Analysing GCSE History sources using Tellagami

Since we have returned from half-term I have been focussing much more on source analysis with my GCSE class. One of the trickier exam questions focusses on the reliability and usefulness of a source. The exam also requires students to look at a large range of source material and assess both the reliability of the content and the provenance.

The nature of this task can mean that the lessons get a bit repetitive as students work through the sources and analyse them. I was looking for a way to add some more engaging elements into the lesson especially as a starter or a plenary.

Working on this topic has coincided with me being introduced to an app called Tellagami which is free and allows users to record 30 second clips. One of @Rossett's finest @mike_sweetman introduced me to the app and explained to me that he felt it could be very useful for source analysis.

The app is based around a virtual person speaking to an audience for 30 seconds. The background of the app can be changed and this is the real beauty of the app as it allows for the 'student' to appear to be stood in front of the source they are analysing. Below is a photo of one of my 'students' in action looking at the memories from WWI of Corporal W.H. Shaw.

The students can either record their own voices or they can type their work and choose from a wide selection of voices. Even the computer generated ones sound real and can pronounce nearly every word clearly. The app adds in the movement of the hands and mouth.

Why do I think this app is really useful?

+ Firstly, it is incredibly easy to use and share. Having never used the app before all my students were able to quickly work it out and instantly produce work of a good standard. They did not waste time trying to get it working.

+ Secondly, it's the correct amount of fun. You can customise 'yourself' in a fun but ultimately simple way. My big issue with some technology is that it can easily distract from the learning and can end up wasting time. Even with the initial excitement of using a new app the first time the students still quickly produced good work. The second time they used it their work was outstanding. They also really enjoyed using it, as you can see from some of the comments below. This app is great because it enhances source analysis and doesn't detract from it.

+ Thirdly, it makes the students want to produce outstanding work. Far from distracting my GCSE class this app was incredibly engaging. There was a real level of competition amongst them to try and outdo each other. The quality of all the students work was excellent they were really trying to include and analyse as much of the content and the prevenance as they could to make their Tellagami's good.

+ Forthly, it is really challenging. To produce a decent piece of source analysis in 30 seconds is not easy. You've got a lot to say and not very long. This makes it difficult but gets students used to the pressure of the exams. 

+ Finally, it is really accessible. Students can either talk into the app or type and the results either way are really good.

Below is a photo of my GCSE students working on the app to develop their source analysis skills:

Some examples from my GCSE class

All of these Tellagami's were produced in a cover lesson when I was absent. They were then uploaded to my YouTube channel in the lesson ready for the start of the following lesson.

 

 

 

 

The fact that such high quality work was produced in my absense shows the real value of the app.

How can I see myself using this in the future?

+ This app is ideal for source analysis. It will be even better when the source analysis takes the form of revision. Students will be quickly able to create great revision videos that they can watch in the build up to the exam.

+ This app would be a great tool for measuring progress. The difference between a video constructed at the start of the lesson and at the end would be marked and this would show how much content the students have learnt or how much their understanding has developed within the lesson.

+ This app can be used quickly and easily and dropped in without prior planning. Without any real planning this app can be used. If I realise there is a misconception in my class I can use it as a way of ensuring the students have understood. If I am finding a topic is struggling to engage the students (obviously this has never happened, but if it did) then this is a great tool to develop the engagement.

+ It will work equally well with top or bottom sets. Due to the inclusive nature of the app, as mentioned above, it can be used to both stretch and challenge and also in an inclusive way to enable all students to access a topic.

What do my GCSE students think about it? 

+ Sophie said "The app was really fun because you can change the voice and how the person looked and their position and stuff. It was useful because if you don't want to film yourself or you don't like your voice then you can use this. Also having fun helps to learn so you learn more."

+ Una said "Our group found Tellegami useful because it was a great group tool, as we all worked together to produce the final result. Also, personally I thought it was great because I tend to blabber on about the topic, and don’t actually cover what is needed to in a concise way, but having the 30 second time limit really got me thinking about how to put my point across in a small amount of words."

+ Katie said "I enjoyed using the app, especially how you had the option to either record yourself or type it in. Also, I think it's going to be a good revision tool for me, to see and hear back what we had written previously. However, occasionally the app did crash so it was a bit annoying at times and took a while to get yourself back to what you were doing."

+ Jamie said "I think that the Telligami are fun and useful because they are easy and quick to make and also you can watch them until you get the facts in your head." 

