Cover lesson · Expressive Arts · Year 2 · Intermediate
DCF: Producing → Evaluating and improving digital content
Also assessed, LNF: Literacy → Writing → Planning and organising for different purposes, audiences and context
Name: Class: Date:
What this practises: checking digital work against a success criterion (a check that tells us what good work looks like). Pupils look at 3 digital posters for a school Summer Concert, say which can be read from far away, and give a reason. Then they plan their own poster and check it against the same 2 criteria, saying how to make it better. This is DCF work on evaluating and improving digital content. Pupils also write their own poster text for a real audience, the families who will come, which is literacy work on writing for a purpose and an audience.
Print: this sheet, one per pupil. You read Part 1 aloud; pupils only need Part 2 (the activity pages). The stimulus sheet Three posters for the Summer Concert in colour, one per pair, plus one copy to prop up at the front of the room. Pencils, and a dark felt pen or dark pencil if you have one. No computers are needed: the tablet screens are drawn on paper.
Run: 5 min hand out and set up · 10 min Step 1, Check 1 and Task 1 · 10 min Step 2, Tasks 2 and 3, why is Poster A hard to read? · 10 min Step 3, Check 2 and Task 4 · 15 min Step 4, Task 5, plan a poster for the families · 10 min Step 5, Task 6, check my poster, and share. Total 60 minutes.
Collect: the activity pages. The literacy evidence is Task 3 (a written comment with a reason) and Task 5 (the poster text: title, day and time, place and who it is for, written for the families who will come). Quick checks: Task 1 is Poster A thumbs down, Poster B thumbs up, Poster C thumbs up (its words are big; what is missing is checked in Task 4). Task 2 circles the tiny pale yellow writing. Task 3, for example: “Poster A is hard to read because the writing is small and pale.” Task 4 for Poster C: what tick, when cross (the pictures cover the time), where cross (there is no place). Poster B is the easiest to read and the only one that passes both checks.
Read the words in the green boxes aloud. Write the 2 checks on the board in big letters before you start: 1. You can read it from the back of the hall. 2. It tells you what, when and where.
Hand out the activity pages, pencils and one stimulus sheet per pair. Prop one stimulus sheet at the front of the room, open at the 3 posters, where every pupil can see it. Point to the posters, not the info card, for now.
Say: “Year 2 at a school called Ysgol y Felin are having a Summer Concert. 3 groups made a poster on a tablet to tell the families. The school is made up, and so are the children.”
Say: “When we make something on a screen, we check it. A check that tells us what good work looks like is called a success criterion. Our first check is: You can read it from the back of the hall.” Point to it on the board.
Do: pupils hold their stimulus sheet out at arm’s length, as far away as their arms go. Pupils who can see the front copy can look at that too. Ask: “Which poster can you read from far away? Which one is hard?” Let 2 or 3 pupils answer.
Say: “Look at Task 1. For each poster, ask: can I read it from the back of the hall? Circle the thumbs up if you can. Circle the thumbs down if you cannot.”
Answers: A thumbs down; B thumbs up; C thumbs up. If a pupil says C is thumbs down because the pictures get in the way, say: “Good thinking. The words it has are big, so Check 1 is a thumbs up. We will look at the pictures in Check 2.”
Say: “Now bring your sheet close and look at Poster A. Cerys and Tomos did write all the facts. So why is it hard to read from far away?” Take answers. Steer pupils to: the writing is very small, and it is pale yellow on white, so the colour does not stand out.
Say: “Task 2. Circle the problem on Poster A.” (They circle the tiny pale writing.)
Say: “When we check someone’s work, we say why, and we say it kindly. Listen to my comment about Poster B: Poster B is easy to read because the writing is big and dark.” Write it on the board.
Say: “Task 3. Finish the sentence: Poster A is hard to read because... Use the word bank.” Read the word bank aloud and point to each word: small, pale, big, dark, colour. Pupils who find writing hard can say their sentence to you and copy 1 or 2 words from the word bank.
Ask: “How could Cerys and Tomos make it better?” (make the writing bigger; use a dark colour)
Say: “A poster has a job. It tells families what is happening, when to come, and where to go. Our second check is: It tells you what, when and where.”
Do: point to Poster B together. Ask: “What is happening?” (the Summer Concert) “When?” (Friday, 2 o’clock) “Where?” (the school hall). Say: “Poster B passes both checks. Da iawn, Gwen and Osian!”
Say: “Task 4 is Poster C, by Mia and Amir. Look for what, when and where. Tick the box if you can see it. Put a cross if you cannot.” Point to the music notes for what, the clock for when and the building for where.
Ask: “Would a family know what time to come?” (No, the pictures cover the time.) “Would they know where to go?” (No, there is no place on it.) “What should Mia and Amir do?” (use fewer pictures; add the time and the place)
Say: “Now you are the poster maker. Who will read your poster?” (the families) “Yes. So it must tell the families what, when and where, and they must be able to read it from far away.”
Show: the info card in Task 5 (it is also on the stimulus sheet). Read it aloud: Summer Concert; Friday, 2 o’clock; the school hall; families welcome.
Say: “Task 5 is a pretend tablet screen. Copy the words from the info card onto the lines: the title, the day and time, the place, and who it is for. Write in big, dark letters. Then draw one picture in the box. Just one, so it does not cover your words.”
Walk round. If a pupil writes tiny letters, ask: “Could Nain read that from the back of the hall?” Pupils who finish early can go over their words with a dark felt pen or pencil.
Do: pupils swap sheets with a partner. The partner holds the poster at arm’s length, or walks to the back of the classroom with it, and says if they can read it. Then they swap back.
Say: “Task 6. Check your own poster. Tick Check 1 if your partner could read it from far away. Tick Check 2 if your poster tells you what, when and where. Then finish the sentence: I will make the ... bigger. Or tell me your own idea to make it better.”
Do: ask 2 or 3 pupils to hold up their poster at the front. The class gives a thumbs up or thumbs down for each check. Ask: “What is one thing that would make it even better?”
Say: “Today you checked work with a success criterion, said why, and made your own poster better. Da iawn, everyone! (Well done!)”
Poster A is hard to read because
what
when
where
Check 1: You can read it from the back of the hall.
Check 2: It tells you what, when and where.
To make it better: