Lesson Plan One

Area of nationally developed curriculum: Health

Strand: People and food : Level 2, 2.8: 'Selects and implements strategies for including certain foods in the diet.'

Learning outcomes:

To discover the foods which contain fibre in them.

To discover the reasons for including fibre in the diet.

To begin to do simple typing.

To improve cooperative skills through group work.

Description of the Class: The class is a group of 21 grade 3 students. They are familiar with using the mouse, loading and using software but have done very little, if any, typing. They are undertaking a unit of nutrition in the subject area of health. There are 2 computers in the classroom.

Computer based activities: The class will be split into 7 groups of 3. The groups of three will go through the first section of Body Fun (elementary years) together. They must go to the "Underground world of secrets" and click on the library books where they will find the necessary information on fibre. One student must record the information. They will go away to plan their project. Individually the group members must look at the information, write it out in their own words and and word process it.

Off-computer activities: The group members must write the information gathered in their own words. As a group the class will be making posters about fibre, including pictures of foods containing fibre and a spiel about the importance of fibre in the diet.

Classroom Management: There are 7 groups in the class and two computers. What will happen is two groups will use the computer whilst the rest of the class work on maths sheets or similar work. When the first two groups finish they can start work on their posters and individual written work. By the time the last group finishes with the computer all groups will be at different stages. nThe first groups can begin their individual typing. This will not take a huge amount of time. They are expected only to become familiar with the keyboard.

Evaluation Strategies: The unit of work can be evaluated by the information found on the posters and the point to which children can cope with the word processing and the quality of their work. Cooperation skills can be judges from teacher observation.

Lesson Plan Two

Area of the nationally developed curriculum: Technology

KITO: Mode: Operations, Level 2, 'Begins to type or do simple voice input.'

Learning Outcomes:

To become familiar with a keyboard layout

To understand why the letters are where they are on the keyboard

To begin to type/word process

Off-computer activities: The teacher will make a large copy of a keyboard on a large poster or black/white board. The class will discuss the layout of the keyboard, why it is like this and which fingers to put on which keys.

Computer based activities: The teacher will have stuck a colour code onto the letters of the keyboard with a nearby chart so children know where to put their fingers. The children will play the typing games on Dr Health'n'stein's Body Fun with their fingers on the correct keys. There can be an ongoing competition in which scores are added and the child with the highest score at the end of each week/month/term gets a prize. This approach would probably be even better in cooperative groups so there is a group score at the end of each week/month/term.

Classroom Management: There wiould have to be a time limit on the use of the computer, for example each child can use the computer for 20 minutes. The computer games can be used as a reward for good behaviour or work.

Evaluation Strategies: The teacher would evaluate the typing depending on the level of improvement of the child over an extended period of time. A child is not instantly going to be a speed typer but will certainly improve over time. A shorter term means of evaluation would be the quality of the typed work, how quickly it is typed and how many mistakes are involved.

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