Wii

• Supports Foundation Stage curriculum… (DfES)

• Knowledge and Understanding of the World: Information and communication technology.

• ‘Show an interest in ICT.’
• ‘Know how to operate simple equipment.’
• ‘Complete a simple program on the computer and/or perform simple functions on ICT apparatus.’
• ‘Find out about and identify uses of everyday technology and use information and communication technology and programmable toys to support their learning.’

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development: Dispositions and attitudes.
• ‘Continue to be interested, excited and motivated to learn.’
• ‘Be confident to try new activities, initiate ideas and speak in a familiar group.

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development: Making relationships.
• ‘Work as part of a group or class, taking turns and sharing fairly, understanding that there needs to be agreed values and codes of behaviour for groups of people, including adults and children, to work together harmoniously.’

• Communication, Language and Literacy: Language for thinking.
• ‘Use talk to organise, sequence and clarify thinking, ideas, feelings and events.’

• Physical Development: Movement.
• ‘Move with confidence, imagination and in safety.’
• ‘Move with control and coordination.’

• Physical Development: Sense of space.
• ‘Move body position as necessary.’
• ‘Show a clear and consistent preference for the left or the right hand.’
• ‘Show awareness of space, of themselves and of others.’

• Physical Development: Health and bodily awareness.
• ‘Recognise the changes that happen to their bodies when they are active.’

• Physical Development: Using equipment.
• ‘Use increasing control over an object by touching, pushing, patting, throwing, catching or kicking it.’
• ‘Use a range of small and large equipment.’

• Physical Development: Using tools and materials.
• ‘Handle tools, objects, construction and malleable materials safely and with increasing control.’

• Creative Development: Responding to experiences, and expressing and communicating ideas.
• ‘Talk about personal intentions, describing what they were trying to do.’

What was to come was complete immersion in the Wii game: Wild Earth. The children used the game to familiarise themselves with the setting, take notes, work cooperatively and generally get a real feel for what it would be like on Safari (including frustrating waits trying to find an animal before the elation of finally coming across it). I would love to have taken the use of the game further but we only had 6 weeks for the entire theme. Of all the themes we have carried out this year, it is Wild Earth that the children wanted to continue with when it had finished.

The starting point for the theme was taking what worked well during last year’s units of work on rivers and habitats together with evaluations carried out by last year’s class. Whilst teaching rivers, habitats, explanation texts and control had built a solid, coherent theme it hadn’t engaged and motivated the children particularly well. I needed to consider how my current class’ interests could be used to enhance what did work well from last year and in doing so, it was clear they had an untapped love for animals, nature and the environment.

It was at about the same time that I quite coincidentally discovered two resources that would heavily influence the planning for ‘Wild Earth’. The first was this incredibly inspiring recording of Tim Rylands, presenting at the hand held learning conference in 2009. Tim talks about using the Wii game ‘Wild Earth: African Safari’ (about 3 minutes in) to immerse, excite and impact on children and their learning. He goes on to use a variety of web tools and a jungle from the PC game ‘Myst’ to showcase a range of different directions that could develop.

The second was the blog posts and twitter messages by Tom Barrett related to the fantastic ‘Sealife’ theme he introduced for his class. Tom used the Wii game ‘Endless Oceans’ as a central resource which clearly immersed and motivated his class. What I love about both ‘African Safari’ and ‘Endless Oceans’ is that both games go beyond simply immersing and motivating children. There are plenty of learning opportunities within each game, for example ‘African Safari’ gives a huge amount of detail on the animals and their habitats which could have easily been used during last year’s habitats unit.

I think the metaphor ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ is quite apt for core ideas that have led to the creation of the ‘Wild Earth’ theme. Below is an outline of the plan for the theme.

• The Wii Game ‘Wild Earth: African Safari’ to be used as a central resource throughout the theme
• Focus of the theme to be on the Serengeti National Park
• Explanation Texts (including river courses, food chains)
• Stories From Other Cultures (African based)
• A focus on habitats and rivers to be merged together, linking with the Zanbezi river, a variety of habitats focusing on those in the Serengeti, playing the Wii game. Lots of opportunities to extend Literacy skills such as note taking, speaking and listening, drama etc
• Control and DT: Children design and create a working prototype damn system to minimise flooding (researching the Thames Barrier and using Lego NXT)
• Art focusing on the work of Stephen Njenga (particularly his Picasso esq portrayal of animals)
• Music and Dance: Children create their own African tribal composition, in dance mixing creative and instructional styles (instructional element based on this)
• Class Novel: The Last Leopard by Lauren St John. Chosen after discussion with Nicola Stables who has also used African Safari in her classroom.