+ Brad said "I think that Tellagami was very useful, since you can easily look back on them to see what information you have on a particular subject, and I think this is particularly useful in source work. I also think it's very funny with all the things you can do with it, such as Jimmy's voice and rotating the person.

The only issue I have with it is the time/word limit, since you sometimes can't fit in all you want, and some parts may be questioned because of the lack of information e.g. Today I couldn't finish a sentence, so I had to cut it out."

+ Hannah said "I thought that using tellagami for the sources was quite useful as it helped me think more about what the key points about the source were because of the set amount of words/length of the video, which stopped me from writing lots. It was also a more interesting way to set out the information and it helped our group communicate more and discuss the source more."

I would again like to thank @mike_sweetman for showing me the app and explaining how he thought it could be used. I would also like to thank my always brilliant GCSE class for really getting stuck into working with this app and using it in such a creative way.

Student Led Learning - The Power of YouTube

A students watches another group's video and completes her worksheet

Today my lesson was completely student led. My GCSE students produced videos on one aspect of Intolerance in 1920s USA, having produced the videos they then watched each others videos and filled in a large A3 sheet on the topic.

Whilst they worked on competing the sheet they had the advantage of working completely at their own pace (with their headphones in) and I was free to move around the room and offer individual support and advice where it was needed.

This is a similar activity to one where you would get the students to create presentations and then present them to the whole class. The difference here is that the use of YouTube allows the students watching the presentations to work at their own pace and rewind where necessary without holding the whole class up. Learning becomes more personalised.

The students had a lesson to research and prepare their videos and then about 40 minutes of the next lesson to complete the video and upload it to Edmodo so all the students in the class could watch it. They then spent the last 20 minutes of the second lesson and their homework completing the table by watching each others videos.

Each group had to showcase what they had learned in a video which answered the four questions I had set for their topic.

The A3 sheet that I created that all students had to complete.

The students were told that they had to make their work both memorable and filled with information. As this was the first time the students had completed this type of activity I created the questions that needed answering. When I do this later in the year I will get the students to create their own questions and thus put more of the emphasis on them.

The students led the learning and I was able to support those students that needed it. These topics vary in difficulty which allowed me to differentiate and pick groups relative to the difficulty of the topic. By having to explain to others and teach their peers in this way all of the students deepened their own understanding.

After they had completed the sheet the students had to think of two or three questions they still wanted answering and we discussed those in the next lesson. The aim was for them to pick 'bigger' questions than just those on the sheet.

PowerPoint slides were included by all groups to add detail.

Aims

• By making the work student led it meant that they had to take responsibility for it and this encouraged them to be independent. 

• It encouraged the students to be creative. I explained that they needed to make it memorable but also genuinely informative and the results were interesting. This hopefully made the work more memorable for both the students making the videos and those watching it.

• It allowed me to give help where it was needed and not be 'tied down' by having to 'give' the lesson.

• It was a great method to showcase teamwork and leadership.

Reflections
• The students were engaged throughout the series of lessons.
• The resulting videos were really creative and informative. My concern is always that the students will make something fun and amusing but not produce a video that actually aids learning. This was proven wrong as all the videos were tightly focused around the information and all were memorable as well as explaining key content.
• This type of activity always allows students to shine. This occasion was no exception. The video on the right is one of my students singing about the 'Red Scare' of the 1920s.

A student watches a court scene from the 'Monkey Trial'

• It was obvious from the subsequent lesson that the students had understood a great deal about the topic of Intolerance. They asked really thought provoking questions that showed both a deep level of understanding and a genuine engagement in the topic.

I am a big believer in using technology in this way. The sight of all my students working at their own pace, with their headphones in, is something to behold. It frees me up to address any problems of understanding.

That said even if you don't have 1-1 iPads like we do @Rossett you can still complete this type of activity, as I have in the past, setting the watching of each others videos as homework.

The Value of Independent Reflection

My GCSE class working independently in lessons.

At Rossett our new timetable has started and last week I had my first lessons with my new GCSE class. This class is exclusively Year 9 students and I teach them for 5 hours a week. Obviously, this group of students will take their GCSE history next summer as part of a cohort of students that will, for the large part, consist of students two years older than them. With this in mind I began this timetable thinking of ways I could close the gap between the potential of my evidently very hard working group and those other students who will be, in the main, two years older than them.

