooming with another class in a school somewhere else in the world. Through only asking yes or no questions, the pupils have to use their critical thinking skills, communication skills, map-reading skills, and above all collaboration skills to guess where the other school is located (country, city, school name) before they guess your own school’s location. The class is divided into groups of 4 or 5 pupils and each pupil is assigned a role, whether that is leader, runner (they ‘run’ to the whiteboard to ask questions to the other school), a map-reader (or 2), or note-taker. It is an excellent lesson in collaboration as pupils need to collaborate and communicate effectively in order to find out the location of the school. I have done this for a long time now and my pupils have been in contact with schools from Mexico, Sweden, England, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland, USA and others. It is an amazing and free project. My pupils have really learned how to collaborate as a result.
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Hi Brendan,
Thanks for sharing this excellent lesson idea, one I had not heard of previously but one I’ll certainly be exploring more. Not only are your pupils collaborating with classmates they’re being exposed to different school cultures and communicating with peers all over the globe. Already on this forum, there has been much discussion about what real collaboration means and indeed a lot of what we categorise as collaboration isn’t really. However, here with the assignment of specific roles, you are distributing the responsibilities ensuring pupils work closely together and collaborate in the true sense.
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I have chosen Collaborative Learning as a key 21st century skill in the classroom. This is a skill that set students up and prepare them for the real world. It allows them to see that everyone has opinions and they are not all the same, it teaches them the skills from a young age to communicate and take others opinions into consideration when making decisions and coming to agreement on a topic. It is an excellent way for students to learn from each other and engage in conversations interactively. Collaborative Learning boosts children self esteem and they gain more confidence as some may be stronger on certain topics than others and it gives them to share their knowledge and then vice versa.
The aim of my SWAY presentation was to outline the ways in which collaborative learning can be undertaken in the classroom and the ways in which it is key to learning in the 21st century.
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I think collaboration is a key 21st century skill. Collaboration promotes many social skills including turning taking, listening, working together and having shared responsibility to make decisions. I believe it is an important skill as other 21st century skills such as communication, problem solving and self regulation will also benefit as a result of working together as a team and coming together to create a shared project. The you-tube video on collaboration showed how group learning could be highlighted with regards to one note and digital technology. This highlighted how collaboration and technology could cater for mixed abilities and foster learning development. The collaboration rubric and decision tree offer a great guide to assess the quality of students engagement, work and progress. The P21 framework offers a holistic approach and highlights the skills needed to succeed in life through the different content, knowledge and support systems in place.
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I choose the skill of self regulation for my lesson. This is a vital skill to learn and can be a challenge for many of my pupils as they have moderate to severe intellectual disabilities. Today we focus on turn taking. Each of the children is tasked with using a smart switch to activate a cause and effect activity online. This is a paired activity and in preparation for it the children can watch the sway created on turn taking. Page one consists of a social story reflecting the importance of turn taking and page two share a link to the popular picture book Sharing a Shell. The the children each have a turn at pressing the switch. One child is presented with switch and other is given a timer which can help him/her to wait for his/her turn. They then alternate and repeat the steps.
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The 21st century skill that I will focus on is that one of collaboration. Collaboration is so important, as a life skill, but also as it invokes all of the other skills to i.e.in order to be able to collaborate, you must be an effective communicator. Exploring the subject of volcanoes, I would give a brief introduction to volcanoes. I would then divide the class into groups and ask them to find, research and present a project on a volcano of their choosing. The groups could use Sway as a tool to present their project to the class. I particularly like how easy Sway made it to incorporate video, social media and pictures into presentations.
The project could be easily expanded on with follow up exercises for the groups to complete a design and make project, a written report and could then be easily shared with other classes and parents/guardians.
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I have chosen collaboration as I think this is a key 21st Century skill in the classroom. I think collaboration in the classroom plays a very important role in helping to support students’ critical thinking and problem solving skills. Having the collaboration rubric is a helpful guide to incorporating collaboration in the classroom and measuring the level of participation for group work. I used this as a guide when creating a sway for ways to use collaboration for STEM projects for next year in the classroom. Taking into consideration substantive decisions at the beginning of the project to decide on roles within groups. This is aimed at ensuring that there will be a level of interdependent work to help ensure all students are engaged and there is shared responsibility. Within a group for STEM activities for next year, having the opportunity for mutual responsibility for predictions and evaluations as well as working together to make substantive decisions to shape the process of their designs will help to enhance learning. The lesson plan shared in this module was a very useful step by step guide to how collaboration can be used effectively in the classroom to achieve a certain learning outcome
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Hi Orla,
I fully agree about the importance of collaboration, however it can often be used as somewhat of a ‘buzzword’. By using the collaboration rubric and ensuring that substantive decisions have to be made before and during the project, you are ensuring genuine collaboration is taking place.
It is a particularly effective skill to develop during STEM lessons. Both ‘predicting’ and ‘evaluating’ are skills of the science curriculum – often we can be guilty of placing too much focus on the content of the curriculum and negating the skills. I wish you the very best in trying out these approaches and using the collaboration rubric in your lessons next year!
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I have picked collaboration as this is an essential skill to every classroom. Working together enables students to build a rapport and construct strong social connections. Collaboration really is the key to communication and I feel it is vital in enabling pupils to find their critical voice and engaging in collaboration rubric. I work with children with Autism who experience huge deficits in social communication, therefore I feel this would be very relevant to my practice. There are many ways of using this to bring pupils together to make friends. Within the ASD class, I could perhaps group children according to their areas of interest such as space, lego and favourite colours. They could then work together in pairs to complete a project perhaps and deliver it to the class. Of course this would be a very challenging project to engage with but I feel it would be of massive benefit to the kids.
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For this module the 21st century skill I chose to focus on is collaboration as I storngly believe it is the core component of many other skills. Using sway I outlined what it entailed & expected of the children as part of this focus on collaboration. I really liked the collaboration rubric & have actually a screenshot for future reference. I place large emphasis on the “big ideas” of working together & shared responsibility. As I work with children with SEN I think I would set out a hands on project such as baking desegnating different roles to different children whereby they will then have to collobarate to produce the finsihed product e.g ingrediants list, purchasing of ingrediants, following recipie, taking photographs, recording voice overs etc.
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Hi Claire,
This is a great way to attempt to integration collaboration into your practice. It is clearly more challenging as an SET, given that some of your day may be spent with ‘one on one’ teaching.
The idea of the baking task is very good. Depending on ability, you could go a step further and allocate a budget to the groups – this will certainly allow for discussion, dialogue, disagreements and substantive decision-making as they plan for what ingredients they will prioritise and what they will make.
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The 21st century skill that I have focused on for this module is Collaboration. As many have alluded to already, collaboration is very trendy in today’s classroom, but it does often lead to one or two children taking the lead and leaving the other two or three in the group cruising through. With 6th class I enjoy giving the children a budget and having them plan a holiday for the group. This project allows for many different tasks and areas of research is necessary to successfully complete the project. The children that are stronger with numbers tend to lean towards the budgeting side, where as the children that are visual learners prefer to research activities and places to visit during their holiday.
The children will work together to create a powerpoint showcasing their holiday for the rest of the class to see. When all powerpoints have been seen, we can vote on the best holiday. I believe that this project is a great opportunity to allow for true collaboration to occur and the children can also display great ICT skills throughout the process.
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I have picked the skill of ‘Real- World, Problem Solving and Innovation’. This is an important skill for children to have as they get older and become more independent. They should be well equipped and ready for challenges that will face them in the future. In my classroom I would use this skill in a variety of lessons. I think the use of STEM challenge cards is a great way for them to work out practical problems collaboratively and come up with their own ideas and solutions. For example, one lesson that I could use is designing a raft for ‘Billy Goat’s Gruff’. In this lesson the children are faced with a predicament, Billy Goats Gruff cannot cross the river and they must design a raft that will float successfully on water using a variety of materials. In this lesson, children are problem solving, coming up with ideas and theories. They are testing and trialing different materials and also it is a great lesson for children to present their findings to others in the class. The could use ICT to present their findings on a slideshow to show what they have done. It definitely requires quite a few 21st century skills.
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<span style=”color: #163c42; font-family: ‘Hind Madurai’, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;”>I have picked collaboration as this is an essential skill in every classroom. Working together enables students to build a rapport and construct strong social connections.
This year the children focused on a European country Italy as it was our SESE topic of the month. At the beginning of the month, I used Menti where the groups were able to discuss prior knowledge of the country and share their ideas.
The children then were put into groups where they were able to research and develop a Sway presentation and a visual poster. I did not assign roles at the beginning because I wanted the children to work together and organize themselves (which worked thankfully). Each group was given an iPad or computer to conduct research and create a project which was then presented to the class. Each project was different and it was an excellent experience for them as it developed their independent work along with their IT & research skills. Using the Kiddle search engine ensured that the content was child-friendly.
At the end of their presentations, each group was given ‘two stars, and a wish and a new menti were made and we compared the two results from the beginning to the end. It was great to see the children working well together throughout the project as it can be difficult with so many different personalities coming together.
In the future, I would be interested in using ‘Minecraft Eduaction Ediition’ as a replacement for the ‘Kiddle’ research. I have seen that there is one on Ancient Egypt and the children would be more engaged with a virtual tour with given tasks eg focus on the aqueducts of Italy etc.</span>-
Hi Andreu,
Thanks for your post. Thanks for sharing your SESE activity with us and for bringing up the topic of ‘safe search engines’. Kiddle and Kidrex have long been the market leaders when it comes to child-friendly search engines. There is now a new search engine called ‘Swiggle’, which works in the same way.
The ‘Minecraft Education Edition’ is an excellent resource. Indeed, there are a number of excellent resources available for free on https://code.org/ These activities include a number of self-paced and self-directed units of work, which is an excellent guide for teachers new to coding.
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<p class=”MsoNormal”>For this module the 21st century skill I chose to focus on is collaboration as I strongly believe it is the core component of many other skills. I think when broken down collaboration enhances a range of vital skills such as communication, organisation and adaptability. Using sway I outlined what is entailed & expected of the children as part of this focus on collaboration. I really liked the collaboration rubric & have actually a screenshot for future reference. I place large emphasis on the “big ideas” of working together & shared responsibility. As I work with children with SEN I think I would set out a hands on project such as baking designating different roles to different children whereby they will then have to collaborate to produce the finished product e.g ingredients list, purchasing of ingredients, following recipe, taking photographs, recording voice overs etc. I think using book creator as we were shown by our PDST advisor I would get the children to create a book about their bake sale & the steps involved.</p>
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I chose the skill of communication. In my school, we have a large EAL population, upwards of 70%, and therefore, communication is a very important element of the entire curriculum. I think the rubric that was shared was very helpful. For us, this is particularly helpful. We may have students that may be at the first level of that rubric for quite a while, particularly if they are new arrivals, but it is great to see that we have a goal for them. It works very well with the new PLC, which also sets out rubrics for the learning intentions for communicating, we would expect to achieve in language. Rather than necessarily using certain digital platforms-which I obviously will- I honestly think the rubric will be the most beneficial aspect of this module for me, and the one I will implement in September. To be honest, sometimes digital learning can be a little bit of downtime for both teacher and students, with learning intentions not as much of a focus as structured lessons. What I really like about the rubric is that it can a be a guide to teacher, in even the simplest DL tasks or activity, to build on the communication skills of the child. I’d say I will print it out and laminate it and have it on my wall as a reference.
