| Key Skills |
|---|
The five key skills at Senior Cycle are: Information processing, communicating, being personally effective, working with others and critical and creative thinking. “These skills are identified as being important for all students to achieve to the best of their ability, both during their time in school and into the future, and to fully participate in society, in family and community life, the world of work and lifelong learning”.(Leaving Certificate Classical Studies Specification page 12.)
The key skills are embedded within Leaving Certificate Classical Studies learning outcomes. To learn more about the Senior Cycle Key Skills, please click this link https://ncca.ie/en/resources/senior-cycle-key-skills-framework
Below are some strategies to assist with the integration of Senior Cycle Key Skills that have been produced by the PDST support services.
- Active Learning Methodologies
- Multiple Intelligences
- Differentiation
- Planning to support mixed ability teaching
- Questions using Bloom's Taxonomy
| Digital Technologies |
|---|
PDST Technology in Education promotes and supports the integration of a high quality ICT infrastructure into learning and teaching for schools. It provides relevant and up-to-date ICT advice and support to schools on a range of technology-related areas. PDST Technology in Education also coordinates the Schools Broadband Programme, which provides broadband connectivity, content filtering, web hosting, and security services to all Primary and Post Primary schools. See more at http://www.pdsttechnologyineducation.ie/en/
Digital Technologies play a significant role in supporting Classical Studies. In recent years we have seen an increase in the range and quality of materials available online, and through other electronic media, to support the teaching of Classical Studies. Such material can be used creatively to develop student understanding of the subject by facilitating imaginative but historically robust connections with ancient Greek and Roman societies.
The following websites can be used to explore some of the possible approaches to improving student learning in the classroom that can be enhanced by the use of specific internet, or other electronic, resources.
It is important that all resources used in the classroom be linked to the specification learning outcomes and adapted to facilitate an inclusive learning environment for students.
|
Websites to support teaching and learning |
Description |
Instructions |
|---|---|---|
|
Study Stack is a free web 2.0 tool which helps students to memorise information in a fun and engaging way. Students and teachers can create their own flashcards or use some of the millions of flashcards that have already been created. For each set of flashcards entered, the StudyStack website automatically generates over a dozen ways for students to study and revise the material they need to learn, reducing boredom. Teachers too can enter material once and have over a dozen different activities created for their students. |
||
|
Padlet is a free online tool that is best described as an online notice board. Padlet can be used by students and teachers to post notes on a common page. The notes posted by teachers and students can contain links, videos, images and document files. |
||
|
Digital learners prefer processing pictures, sounds, colours and video as opposed to working with static text. Animoto is a Web 2.0 tool which facilitates this. It can be used to improve subject vocabulary, understanding of complex topics, link concepts and develop greater understanding for students. Animoto allows users to create visually appealing and memorable videos which can be created in minutes once the subject material is available. |
|
|
|
The Cube creator is an online interactive tool. There are four cube templates, three of which have predefined questions/topics on the faces of a cube, and permit the user add responses to the questions. The fourth cube type allows the user to add their own questions/topics. The cube can be rotated on screen and printed as a development. The development can be printed and glued together to form a solid cube. |
||
|
Timeline allows students to create a graphical representation of an event or process by displaying items sequentially along a line. Timelines can be organized by time of day, date, or event, and the tool allows users to create a label with short or long descriptive text. Adding an image for each label makes a timeline more visually appealing. Add, drag, and rearrange items as needed. Saving capability allows students to return to their work and make revisions, and they can share their final work via e-mail. |
||
|
A free software that allows you to create visual presentations and timelines. |
||
|
An easy-to-use tool for building assessments and seeing results in real-time to improve instruction and help student learning. |
||
|
Edmodo is a free social learning platform for teachers, students and also parents. It offers a safe and easy way for students and teachers to exchange ideas, share content or information and access homework. |
||
|
Blend space is an easy way to blend your classroom with digital content. Easily find, add and share online content (videos, images, pdfs, Google docs). Students comment or take notes alongside content. |
||
|
Educanon is an online learning environment to create and share interactive video lesson. Teachers begin with any YouTube, Vimeo or TeacherTube video content and transform what is traditionally passive content into an active experience for students. By time-linking activities that students engage with as the video progresses the content is segmented into digestible components increasing student engagement. |
| Literacy & Numeracy |
|---|
Students will encounter various forms of literacy and numeracy throughout their study of Classical Studies, especially while engaging with primary source texts and dates. The use of primary source texts will help students learn to read carefully and mindfully. Students will also experience visual literacy through analysing maps, statues, plans, paintings and 3D reconstructions. Numeracy will also be promoted from these resources as students will need to know distances, dimensions and weights.
To help break down the content that students will attain from their primary and secondary sources, the following resources are recommended to use in the classroom to promote learning.
Click here for the summary of The National Strategy to Improvement Literacy and Numeracy among Children and Young People 2011-2020.
For the full literacy and numeracy strategy click here.
Literacy and numeracy checklist Checklist for literacy and numeracy.
Numeracy Tips from Teachers for Teachers Numeracy, A Whole School Approach
Graphic organisers
Graphic organisers help students visually organise information and ideas. Graphic organisers help support students in various scenarios, whether it is reading, writing, revising or researching.They encourage self-directed learning, break a topic or assignment down into smaller concepts, organise information visually to help understand and internalise information, develop higher order thinking. There are many kinds of graphic organisers that can be used for different purposes. Click here to explore these organisers in further detail.
Example: The Placemat Activity is a graphic organiser that requires students to be divided into groups of four. Students gather around the placemat template which is organised with sections for each student to record their ideas and a central section for students to summarise their individual ideas. First students individually think about a question and write down their ideas on their own section of the template. Then students share their ideas to discover common elements, which can be written in the centre of the placemat template. The purpose of the placemat technique is to provide all students with the opportunity to share their ideas and learn from each other in a co-operative small group discussion. In doing so, students improve their oral literacy. The benefits of this strategy are that students have an opportunity to reflect and participate. They will extend their learning by listening to the ideas of others. It also allows them to reduce content knowledge into key points. Placemat instructions
Immersive Readers/Audiobooks
To facilitate students who experience difficulty reading, there are some helpful tools that they could benefit from, for example, Microsoft 365 offers a free immersive reader support tool. Click here for further tools, apps and software that may help.
Further resources/websites to promote literacy and numeracy:
- Questions using Blooms Taxonomy
- Skimming
- Scanning
- SQ3R
- Reading for meaning
- Writing: Strategies for Developing Skills
- IXL- Interactive revision site for maths- covers all topics
- Petes PowerPoint Station- Good maths images and ideas
- Skillwise- Educational website to improve literacy and numeracy in adults
- Quizlet- Flashcards, games and tests
- Studystack- Flashcards, matching, crosswords, games
- Wordle- Create your own word cloud
- Question cube- Create your own question cube using Bloom's Taxonomy
- Puzzlemaker- Various forms of puzzles to create
- Wordlearner- Crosswords, word searches, bingo, matching and more
| Assessment |
|---|
Assessment is an ongoing process in education and the specification provides ample opportunities for students to engage in formative and summative assessment in the classroom.
Assessment for Learning Resources
An Integrated Approach to Teaching, Learning and Assessment
Assessment Leaving Certificate Classical Studies will be based on the learning outcomes in the specification. The specification explores the Leaving Certificate examination in further detail on page 19. NCCA Classical Studies Specification
- The Leaving Certificate Examination
- There are two components in the examination:
- The written examination - 80%
- The research study- 20%
