Introduction:
During this assignment I will focus on the implementation and importance of literacy and numeracy in my Key Stage 4 lessons within the relatively new curriculum of Computer Science, and how literacy and numeracy can support learning in order to provide a fully inclusive learning environment.
The delivery school in Sherborne where I am employed is rated ‘Good’ by OFSTED (2017). It converted to an Academy in 2012 and holds approximately 1580 students aged 11-18. It has a relatively low number of students who have English as an additional language and the free school meal/pupil premium percentage is approximately 13% lower than national average (Gov.UK). For this assignment, I will use my Year 10 Computer Science class. This is a predominately male class with one female student. Their target grades range from grade 3 – 8, with the majority of students at the upper end of this range. The data for this class can be seen in Appendix A.
The subject content for this assignment is Python Programming, looking at how the incorporation of numeracy and literacy supports learning in this topic. All subjects to some degree use literacy and numeracy. Particularly having awareness of this in Computer Science is very important. Computer Science especially ‘has deep links with mathematics’ (DfE, 2013). Students are required as part of the OCR (Oxford and Cambridge) GCSE Computer Science Specification to complete a programming task which involves planning, reviewing and evaluating their programs. Lacking the basic literacy and numeracy skills would hinder students’ ability to complete this task.
The OCR syllabus states students must be able to apply Computer Science related mathematics confidently (OCR, 2018, p.8) and have the understanding of key mathematical elements laid out in Appendix B. In the aims of the National Curriculum for Computing it says that students must be able to ‘understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation’ (DfE, 2013). This not only relates to the programming activities, but the syllabus clearly lays out that it includes both practical and theoretical contexts, and the use of computing-related mathematics within those contexts (OCR, 2018, p.31).
A detailed break-down of each lesson for this assignment can be seen in appendix. All the activities support literacy and numeracy (Appendix xx) . These lessons were conducted over a series of three lessons, all for an hour long.
Previously at the start of my training, from observing Key stage 3 lessons I had noticed a lot of students giving up too easily. Dweck (2016) called this the fixed mind set in which students were hesitant to have a go as they ‘could not do it’ or ‘did not want to get it wrong’. Not only this, some students did not have the literacy or numeracy skills to be able to access lesson content with regards to understanding what the task was asking them to do; along with simple grammatical and mathematical errors causing them problems. With this observation, some students were becoming excluded from the lesson and progress was minimal therefore before this series of lessons I made myself aware of pupils’ prior knowledge and the activities built on this as stated in Teaching Standard 2. (DfE, 2013)
The Importance of Literacy and Numeracy:
Lamb, S (1997) portrays the idea that poor literacy and numeracy achievement is linked to early school leaving and periods of unemployment. Evidentially, having the key fundamental skills in numeracy and literacy are essential. Students should not be able to leave school without the very minimum knowledge to be able to implement these skills in all aspects of life. Quinn, R (2011) stated that literacy and numeracy are amongst the most important life skills that schools teach. Without these skills, students would not be able to access the different subject areas; moreover be successful and have a positive effect on society. The importance’s of these skills are the responsibility of each individual subject area and should not just be thought of as being a focus for the English and Mathematics departments.
Numeracy is defined as ‘the ability to use mathematics in everyday life’ (National Numeracy, 2015). Not being able to apply mathematics in life would result in not being able to carry out the simplest of tasks needed every day. For example, being able to count change or telling the time. Besides, regardless of the subject, the National Curriculum states that being confident in numeracy and other mathematical skills is a necessity to help students be successful across the curriculum. (DfE, 2014, p.9). Undoubtedly, by incorporating basic numeracy skills in my lessons, I am not only preparing students to be successful in education but for everyday life tasks.
In the activities to be conducted, a basic knowledge of numeracy is crucial in order to solve simple programming tasks, where students are required to use standard arithmetic operators and data types. Furthermore, students need to know about these basic skills for example; adding or subtracting two integers together in order to be able to work out whether the output from their program is correct before executing it. The National Curriculum framework says that:
‘teachers should use every relevant subject to develop pupils’ mathematical fluency.
(DfE, p103, 2013) PARAPHRASE.
As a computer science teacher, I need to have a secure understanding of numeracy myself and understand how important numeracy is. With this, I can become a more inclusive teacher. We rely on the mathematical concepts to help us solve complex problems in Computer Science. That said, ‘by giving an exciting, fun real-world context for the importance of numbers and mathematics in Computer Science topics can also be used to support numeracy’ (Teaching London Computing, n.d). This can be seen from the activities students are required to complete during my lessons. They closely relate to everyday life examples and how certain machines may work. For example a speed camera, calculator and working out grade boundaries which students can adapt and use to work out their own assessment grades. This mirrors what the National Curriculum says about sing mathematical reasoing and numeracy in all subjects so students understand the importance of it. (DfE, p103, 2013) (APPENDIX)
Alongside numeracy is the importance of literacy. Michael Wilshaw (2012) stated that it should be everyone’s priority in all schools to improve literacy standards, supported by OFSTED’s report ‘Improving literacy in secondary schools’ (2013). The report highlights that literacy is a key issue no matter what subject is being taught (OFSTED, 2013, p.8). In Computer Science, if students are not fluent in reading and writing, these difficulties will have a huge effect on students’ ability to evaluate and review their programs and these would not be conducted efficiently. Students also need to be able to communicate effectively when problem solving, in order to explain their thought process in solving a set task, or to gain further assistance. If they cannot communicate, support or explanations could be interpreted incorrectly.
