Deputy head Simon Botten has a unique and ambitious way of teaching his class about the wives of Henry VIII. He sets his students the task of researching, scripting and recording a short video clip in about an hour.
He creatively adapts the QCA Scheme of Work to meet with the interests and abilities of his Year 5 pupils. He divides his class into six groups and allocates each group one wife to study. Working to the tight deadline of one lesson, each group is asked to research, script and film their own Tudor-style newsreel, which will then be presented to the rest of the class.
This lesson incorporates the use of ICT at three levels: firstly by using an interactive whiteboard to allow Simon to set out the lesson objectives; secondly by using the internet for research, and thirdly through the use of small, user-friendly digital cameras to record the newsreels.
Key points:
- Pupils use the internet and video cameras during the history lesson
- Simon Botten gives us the background to his ambitious lesson plan
- Are the students more engaged in the technology than in the history?
