d.
Developing Your Own Knowledge of the Resources
Having
made decisions about using some of the resources and opportunities
in tandem, it is important for the teacher in the case study to
get to know the resources well enough to feel confident about
using them in the classroom. It is also important that the pupils
will feel comfortable about using resources.
We
can focus on this with an exercise that requires that you get
to know the Pictiwrs Picasso material on it. You will see that
the CD-ROM is really a web site, just as it would be on the Internet,
and that it contains a whole range of material beyond the short
story - material on grammar, a radio drama, an interview with
the author and instructions on how to construct simple web pages.
We shall come back to this - for now it is important to start
with the short story.
First,
you need to get the CD-ROM working. In order to do this, load
the CD-ROM into your machine and follow the instructions that
come with it. Have a look around it and take a particular look
at the 'Siôn Corn' resources.
Then
answer the following questions - just to give you some focus to
begin with:
- The
text of 'Y Nadolig y Bu Bron i Siôn Corn Farw' has hyperlinks
in it. What is their purpose and what effect do you think they
will have on pupils' learning of the text?
- The
material also contains still graphics, both cartoon and photographs.
What purpose do you see these having in the way you would use
the CD-ROM to teach the text?
- Look
at the short answer quiz section of the follow up material.
When and for what purpose would you use this?
- Although
the CD-ROM contains tasks, assignments and worksheets on the
story, you might want to develop some of these yourself, or
even copy text from the resource and edit it for your own groups.
You are perfectly entitled to do this, so what would you want
to do to develop the materials you have and what reasons would
you have for changing the materials?
When
you have looked at the CD-ROM in the light of these questions,
and perhaps written some worksheets of your own to go with the
CD, you should discuss with your mentor what you want to do with
the resource in the classroom. This can be done in a mentor visit,
over the telephone or by email, and should serve merely to satisfy
you that you are on the right track with your use of the materials.
 e.
Planning the Work of Learners
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