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The 21st century skill that I have chosen is collaboration and teamwork. The task that would be assigned to 4th 5th and 6th Class would be to create a team obstacle course for all classes to complete on our Annual School Sports Day. This is something that we do each year in our school as we encourage the senior classes to contribute to the running of our Sports Day and to help and encourage the younger children. We encourage family and friends to come to our Sports Day so the extra help is always well received and appreciated. Firstly, the pupils would generate an Excel Sheet of the equipment we have in the PE resource room. Based on the equipment in the Excel Sheet, the pupils would create a Microsoft Form to get feedback from other classes to see what activities they might like to be included in the obstacle course. This works well as we can make it fun and appealing to the children. The children will then decide what activities will be part of the obstacle course. Then the pupils would make up the obstacle course and show and explain it to the other classes. This could be presented to the other classes in the form of a Powerpoint Presentation, including photos and explanations, with the pupils presenting the Powerpoint in groups. The pupils would then collaborate with the other class teachers to decide on times and days to practice the obstacle course before Sports Day. I feel that this module of the course will be extremely influential in my future teaching, as I will be able to refer back to the 21st century skills and their associated rubrics as I plan future lessons. The concept of lifelong learning certainly applies to us all.
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The 21st Century Skill I am going to focus on will be Communication. I think given what has occurred over the past few years, with a lot of children learning from home they would really benefit from a focus on this 21st Century skill. I have found that communication is more than what we might think at first and it has expanded even more over time with the help of various technologies. Every child has an avenue to communicate now, which was not the case in the past. It provides an avenue to explore the strengths and weaknesses of different forms of communication involving face to face, virtual, oral, and written. We can see what areas children may need to work on. Communication is essentially the foundation for learning in my opinion. It is evolving too which is a great , children are not only communicated at and expected to absorb knowledge through listening. While listening is a communication skill, it is only part of the communication necessary for authentic learning to take place. Children now understand that communication is a two way street. There are now various avenues of communication which provide students different opportunities to learn while facilitating those important communication skills. A classroom that allows students to not just listen, but to reflect and communicate with teachers and other students provides a whole new scope to the standards and related learning possibilities. There are huge benefits for students. My school have mentioned making Communication a focus for next year as our EAL community is increasing, therefore I think it would be great. I have been reading others’ posts on this forum and I also agree that a rubric is a great way to develop communication skills in our students. You could start out taking a few steps with a rubric or a student reflection and see where it takes the students. From there the teacher can continue to develop the skill. I believe these assessment tools are essential in building that culture of Communication in the classroom.
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Hi Tanya,
The content of your post really speaks to the centrality of communication within human interactions. The ways in which we communicate are constantly evolving. You have listed a number of different forms of communication – this is important, as some children will be stronger at communicating through different mediums. Acknowledging that there are many ways to communicate, and embracing the use of digital technologies in this regard can only be beneficial. Teaching children how to communicate through audio recordings, videos, e-mails, etc. is very important now. Reciprocity is at the core of communication and this is the main thing we should try to get across. It is a two-way process, regardless of the medium you are using to communicate.
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For my 21st century skill, I chose communication. As teachers we deal with 21st century children everyday. These children are unlike the children I myself grew up with. They depend on technology and the digital world something amazing yet we see it also has its issues.
Children entering schools today are not as confident communicating and socializing. Having spent their early years with technology they have increased motor skills, improved problem solving and decision making but they can become isolated . failing to develop the basic communication, conversational and listening skills.
As teachers in this day and age we must strive to better our students communication skills. An example of what I do in my class is I get my students on a Monday morning to form a pair and discuss their weekends, I find this helps to further their communication skills. When doing projects students must present their projects to the class but i do understand that some students may be uncomfortable doing so so in certain circumstances they can present to a small group instead. . On occasion we play games such as the staring game (who can hold eye contact for the longest amount of time) to improve eye contact for students who may struggle to.
Communication is a key aspect of life and learning and therefore I do my best to teach it.
My Sway teaches my students how to write a speech and how to present one, speeches are a great way to develop communication skills along with confidence.
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I have chosen communication as the skill to work on as I feel it is a vital skill in order to be able to enhance the other skills mentioned. The primary language curriculum lists the skills needed to communicate very clearly and they are explained very well. The progression steps are a great way for teachers to see the expected progression for communication. Digital technology can be embedded and used to help with certain communication skills whether it be listening, looking at eye contact, gesture and body language. Communication can have many forms whether it be face to face, virtual etc. During lockdown it was essential that other forms of communication be used.
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Hi Cliona,
For its flaws (mainly centred on the rollout), the Primary Language Curriculum is actually a really useful document. I find it works very well for guiding my planning, and the progression steps available online really help you to pinpoint the stage that your children are at. Obviously, communication is a key part of this and it recognises that communication can take many forms. The ‘two-way’ reciprocity of communication is a clear and obvious focus of the LO2 from the oral language strand. Are there any specific exercises or tasks we could do to develop this skill with our classes?
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There are many activities for LO2 from the Primary Language Curriculum. LO2 is titled motivation and choice and the PDST have developed e bulletins and many of them have lots of ideas for this outcome. These e bulletins can be found at the following link: https://pdst.ie/primary/literacy/literacyathome/PLC-CTB-ebulletins
E bulletin 9 is all about motivation. As regards this outcome and using technology the oucome describes that children should be able to choosse, listen to , critically respond to and create thexts ina a range of genres. The e bulletin on critical literacy has a wide range of ideas for questioning and oral language. It explains that we need to foster a sense of curiosity in children in order to develop the children’s questioning skills and that these skills need to be explicitly taught. They have also included a great pdf with links to multimodal texts which supports the inclusion of all children in all schools. https://www.pdst.ie/sites/default/files/Developing%20Critical%20Literacy%20using%20a%20variety%20of%20texts%20%2818%29.pdf
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Before I launch into an explanation of the 21st Century skill that my Sway will encourage the pupils to develop, I would like to share an observation or two on Module 5. I had to go back and take so many notes, I feel I like my mind is brimming with newfound information! The videos were very useful for solidifying the explanation of the skills and seeing the work in action in real schools. I note that the Chekhov app looks amazing – I love that the options are split into ‘read by myself’, ‘read to me’ and ‘learn phonics’. The fact that students can record their own voices and that pupils from other classes in the classroom/school can hear local voices is surely of the highest motivation. The M8 Mindmapping function that the children from Galway used – having to include target words that their partners in the junior classroom had to practice, as well as having interviewed them to find out their likes/interests.
For my Sway, I decided to focus on collaboration. The children will work together to share knowledge and research on the theme of Global Warming. Firstly, collaboration as a whole class through the use of menti, then in small jigsaw groups, and finally as a whole class again to collaborate in the creation of a whole class Sway. The pupils will need to think about what it means to them in terms of local issues in school. Critical thinking skills in order to come up with some solutions and then contribute to a Sway in order to make a presentation to other pupils in the school.
It is still a work in progress, but my head is buzzing with the content of the module!
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I will pay particular focus to the ‘Collaboration’ element of this module in the up-coming academic year. I believe ‘collaboration’ among pupils is something which can very-much be taken for granted. We often assume pupils are able to collaborate and work effectively together. However, certain pupils can really struggle with this, and these pupils must be explicitly taught how to work with their peers. This is a key skill, which will inevitably be needed moving forward as they move into second and third-level education.
I am a sixth class teacher, and I have often engaged my students in project work. These projects have been completed using a variety of media, including paper hard-copies, ‘Powerpoint’ presentations and using ‘Sway’. I have, however, often asked my pupils to complete these projects individually. I believe pupils can be taught to work collaboratively to complete project work in groups of three or four. It is important these pupils can communicate, share responsibility, and ‘bounce’ off of each other in presenting their projects. I would very-much hope that problems may arise as the pupils complete their projects (perhaps a difference in opinion regarding the layout of the project) and that solutions can be found. These skills will undoubtedly be required later in life.
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The particular skill I am going to focus on in my classroom is ‘knowledge construction’ as I believe this is a vital skill for children throughout their whole lives and is often overlooked. Many pupils struggle with this type of critical thinking as it is not always emphasised in the classroom. The school day is so busy with many subject areas and educational outcomes to cover that as teachers we often get overwhelmed with and forget about these important skills. I would encourage the skill of ‘knowledge construction’ by providing opportunities for students to question the content, participate in conversations and develop their own opinions. I would encourage and set up opportunities for active learning within the classroom, which can be assisted greatly by technology. It is vital to set activities and assignments that are not only about knowledge retrieval but moving a step further to forming their own ideas and opinions based on this new knowledge using inferential questioning.
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I have the chosen the 21st skill of collaboration as I feel it is not only effective at a student level but at a staff level as well. The skill of collaboration is a great one to equip our students with as they will need it as they navigate through all walks of life and being able to work as part of a team and bring their best skill set to a team will be very beneficial. My sway based on the upcoming World Cup focuses on students collaborating together to create country specific profiles.
Being able to use 365 to assist in collaborative tasks and just having the skills to be able to do it through the assistance of technology not only will improve our students’ learning outcomes but it will greatly prepare them for many workforce environments in the future.
As I am often working in the senior end of the school, I feel the opportunity to create collaborative projects through the medium of sway very exciting. The topic I have chosen for my sway is the World Cup. Teaching in a boy’s school it is always something that interests and excites them and by giving students their own team/country to be responsible for and adding it to our collective project means it not only encourages them to complete their own research but work alongside their peers in pulling it all together to present it accordingly. I think beginning with a topic that interests them will mean they will be enthusiastic about creating their first Sway.
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<p class=”MsoNormal”>The area that I have chosen to work on is skilled communication.</p>
<p class=”MsoNormal”>I have chosen this skill as I think effective communication is key in the classroom. It is a foundation stone to other important skills such as collaboration and problem solving.</p>
The traits of effective communication must be taught explicitly and facilitated to provide student’s with the skills needed to communicate.Oftentimes, we are rushing through lessons and can be blinded by the ‘right answer’. Going forward, I will aim to get children to extend their communication. I will encourage children to give further explanations or illustrations when answering questions or completing tasks. One way that I hope to achieve this is using the jigsaw approach to group work. The children will research/discuss in one ‘topic’ group and then provide feedback to another (their home/base) group. Once feedback has been provided I will encourage each home group to identify further research or queries which they have on the topics. Topic groups will then re-join and collaborate and communicate with eachother to provide the required feedback to their home groups.
