Scrapbooks, Magazines and Blogs
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The first homework that I set my pupils at the start of every year is to ‘buy a scrapbook’. I then warn them that, unfortunately for them, homeworks will become considerably more challenging after that!
As with any current affairs subject it is vital that pupils keep themselves aware of what is happening in the news and their task each week is to analyse a news article relevant to the topic area that we have been studying. I’ve found it useful to give them an initial article and go through together with your requirements for highlighting, analysing and commenting upon the key issues, after which, it’s over to them and we will have regular latte lessons which they will need to bring their scrapbooks to. I smiled when I saw this Give it a Go blog from Phil, as this is exactly what I do regularly with my sixth form economists, cake rota and all! Alternatively if you don’t wish to spend so much time you could have a five minute slot each week where one pupil becomes the ‘newsreader in the hot-seat’ with Q+A if needed and a different pupil is chosen each time, which can be good for assessing individual effort and understanding.
This term I have developed my latte lesson to allow pupils to blog their ideas and analysis of current events, a great skill which Graham highlights here. Over the holidays I then turn these blog articles into a published and printed department magazine which is both hosted on the VLE with hard copies in the library; I also use this for the marketing of the department to the younger pupils who may not know too much about the subject when deciding upon subject choices.
What I like about the scrapbook/magazine/blog approach is that pupils take a real pride in ‘their’ scrapbook and are constantly practicing the analytical skills required in exams with relevant up to date examples. Then the competitive element between the pupils to be published both online and in magazine format forces them to produce a good standard of work as well!
At my current school, the Politics and Business Studies departments run the same ‘scrapbook’ concept but what I like is that it could easily be applied to other subjects as well so pupils are encouraged to be working outside the classroom. If some pupils have a greater ability on the organisation, or technical side (rather than the analysis of articles) then get them involved in the production and editing of the magazine/blog to take the pressure off the teacher.
Surely a win-win for all involved! Why not ‘give this a go’...
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