One of the ways I am seeking to do this is through a weekly homework task that the students independently complete. They are tasked with spending 30 minutes developing their understanding of a topic we have studied that week. They can chose the topic (although I strongly advise them to pick the topic they have found most difficult) and they can chose how they go about improving their understanding. The only rule is that they must produce something that I can see. It can be physical or digital. I do not mark this work, I simple check it has been done, give out merits where appropriate, and oral feedback where necessary. The work is set on a Thursday after our final lesson of the week and is checked by me on Monday at the start of the next week. The 30 minute time limit is absolute, and I have explained to the group that they cannot work longer than this even if they are really into the topic. This is obviously difficult to police but I want them to show how much reflective work they can produce in a 30 minute time frame.

I must also say at this stage that this 30 minutes of independent work sits alongside the two formal homework tasks that I set each week. These are obviously traditionally marked.

Aims

• The main aim of this work is to get the students to reflect on the work they have done that week. The simple action of choosing the topic that they have found most difficult gets the students to reflect. The aim is that they also reflect on their understanding and develop it.

• The second aim is to give the students ownership of the work they produce. By choosing what they do I hope that the students will be more committed to ensuring it is as good a quality as it can be.

• The work produced will be brilliant for revision. All of the examples I have seen so far (and particularly the ones in this post) make fantastic revision aides. The aim is not just to shore up the understanding but to help close the gap come revision time.

• The aim is for the students to creatively develop their understanding in a way that best suits their own learning. By being creative and active my aim was to ensure the students consolidated their understanding. The examples in this post have all done that.

Examples

The first example comes from Sophie. It is a video she has made to show how Republican Policies of the 1920s caused the Boom. The second half in particular is very impressive as she relates the Policies to the Boom. When I watch this back I am struck both by the quality of the work and the fact that you can almost see the cogs whirring as she explains it. There is no doubt that this work fulfils all of the aims I set and is work of a remarkable standard for a student who is essentially still in Year 8 (although technically in Year 9 they are not really until after the summer).

The second example comes from Katie who has produced an Educreation on the Republican Policies. Again this is another fantastic piece of work which fulfils the aims. I like here how she has combined a mind-map with her own explanation. Such is quality that it is the sort of resource I could easily use within my own lessons.

Katie's Educreations Lesson

The next example comes from Matthew who produced this Keynote on the 1920s using a LACKPANTS video that I found online and embedded in my wiki mrwestusa.wikispaces.com I am impressed with the creativity here and how Matthew has found a resource that he could use to help develop his understanding of the causes of the boom. It was not a resource we used directly in lesson so it is good to see him using his initiative (and the wiki) to develop his understanding.

The final example comes from Lucas who produced revision cards, on the other side of the card is the  relevant explanation. I particularly like this as it is an old fashioned example but one that works well. It has minimal glamour but is still a very effective tool.

Reflections

• Clearly it is only the second week of this but I can already see the quality of both the work and the creativity that has been displayed. I firmly believe that the students will have a much better grasp of the topics they chose than they would have done simply from my traditional teaching.

• I also believe an air of competition has developed with the students keen to produce better work to show themselves in the best possible light.

• Even at this early stage of the course setting this type of activity has allowed me a de-facto look at how my students revise and I have been able to guide them to more worthwhile activities than simply just re copying out what they have already learnt.

• The quality of the work from my Year 9 class in the first week of their GCSE History speaks volumes for this approach. I think the freedom here coupled with the traditional standard homework tasks works really well.

Going forward

The aim is to have a mini learning fair in the last lesson of term, the students will have completed three separate 30 minute pieces of independent work by then, the aim of this is to show off the quality of the students and their work. The students will have to lay out their work (digitally or physically) and the students in the group will go around the 'fair' and see all the creative ideas that have been produced. If this is a success I hope to replicate it regularly throughout the year.


3 weeks later...

The Learning Fair

Well the learning fair has just finished. The students brought in three different examples of the 30 minute independent learning work they had completed so far. they then set them out on the desks in a 'u' shaped fashion. The students moved around the fair in a clockwise fashion watching, reading and listening to their peers work, they then commented on what was good about the work produced.

I asked them to give specific comments not just general vague ones like 'detailed.' At the end of the fair the students all gave one reason why their independent work was good. An example of the work produced is below:

This is about prohibition and Al Capone, I love the creativity and drama.

 

 

Reflections on the Fair

We held the fair on the last period of the final Thursday of term. It was really hot. Despite this the quality of the work was outstanding. I was completely blown away by the students and I could easily have put an example from every student on this blog.

