Name:

Chris Pittam

Subject	Geography		Lesson Title	Multicultural Birmingham
Year group and Set		7-2		Date	27^th March 2001

The Aims of the lesson:

This lesson fitted into the settlement and migration scheme of work for Year 7 and was part of the preparative work undertaken in class on the issue of a multicultural city leading to the production of a major piece of project work. Web pages previously created using photos of buildings and areas around Birmingham were transferred onto the intranet so that the photos could be used as the sources for the investigative work. The pupils were asked to evaluate each photo and respond to it via a structured worksheet. The aim was to evaluate who lives in Birmingham, what the areas they live in are actually like and that areas that attract migrants have similar features. These features were to be identified through the evaluation process. The ICT was to be used as an information retrieval tool with the pupils being directed to the web pages, and thus specific photos, within the intranet. The pupils could work through the proformas on the worksheet whilst looking at the photo. The ICT use was kept at a simple level and its use was straightforward.

Outline the methods used for preparing and running the lesson:

Prior to the lesson, the worksheet was constructed along the lines of each photos evaluation being done in the same manner. Therefore the same set of prompts and questions were used for each of the 6 photos. The photos were copied from existing web pages onto my own site on the intranet. Each page had hyperlinks at the bottom that would allow the pupils to move easily from one photo to the next. The creation of these was a new ICT skill I learnt during the course of this lesson. The pupils could work in their pairs with a fair degree of autonomy as the task was and ICT usage was simple. The geography extracted from the lesson revolved around the prompting questions on the worksheet asking the pupil to explain why migrants might be attracted to the area and the review of the lesson in the last 15 minutes which challenged the pupils to question their assumptions and preconceptions of each area and to emphasise with the migrants situation/condition.

Review of the lesson:

The pupils responded well to the different activity offered by the photos. They were able to cope well with the process of moving through each photo at their own speed although several times all the pupils were asked to work on specific photos in order for each pupil to cover a variety of different photos. They were very capable using the web pages and hyperlinks and found this to be a quick way for them to facilitate their own learning. Because of the simplicity of the ICT used, there were no problems with the teaching of this lesson once all pupils were logged into the network and onto the web pages. It also proved to be easy to conduct the review with each pair logging off, and watching the smartboard where we talked through each photo as a class. The review picked out a lot of good points and features that the pupils were able to bring into their other work at later dates. Some used the content of one of the photos as an example of why migrants might choose to settle in a particular area in their main project work. In doing this lesson again I would keep to the same structure for the main part of the lesson but would redesign the review to make it more proactive, maybe involving the pupils in the review and getting them to use the smartboard to direct their investigations. Generally I feel this lesson worked very well because I was less ambitious in my attempt at using ICT. I stuck to a simple but effective information retrieval structure which proved stimulating enough for the pupils to investigate some relevant geographical issues.

Please use the information here as a guide to what we would like you to cover:

The Aims of the lesson

What were the educational aims for this lesson.

How does the lesson fit into the National Curriculum and/or Departmental Schemes of work.

How did you intend to use ICT within this lesson.

How was ICT used to enhance the lesson

ICT methods used for preparing and running the lesson

How did you prepare for this lesson.

What new ICT skills did you learn in planning this lesson.

What software did you use.

How was the software applied to the lesson.

Review of the lesson

Did you feel the lesson was a success or not

Did you feel the lesson was effective.

Did you feel comfortable delivering the lesson using ICT

What aspects of class management did you employ during the lesson

What went well, what went badly.

If you could run the lesson again, is there anything you would do differently.

How will you assess the progress of your students in this lesson

Is there any evidence to show that the pupils gained from this lesson