The National Literacy Trust (2014) defines literacy as, ‘the ability to read, write, speak and listen in a way that lets us communicate effectively and make sense of the world.’ It is our duty, as their teacher, to ensure that we embed literacy into our lessons not only so students can access the curriculum but apply this knowledge to everyday tasks too. Likewise with being able to count change, if students cannot master the basic literacy skills they may not be able to read signs, fill in forms correctly or even read books to support their own child’s learning later in life.
In my current school, the assessment policy states that ‘all teachers have a role to play in assessing and developing literacy’ (Assessment policy, p.5 2012) which echoes the National Curriculum that fluency in the English language is required to be successful in all subjects (DfE, 2014, p.10). Moreover, in Computer Science there is a lot of key technical terminology students are required to know and react too accordingly and some of these words can be quite difficult. Students should be introduced to language that is relevant to the subject (DfE, 2013, p.11). Throughout the lessons, I need to ensure that I am using these terms consistently to introduce students to them but also to get the students into the habit of using their key terms in verbal and non-verbal responses.
Python is its own language and has its own syntax for programs to execute correctly; likewise in the English language there are correct ways to construct sentences. These are the rules we all follow. Python makes use of grammar students use in every subject, for example brackets and speech marks and often students fall short because they forget that these come in pairs, therefore syntax errors would appear in their work and their programs would not work. Grammar and spellings are just as important in a programming language as well as any other language.
Understanding the importance for numeracy and literacy integration can help to become more inclusive in the classroom. Students must be able to access the lesson content. Florian (2005) describes inclusion as ‘not a denial of individual difference, but an accommodation of it within the structures and processes that are available to all learners’ along with Tomlinson (1997) who says that it is ‘matching the resources we have to the learning styles and educational needs of the students.’ Inclusion is not just about those students with Special Educational Needs, but allowing every student with the fair chance to succeed. This could be as little as getting the student who struggles with literacy to react verbally to deepen their understanding of a topic first, before constructing their evaluation.
One of my students in Year 10 class has poor social skills, by incorporating room for discussions this is aiding his communications skills by talking but also scaffolding his learning. With using pair work, I am driving him to be verbal. Literacy is not just about reading and writing. I also ensure that he both verbally explains his work to me, as well as a written evaluation. If students cannot access learning due to lack of literacy and numeracy skills they can become excluded from the learning environment. Cologne (2015) said that no children should be segregated. Boosting students’ knowledge of literacy and numeracy, I am giving the students the best chance for accessing the curriculum not just in Computer Science but also with skills they will need outside the classroom.
Evaluation:
To demonstrate my ability to plan, teach, assess and evaluate I used the University of Brighton lesson plans before delivering the series of lessons (APPENDIX). After each lesson I reflected on my own development but also the progress of students which is laid out in Part F of the lesson plan (Appendix). One of these lessons also fell inside literacy week in our school and as part of this I was tasked to produce a literacy activity around Computer Science. I based this on the key words that students would be faced with in their examinations. (APPENDIX).
This literacy activity was a success and linked well with what the national curriculum states that students should be introduced to language related to the specific subject (REFERENCE). Although not directly linked to Python, it re-visited a topic we had just completed on secondary storage. From marking students assessments I found the key areas that students lost marks on because they couldn’t recall they technological terms that would gain them marks in exams. (PUPIL WORK) STUDENT EXAMPLES???? AND FEEDBACK. WHAT WAS THE ACTIVITY…… OPPOSITE WORDS.
Lesson 1 was an introduction to Python programming with students recalling knowledge from previous years. A detailed explanation of each stage of the lesson can be found in Appendix XX PART C lesson plan. Bruner (1960) believes that students revisiting information they have already covered will allow for them to further their knowledge and learn new things, called spiralling. An advantage of this approach is that students who recalled a lot of knowledge began to scaffold their peers and experiment with code without being conscious they were doing it. They were discussing key features of Python and communicated well together. A drawback of this method could be said that one of my students has not covered Python before, therefore is not revisiting knowledge but creating new knowledge. I didn’t find this to hinder progress due to students communicating and sharing their already existing knowledge scaffolding their peers. (SCAFFOLD REFERENCE)
Using a flipped approach for this lesson by using worksheet 1 (Appendix) allowed for all students to make outstanding progress. Research into flipped maths teaching, carried out by National Foundation of Educational Research (NEFR, 2015) produced evidence that flipped learning allows more time for active class learning, collaborative learning and class discussion.(date) Class discussions are a big part of students being able to communicate effectively in order to deepen their understanding also supporting the development of literacy. Literacy is not just about reading and writing but being able to communicate. (The National Literacy Trust, 2014).