 

My students are a huge credit to themselves, in just 4 weeks they have really got into the idea and importance of this independent work. Without any input from me they have produced fantastic work.

 

I believe that the fair will spur everyone on at the start of next term to be even more creative and to use some of the excellent examples they have seen from each other to make their work even better.

 

The work produced will be invaluable for revision.

 

I set this independent activity up to help close the gap between my year 9 GCSE class and the older students taking the exam and I believe it has already gone some way towards achieving that.

 

I would urge everyone who teaches a group more than 3 times each week to try this approach as I believe it has yielded some fantastic results.

Engagement and Motivation - GCSE History Year 9

I have been looking into motivation with some of my Year 9 GCSE students. Unlike my other GCSE group this class only contains Year 9 students. This group can be a little up and down. Quite often they can be brilliant but occasionally they seem to lack focus and motivation. I decided to focus on the brilliance and asked four students in the group - "What motivated them in my lessons?" This I hope will then allow me to increase the motivation and engagement of the group. No group can be brilliant all the time but some groups are never brilliant. With that in mind I hoped to develop the engagement in this group but also learn a few lessons that could be applied to my teaching in general.

This is what they said:

"Getting actively involved makes it more interesting"
This is something that I have really tried to develop this year. Lydia gives several examples. Firstly, she talks about the video which looked at using boys and girls to demonstrate how FDR tried to 'pack' the Supreme Court.

Lydia also mentions a depression game which involved creating our own 1920s economy in the classroom to highlight the overproduction problem within the consumer goods industries. Finally, she mentions us acting out a trench attack on the tennis courts. I also stood students on the school field to try to get them to imagine what it would be like to go 'over the top' in the First World War.

This group got into this activity and really tried to imagine what it might have been like.

I have tried to develop this approach to teaching and it seems that it has been well received. Getting students up and about and not simply sat at the desks clearly is motivational and it is something I am going to continue to develop. I hope to use co-construction (see other blog post) to develop more of these types of activities.

"New Technology has helped a lot"
Rob explained about the use of new technology. I have my own YouTube channel and we have made Wiki's. As Rob mentions, this has helped with revision as it has given the students access to a variety of learning styles with which to revise from. Added to that when we were outside in 'the trenches' the students used their mobile phones to record their thought and feelings.

Whenever students use their mobile phones they are instantly engaged. We then, using a hashtag and a visible tweets website, collated the students ideas when we returned to the classroom.

http://visibletweets.com/#query=%23rosgcsehis2&animation=1

What Rob doesn't mention is that new technologies have really helped with the active learning that Lydia is talking about. The video on FDR and the Supreme court is a clear example. The students were not only motivated by the activity at the time but its impact was increased massively by the fact they could watch that part of the lesson back whilst revising.

Rob also mentions the use of RealSmartCloud (@SmartAssess) which I have chosen not to include because it is not something that can be accessed by everyone. That said I will obviously continue to use this software as Rob has shown that it has a motivational Impact.

I firmly believe that as well as teaching a subject my lessons should be preparing students for the world they are going to live in. New technology needs to be embraced. Not only is it engaging but it is providing essential life skills. Schools where YouTube is filtered and mobile phones are banned are not reflecting the real world.

"Teachers taking risks"
Sammy explains the impact of teachers taking risks. She says the group is 'intrigued' when the teacher is trying something new. I have always tried to take risks. Writing this blog, using twitter, make class videos for YouTube, going out on a muddy rugby field pretending we are in France etc... These are all examples of me going out of my comfort zone. How can we keep asking students to try new things and ways of working if we do not embody that principle ourselves? We all know that we learn much more when we take risks.

"Student led learning"
Ellen explained the impact of student led learning. She believes that it is better to be taught by her peers than by her teacher. I regularly use YouTube and get groups of the class to produce videos that explain an aspect of a topic. The students then watch each others videos and produce notes or complete worksheets for homework. We have done this for intolerance in the 1920s USA and the New Deal. Here is one about entertainment in the 'Roaring Twenties'.

Videos such as this are much more engaging than listening to me. They are also great fun and allow the students creativity to come out. Doing this kind of student led activity is not a new thing, but using YouTube really increases the lasting impact of the activity.

To conclude, I would like to firstly thank the four students involved in the video for giving up their lunchtime to come and discuss this issue. Secondly, I hope that by listening to them I will increase the motivation in my class but also, more importantly, show that I value their opinions and see the importance of their role in the learning process.