I will be flexible in the content when the theme moves from Explanation Texts to Stories From Other Cultures. We are lucky to have a day with a creative practitioner where we will be creating imaginary creatures that could live in particular habitats that we focus on. If the children are inspired by this then we will continue down an imaginary creatures line of content, otherwise we will revert back towards the animals of the Serengeti, or perhaps a different direction, dictated by the children.

A few of the online resources I am looking forward to possibly using are:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/africam—nkorho-pan

http://ecodazoo.com/

http://www.switcheroozoo.com/

http://www.tomscott.com/weather/starwars/

http://www.buildyourwildself.com/

A complete set of online links related to ‘Wild Earth’ are here.

Finally. I’m hoping to deck out the classroom in some fabric to mimic a Serengeti woodland area and visit to the local Cuerden Valley Park with the class to investigate a local habitat and river.I will hopefully be writing regular blog posts, updating on what is happening during the theme, reflecting on what has worked and what has not been effective. I can’t wait to find out!

Image courtesy of MazetMan.

As part of this process they established their own band identities by creating a shared logo.

By focusing on teamwork and leadership skills, despite minor ‘creative differences’, all the groups overcame any disagreements they had. They then had the opportunity for their band  to ‘play live’ and identify skills they would need to be successful. We used Wii Music for this and the children identified skills such as listening, timing, rhythm, teamwork and empathy. The last of these was important and we discussed the ‘ohhhh Brriiiiiaaaaaannn’ problem when poor ‘Brian’ made a mistake, talking through how he felt and what the rest of the band could have done to help him more rather than criticise him. To their credit, the class realized very quicky how they could have been in ‘Brian’s’ position and that working together and supporting each other was the only way to succeed. This ethos was then carried forward for the rest of the theme.

It was then time to switch our focus to the Year 4 Persuasive Texts unit. We started the unit looking at the main features of persuasive texts, focusing on posters and persuasive letters. The children identified what persuaded them and discussed why, creating a list of persuasive features. We discussed the bigger picture (they would be writing to record companies to sign their band, writing to their fans to persuade them to buy their single, creating posters advertising their gigs, creating a TV advert with a voice over). Many ideas came from this fantastic post on the Consolarium website.

To develop my own teaching, I am really trying to build significant Talk for Writing opportunities and deeper peer assessment into the children’s learning at the moment as they clearly make the learning process more overt. For example, the children created their own pitches persuading a record company to sign them. They performed these in front of the class and evaluated them. Subsequently, they went off in pairs to underline clauses and words that persuaded them. They then used the shared success criteria, on display throughout the theme, to discuss and write a positive comment and next steps on each other’s work. There is a great blog post here by Tom Barrett explaining how he has used Voicethread to develop peer assessment.

Recently I have also looked at how to further support target development. I have modified how I mark writing so that in the margin, if a child attempts to add in what their target is (e.g. dropping in a clause) they put a ‘T’. I will then put a circle, triangle or square around it like a traffic light, telling them if they have used it correctly. I have always encouraged the children to use the same system to self assess each peice of work they do against the lesson’s success criteria and I do the same next to theirs which they can use to evaluate the accuracy of their self assessment. I think it’s important to separate effort and attainment during feedback so I put a number inside the circle, triangle or square which indicates their effort level and is linked to a class reward system.

Another element of the theme was to create band t-shirts (art printing skills). This was clearly a highlight for the children and if I do the theme again I will definitely increase the amount of opportunities for Art and also Geography as these will give more balance to the Literacy heavy theme.

Finally, we slipped in few days at the end of the theme to create Narnia film trailers (which was at the expense of their band promo films) it worked really well last year so I thought it would be a great way of assessing their persuasion and ICT skills. We will be making the long trip over to Bradford to the National Media Museum in a week’s time, participating in a TV advertising workshop. I’d recommend it hugely, the children and parents from last year absolutely loved it and several have taken their children back there since.

