These are the links for the Aberdeenshire materials which work really well with the MacWrites. Thanks to all those at Aberdeenshire Libraries who created the materials and are allowing us to use them.
Read it write it reference it booklet primary
Read it write it reference it – teacher’s notes for primary booklet
Read it write it reference it poster
To assist you and your students with inquiry-based learning, the school librarians in East Lothian introduce you to the MacWrite Clan. Together they form a research toolkit for students. You can use the whole kit with whole classes or individuals, or use single tools with whole classes or individuals – which ever suits your needs and the learners’ needs best.
There are 2 versions of the MacWrites. One is designed for secondary students, the other for primary students and those secondary students who need additional support.
Each version comes with additional materials to encourage students to become effective researchers. Usually this will be additional copyable resources. Some of these are materials created and used by the school librarians, some are from a pack produced by Aberdeenshire Libraries. You are free to copy and adapt these to suit your requirements. Please acknowledge either East Lothian or Aberdeenshire as the source when you do so. The MacWrites and the Aberdeenshire material are licenced under Creative Commons.
If you want to discuss any of the content please contact any of the six secondary school librarians:
Sally Cochrane, Preston Lodge High; Ian Forshaw, North Berwick High; Anne Johnston, Dunbar Grammar; Moyra Lumsden, Ross High; Bill Plain, Knox Academy; Alison Scott, Musselburgh Grammar.
LTS have produced an interesting and useful paper on interdisciplinary learning. Strangely for LTS, it doesn’t look very nice, but don’t let this put you off.
Innerwick Primary have kindly completed our CfE Case Study proforma to share the learning of their primary 6/7 pupils. Have a read below, watch one of the animations above and check out the rest on the Innerwick website…
Over the last 6 weeks the P6/7 class have been creating and producing crossing the road safety animations to encourage children to be safer crossing the road and while they are outside playing. The videos are to be shown at an assembly and uploaded to JRSO website and School website.
This project was fully interdisciplinary with overreaching aspects of Health and Wellbeing and Technology. Numeracy, Writing and Expressive Arts aspects were also covered as part of the learning experience. Planning sheets are available with evaluation to be completed.
The School has 2 JRSO Reps and it was suggested that an effective way to grab the attention of all the pupils was to produce a multimedia presentation using equipment and materials from the school. The audience was Nursery-Primary pupils. The message was to be explicit in regards Road Safety. Pupils had free choice over how their story developed.
The impact is to be measured by the response we gain from the audience regarding the videos. Initial audience results show a significant permutation of the message. The educational impact for the pupils involved has been significant with a great deal of out of school learning and development work being noted. The children worked in groups of 2 or three and had to carry out all types of roles. Writer/ Story boarder/ Designer/Editor/ Director/Sound producer/ Titles. They also had to learn the technology of digital animation using Ican Animate and Windows Movie Maker. Pupils also know how to upload to internet and add music to their animations to create effect.
The project deserves more time and could also incorporate tighter restrictions on story development and working to a tighter brief.
A huge thank you to Innerwick Primary for sharing their work…got something to share? Download the form and email it to us.
We’ve received an update of all the recent additions to the LTS CfE Website from August to November 2009 in one document. We thought this was worth sharing here. It does not include Management Board minutes and papers that have been added to the site.
Assessment for Curriculum for Excellence (September 2009)
Assessment is a key strand of work in implementing Curriculum for Excellence.
At the Scottish Learning Festival on 23 September the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong learning, Fiona Hyslop, announced the publication of the strategic vision and key principles for assessment in Curriculum for Excellence.
Now available on the Curriculum for Excellence website the Assessment for Curriculum for Excellence document sets out the Scottish Government’s strategy on how to build on our existing strong foundations of effective approaches to assessment.
Building the Curriculum 4: Skills for learning, life and work (November 2009)
Building the Curriculum 4 aims to help all those who are involved in planning and delivering young people’s learning across all sectors and settings. It sets out key messages about how children and young people develop and apply skills as part of Curriculum for Excellence, so as to bring about the transformational changes needed to improve the life chances of young people in Scotland.
Building your curriculum (August 2009)
A new area entitled ‘Building your curriculum’ was added to the Curriculum for Excellence website in August 2009. This section offers materials designed to help schools and other establishments in designing curriculum structures that reflect the features set out in ‘Building the Curriculum 3’ and meet their local contexts and priorities.
This section shows the progress some schools have been making in developing their own curriculum structures around transition, the senior phase and a broad general education, and the totality of the curriculum.
Three new videos were added to the Curriculum for Excellence website exploring what pupils and students want from their education, including their answers to four questions related to putting ‘Building the Curriculum 3’ into practice.
Building your curriculum – an inter-authority approach (October 2009)
This study outlines how six education authorities worked collaboratively with LTS and the Scottish Government to plan and deliver a joint event which would support schools in developing their thinking on curriculum structures and reflect the framework set out in ‘Building the Curriculum 3’ (BtC3).
Support for staff – exemplification of Curriculum for Excellence
Exemplification of good practice used in implementing the experiences and outcomes was published on the Curriculum for Excellence website from October onwards. The case studies provide staff with exemplars of how some schools in Scotland have started to implement Curriculum for Excellence.
Supporting the Early Level resource (October 2009)
Children’s Minister Adam Ingram launched the Curriculum for Excellence ‘Supporting the Early Level’ resource in October 2009. Information about the resource is on Early Years Online. The new DVD resource will help early years practitioners and teachers to develop successful practices in areas such as active learning, self evaluation, additional support needs and the learning environment – including making the best use of outdoor opportunities.
The Early Years Framework – Putting the Vision into Action (October 2009)
Outcomes from the HMIE/LTS Good Practice conference for early years that was held in the Hilton Hotel, Glasgow, on 9 June 2009.
Working together to develop cultural awareness and multilingualism (October 2009)
Clarifying the learning: Sharing the standard (October 2009)
Using collaborative learning and peer mentoring to improve transition (October 2009)
Partnership working in modern languages using collaborative learning and ICT (October 2009)
Properties and uses of materials (October 2009)
Promoting science during primary to secondary transition (October 2009)
Planning for the Scottish dimension (October 2009)
Improving engagement by developing literacy and numeracy in social studies (October 2009)
Scotland’s History Online (November 2009)
B!te: Big Ideas – Technical Education (October 2009)
Computing for Excellence – HMIE-LTS Good Practice conference for computing and information systems. This joint conference was held in the Carnegie Conference Centre in Dunfermline on 3 June 2009 (October 2009)
Healthy Eating project – Dollar Academy (October 2009)
Blast from the Past – Scottish history project (October 2009)
Growing up with Loch Leven – exploring literacy across learning (October 2009)
Social studies and literacy at third level (October 2009)
Co-operative learning activities: an active approach to teaching numeracy (October 2009)
Using numbers to count – pathways to numeracy (October 2009)
‘In the Doghouse’, a numeracy across learning project (October 2009)
Planning an interdisciplinary study on China (November 2009)
Planning for a broad general education (November 2009)
16+ Learning Choices in action (November 2009)
More Choices, More Chances – Alva Academy (August 2009)
CfE News – a newspaper for practitioners – was developed to showcase and signpost practitioners to just some of the support, advice and online resources available on the CfE website. 96,000 copies were issued in September across the entire educational community
Keynote presentations and three workshops (September 2009)
The keynote presentation and the three workshops from the nationwide ‘Turning the experiences and outcomes into action’ events which took place last session were put up on the CfE website to offer support for the next stage of implementation of Curriculum for Excellence. These materials can provide the groundwork for further discussion within educational establishments, for example during in-service days.
Experiences and outcomes by level (November 2009)
The experiences and outcomes can now be downloaded by level as Word and PDF documents. These levels documents have been added to the ‘Getting started’ section of the website.
Trailer for Parent Toolkit (November 2009)
In January, a Curriculum for Excellence toolkit to support all practitioners as they engage with parents and carers will be launched. As implementation gets underway it will help all those who work with children and young people to deliver key information around Curriculum for Excellence and answer questions parents and carers may have about how it will affect their own child.