To encourage multimodal communication, I aim to use a mix of tools when communicating information to the children, thus leading by example. Students will complete project work and will be provided with a rubric which will be used to assess it. On this rubric there will be points awarded for multi modal communication. I would also like to create a class blog/digital newsletter for parents or other classes documenting our class learning and activities completed each month. To ensure multimodal communication children would be encouraged to submit video clips, audio clips, images and text for inclusion in the newsletter.
When students are presenting information, answering questions, giving opinions and completing tasks I will promote the use of ‘providing evidence’. I will push them to elaborate; giving reasons and justifications for their answers and opinions, both orally and in written form. I will focus initially on doing this during guided reading lessons- in particular when students are making predictions, inferring and drawing conclusions from the text.
To encourage children to communicate with a designated audience in mind, I will start during writing lessons. In my WILF I will identify the audience to the students and encourage them to identify what they must be mindful of when communicating with this audience – for example, the language used, images to include, audience specific content and topics. I love another posters idea of getting another class teacher (1st class) to speak with the students about how best to communicate with that class level. Students could study articles/video clips/ letters/ postcards aimed at various audiences and compare/contrast them.
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Hi Michelle,
Thank your for your detailed contribution here. Often, the ‘right answer’ is something that both students and teachers get consumed by. In the last SSE cycle, we looked at developing problem-solving strategies in maths. We used some of the NRICH problems, and children often could be seen to get frustrated when asked to come up with different ways of solving the same problem, or having the try different approaches. This was done to move towards a class culture where mistakes and valued and struggle is seen as productive.
In terms of working towards skilled communication, the ‘jigsaw approach’ would be very suitable. Promoting multi-modal communication and the use of a rubric is highly effective in developing this 21st century skill. Providing criteria that you’re looking for or the ‘WILF’ is important in showing the children exactly what is expected of them.
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https://sway.office.com/g5GbVNAqcXKRY8gq?ref=Link&loc=mysways
Following on from the Embed 21st Skills with 2st Century Learning Design course, the skills I chose to focus on are Collaboration and Skilled Communication. While all the skills are intertwined, I felt these applied best to the purpose of the short Sway I created.
I have worked with both JEP and Magical Leaders/ Ceannairi Draoichta with Senior classes in the past. Zeeko Magical Leaders was excellent for encouraging children to problem solve and think outside the box, essentially promoting the skills that the children will need for jobs that haven’t even been invented yet.
The Sway I created is a very short example of what I would model to the children for ‘Pitch Day’ as part of the JEP. I would like the children to use Sway to create their pitch to the Dragons and showcase their ideas as they are seeking investment in their business suggestions. I have always expected a showcase of some kind from the children but in the ‘olden days’ they would have used paper and posters, costings, expenses, projected profits and sample products- all on hand drawn/ coloured charts. Maybe some typed up information printed! Aside from it being very aesthetically pleasing to use a Sway for this purpose, it also ties in perfectly with our Greenschools by cutting down paper usage in the school.
The children would have to work collaboratively to assign roles in their team and come up with their idea. They would then need to use their Sway and Skilled Communication to gauge their audience and pitch accordingly. With the point being that they want to persuade the Dragons to choose their pitch and create change, they’ll have to use their flexible thinking to tailor their communication to their audience and essentially, to reach their goal of being chosen as the successful enterprise.
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Skill to develop: Use of ICT to develop knowledge construction
How to develop this in my classroom: It is important to allow students to use ICT directly and have control over their own ICT use. I will offer them the opportunity to use the school ipads, laptops, clevertouch, internet, online digital technology to develop knowledge construction. Children will use powerpoint or sway to create a presentation for the class on the information they have gathered. Children will use internet sources on a chosen topic to gather information. They will then in groups evaluate the credibility of this information before they select which information to use in their projects. As well as using internet sources, children can learn to use email to communicate with children in different areas of Ireland or the world depending on what information they need to gather. Children can act as designers of ICT and use office 365 or one note to share these findings and create an online record which can be made available for others to use, enjoy and learn from. In class children can share the information gathered with peers on Clevertouch whiteboard, laptops or ipads. Children will then engage in meaningful discussions, question time and peer assessment.
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Hi Aisling,
I love your approach to this activity. It is clearly rooted in 21st century learning. The use of the ‘screen share’ function of the iPad is great for the Clevertouch boards. For those using Promethean, a similar function is available if the ‘MyPromethean’ app is downloaded onto the tablets. This is also available as a Chrome extension for chromebooks. In terms of using the internet to research information, the use of child-friend search engines such as Swiggle would be recommended. In ddition to this, reliable sites like ‘DK Findout!’ and ‘Encyclopedia Britannica’ are great for research. A handy (for teachers) feature of DK Findout! is that students cannot copy and paste information across to a PowerPoint.
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<span style=”color: #000000; font-family: Arial;”><span style=”font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;”>The 21st century skill I have chosen is Collaboration. Collaboration is vital in the classroom to allow children to share thoughts and ideas with one another and to communicate with others. I believe it is important to provide children with opportunities to work collaboratively so that from a young age children learn that others may have a different view or opinion on a certain topic. To develop the skill of collaboration in my classroom, we carried out debates during the topic of persuasive writing. A motion was given and those who agreed/disagreed worked collaboratively to share their ideas and decide on 3/4 points to share during the debate. It was a great way for the children to communicate in groups and with the opposition as well as practicing speaking in front of others. </span></span>
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The 21st century skill I have chosen is Collaboration. Collaboration is vital in the classroom to allow children to share thoughts and ideas with one another and to communicate with others. I believe it is important to provide children with opportunities to work collaboratively so that from a young age children learn that others may have a different view or opinion on a certain topic. The skill of collaboration is not only essential in the classroom but in todays 21st Century also. To develop the skill of collaboration in my classroom, we carried out debates during the topic of persuasive writing in literacy. A motion was given and those who agreed/disagreed worked collaboratively to share their ideas and decide on 3/4 points to share during the debate. It was a great way for the children to communicate in groups and with the opposition as well as practicing speaking in front of others.
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This course has been an eye opener into the constant change in our classrooms especially in the last few years, it makes me excited to see where technology will bring education in the next 10 years.
I have chosen collaboration as I feel it is an important skill and a buzz word in this day and age. Going forward, I will develop this skill in my classroom by creating more group based activities like the one I have included here. I think these projects not only provide the children with a wide range of skills and leadership skills but they add a more in-depth learning outcome for the children, instead of reading from one text book and they are all absorbing one piece of information. They are learning a wider range of knowledge and learning from each other as well as researching. The satisfaction as the end of the project is much greater than answering a couple of questions and the teacher correcting them at the end.
I will create more leadership roles within my lessons to promote collaboration, I will teach the importance of working together in SPHE lessons giving the children an opportunity to discuss different scenarios where people are working together efficiently and throwing in problems and asking children how they would deal with that situation in a group setting.
Link to my Sway
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Hi Laura,
Thanks for sharing the link but unfortunately due to sharing permissions I am unable to access same. No worries, as this is an optional part of the assignment.
I agree that developing collaboration skills among our students is really important as it is an essential skill in today’s (And tomorrows) workplace. Providing your students with more leadership opportunities through collaboration and then getting them to critically analyse the effectiveness of their group work is a great way to increase awareness and in turn develop such skills.
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Apologies, hopefully this one works
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I found this module very informative and gave me a lot to think about. There was a lot of detail in this module and I certainly enjoyed seeing how other countries implement and teach these skills. Finland in particular really impressed me. The skill I decided to focus on was Collaboration and Skilled Communication.
I taught 6th class this year and we engaged with the Junior Entrepreneur Programme and will be doing this again next year. The SWAY I produced outlines all the information I want them to engage in the process. Please see below:
This programme fits the skills of working collaboratively and skilled communication very effectively and the children would work in groups to work together to achieve a common goal. They would need to use effective communication to pitch their idea to the ‘dragons’. Working as a team is pivotal in a classroom and one which I place a lot of emphasis on. This module really brought that home to me.
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I have chosen ‘knowledge construction’ as my 21st centaury skill to develop. The rubric is very easy to follow and I think my teaching could benefit greatly from developing this skill.
I would say the vast majority of the activities I plan fall under the 2nd criterion. I have always thought that I plan ‘deeper thinking’ activities but I understand now it is only surface level. The next step that I plan to take for this is to plan activities that include the students applying their knowledge in a new context. I know that if I aim higher than that at this time I may struggle so I am hoping to move along the criteria to get all the way to level 5.
I am planning to flip my teaching on its head. Encouraging a lot more collaboration, independent thinking and inviting students’ opinions more. The ability to let go of control of the direction a lesson is going is vital – if students are probing and taking a lesson down a different route it is important to identify if this is going to be beneficial and then run with it. Encourage and allow the children to lead the lesson and apply their knowledge to finding out more about what we are learning. I know from experience that this will be my biggest challenge and this is something I have to work on so that I can help the students to develop their 21st Centaury skills along with my own.
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<span style=”color: #163c42; font-family: Hind Madurai, sans-serif;”><span style=”font-size: 12px;”>The 21st Century Skill I am going to focus on is Real life problem solving and innovation. </span></span><span style=”color: #163c42; font-family: ‘Hind Madurai’, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;”>I believe that we teachers are often guilty of spoon feeding students with information to the point that they are no longer able to solve problems for themselves or understand the steps involved in figuring out how to solve simple mistakes and failures in the 21st century world.</span>
<span style=”color: #163c42; font-family: ‘Hind Madurai’, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;”>21st century learning is very much edging towards a student led approach to learning so that skills can be easily transferred into their everyday lives. Teachers are given the opportunity to tweak the traditional classroom environment and focus on trying new strategies in the classroom to meet learning objectives. Its fresh, free and fun for all involved in the process.</span>
<span style=”color: #163c42; font-family: ‘Hind Madurai’, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;”>The real life problem solving element encourages pupils to view their lessons, projects and overall school based activities as relevant and realistic. Innovation is at its peak and personal pupil development thrives so that they are enabled to survive in the ever evolving 21st century world.</span>
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For the purposes of this module, the 21st century skill that I choose to discuss is Use of ICT for Learning. There are endless possible opportunities for this in the classroom. Some resources and applications that I have used previous have been Forms, Seesaw, Powerpoint, online learning resources for Over The Moon, Bua na Cainte etc. As educators we need to prepare students and pupils to live and work in the 21st century . We need to design learning opportunities to take into account of this. In our school all pupils have the opportunity to use ICT. We have a large number of ipads available to the children. All classrooms have IWB also. Teachers are constantly building on the puils’ ICT knowledge and competence. Pupils are also given the opportunity to create an ICT product. I look forward to sharing my new knowledge on Digital Learning. We are a school who wish to develop ICT.
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Hi Patrice,
It’s clear that you expose your students to plenty of different ICT’s in the classroom. Designing learning opportunities that enable our students to work as problem-solvers, knowledge constructors, etc. is the key. I think we need to move away from the passive use of digital technologies to a more active use. Essentially pupils would be creating content rather than consuming content with digital technologies. Having such a god base will stand you in good stead when attempting to plan for and design these learning experiences.
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I choose the skill collaboration as I believe its an important skill for learning as well as a skill they will use for life. Before I would dive in to collaboration I would teach the skill and model it first. My Sway lesson would talk the children through collaboration and provide plenty opportunities for Think, Pair, Share! Children will be prompted to discuss what is collaboration, why is it important, what jobs use collaboration and how we could use it in the class. Small tasks of collaboration will be provided for them e.g. puzzles, to get them used to working collaboratively with others. I also believe it’s important to discuss the dos and don’ts of collaboration. E.g. What does good collaboration look like/ what does bad collaboration look like.
When the ground work is set I would begin lessons that are primarily about collaboration allowing them to use what they have been taught. One of my favorite lesson is a collaborative digital story lesson, children will collaborate in twos and threes to plan a narrative story. They must work together and when they have chosen a title, storyline, plot, setting and characters they will film the story using imovie or Stopmotion. They are always delighted with the result and it a great process to encourage collaboration. I also love collaborative story writing in pairs. It always produces some wonderful stories and the children enjoy the lesson.
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Hi Patricia,
I think you touch on a very important point here when you speak about modelling the skill. It is somewhat naïve to think that the skill would just come naturally to children, and therefore modelling and covering of specific teaching points is of utmost importance. Gradually releasing different levels of responsibility and gradually increasing the intensive of the collaboration is also important. You have alluded to this in your post when speaking about ‘Think, Pair, Share’ and talk and discussion around what good/bad collaboration looks like.
The collaborative digital story you have mentioned sounds like a lovely idea and would certainly build on the ground work you have carried out, whilst also developing a 21st century skill.
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I chose collaboration as my key skill. Collaboration is always a great skill to work on, and especially when working with kids with ASD as it is something they find quite difficult at times within the classroom. It is also a skill that they will use in their everyday dealings with people outside the school setting.
As part of their Junior Cycle they have to complete a short course. We chose ‘Grow it, Cook it, Eat it’ as our first of two short courses. Within that there is a strand which involves growing veg that can be eaten. This is a perfect chance for the students to collaborate, not just in the physical task of planting, but in deciding what veg will be sown, researching when and where the plants should be sown, buying the seed, caring for the plants and the harvest of the plants.
Below is a link to a sway project which concentrates on a short course area my students are working on. This particular lesson concentrates on sowing potatoes and caring for them until harvest time.
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It is so important that ths skills are embedded and not just seen as a passing interest. I have chosen collaboration and using the rubric like Quinn’s PS in Australia they get to be responsible for each of their actions, they each get a turn as the co-ordinator and leader to make sure each one of them are equally responsible and have equal tasks. My main aim will have to be making sure that each child has fair use of technology to complete their projects together. We cannot presume that all children have equal access to technology once they leave the classroom and return home so we need to support them when using technology in the classroom that they all have equal roles without discrimination due to lack of IT knowledge at home. How exciting to give them the responsible decisions but the interdependence as they work as a group to complete the project. It will be carefully monitored so the dominant children make sure they give chance to each child no matter their level.
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The 21st Century skill that I have chosen to focus on in my sway is collaboration. After completing this module I thought about how collaboration is not just paired or group work. It is often the case that a teacher sets a ‘collaborative’ activity. However, when the teacher observes the pupils at work, it is often the case that one person is leading or indeed completing the work independently. This can be for a number or reasons. Some children may not have the confidence or ability to participate in the same level as their peers. Some children may also want the task completed in their own way. There can be a wealth of reasons for this occurrence.
I therefore feel that it is important to teach the 21st century skill of collaboration firstly by modelling in a whole class situation, then by moving to paired work and finally to group work. I have focused on collaborative learning in my lesson but I also feel like many of the other skills are interlinked.
I have chosen to focus on using comprehension strategies in literacy to demonstrate how I would give children the opportunity to use 21st Century skills. The strategies I will ask children to use and focus on will include making predictions, making connections, visualisation and questioning. These skills will be taught explicitly and modelled prior to this lesson. Children will have engaged in similar activities in pairs before embarking on using the 21st century skill of collaboration in a group.
Children will be given a book which they will read together in their group. Children will take turns at reading a part of the book.
Prior to reading the book children will each decide which comprehension strategy role that they will carry out. Children then use these comprehension strategies throughout the book. Each child using their specific strategy throughout.
Children spend some time planning how to implement and use the comprehension strategies.
Children sit in groups and carry out the activities. Teacher will observe the collaborative work to insure that children are working interdependently and making substantiated decisions.
Children reread the book . This time discussing vocabulary and summarising.
After completing this task, children can discuss how they would make a presentation showing their understanding of the book. This could be by making a PowerPoint presentation, making a newspaper of articles that children plan and write together etc
This finished project can then be presented to the class.
These activities would be carried out over a period of time but I feel that they would allow children to practice working collaboratively.
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Looking at teaching and learning through the lens of 21st Century Skills is very interesting and is an enlightening way to frame lessons. 21st Century Skills are skills that are important to have moving through life and that would be extremely beneficial to all to be competent in.
I chose the collaboration skill as I feel it is a huge life skill that students will draw from again and again throughout school and their adult life. It is a skill that will help the student value others’ opinions, to listen to others and to work effectively as part of a team.
Microsoft teams and OneNote are programs that I could use in the classroom to encourage students to engage with each other on projects and to work collaboratively. It is a very important skill to learn that not everyone looks at things the same way as you and indeed others can come from a very different viewpoint. This is important not only to realise but to accept and work with. Teams and OneNote encourage the students to take ownership of their work and work together to achieve the task at hand.
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Skill: Collaboration
Lesson type: Jigsaw lesson based on Italy.
For this lesson the children will be placed in four ability based groups known as a ‘Expert Groups’. Each Expert Group will be given a link in Teams Assignments to a text based on a topic relating to Italy – Italian Food, Italian Geography, Italy – Map and General Information, Landmarks: The Leaning Tower of Pisa. These texts will reflect the ability of each group and Immersive Reading can be used for less able students to access any difficult content (picture dictionary or text to speech) and/or the text can be pre-taught by their SET teacher. Each group will be given 10 mins to read/discuss/highlight/record key information on their topic. They must decide this as a group as this will be the information passed on to other groups later. Following this each member of the expert group will be reassigned to a ‘Home Group’ – each home group will contain at least one expert from each of the expert groups. Each expert will then be given 3 minutes each to teach the ‘Home Group’ about their topic. The ‘Home Group’ will then create a Sway presentation based on Italy using the information they have learned from each other – they MUST include information on each topic. A series of these style lessons could be used to learn about other Italian landmarks/geographical features/famous people etc.
The link below is for a Sway presentation that can be used to explain Jigsaw lessons to your class.
Link:
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In my experience, children learn to respect others and to control their emotions through collaboration. In the early formative years, I recognise the importance of teaching children to be collaborative learners through play. I plan to focus on role-playing different scenarios with children, for example “What if your friend doesn’t want to share his toys with you? and what would you do?” providing many opportunities to teach about collaboration and show how people must work together towards a collective goal. In the past, I have observed that when children are given the freedom to engage in free play together, it helps them learn how to work well with others, make decisions, and solve problems. I plan to focus on using floor puzzles and provide opportunity for the children to work towards a “team goal”. It is my hope that this will continue to foster and better prepare children to cooperate with their friends, resolve conflicts, and build and maintain friendships in a meaningful way.
SWAY Link: https://sway.office.com/I1vvyVcBBCjlLfBx?ref=Link-
Hi Claire,
Thank you for sharing your Sway outlining how you would promote collaboration in junior infants. Providing the children with ‘what if?’ scenarios is a great way of promoting talk and discussion and a critical approach to their thoughts. This is particularly important in the infant classes. As you said, working together allows children to partake in decision making, problem-solving and turn taking. These are all important elements of the 21st century skills of both collaboration and skilled communication.
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<span style=”color: #163c42; font-family: ‘Hind Madurai’, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;”>Write a reflective piece (150 words minimum) as a reply to this post on how you are going to focus on developing the particular skill in your classroom. Include a sharing link to the Sway you have created above (Optional)</span>
The 21st century skill i have chosen to focus on is collaboration. Collaboration is a soft skill that is not being utilized enough in the classroom. It has to be modelled correctly for children to understand it’s benefit. No matter what walk of life or job you have, having the ability to collaborate on a project or task is absolutely vital.
I have implemented a collaboration project in the past with my classes at the end of reading a class novel. AS a teacher, i enjoy the level of engagement i get from the class when reading a novel over several weeks. Having learned it in college, we set up groups of 4 to collaborate together on creating a project based on the novel that they have just read.
The 4 roles are; artful artist, summariser, connector and word wizard. The artist creates an image they encapitulates what the book is about. The summariser writes an interesting summary of the book, the connector connects the book to other texts, to themselves (in the group) and to the world, the word wizard picks unknown or special words they came across that required new learning for them to find out the meaning.
I can envisage such a project being created using Sway as all the tools needed are available on it.
I liked the idea of the rubric for assessment in the last module. I would use the rubric as a means for differentation among the various additional academic needs that exist within the classroom.
There is many things that need to be scaffolded for the groups when collaborating on such projects e.g. deciding who does what role = making accomodations and compromises. However, the many ups and downs of collaborative group work exist for adults as they do for children and it is an important life skill to have in the 21st century. Showcasing different means of working together could be as simple as; allowing one person to have the final decision on one aspect of the project but it changes person on the next so that the students feel there is a sharing of responsibiliy among the group.
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Hi Shane,
Thank you so much for sharing this activity. I can see myself using it with my own class next year. I am often looking to find activities to do based in a novel – very often I find myself stuck in a rut of assignment comprehension questions, character profiles, etc. and motivation among the students wanes over time. However, this activity is just fantastic and has the added bonus of touching on a number of 21st century skills.
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The skill I have chosen to focus on is ‘Real World Problems and Innovation’. I have selected this skill as I feel problem solving skills are invaluable in today’s world. Promoting problem solving skills and the ability to be innovative encourages children to observe, judge and make decisions. These skills help ensure children are well-equipped and ready for challenges that will face them in the future and also help to promote resilience.
