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I had seen
PowerPoint used when I attended courses, I knew a KS2 colleague at
my school was using it with a data projector to deliver a wide range
of lessons, but I just did not see how this particular piece of
Microsoft software could be relevant to my reception class.
But when a
flyer from my local adult education centre dropped through the
letter box and I spotted a Saturday workshop on PowerPoint I thought
I would ask at school if anyone wanted to join me – just it case
it might prove useful.
In the end,
seven of us went along and I came out thinking PowerPoint was not
that tricky to use and it might well prove useful when I have to
lead staff meetings. I still could not see how it was relevant to four
and five year olds and their learning.
Then I
stumbled upon it. Posted up on an educational website was a
PowerPoint presentation for teaching phonics, specifically, for
teaching cvc (consonant, vowel, consonant) words. Well, maybe
it could be relevant…
My
first presentation
My school was
introducing the DfEE Progression in Phonics (PIPS) programme for
teaching phonics and I was due to be addressing 'final phonemes'. I
set to and a mere nine hours later emerged with my first ever
PowerPoint presentation. Although, thankfully now they take me
a lot less time.
I should tell
you a little about the class I have this year. I have 28 younger
reception year pupils, including a host of notably strong
personalities. Although this was January and they had been
together a whole term it was still very much a room full of
interesting individuals rather than a class.
The first time
I used the final phonemes presentation was the first time ever that
I caught the attention of the whole class and held it for an
extended period of time. They were fascinated by it,
enthralled. It was the first time they had behaved like a
class.
 The
presentation consists of about a dozen slides, as PowerPoint calls
them, containing images and words. On the first click the
clipart image shimmers into view and, as a class, we decided exactly
what we were looking at.
Then I click
again and the first two phonemes shoot in from the right. I
sound them out saying these are the sounds I hear at the beginning
of the word but, I ask, what is missing, what is the sound at the
end of that word?
When they have
decided what they think it is I click again and the final phoneme
shoots in from the right. Every time one of these actions
happens it is accompanied by a sound effect.
Four
year olds engrossed
Colour,
pictures, movement, pointless noise – it should not have been a
surprise to find out how appealing it was to four year olds! In
a fortnight the vast majority of the class were confident in
identifying final phonemes and I needed to move on to something
else.
Back to the
drawing board, or in this case, the school laptop. I prepared
my second presentation, this time on cvc words. It was similar
to my first one but each letter comes in separately. Also, I
 moved
the image down and put the lettering nearer the top of the screen so
that it would be easier for the children to see it.
I do not have
a projector and would not want to work that way with this age group.
I use the PowerPoint through my main classroom computer, for which I
now have a 17" monitor, with the children gathered on the
carpet. It works just fine.
The cvc
presentation was equally well received and I moved things on a step
further by having a volunteer from the class write the word on the
whiteboard before clicking to see if they were right.
Let
the children play
With all my
PowerPoint files I introduce them during whole class teaching
sessions and then leave them for children to choose to use
subsequently. With these literacy ones I have taken to leaving out
an individual whiteboard and pen for the children to write on.
I find it
works best when pairs of children use them as shown below. Then, you
get lots of discussion and rules being set up for taking turns and
keeping things fair.
 The
PIPS programme suggests that this step will need five-six weeks
but assessment after three weeks of using the cvc presentation
along with other PIPS activities showed that three quarters of
the class could write a given cvc word when asked.
This is an
assessment that I have not previously done until a whole term later
and here they were, at that point already!
Most of those
who could not do it had specific reasons why, ranging from two
children awaiting assessment from the speech therapist and one
little chap who arrived at school very uncomfortable around
computers (he is slowly becoming more confident around them).
 Currently
we are using a third literacy presentation of consonant clusters (ccvc
and cvcc words) and the picture shows a copy of the whiteboard after
one little girl had chosen to spend time on her own working at this.
If you look carefully you can see the words: flag, crab, cing (for
king), pram, black, star, drum, desk, clock, pink, frog and hand. This
little girl is still four and began school in January.
Helping
knowledge application and retention
One day a
child was reading to my teaching assistant and was sounding out the
word 'lock'. She confidently said a single 'c' sound for the
end of the word, commenting "it's like duck on the
computer". Not only are they learning quickly using ICT
in this way, they are retaining that knowledge and applying it in
other contexts.
 I
have gone on to using PowerPoint in numeracy lessons. These ones
provide a visual representation of addition and subtraction with a
third one providing practice of quick mental recall of addition
facts to 10. Things can get a little lively when we use this
last one.
I have set it
up so that a sum appears and its answer drops in five seconds
later. The children have to see if they can work out the answer
and shout it out before the computer has time to work it out. We
keep a tally and, somehow, they always seem to win.
Recommendations
I would
thoroughly recommend this way of working to anyone who is thinking
of having a go. It still takes me two or more hours to put
a new presentation together, but I know other people are
considerably faster at it than I am.
The
presentations then get used repeatedly and by putting them on the
Teach with ICT page of our school website (www.pavilion.co.uk/camelsdalef)
I know they are being downloaded and used by other teachers in other
classes and also by parents from my own class, who then use them
with their children at home to consolidate what they have been doing
in school.
Tips
I create them
using infant-friendly fonts, but find that if I transfer them by
floppy disc or download them they keep transforming into Times New
Roman complete with those hopeless typographical 'a's and 'g's.
Finally, my 14
year old son showed me how to 'embed true type fonts' as an option
on the 'Save As' box. I share that tip with you just in case you do
not have access to a 14 year old son!
Another top
tip I spent months discovering is that there are two ways of
giving the children access to the files without them being able to
inadvertently 'edit' your work. Either 'Save as a Show' or you
can 'Pack and Go'.
A further
advantage of this second option is that you can then use the file on
a machine that does not have PowerPoint by downloading 'PowerPoint
Viewer' for free from the Microsoft website.
As I write
this, the class is half way through another project using
PowerPoint. We are putting together an electronic book. Every
child has their own page (slide), on which is a digital photograph
of themselves and a short piece of word processing about themselves.
They will soon
be adding a recording of themselves reading their writing and a
picture of themselves drawn using the electronic sketchpad. Well,
that's the plan...
Now, what is
this I hear about teacher's using Excel to create interactive
worksheets? Nah! Can't be relevant to early years
children, can it!?!
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