I’d love to hear people’s opinions on the Digital Media theme as well peer assessment, target development and anything AFL focused that you think is worth sharing!

The idea started off last year when I thought that it would be really interesting to explore the ‘Creating Images’ unit through music and song writers rather than traditional authors of poetry. Children could record their songs/poems, add background music and print onto paper to create CD covers. Persuasive texts would then follow on, approached as the framework guidance suggests, by creating a film trailer.  This was taken a little further, splicing up the film version of our class novel at the time, ‘The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe’, getting children to add titles, music and order the spliced clips for effect on the viewer in Windows Movie Maker. The theme was finished off with a bang when we visited the fantastic National Media Museum in Bradford, which included a workshop working with a professional producer to create their own advert.

That was last year… I obviously wanted to improve on what was started then so in anticipation over Christmas I asked the mighty voice of twitter for band and film suggestions. Particular thanks to @missbrownsword who suggested Hawkmoon 269 by U2 as a great source of similes, which led us to focusing mainly on U2 songs during Creating Images. Whilst in the middle of that process it clicked that the whole theme could be music focused rather than just the Creating Images section; the children could be part of a band, which would mean it would need advertising, persuasive TV adverts to buy their album, T-Shirts with prints on etc. Just after, I came across work using Guitar Hero on the inspirational consolarium website and thought I could ‘steal’ quite a few of the ideas there and apply them to a Year 4 Writing context. For example, a rock star blog, advertising a concert, creating a music video and use of Guitar Hero and Wii Music to give the children first hand experience of the tension, excitement and thrill of being in a band, which would then inform their ideas and writing quality.

I’m writing this one full week into the theme (thanks to the snow!). We’ve gone into depth looking at song writer’s word choices and imagery in the following songs:

• Hawkmoon 269, Vertigo, With or without you and elevation by U2
• Quick Fade by Feeder
• Bridge over troubled water by Simon and Garfunkel
• Candle in the wind by Elton John
• Bullet with butterfly wings by The Smashing Pumpkins
• Wonderful by Everclear

This was then followed by examining instrumental songs with a particularly strong emotion. At this point children began planning for their own songs/poems, choosing an emotion to focus on. They worked as a group, listening to the instruments and mapped out possible adjectives, adverbs, well chosen verbs, times where they have felt that emotion strongly, similes and metaphors. I was surprised at how much more motivated they were in carrying this out compared to analysing the previous songs, although I don’t think they would have been had they not had the time spent previous on the other songs. I was extremely impressed with the range and quality of imagery used, particularly by the lower attaining children. I’d given them exactly the same task but the only difference compared with the higher attaining children was the quantity, not the quality of their ideas. Here are the instrumentals used:

• El Distorto de Melodica by Everclear (anger)
• Rise by Craig Armstrong (anticipation)
• Spybreak by Propellerheads (excitement)
• Mellon Collie and the Infinate Sadness by The Smashing Pumpkins (Melancholy)
• In a Heartbeat by John Murphy (Moody)
• A random chillout tune (Relaxed)
• Balcony Scene by Craig Armstrong (Sad)

During the week I carried out guided writing with each group, developing their understanding and skills of how to create similes for effect and on Friday, after the build up all week, we finally got to create the first drafts of our songs/poems.

I was a little concerned about the images the children might use to create effective similes / metaphors, as I wanted them to draw on emotional extremes. Reading their first drafts, there are certainly images which fit that bill, such as referring to ‘when someone died’. However, after discussing this image with the child, they said they were talking about someone not being there anymore, not actually dying. I think the quality of writing in their first draft, which was far higher than normal, validates the week’s work. It will be interesting next week to see how they go about explaining the images they have used, i.e. how much thought was put into the images, were they selected for purpose or was it a stream of conciousness?

Here are lines and complete first drafts from each member of the class. The only thing I’ve altered is the spelling. I’d be really interested to hear other peoples comments:

She felt like her blood was shaking.

Butterfly surfing, they surf thousands of miles to the end of earth.

I was a dark night, I felt like a tornado was crossing my heart like a spinning top.

I’m just a normal mammal but people treat me like I’m a miniature bug.

It’s just like the lightning outside when you don’t want to be there.