Furthermore, students began to take more responsibility for their own work, at their own pace, resulting in a deeper understanding. Although this study was aimed at a maths environment, I agree with these findings. This method of teaching allowed me to do individual coaching with select students and students began taking ownership of their own learning which in turn was building their resilience to problem solving. Vygotsky (1978) states that, ‘By giving our students practice in talking with others, we give them frames for thinking on their own.’ To support Vygotsky’s statement, I monitored student’s verbal and non-verbal communications in order to see the progress of students beginning to complete programming tasks on their own using the methods laid out in this first lesson. Certainly by the end of the second lesson, students were beginning to think for themselves. LEARNING BY DISCVOERY. NATIONAL CURRICULUM????
PART E of lesson plan appendix……
Students are required to be able to evaluate their work. During every programming task throughout this series of lessons to incorporate literacy and as a method of assessment, they were asked to write a sentence of what each line is doing using the key features/terms in Python. Students are required to do this as part of their GCSE Programming task.(APPENDIX STUDENTS WORK) However, the success of this activity in promoting literacy was minimal during the first lesson; more due to the mind set and motivation of certain students, particularly the lower able students. A full reflection can be seen in (LESSON PLAN REFELCTION.) DWECK. Due to their program executing correctly; they did not feel the need to evaluate what they had done. Without them doing this, they were not showing me that they had an understanding of Python, apart from being able to copy code correctly.
In OFSTED’s report ‘Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools’ (2013) it states that ‘better literacy leads to improved self-esteem, motivation and behaviour’. See reflection on lesson plan..) To get around this issue I found with writing the evaluations, students told me verbally what their code did and I helped them construct their evaluation. The more I did this they began to implement this by themselves. This could be linked to the lack of literacy skills of some students as literacy is not only about being able to write but to also speak and listen in a way that lets us communicate effectively and make sense of the world. (National literacy 2014). A recommendation if I was to use this approach again would be to create some writing frames for these students to help them build their evaluations and and some example evaluations. This would be differentiated, but I could also provide students with a demonstration of the expectations which supports the modelling approach the activity for those who require it (Bandura1961).
Sequentially, the lessons following on from this all activities focussed on numeracy. Students need to have a key understanding of mathematics in order to incorporate these skills in to the programming activities. REFER TO LITERATURE HERE. WHY DO STUDENTS NEED TO KNOW THIS. There are lots of opportunities in Computer Science when numeracy can be applied. In every activity students conducted, they related to real life examples (Appendix). As can be seen from students work, we started from the foundations of basic addition of two integers then built on this once the foundations where in place. Teaching Standard 4 states that as teachers we need be aware of pupils’ capabilities and their prior knowledge, and plan teaching to build on these (DfE, 2011). The lesson plans support this and it was vital I knew about students capabilities and the series of lessons built on their already existing knowledge. If students lacked in numeracy skills, they would not have been able to progress through the activities as students were required to test the outcomes of each program (student work). If students do not understand basic number systems, BIDMAS and data type’s students would not know if their outcome was correct. To support learning, students had a printed version of the comparison operators that would be used in the activities.
The activities conducted differentiated in difficulty with students progressing at their own rate. Throughout all the lessons there were plenary’s to collaborate learning and discuss key features of Python and their coding.
Assessment took place throughout the series of lessons. This was the first 3 lessons of a series of 8. Students conducted various programming activities after being taught the content. Brown and Knight (1994) stated that assessment is important as it is a performance indicator for both staff and students and provides opportunities to remedy mistakes. High quality verbal feedback was given during every programming activity and this motivated students. Teaching Standard 5 states that we should give pupils regular feedback, both orally and through accurate marking, and encourage pupils to respond to the feedback. (APPENDIX) I used terms such as ‘almost’ and ‘nearly’ during verbal feedback encouraging the correct response from the student, rather than them relying on me giving them the answer; a term Davies (1998) called evaluative listening.
Students began to learn from their mistakes and highlight mistakes in their evaluations. Nightingale et al. (1996) stated that assessment should also focus on team-working, problem solving and communication skills. These skills are transferable skills that can be used in many different subject areas, plus in society. Not only did the discussions during my lesson highlight this but it gave chance for me to gauge exactly where students where on an individual level to differentiate and plan for this. I did this by re-arranging my seating plan after lesson 2.
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