Hopefully you read my last blog on Adapting the Data & Information units in the Teach Computing Curriculum for learners with special educational needs and disabilities, plus other specific learning needs. I am often asked how to make the curriculum more accessible for learners with additional learning needs or sensory difficulties, and the Teacher Guidance documents for KS1 and KS2 are going to be updated shortly with some broad principles on how to adapt the materials for SEND.
Today I'm going to look at some examples of adapting the Creating Media strand of the curriculum, and I will be starting a discussion in the community forum for you to share the changes you make and the impact this has on your learners. Please head over there and add your ideas!
The Teach Computing Curriculum has been written to support all pupils, with units containing a number of scaffolding activities and utilising effective pedagogies to ensure high quality teaching. However, there are some approaches that can be used to make them even more individualised to learner needs.
1. Identify the key learning in each unit that every child should know and any likely misconceptions
Ask yourself what are the key knowledge and skills for each unit, that every child should be able to access? For example, in the year 4 Audio Editing unit, children learn about recording audio into Audacity. For some learners, it may be sufficient that they can record audio onto a single layer, and trim this to remove silences or unwanted sounds, while others will record onto multiple layers and add in sound effects and music. In addition, identifying the misconceptions and challenges in a unit and teaching these explicitly will help children avoid them - sometimes you will only find these out after teaching the unit, and you can adapt for the next time. One example of this is in the Year 3 Animation unit - I know that children initially will move their characters and objects too far between each frame, and so we will do a lot of work around what this looks like (and what a poor example looks like).
2. Pre-teach key vocabulary
Pre-teach the essential vocabulary for each unit, provide learners with a word list supported by images (see https://www.casinclude.org/inclusive-resources for some examples), and use the vocabulary regularly throughout the unit - including a consistent definition. Concentrate on a small number of terms, and consider teaching the icons in key software that correspond to these (e.g. record, crop, trim).
3. Create step-by-step instructions for complex tasks and routine skills
Break down instructions into smaller steps, and create a task sheet for children to follow and tick off each step. Support with images where possible, For example, provide a list of steps to create a composition in Chrome Music Lab in the Year 2 Making Music unit, including how to access the application, change the instrument, and save work.
4. Provide templates for pupils to modify
Most units contain some templates that can be modified by learners, to provide scaffolding. Consider adding more content to these where required, or where they don't exist create one. For example, in lesson 6 of the year 1 unit Digital Writing, provide a document with misspelt sentence in for pupils to modify (rather than having to type them in themselves).
5. Consider non-computing barriers
Consider whether difficulties with writing or maths present barriers to completing a piece of work. For example, allow pupils to dictate content for the year 6 Webpage Creation unit, where typing it in would take a long time. Use Voice Typing in the Tools toolbar of a Google Doc, or Dictate in the Home tab in Word online, then copy and paste into Google Sites. Also in year 6, the 3D Modelling unit requires good maths knowledge around 3D polygons and units of measurement - pre-teaching these aspects will help learners who need extra support.
5. Harness pupils’ special interests
Harnessing pupils’ special interests will help to increase engagement and make learning more relevant. The Creating Media units provide a wealth of opportunities to incorporate these interests into projects such as creating a podcast to designing a web page - what have you used as a hook to motivate pupils in this strand?
Head on over to the discussions and add your own ideas and read about what others are doing.
Remember there is also CPD available from the NCCE to support you further. Complete this online course to improve your knowledge: Creating an Inclusive Classroom: Approaches to Supporting Learners with SEND in Computing or attend the face-to-face course: Inclusive Computing in Primary Schools.
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