Using PowerPoint to create an interactive story.
During this week’s seminar I was shown how to use PowerPoint
in order to create multimodal texts. It was a fantastic opportunity for me as I
learnt new skills which I will be able to use in my future practice. I have
never thought about using PowerPoint to create an interactive book, partly
because I was not aware that PowerPoint enabled you to do such things, however,
having now created one myself it is definitely something that I will consider
using in the classroom.
Within Key Stage 1, I would use multimodal texts in order to
support both children’s word recognition, as well as their spelling. The
PowerPoint book I created offers children opportunities to make inferences and
deductions, recreating their own version of the story as they complete the
pages, and to make meaning from what has been already written. Using resources
such as this could perhaps be used to support children’s spelling as by using word
banks children could select the correctly spelt word, or to support their
understanding by asking them to select the appropriate word from the options
given. The words used could be the current words they are learning in phonics,
re-establishing their phoneme/grapheme correspondence, and reconsolidating
their ability to spell commonly used words (DfE, 2013).
Within upper Key Stage 2 I think it would be appropriate for
the children to try making their own multimodal texts in order to support their
ICT skills by developing their knowledge and familiarity with PowerPoint, as
well as supporting their writing composition. However, there are possible
implications with using or creating such texts, for instance making them is
very time consuming, both for the teacher and the children. Children will also require skills such as to
be able to save pictures from the internet and in functioning PowerPoint, which
in itself is also time consuming. As well as being taught these skills they
will need reminding of them in order to produce successful texts, requiring a
lot of supervision.
According to Dean (2010), literacy is changing so in order to
‘equip children for the literacy of the future’ (Merchant, 2007, pp. 1) it is
important that children increase their knowledge in both reading and writing
electronic texts (Medwell, Moore, Wray and Griffiths, 2012). Bearne and Wolstencroft (2007, pp. 2) argue
that ‘one of the advantages of on-screen production of texts is that children
will more easily see themselves as authors, with the responsibility to
proofread and craft their writing’. This infers that by creating multimodal
texts children will make a conscious effort to ensure their writing is at a
good standard as they feel it is their responsibility to do so.
Conversely, Walsh (2010. pp. 213) questions whether the
‘’basic’ aspects of reading and writing ‘onscreen’ entail different processes
from the reading, writing and producing of print based texts’, therefore
questioning the benefits of using them within the classroom.
After having created multimodal texts myself and by drawing
upon my readings, I would certainly use multimodal texts within my classroom to
support the teaching and learning of both ICT and literacy. I believe that as
well as being engaging for the children, it provides them with something a bit
different to encourage writing and reading, opposed to always writing
narratives in the traditional form, as well as developing basic ICT skills that
will be valuable to both myself as a teacher and the children.
Bearne and Wolstencroft (2007) Visual Approaches to Teaching Writing: Multimodal Literacy 5-11 London:
Paul Chapman Publishing
DfE (2013) The National
Curriculum in England: Framework Document [online]
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/210969/NC_framework_document_-_FINAL.pdf
(accessed 25/02/14)
Medwell, J. Moore, G. Wray, D. Griffiths, V. (2012) Primary English Knowledge and Understanding
London: Learning Matters
Merchant, G. (2007) Writing the future in the digital age
Literacy 41 (3)pp118-128
Walsh, M. (2010) Multimodal
literacy: what does it mean for classroom practice? Australian Journal of
Language and Literacy 33 (3) pp211 – 239
I had the same stance as you Anna; I was not aware that PowerPoint could be used to create multimodal texts and, admittedly, it is something that I had never thought of. Now having explored them I too would definitely use them in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your argument Anna, using multimodal texts would be very beneficial in the classroom. In addition, I think you are correct and using PowerPoint can be adapted to both Key Stage One and Key Stage Two. In light of your debate on using the PowerPoint to support work recognition skills and encourage inference and deducing skills with Key Stage One children it would perhaps be a useful aid for guided reading? As opposed to using it as a teacher resource, perhaps you could scaffold the children to use it independently. The children could use the PowerPoint to create a multimodal text that they have been reading and working on that week; through this, they can recreate the text and develop their inference and deducing skills.
Again, I correspond to your views with Key Stage Two children. I feel they can create more in depth multimodal texts using PowerPoint and, I feel, they can explore it independently as it will be more accessible to that Key Stage following modelling its use.
Thank you for sharing your guided reading idea, that is not something I had thought of but when reflecting on the suggestion I think it could be a really successful activity! Not only would it support the children's comprehension and text deduction, it could help them practise their word recognition in a more engaging way than the normal guided reading sessions that they see so often. I'm sure a change in guided reading would be very welcome!
ReplyDelete