In my class I enjoy using STEM challenges or activities to promote problem solving and innovation. I find STEM cards in particular a really fun, active and child-friendly activity that encompasses these skills. In the past with younger classes, I have used story books as a way to pose STEM challenges for younger children. Last year with Senior Infants, we read a story about a bear who got stuck in the rain. I posed a challenge to the children that they had to design and make a raincoat for the teddy bear using old scrap materials. Children working in small groups using a variety of materials to make raincoats. As the activity began, different children were met with different issues e.g. connecting two pieces of material together. At moments like this I encouraged children to explore different options and in some cases prompted them to arrive at solutions independently. I felt an activity like this really allowed for high quality learning experiences to take place. Using STEM challenges in this way is a really fantastic way to promote problem solving skills and innovation in an age- appropriate way.
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The Collaboration Rubric and decision tree are very beneficial when looking at, implementing and teaching the 21st century skills. This is a great learning experience for myself and an excellent resource, which I have saved, to look back on to promote greater teaching and learning outcomes in my classroom. As I have previously explained in earlier modules, I will be teaching Junior Infants in September, this will be my fourth consecutive year teaching them. The skill that really stood out for me is Collaboration, as in the early years this is a skill that is continuously modelled for the children and encouraged during the school day, particularly during child-led play (Aistear). Collaboration enables respectful, strong relationships where the children listen to each other and acknowledge their own emotions and those of their peers. For example, the children take on a new role in the socio-dramatic area and work together to engage in the play associated with the theme (shop, restaurant, home corner, etc.) . The children also need to take turns and work together to create this make believe scenario. If one child is unhappy with the role they are enacting, they work together to ensure they are taking turns and are all having a fair play experience, experiencing each role. They collaborate to steer the role play in various directions and listen to one another’s viewpoints. It enables them to become good problem solvers, make decisions as a group and work together as a team. The children become accustomed to sharing classroom responsibilities: tidying up, etc. and they are encouraged to work together, as a team; everyone must be involved. This is one example of collaboration in the Junior Infant classroom, however, it is prominent in all aspects and areas of the Aistear programme. Without collaboration, children would not be able to successfully play together and build long lasting relationships.
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Hi Mary,
The decision tree and rubrics for each of the 21st century skills are excellent resources to have to refer to. Within the infant classes, Aistear is the perfect way in which to incorporate and develop 21st century skills. The reciprocal two-way conversations and turn-taking that Aistear promotes all feed into the skill of collaboration and skilled communication. The activity you have described sounds like it would be excellent for developing these skills.
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I am going to improve collaboration.
This is an example of how I would improve Collaboration in most SESE topics.
I would start with a KWL on one note similar to Paula’s lesson. We would then start learning about the topic and children could add to the KWL as they go. We could record whole class notes on one note. Flip grid could also be used for the kids to ask or answer discovery questions. They could complete at project at the end using on note to collect the info and sway to create the presentation.
We, like others, use literacy roles in our classroom. I find in the senior classes these can be harder to be effective. However by having a shared document I think this would become way more effective. Children could create their project on one note or something similar and present their information to the group. The children will be able to use these shared ideas to further understand the novels they are reading.
The benefit I see in using digital formats for collaboration in group work is I feel it gives more accountability for each member of the team to contribute and ‘pull their weight’. Often when written one person gets stuck with the majority of the writing, one with the art and the rest offer advice- however now everyone can have equal involvement in a project.
I saw someone mention book creator in a post. This would also be a very fun way to collaborate during a narrative writing module.
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I decided to create a sway on the World Cup 2022 & have chosen the collaboration skill, as I feel it plays a very important role in the classroom and helps students prepare for the future. Working as a team and interdependently is a key life skill to have. Understanding collaboration is giving suggestions and listening to others and then deciding as a team what’s the best course of action to take. Just because someone has a different idea to yours, doesn’t mean that they’re brighter than you or that you’re brighter than them, it’s the eventual realisation that others have different ideas to yours. Collaboration means that everyone contributes and students need to be brave and speak up when they have an idea. This can sometimes take a lot of time, but it is so worth it when the “quiet child” suddenly starts contributing more. Collaborative learning promotes so many skills, but confidence building and self-esteem, to me, are the most important ones.
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Hi Michelle,
I think you have really create an excellent activity around a subject that will be so topic during the first term of next year. Using an event like this as a stimulus for delving deeper into the geographical and sociological study of an area is so effective. I really like the design of the Sway you attached also. Given that I’ll be teaching a senior class in an all-boys’ school, I plan on using the World Cup as a key theme throughout November and December.
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I have decided to focus my attention on the 21st Century skill of ‘Use of ICT for Learning.’ I am occasionally guilty of allowing students to be passive consumers of ICT whilst teaching a topic in my classroom. It can be all too easy to just present a Powerpoint to the class and allow for a more traditional approach of question and answers. I think to really gain value from this course we should try to implement aspects of it as much as possible in our classrooms within reason. Not every lesson can be a fun filled exploration of ICT but those that allow for creativity in that area should be given time dedicated to this enjoyable way of learning.
I hope to use Podcasting as a means for students to create audio and digital files to retell some of the key aspects of ancient civilisations. They can conduct this through teams and upload the files to stream for access.
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I decided to create a sway on the World Cup 2022 & have chosen the collaboration skill, as I feel it plays a very important role in the classroom and helps students prepare for the future. Working as a team and interdependently is a key life skill to have. Understanding collaboration is giving suggestions and listening to others and then deciding as a team what’s the best course of action to take. Just because someone has a different idea to yours, doesn’t mean that they’re brighter than you or that you’re brighter than them, it’s the eventual realisation that others have different ideas to yours. Collaboration means that everyone contributes and students need to be brave and speak up when they have an idea. This can sometimes take a lot of time, but it is so worth it when the “quiet child” suddenly starts contributing more. Collaborative learning promotes so many skills, but confidence building and self-esteem, to me, are the most important ones.
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<p style=”box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #163c42; font-family: ‘Hind Madurai’, sans-serif;”>For this module I have chosen to work on the 21st Century skill of Self regulation</p>
<p style=”box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #163c42; font-family: ‘Hind Madurai’, sans-serif;”>As a primary teacher i have noticed that children just arrive in to school do as asked or told by teacher but do not take control of their own work or direct their work to their interests. Often times we work on projects and children shy to offer opinions or develop their project. Its just a school project and they are not fully committed.</p>
I work as a junior infant teacher. I think that even at this young age children can be encouraged and take ownership of their own work.My project for them would be that each child would write a send a Christmas card home. We ass a class at their level would plan out the different steps of work to be done, Talk abut the materials needed stamps, envelopes etc.
Allow the children to assign jobs. Ring the office to ask for stamps, call to principals for envelopes etc.
Teacher could ask children about what they would like to write.
Encourage children to compose a list of suitable phrases. Allow children to practise writing on whiteboards or in roleplay post office.
<p style=”box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #163c42; font-family: ‘Hind Madurai’, sans-serif;”>As with aistear curriculum for infatns teacehr guides the topic but allows children to extend and add to topic as they wish. I love when children ask fora colour or sticker they want or like r need glue or scissors to complete something. I think as an infant teacehr its very important to allow their ideas and imagination wander.</p>
Sometimes we have rigid ideas of an outcome and we the adults can inhibit the children taking control or allowing self regulating to take place. -
For me I have chosen communication as my 21st century skill and my Sway. I work with SEN children and found creating a simple Sway a lovely way to introduce myself to my new children in September. SEN children by there very nature find it harder to communicate. I found this course to have some very useful tips from sway, to one note, to forms (more for SSE though than working with SEN). I look forward to seeing some Sway presentations from my children which i plan to set as tasks and use as a form of assessment.
There is huge scope to use ICT to help our SEN children communicate better both independently and as a group. I envisage using ICT in my numeracy lessons which focus on living maths (money, time, etc) as I can design my lessons with my students in mind and make for example a Sway to suit the stand or concept. I can see ICT as an extension of my SEN children’s’ ability to communicate with me and their peers. I focus alot on social skills and ICT opens up a plethora of resources to help teach good, safe social skills and social stories.
I found the Forms tool very informative and plan to use it in September as part of our SSE into Handwriting. I think it’s a great way to collect information that can be shared easily with staff, parents and children. The more information on something we have which involves change, the better prepared people are to work towards that change. One Note and Forms are a very good way to communicate and collate ideas and information.</p>
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Module Five
For the purposes of this module, the 21st century skill that I choose to discuss is Use of ICT for Learning. Working with students with special educational needs I am constantly looking for ways to allow them to show their true potential with the help of ICT. So many of my students have dyslexia and have difficulty with reading and writing. This course has opened a whole new world for me of tools and Apps that will be invaluable for some of the students I work with. Using Sway, myself for the first time here I can see how easily it will help students create interesting presentations that are engaging and informative. I also have learned through this module the many tools in Microsoft that can assist students and promote inclusivity of which I was not aware. For example, the advantages of using the Immersive Reader with students who have reading difficulties are huge.
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The 21st century skill I have chosen for this task is collaboration. While doing activities such as think pair share encourage collaboration, it often doesn’t occur. In school I am in charge of ensuring that we maintain our active flag. Next year, I will get my class to set up sports week. They will have to collaborate and communicate effectively to ensure things run smoothly. They will have to use Microsoft to make timetables and a map of all the pitches and stations. The children will work together, share responsibility, work interdependently and make decisions together. Students that work together will learn and recognize that others don’t always share their opinions. Students will discover that they often have ideas that are different to those of others when they engage in more and more collaborative activities. It is imperative that you, as a teacher, encourage your pupils to view themselves through their peers’ eyes.
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The skill I would like to develop in my class in this year is collaboration. It is an essential life skill and one children will require going forward in their education and work life. Mostly my collaborative work has been in written form using paper reflecting on this it is easy for one or two children to take the lead and let the two others for example in the group sit back. However, by using platforms such as sway and one note I believe it will keep the children engaged and occupied. I created a European country study on sway. I would assign each child a topic to study based on that country for example Italy- food, famous people, tourist attractions, climate. Each child would then have to work within their groups to create a sway. They could store the information on one note also. I am looking forward to trying some new ways of developing collaboration skills.
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Hi Laura,
As you have pointed out, collaboration is a crucial life skill and one that the children in our classes will require throughout their working lives. As teachers, we can see the value of it on a daily basis. Collaboration can often be a buzz word that involves multiple people working independently at the same table. This is not true collaboration – the integration of digital technology can help transform this into a truly collaborative activity with shared decision making and responsibility. The rubrics provided in this module are an excellent resource to guide us in designing these learning experiences.