I felt like a ghost was going to scrape its claws right on my spine.

I heard you go down to rock and roll heaven.

Each step I walked felt like I was fainting slowly.

You turn into rockets flying like a spaceship.

The desert was so hot I could barely walk.

There is a ghost about to scare you, like a memory.

It started to turn into a vicious fight, like a caged tiger.

Like a shining star above my head, sparkling down from heaven.

In the darkness of my dream, the stalker took my happiness and replaced it with darkness.

His teeth were as sharp as a knife.

My eyes flash red and I’m out of control.

A shark was coming at me like an erupting volcano.

Happiness is like a new born baby has just arrived to you.

When I go sledding at the pit, I feel like I am riding on happiness.

Rain Drops
Alone in the dark
The moonlight above me
Nobody around
Stars are shining.

When you died in the countryside
The waves are fading, the fish swimming with them.
My tears were my heart
You just went without me watching you.

My heart beat was like raindrops dripping from the sky.
Rain drops dripping
Rain drops dripping
Rain drops dripping from the bright blue sky.

You’re like a candle flame
You’re like a candle flame

We were walking smoothly with the bright moon in the sky.

But You Were Always There For Me
The moonlight above me,
When the stars are in the sky,
My tears are my heart,
When the candles are lit,
And the waves have faded away.

But you were always there for me,
When I looked down,
When I looked up,
When I looked to the sides,
When I looked everywhere you were always there for me.

When you disappeared it was like
My heart was cut so I cried and cried
And it never went away when you want,
It was like a mouse
Trying to escape.

But you were always there for me,
When I looked down,
When I looked up,
When I looked to the sides,
When I looked everywhere you were always there for me.

The waves came up
And the stars went down
And the candle went out
My head was like a bomb shooting down to earth.

But you were always there for me,
When I looked down,
When I looked up,
When I looked to the sides,
When I looked everywhere you were always there for me.

When the sun shone brightly,
When the river splashed quietly,
The cat meowed loudly,
The dog barked slowly,

You were always there for me.

Happiness
I’m like a bird gliding in the pool,
I’m like a bright star drifting in the sky,
I’m like a flower waving in the air,
I’m like a necklace dangling on your chest,
I’m like a plane floating in the air,
I’m like a bobble holding up your hair,
I’m like a helper helping you to work and
I’m like a friend with you all the time.

I like a smile,
I like a laugh,
I like a sleep,
I like a rest.

Swirl World
I’m Outside my house smiling excitedly,
Like a dolphin swimming gracefully under the sea,
I find a lake and ride on the beautiful dolphin,
It keeps spinning round and round,
It’s like i’m in swirl world.

I feel the waves splashing on me,
Everywhere I go I keep seeing swirls,
Even in the sky,
I’m definitely in swirl world.

But then the dolphin goes under the sea,
I have to hold my breath,
The dolphin goes into a cave,
But still I see swirls,
Even inside the cave,
I’m still in swirl world.

Knock Out
There in the white moonlight,
My match was lost,
The blood in my body
Bails like an erupting red volcano

On a curb,
The building lamp post shot powerful rage,
Into me,
Like a roaring fire.

My match was lit brightly,
My heart beats like a terrifying lion roar.

Blocked Out
I’m sitting in a chair,
A ghostly shadow scampered past
Whimpering it paused suddenly,
All the lights blew out.

I’m trapped I can’t get out
I can’t breathe
My body is boiling with rage
I explode like a rocket.

I found a loose brick behind a famous picture
I crawled through,
It ended in the millionaire queen’s dining room,
She did not know, it was like she could not see me.

During the week we also created CD Covers together using a Photoshop Elements template. We imported appropriate images to convey the emotion of the song, developed our understanding of layers, added song titles and exported our final designs as jpegs to be uploaded and discussed on our learning platform, Studywiz. I had planned to use effects to further enhance the images rather than just lift them from the internet but we ran out of time. Here are a few of their covers:

This presentation was created for Teach Meet Ed Tech Round Up 2009. It focuses on the use of Mario Kart Wii in a year 4 classroom to enhance learning experiences.

http://www.wallwisher.com/

http://www.wordle.net/

http://earth.google.co.uk/

http://www.mindmeister.com/25819414/mario-kart

http://primarypete.net/mario-kart-theme

The intention of this project is to act as a central, collaborative resource of ideas for how to use the Nintendo Wii in the classroom. Feel free to embed the CiWii spreadsheet or the contribute form anywhere you choose.

