Spectrum - A Whole New Way of Learning in Bite-Size

Crescent Girls' School developed this portal, called Spectrum, that allows teachers to create engaging learning experiences which are packaged into small learning activities. Each learning activity allows students to access either a resource from the Internet, or a Google Doc link or even an image.

In one of the activities I created for my Secondary Two girls, I decided to use the theory of place-based learning which required the girls to go to several locations within the school, be immersed in that place and to describe the setting based on a given scenario. I could then evaluate students' responses via the platform and marked them.

If you are interested to learn more about Spectrum, email me at richard_koh@crescent.edu.sg :)

SharePoint - Creating Effective Openings / Closings in Storywriting (AfL)

After getting the girls to analyse 5 story openings, and showed them the types of openings, the girls worked in pairs to create their own openings via SharePoint. This allowed for peer evaluation as a form of assessment for learning.

Microsoft Excel Online - Consolidating Students' Works and for Peer Feedback

Forming good rhetorical questions stimulate the reader's or audience's thinking process as they mull over the obvious answers to a particular situation being discussed or issue being raised. The girls had to craft their own rhetorical questions based on a given scenario and then gave one another feedback.

OneDrive and OneNote - Structuring for Collaborative Learning in Secondary Two Integrated Curriculum (English)

I used OneNote on OneDrive to archive the works that we have done as a class. The sections and pages present themselves very neatly for students to see at a glance what they have been learning for the various units.

As part of the Secondary 2 Integrated Curriculum, as a lead-in to the unit, students took on simulated roles from the world of Middle Earth (a fantasy world existing in J.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy). A simulated setting was given where they had to vote out one race as the school is re-structuring and want to retain only the best. To guide them in their brainstorming for reasons, groups were given a Padlet to list down their ideas. This then helped them with their arguments when the class decided on the race to be 'booted' out.

However, while I was creating this, I intentionally left out preparing the Padlet for 'The Other Creatures' as they were made to feel marginalised. This made for a very interesting class discussion as the group tried to find ways to log down their ideas and find good reasons to counteract the other races' arguments!

Microsoft Word or PowerPoint Online - Enabling Application by Creating Posters

The best way to assess if the girls have learnt the techniques of persuasion in posters and advertisements would be to get them to create one themselves. I consolidated their works via Microsoft Word and the girls created their own works either via OneDrive, SharePoint or Google Docs.

Clicking on the links allow me to access their works and project for all to see and to discuss.

I think most of the girls got the idea :-)

Microsoft Excel Online - Analysing Posters

To expose the girls to ideas of conflict and propaganda, I showed them a few posters and asked them to analyse the diction (choice of words) or significance of the image(s) being used. Pretty interesting ideas coming from the girls :)

Microsoft OneNote & SkyDrive - Communicative Arts (Dramatisation)

I started exploring the use of OneNote to replace the use of Google Sites for the implementation of Communicative Arts in the second semester, now that the girls have finally received their slate PCs. I created a OneNote document in SkyDrive and starting creating sections for the various major units we have covered so that the girls have a one-stop platform to access all that they have done and learnt. Create tables in the document for students to key in quick responses. Attach a link to a SkyDrive Word Excel for students to analyse a short extract to explain their character analysis. So many possibilities? Do you have other ideas to share with me?

SkyDrive - EL Phrasebooks

As the Sec 1 girls go through Lower Secondary Computer Education Programme (LSCEP for short), I thought it would be good for the girls to create their EL phrasebooks via SkyDrive since they will be learning about it.

The ICT trainers created the respective class folders and worked with the students to create their phrasebooks. This will allow them to archive their works over their four years in CGS and all their language teachers would be able to see how the girls have progressed. We shall check back and review on the usefulness again later.