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Module 5
<p class=”MsoNormal”>I found this module particularly interesting as I feel it is so important to prepare our student not just academically for the world ahead of them. The 21<sup>st</sup> Century skills that attracted me most was Real World Problem Solving and Innovation. Thinking on how I can develop this is in my school immediately I think on the school council. Last year I had the opportunity to set up a school council and I loved watching the children come up with their own ideas and plan events. I feel that on many occasions the students were problem solving for example they organised a Christmas Market and they came up with the list of products needed etc and with my supervision they introduced themselves to the local shops/ cafes while looking for sponsorship. They need more opportunities for experiences like this.</p>
<p class=”MsoNormal”>While I always did try to let the children lead the way I feel that it is important that I allow them more time to implement their own ideas and carry out their own ideas and recognise that they are having an impact of their community.</p>
<p class=”MsoNormal”>Real World problem solving will be adapted to all areas of life and it is a skill that should be developed and appreciated.</p>-
Hi Kathleen,
There is certainly a premium on real world problem-solving and innovation. It is probably one of the 21st century skills that is most relevant but most difficult to obtain. The context of the problem is the all important factor. Once it is rooted in something relevant to the lives of the children / the locality, it becomes much easier. The Christmas Market activity sounds like an activity that could really touch on this. There is so much cross-curricular learning and preparing speeches for securing sponsorship, etc. is a very important literacy skill. Within the activity, you are also hitting on the skills of collaboration and skilled communication.
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<p class=”MsoNormal”><span lang=”EN-GB” style=”mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;”>I have chosen to focus on the skill of collaboration because as a 6<sup>th</sup> class teacher, a lot of my lessons include collaboration. The lessons include pair work and group work and I also collaborate with other class levels at times too. Even though a lot of my lessons include collaboration, I think it will be important going forward to explicitly teach what the skill of collaboration is and what it means to work collaboratively. In order to develop this skill in my classroom going forward, I will ensure I teach to children about the 4 big ideas of collaboration: 1. Working together, 2. Shared responsibility, 3. Substantive decisions, 4. Interdependent work. The children will already be quite familiar with the ideas of working together and shared responsibility. However, teaching them explicitly about what substantive decisions and interdependent work both are will be very important. I will also ensure that when we are completing big collaborative works like a group project for instance, to give the children the time to make decisions together and to plan together throughout the process of the project making.</span></p>
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The 21st century skill I have chose is collaboration as I feel if we help the children to develop this skill it will be hugely beneficial to them going forward in any walk of life. It is something that I have always been wary of in my classroom to allow the children to work with as many of their classmates as possible throughout the days and weeks they are in class. I tend to move seats and change their partners every Monday morning. I feel this has its benefits in terms of classroom management but also in terms of allowing different personalities interact with one another.
In our school we are fortunate to have slots for team teaching so we do a lot of work on a smaller group basis so this allows us to be closer to these group work situations and foster the skills of collaboration. It can also allow those children who may be reluctant to show their voice in a large class setting to have more of a input and improve their confidence in getting involved. I have found that when children have worked with all different types of personalities in their class they can adapt and learn how best to use their own voice and put forward their own ideas.
The opportunity to allow these small groups to put together a sway to give an example of their highlight of the summer to share with their classmates is an excellent way to see this collaboration in action. They can help each other with ideas of how to present it and design their slide. The overall theme could be a group decision and everyone’s highlight would be given equal focus. It is also a chance for them to showcase an aspect of their own personality to their classmates. Throughout the forum I have seen so many great ideas in terms of collaboration and communication that would help any classroom going forward.
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I had posted my reply earlier but it seems to have disappeared so apologies for the abridged version here.
The skill I selected was Collaboration, because I feel like it is an area that has been lacking in classes that I have taught recently. I have found that when given collaborative work there tends to be a leader that takes over and delegates all the tasks to the others, which can be a source of conflict. I have also found that groups break off and do their own work without linking together for the final project and some things get duplicated. There is also a tendency for the more introverted students to be given a back seat role which can lead to them working alone or not engaging at all as they can be reluctant to speak up for themselves when it comes time for deciding roles.
My Sway project centres around a Day in the Life on the Titanic, where I would like the children to explore what it was like to have been on the ship, while taking into account the different experiences of passengers in the different classes and also crew members.
There is a certain amount of creative freedom for the children to explore different mediums in how to present their work as a group but the children are all assigned a person from the Titanic Passenger list, and all passengers must be represented to ensure that the children’s work is interdependent.
The final projects (4 groups representing 1st Class, 2nd Class, 3rd Class and Crew) could be delivered with a variety of methods including letters from the ship, diary entries, video interviews (with the children in role) and using Sway or Powerpoint on tablets.
The children would be expected to engage in research and record interviews in groups but there would also be room for independent work in terms of writing letters and deciding themselves how best to represent the passenger that they have been assigned.
I found myself constantly referring back to the rubric, to ensure that the children would get the most out of the collaborative project. This has helped me understand where some of my previous collaborative lessons could have been improved, especially regarding the interdependent aspect of the project.
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The 21st Century Skill that I decided to focus on is Collaboration. It’s an area that I have found that my students have struggled with in the past. When assigned group work, a number of things tend to happen.
– A leader takes over. This tends to be the loudest or most confident in the group. The assign roles to others, keeping the “best” role for themselves. The other children in the group who wanted this role get disgruntled and arguments ensue.
– The group breaks up into smaller groups. 2 or more”leaders” get their closest friends in the group and break up into smaller groups. Instead of 1 complete project you end up with 2 or more smaller less complete projects.
– Students who don’t enjoy group work get isolated and either work alone or don’t engage with the activity.
I found the rubric very helpful in terms of rethinking my own practices in assigning Collaborative Work. On reflection the projects that I was assigning did not require the students work to be interdependent, which meant that the students didn’t feel the need to work as one big group.
When I was planning my Collaborative Lesson and using Sway, I found myself referring back to the Rubric constantly to ensure that the students would get the most out of the Collaborative side of the lesson.
There is freedom for Independent work in terms of research or letter writing. Paired and Group work with Interviews using the class camera or deciding the layout and design of a Sway Project,
There is creative freedom for the project as they are free to present their facts in any medium they want. The children must decide as a group what way their information is going to be represented, what roles each child will play in the presentation (researchers, camera people, artists).
Ultimately the work is interdependent because each child is representing a passenger and their story must be told in the final project, whether it is in a letter written by the child, an interview in role or a slide in a sway project.
http://Collaboration Project – A Day on the Titanic. Go to this Sway
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I had posted my reply earlier but it seems to have disappeared so apologies for the abridged version here.
The skill I selected was Collaboration, because I feel like it is an area that has been lacking in classes that I have taught recently. I have found that when given collaborative work there tends to be a leader that takes over and delegates all the tasks to the others, which can be a source of conflict. I have also found that groups break off and do their own work without linking together for the final project and some things get duplicated. There is also a tendency for the more introverted students to be given a back seat role which can lead to them working alone or not engaging at all as they can be reluctant to speak up for themselves when it comes time for deciding roles.
My Sway project centres around a Day in the Life on the Titanic, where I would like the children to explore what it was like to have been on the ship, while taking into account the different experiences of passengers in the different classes and also crew members.
There is a certain amount of creative freedom for the children to explore different mediums in how to present their work as a group but the children are all assigned a person from the Titanic Passenger list, and all passengers must be represented to ensure that the children’s work is interdependent.
The final projects (4 groups representing 1st Class, 2nd Class, 3rd Class and Crew) could be delivered with a variety of methods including letters from the ship, diary entries, video interviews (with the children in role) and using Sway or Powerpoint on tablets.
The children would be expected to engage in research and record interviews in groups but there would also be room for independent work in terms of writing letters and deciding themselves how best to represent the passenger that they have been assigned.
I found myself constantly referring back to the rubric, to ensure that the children would get the most out of the collaborative project. This has helped me understand where some of my previous collaborative lessons could have been improved, especially regarding the interdependent aspect of the project.
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<span style=”color: #163c42; font-family: ‘Hind Madurai’, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;”>I had posted my reply earlier but it seems to have disappeared so apologies for the abridged version here.</span>
<p class=”MsoNormal” style=”margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline;”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext; background: white;”>The skill that I will focus on is the use of ICT for learning using Sway. </span><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”>Sway is a presentation and communication tool included within Office 365. It can be used by students to present information on Sitting Bull. <span style=”color: #222222;”>I will encourage students to take an active role in their learning of Sitting Bull through it’s use</span>. Sway will help students focus on a visual informative presentation. Children will use Microsoft sway’s features such as images, videos, audio recordings and text on Sitting Bull. This will add some level of interactivity and allow students to express ideas in new ways. <span style=”color: #222222;”>As a result students will be motivated to learn more efficiently and be more engaged and demonstrate higher participation in learning. </span></span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; color: #222222; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”> </span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; color: #222222; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”>I would integrate Sway into learning </span><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; color: #222222;”>using cross curricular subjects</span><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; color: #222222; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”> and topics. This would lead to better engagement. Children with different learning styles are catered for as ICT is visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic. With Sway work and expectations can be differentiated for various learners.</span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; color: #222222;”>W<span style=”background: white;”>ith my 4th class. I would develop ICT learning through History cross curricular with Literacy and Art . I would extend the lesson over a few weeks with particular emphasis on a key question each week. The class will discuss the project work as outlined in the learning objectives shown on the interactive whiteboard.</span></span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; color: #222222; background: white;”> </span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; color: #222222;”>Learning objectives are:
<span style=”background: white;”>a. Create a project based on Sitting Bull through research and<span style=”mso-spacerun: yes;”> </span>discussion of findings. </span>
<span style=”background: white;”>b. Design and make a poster to visually represent ideas of Sitting Bull. </span>
<span style=”background: white;”>d. Present their information and findings to the class using Sway </span>
<span style=”background: white;”>c) Completion and feedback: by discussing each presentation heard, their similarities and differences and assess them using two stars and a wish, with feedback from each of the other groups.</span><br style=”mso-special-character: line-break;” /><!– [if !supportLineBreakNewLine]–><br style=”mso-special-character: line-break;” /><!–[endif]–></span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; color: #222222; background: white;”>Activity: </span></p>
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<span style=”background: white;”>Most of the work in the lesson will be completed by using their school iPads.</span>
<span style=”background: white;”>I will ensure that the lesson is inclusive with all pupils having a role to play in each of their groups that is challenging enough for their abilities. I will make available necessary devices or apps for all pupils to fully engage in the activities, e.g., allow pupils to use online tools and apps to record their work.</span> <span style=”background: white;”>A lot of the content in this lesson comes from the pupils themselves and their experiences of being online. </span><br style=”mso-special-character: line-break;” /><!– [if !supportLineBreakNewLine]–><br style=”mso-special-character: line-break;” /><!–[endif]–></span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; color: #222222; background: white;”><span style=”mso-spacerun: yes;”> </span>Key questions for Project are as follows: </span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; color: #222222; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”> </span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; color: #333333; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”>Week 1 – Who was Sitting Bull ?</span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; color: #333333; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”>Through class discussion using a mind / word map, children will state what they already know about sitting bull stating key words. </span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; color: #333333; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”>Pupils will be shown a video clip of Sitting Bull on YouTube from the history channel. Pupils will then be shown images of Sitting Bull. </span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; color: #333333; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”> </span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; color: #333333; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”>Week 2 – </span><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; color: #202122; background: white;”>Battle of the Little Bighorn</span><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; color: #333333; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”>.</span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; color: #333333; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”>I will depict the causes and consequences of battles between Native Americans and US Government soldiers in cartoon form with a series of maps. This will be used to introduce the </span><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; color: #202122; background: white;”>Battle of the Little Bighorn</span><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; color: #333333; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”>.</span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; color: #333333; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”>Pupils will debate the importance of Sitting Bull’s at </span><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; color: #202122; background: white;”>Battle of the Little Bighorn</span><span style=”mso-bookmark: _Hlk111580902;”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; color: #333333; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”>.</span></span><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; color: #333333; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”> How important was he in turning the battle in favour of the Native Americans? </span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; color: #333333; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”> </span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; color: #333333; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”>Week 3 – How important was Sitting Bull to his people in his lifetime?</span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; color: #333333; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”>The aftermath of the battle, his legacy.<span style=”mso-spacerun: yes;”> </span></span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; color: #333333; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”>Pupils will be asked to choose a number between 1 and 10 considering how important they thought Sitting Bull was in his own lifetime. The numbers were displayed in a line on interactive whiteboard. </span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; color: #333333; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”> </span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; color: #333333; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”>Evaluation: </span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; color: #222222; background: white;”> </span></p>
<p class=”MsoNormal” style=”margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline;”><span style=”font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif; mso-fareast-font-family: ‘Times New Roman’; mso-fareast-language: EN-IE;”>Sway will be used as school self-evaluation process in sharing reports, presentations and team updates. Sway presentations can be viewed by certain groups using the password for viewing and editing. Children would receive feedback through peer assessment with teacher facilitation.</span></p>
<p class=”MsoNoSpacing”><span style=”color: #222222;”> </span></p>
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<p class=”MsoNormal” style=”margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Cambria; color: #000000;”>I have chosen Collaborative Learning as a key 21st century skill in the classroom. This is a skill that set students up and prepare them for the real world. It allows them to see that everyone has opinions and they are not all the same, it teaches them the skills from a young age to communicate and take others opinions into consideration when making decisions and coming to agreement on a topic. It is an excellent way for students to learn from each other and engage in conversations interactively. Collaborative Learning boosts children self esteem and they gain more confidence as some may be stronger on certain topics than others and it gives them to share their knowledge and then vice versa. I believe ‘collaboration’ among pupils is something which can very-much be taken for granted. We often assume pupils are able to collaborate and work effectively together. However, certain pupils can really struggle with this, and these pupils must be explicitly taught how to work with their peers. This is a key skill, which will inevitably be needed moving forward as they move into second and third-level education.</p>
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The skill I have chosen to focus on is collaboration. Since I started teaching I’ve always had classes with a wide range of ability. I find that enabling these children to work together, be it through group work or in pairs, the lesson which involve collaboration are always the most effective.
For me, Sway provides children with a unique platform to create presentations and projects which encourage group work and collaboration. The fact that children can edit and assess their own work and the work of other pupils allows the children to create an environment where they can learn from each other.
Furthermore, I think OneNote can provide the children with the platform to further enhance their project work and presentations. It can also help me as the teacher bring my own documents and lessons to life. The unique features in OneNote will help me to add colour, headings and special features to my own work which I hope will inspire the my own pupils.
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The 21st century skill that I have chosen is real world problem solving and innovation. Using the problem solving rubric, the learning activities main requirement is problem solving, a real world problem and the pupils are required to communicate their ideas to someone.
Lesson plan-6th class children must use persuasive writing to convince the Minister for Education that our 200 year old school building is not fit for educational purposes. Prior to this the class will study persuasive writing in various texts. Look at the type of language that is used and examine does the text convince the reader. Our school is very passionate about getting a new school building so we will brain storm ideas collaboratively on the whiteboard. Next each child can use an app on our ipads (mind mapping) to help organise their thoughts and ideas before putting it on paper.
Decide 3 reasons why our school needs a new building eg lack of space, dampness, no office
Finally-Write a persuasive email to the Minister for Education outlining these reasons using the principles of persuasive writing.
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Write a reflective piece (150 words minimum) as a reply to this post on how you are going to focus on developing the particular skill in your classroom.
The skill I have chosen to focus on is the skill of communication. This is a such a broad term and I feel it is vitally important to develop throughout childhood especially in school.
The ability to have good communication skills is vital to being a present person in reality. You can break down communication into so many different sections. You can have verbal communication, the main one where two or more people are speaking to each other passing words to and fro hoping to engage in conversation. All participants must be showing good communication skills i.e. looking at each other, listening to what the other has to say, making eye contact, reacting to what the other is saying and responding in the correct manor. Practicing this in the classroom is so important, to model good communication as well as giving the children time to practice this skill because school could be the only opportunity they have to.
Children then can move on to non verbal communication. Hand gestures and signals, body language and eye/facial expressions can be practiced through games and drama time.
These are skills that will stick with the child for life and they need to be practiced and nurtured.
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<p class=”MsoNormal”> I think the 21st century skill I will get my learning support group to focus on will be lifelong learning. We will teach them communication and collaboration skills by breaking them into groups of 2-3 students. We will get them set up on OneNote to identify what is lifelong learning and write a short report about what their research produces. They will have to use images and text to create the report and share them on sway. We will get them to set up a questionnaire on forms to answer questions about their knowledge of dynamic thinking, critical thinking, literacy, numeracy, collaborative learning.</p>
<p class=”MsoNormal”>We could get them to research whether our education system is working or are there digital products or apps which would serve them better in their own lives. Just by asking these questions and using the digital apps to record results will hopefully begin their online educational journeys. We know they are using digital apps to communicate outside of school at a young age, but we want hem to begin thinking educationally with technology too. It is important to analyse what they are learning and feel that they can contribute to their learning by stating or writing in a report what is missing or lacking. This should help to build confidence in those same students. It is important to teach them how they now live in a globally connected world and the importance of the ability to source information, how to solve problems and to have good communication skills. These are essential skills in the new service-based economies which most of the developed world has become reliant on.</p>
<p class=”MsoNormal”>https://sway.office.com/KYzHLQ6jvHHI0TIA?ref=Link</p>
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The 21st century skill I have chosen to focus on is collaboration. I have chosen this as it is an integral learning and innovation skill as set out by the P21 framework. I will attempt to develop this skill within the classroom by challenging the pupils to create digital videos in the classroom.
The pupils will undertake the project in groups. This will help to foster collaboration as this task will require the pupils to:
• Work together
• Share responsibility
• Make substantive decisions
• Be interdependent
Creating digital video requires pupils to take up roles within the group i.e. script writers, editors, cameramen, set designers, actors. The number of different roles within the process ensures that the work must be shared within the group and each pupil feels a sense of responsibility and ownership. The role of the teacher in this process is to facilitate the pupil’s collaborations and empower them to complete their tasks.. Their collaborative learning can then be assessed through the collaborative rubric.
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The ability to collaborate I feel is a key 21st century skill. Being able to collaborate will enhance many social skills within our pupils such as; turn taking, decision making, listening skills, sharing responsibility and working together. Children who learn to collaborate will also enhance other 21st century skills such as, problem solving and communications skills etc. Having the collaboration rubric is a helpful guide to incorporating collaboration in the classroom and measuring the level of participation for group work. As a 6th class teacher the pupils in my classroom engage in a number of projects throughout the year. I usually begin with an individual paper based project at the beginning of the year and then progress to a paired project introducing the concept of collaboration and shared responsibility. By term three I introduce a digital group project, usually through PowerPoint with the occasional google slides project being produced, however I am really excited to introduce Sway to the kids this year after completing this course. I feel that be starting of individually and hen progressing towards groups the children learn how to collaborate better and that the introduction of digital technology creates accountability for the children ensuring the they are all “pulling their weight”.
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Project work is a great way to use the Knowledge Construction Rubric. This year I did a few projects with my class but found the children can be easily distracted when using tablets. The example on slide 15 shows how to undertake a good project with your class. I will work to develop these ideas with my class on future projects. There must be very specific learning outcomes such as, finding information on the given topic on the internet. This can be done using the researcher tool in onenote. This helps to keep the children focussed on gathering information, and from trusted sources. There is great scope for pair and group work also in Knowledge Construction and project work. Alot of this could be done in the collaboration space on One Note. Another key aspect of Knowledge Construction is integration between the various areas of the curriculum. For Instance in project work in history there will always be a geographical element, art and plenty of reading, writing and speaking practice.
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Above is the link to the Sway which I have created which is a collaborative activity combining English, through character analysis based on The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Social History during World War 2.
I think that it would be an enjoyable and interesting activity for 6th Class as the Second World War is one of the most popular history topics every year and I think it would be interesting to pair it with the novel that the children read to reflect on the impact of the war on individuals within particular societal groups. It is also an activity which will require skilled communication and collaboration, both of which are in my opinion vital 21st Century Skills
This 5th Module for me, as a teacher who trained at a time when technology was only appearing in classrooms, was an opportunity to remind myself of the world for which we are preparing our students and the importance of the wide variety of skills and knowledge which will be necessary for the world that they will encounter when they begin their working lives!
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I have chosen to focus on collaboration, as I believe it is one of the most fundamental aspects of a healthy classroom/school environment. I found the breakdown of the different levels of communication interesting and based on such, would contend that collaboration is always happening within the classroom, across all subject areas. Helping students to understand this supports their sense of shared responsibility, allows them to communicate better with their peers and teachers and essentially feeds into all other 21st century skills mentioned here.
This year my class engaged in a shared project to write and publish a book. While each child composed an individual piece, each stage of the process could fall into one or more levels of the collaboration rubric. From individual work to shared responsibility for creating the overall theme/topic, etc, students collaborated with the teacher and each other up until the point that the project was handed over to external publishers. The whole process was really fun and creative and they were so proud of the finished product. Interested to explore this type of project in a digital medium going forward.
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The skill I focused on for my Sway was Self Regulation. Working in a special school setting I feel this is an important skill that all students need to learn. It may take years to learn and it needs to be broken down into very small learning activities. This is an area that would have focus in our annual IEP meetings and IEP goals. Setting a self regulation goal would be child focused, involve key stakeholders: teacher, parents, SLT, OT etc… The Sway I created would be an example of a piece of work focusing on what to do when feeling angry, sad or worried, A prerequisite skill students would need to be able to identify and label emotions. We strive for student to become as independent as possible so teaching them about how they can manage their emotions and feelings is an important lifelong skill. When teaching this topic students would need assistance from their teacher to speak about each emotion and scenario for each. https://sway.office.com/VHPby92FcZJ9vbdL?ref=Link
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<p class=”MsoNormal”><span style=”font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 107%; font-family: ‘Arial’,sans-serif; color: #163c42; background: white;”>I chose Collaboration as a 21<sup>st</sup> century skill. I thought back over the last year on my lessons about a time that I could have developed collaboration better. What came to mind was a lesson I was teaching on Mexico. I set the children up in groups of 5 and asked them to use the laptops to research Mexico and to create a PowerPoint. Having listened to the presentations in this module, I could have done better. I would still ask them to research using the laptops, but I think I would assign roles to the 5 children to ensure that they are working interdependently. I would also do this for the actual project. I think in order to make sure that they are truly working interpedently, I would give each child a specific topic such as food, geography, etc to make sure that they are each taking responsibility and collaborating. Collaboratively, they would come up with a template to use and a theme for the presentation, and each take responsibility for their topics slide. They would work together to practice and rehearse their presentation and then present to the class. </span></p>
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<p style=”margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;” align=”left”>In order for our pupils to live and work in the 21<sup>st</sup> century we need o embed in them a range of skills and competencies. I have chosen the skill of self regulation as I feel it targets the priority learning needs of my cohort of pupils. The self regulation dimension on the Microsoft Learn Education Centre clearly defines what self regulation is and how it looks in practise. I found this module very helpful and will incorporate this as a methodology this coming year. It gives great advice on how to build activities to help learners develop this skill. This dimension is really important for learners as the plan and engage in independent and group work. It is critical to their learning success. The rubric is very clear and helpful for educators to follow. I love the collaboration element to the rubric also as I feel it incorporated other very important 21<sup>st</sup> century skills. The Microsoft tools apps will be something I will use immediately in September . The to do app will be fantastic for visual learners and also to promote independence, It is something many staff would also enjoy I think. The self evaluation element is another great feature that can be used in developing self regulation. Sway was helpful in designing the project and getting a chance to practice and gather possible activities and ideas to implement this with learners.</p> -
The 21st century century skill that I have chosen is collaboration. The way I did my Sway was to pick a specific task for the class to complete. The aim of the task is for groups of 4 to make their own fairground stall. Each group will have to decide on their activity they will do, pick a cost for their stall and think of prizes to give. There is a budget, max cost and a max profit they can make. Each child will have a certain role but they will all have a say in the decision making. These roles may include making or bringing in their game, being in charge of the money, being in charge of the prizes and decorating or advertising their stall. Children from other classes will then come to visit the stalls.
<span style=”color: #163c42; font-family: ‘Hind Madurai’, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;”><span style=”color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, ‘Times New Roman’, ‘Bitstream Charter’, Times, serif; font-size: 16px;”>When the children are finished I will get them to make up their Sway. In it they will outline everything they did, how they worked together and what each persons role was. They will then present this to the class.</span></span>
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I have chosen the 21st century skill of communication which is essential to every child in aiding their learning. Children have a variety of ways that they can communicate and more often we are finding that it is through digital learning. Developing this skill is essential to everyday life and to continue to develop their confidence.
I would start by asking 2nd class students to create a digital questionnaire using forums. This could then be used in a Senior infants classroom to decide upon a topic they would like to find out more about in SESE. We would then examine the results as a whole class and establish groups using the Book creator app to develop a book based on findings. This will require that they communicate with their peers about what will be included in the book, what pictures are to be taken and voice recordings uploaded. 2nd class children can always be reminded of the relevance of the content to Senior Infants. The children will have a rubric in which to focus their group on what may be required of them. This is a great way to make sure each group is aware of the learning outcomes of the lessons and that they communicate with both the teacher and their peers what is expected.
Finally, the children would visit the junior classes to present their books to them, read them aloud and answer any questions that the junior class may have about the topic. To complete the process, children would be asked to reflect on their contribution to the project and any changes they would make next time. I believe this method is a fun and engaging way for children to develop the 21st century skill of communication.
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The skill that I want to focus on is Self Regulation. While all the skills focused on in the module are important, I was struck by Self regulation simply because I hadn’t thought of it explicitly on it’s own. In my mind the skills and discipline involved were included in other skills. This has been great to highlight it and break it down as a skills set and discipline worth explicitly focusing on within the classroom under the guise of a group/individual project. It would be great to focus on it when doing a project about a particular country or event in history with 5th or 6th class for example.
As topics like this can be worked on for a month ( a theme in my planning), it would be classed as long term.
The pupils could plan on an individual basis or group basis about what content they will be working on, how they will research and collate the information and how they will present it. By planning this out carefully, they will be able to establish learning goals/success criteria in a collaborative way with me as the teacher (guidance) and eachother (support). The planning phase is vital. They will have to establish how much time is required for research, collation and presentation. Effective time management is vital in the work place today, particularly as many people are working from home or at least working both in the home and in the work place. There is more autonomy for employees now but increased accountability as a result. Decision making is a skill that will be developed here also, as they prioritise what part should get more time, how will they go about it and who will do what. Collaboration, leadership, delegation and negotiating skills are all being developed in the process. The ability to reivse your own work, the work of others and effectively give feedback would be a huge part of the project and I would encourage them to give feedback within their groups and with other groups. The children may provide feedback on the actual content and teacher could provide feedback on the overall process. Using checklists and rubrics to help quantify success or attainment is a great tool and one that is effective in many different situations/tasks.
Overall, self regulation is a great skill to develope, with encourages good working discipline, attitude, and respect for your work and the work of others.
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In my classroom there will be evidence of many of the 21st Century skills happening. As I am teaching in a junior end Special class, social skills are a big focus for what we work on. Collaboration is something we are always striving for. This year, I am going to use Videos to show the children examples of good communication and eye contact. I will then work on the children being able to greet each other in pairs and video them in order to play back for them to see themselves. I think this will be a fun way for the children learn communication with others.
Daily self regulation is something that we work on every day in the class. When working on fine motor skills the children can screenshot or take pictures of their handwriting and look back to compare themselves on their work. For example, there can be a huge difference in how children are able to write their pencils from day to day. By getting them to compare their work, they should also be able to communicate what type of ZONE they were in when completing work as we spend a lot of time discussing zones of regulation and how it affects their daily activities.
At certain times throughout the day some children are able to join in mainstream activities. Often the children join during a lesson when ICT is used (usually ipads). This allows the children to participate equally as verbal communication is not always the main focus and also fine motor skills or reading is not needed as often.
Videoing the children working with their mainstream peers and reflecting on their behaviour and how they interacted would be a great way to reflect after the lesson with the children as they love seeing and being with the other children. Eg. modelling behaviour that allows for integration.
Innovation is also used as many of the children in my class have special skills or are extremely innovative in how they think. It can be very exciting for the children and teachers in other classes to see their new ideas and problem solving skills.
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I chose ‘skilled communication’ as my 21st century skill. It is vital for children to be able to communicate effectively in order to function in society. I recently had a conversation with a 3rd level lecturer on this topic. She lectures 1st and 2nd year students and was commenting on their inability to communicate face-to-face. Her office door is always open for any queries or problems but they rarely take her up on it. Their preferred method to contact her, unsurprisingly is via email. This in itself is another issue as they expect the emails to act as two way conversation similar to text messaging. I do think the lockdowns have contributed to this situation, as these teenagers weren’t interacting with people and only communicating online for a long time. Having said that, we can all picture children in our classes that spend more of their free time online than they do interacting in the ‘real world’ so I would think this is an important focus across the board. I normally start off the school year with a ‘Find someone who’ game. Children move around the room and find someone who e.g. has a sister, plays football, went on holidays etc. They record as they go along. They are finding things out about each other that they may not have already known and it creates opportunity for conversations about their answers. Going forward, I could develop this task further by grouping some of the people who play football together to chat about who they play for, their position on the team, what club they support etc. They could then present what they have found out about someone else back to the class. Some children are not comfortable speaking in front of the whole class so similar tasks could be undertaken in a small group situation. This can be made possible during team teaching lessons with the SET.
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Hi Gail,
You are correct in your summation of the importance of children being able to communicate and the centrality of ‘skilled communication’ to 21st century work. The story you have shared is extremely interesting in itself – it really doesn’t paint 1st or 2nd level education in the greatest light (obviously many other societal factors are also at play). You have suggested an excellent activity for developing on your current practice. Here, the children can be grouped by similar interests which should spark a deeper level of conversation and communication. Practice presenting in front of the group is also a very import skill.
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The skill that I will focus on is the use of ICT for learning using Sway. Sway is a presentation and communication tool included within Office 365. It can be used by students to present information on Sitting Bull. I will encourage students to take an active role in their learning of Sitting Bull through it’s use. Sway will help students focus on a visual informative presentation. Children will use Microsoft sway’s features such as images, videos, audio recordings and text on Sitting Bull. This will add some level of interactivity and allow students to express ideas in new ways. As a result students will be motivated to learn more efficiently and be more engaged and demonstrate higher participation in learning.
I would integrate Sway into learning using cross curricular subjects and topics. This would lead to better engagement. Children with different learning styles are catered for as ICT is visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic. With Sway work and expectations can be differentiated for various learners.
With my 4th class. I would develop ICT learning through History cross curricular with Literacy and Art . I would extend the lesson over a few weeks with particular emphasis on a key question each week. The class will discuss the project work as outlined in the learning objectives shown on the interactive whiteboard.Learning objectives are:
a. Create a project based on Sitting Bull through research and discussion of findings.
b. Design and make a poster to visually represent ideas of Sitting Bull.
d. Present their information and findings to the class using Sway
c) Completion and feedback: by discussing each presentation heard, their similarities and differences and assess them using two stars and a wish, with feedback from each of the other groups.Activity:
Most of the work in the lesson will be completed by using their school iPads.
I will ensure that the lesson is inclusive with all pupils having a role to play in each of their groups that is challenging enough for their abilities. I will make available necessary devices or apps for all pupils to fully engage in the activities, e.g., allow pupils to use online tools and apps to record their work. A lot of the content in this lesson comes from the pupils themselves and their experiences of being online.Key questions for Project are as follows:
Week 1 – Who was Sitting Bull ?
Through class discussion using a mind / word map, children will state what they already know about sitting bull stating key words.
Pupils will be shown a video clip of Sitting Bull on YouTube from the history channel. Pupils will then be shown images of Sitting Bull.Week 2 – Battle of the Little Bighorn.
I will depict the causes and consequences of battles between Native Americans and US Government soldiers in cartoon form with a series of maps. This will be used to introduce the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Pupils will debate the importance of Sitting Bull’s at Battle of the Little Bighorn. How important was he in turning the battle in favour of the Native Americans?Week 3 – How important was Sitting Bull to his people in his lifetime?
The aftermath of the battle, his legacy.
Pupils will be asked to choose a number between 1 and 10 considering how important they thought Sitting Bull was in his own lifetime. The numbers were displayed in a line on interactive whiteboard.Evaluation:
Sway will be used as school self-evaluation process in sharing reports, presentations and team updates. Sway presentations can be viewed by certain groups using the password for viewing and editing. Children would receive feedback through peer assessment with teacher facilitation.
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