Click here to view the CiWii spreadsheet of ideas

Click here to add an idea to the CiWii spreadsheet

External related links:
Redbridge Games Network, Consolarium Wii, Interesting Ways Wii

Image courtesy of Manu Contreras.

Below is an overview of our first theme in Year 4 this year, Mario Kart. It shows how we blended learning platform activities and free websites with established teaching techniques.

Initial Medium Term Planning using MindMeister:

We started by playing Mario Kart on the Wii, the class were clearly enthusiastic and it gave a chance for some learners to instantly change their hierarchy as some were already familiar with the game and others that they would usually look up to were asking them for help. They were instructed to consider the levels in which they were racing (with direction towards Bowser’s Castle and other fantasy, fiery style levels). This led to our shared writing and guided writing on fantasy settings.

As part of the learner’s planning they used Wordle to create a record of their vocabulary suggestions, which were used during the other writing focused sessions.

During this time learner’s use of graphics was also developed by creating a collage of Mario Kart images which were then manipulated using selection tools, subsequently focusing on layout. At this point we introduced our new learning platform, Studywiz. This allowed learners to learn about file types (Photoshop Elements files having a different purpose to jpeg files) and uploading. Using Studywiz’s gallery tool, learner’s then viewed each others work, rating and leaving comments on them.

Moving from setting to character, we then continued to develop vocabulary skills starting by the learner’s creating their own new characters in line drawings, pastels and paint. As with the settings, through shared writing and guided writing their character descriptions were then developed. Learners were asked to create a description of an existing character which they created through a discussion forum on Studywiz, partially at home.
The theme had just started to drag and enthusiasm was waning so we introduced a fictional character that could have been through drama but it was decided to use a Studywiz chat room to introduce the character (the CEO of Nintendo, ‘Winston Baracass’). He managed to single handedly invigorate the entire class to continue and push forward in their learning. In the conversation Winston explained to the class that he wanted to create a Mario Theme Park and needed their help. Together Winston and the class decided they needed to create a map of the park, a new Kart design to feature on the main rollercoaster and a press release persuading people to visit. Whilst the learners were suspicious it was me who was actually Winston, they completely went with it (slightly helped by me having IE and Firefox open and part of the chat, with me being in the chat in one, Winston in the other – so they had a brief conversation between each other). After the learner’s ideas were shared the chat ended and the class decided on the success criterea for each of the items Winston wanted to see (e.g. overhead perspective, a key for the map).

A fresh approach at this point was also sought in improving existing writing rather than more of the same shared and guided writing. Etherpad was therefore used to create groups of learner’s developing and improving each other’s character descriptions.  It was expected that there would be disagreements and ‘fallings out’ between groups as their work got deleted by each other. This was discussed before hand and there were only one or two isolated incidents which were completely plausible as learners started to improve the improvements. There were also a couple of technical issues with disconnections, so it was important that these issues were overcome by learners in the classroom. Now that this tool has been introduced to the class it would probably be best used as a tool outside the classroom, allowing opportunities to work collaboratively on a piece of writing that they could then use or take further in school.

Science could have also run alongside these objectives/activities but it was decided to block this towards the end of the theme and it will tie in well due to its focus on forces.

Overall, the theme has been extremely successful at introducing Year 4 in a fun and interesting way to learners. There has been several comments by parents on the enthusiasm of their children, homework and additional effort has been high (learners saying they are going to create their own maps or character descriptions at home on top of what is being asked from school). The use of Wordle, Etherpad and Studywiz has allowed for several collaborative opportunities that would not have been possible using traditional methods alone. The level of vocabulary learners have come out with in general has been thoughtful and imaginative, however a small minority have missed the focus and objectives, instead focusing on Kart racing and character speech, despite repeated discussions. If the unit is going to be used again it is important to gain the focus of these few learners and also push others further in their understanding of why they should develop their use of adverbs and other word choice (i.e. author intent and adding reader interest). This would further enhance word choice and effectiveness in their writing.

Image courtesy of Weeviraporn.