Today's progress 8th March

From today's lesson, we first had a presentation in class from the report that was created by the gold team about how students learn. There was general information about what things students did to learn and what revision techniques they found helpful.









From today's production meeting, we generally summed up that we needed more ideas and Kirk and I managed to set up a homework for everyone to write up the article they were interested in and wrote briefly about over the weekend. We set a homework for them to finish the rough draft of the article by Friday at 1.05. This way, we can evaluate the essays in Friday's lesson and give feedback for over the weekend, and this way the articles will be well on their way to getting completed and we should stick to deadlines.

From Pete's little interview about a case study on how students learn, he explained that it
depends on the student, and there is definite variety needed, and activities etc as opposed to simply just text. Lots of visuals and interactive games could also help to visualise the text information too. Pete's media blog is also a good place for research and articles. This really helped with what else to do in the newspaper and what to include.

Extended Project Folder

We then looked at a folder which Pete showed us to show to the team leaders, generally outlining the exam, with past papers, specimen answers and so on, and all of the virtual revolution videos to learn from, as well as a few presentations and things Pete thought would be helpful. We then explained this to the team leaders for them to explain to their team. Below are my general notes on the folder:

A level specification pages 36 - 41 relevant to the exam, and the critical perspectives aspect.
Exam paper from January and questions, also specimen questions, we will also write exam answers for these and things to note in the exam, for example the 5 aspects to take account of during the exam, which are research and planning, creativity, digital, post production and use of media technologies in your exam.

Pete explained about having a grid as opposed to lumps of text which will make it easier to learn from, and we will also use bullet points to summarise. Overall I think this is a good idea, as bullet points help me to learn as they are simple and concise, therefore I think this will be effective.

Questionnaires

Pete also handed back the questionnaires from Rhygate, which help to understand our target audience and what they want from the magazine. Below are some pictures of the questionnaires.





From the questionnaires, we can summarise that for the 7 questions we wrote for the questionnaire, most of the students had similar answers.

1) Do you have any ideas for the name of the newspaper?

Media2U, Cream Daily, Exams for you, How to solve the A level exam, media newspaper, A level media, SM newspaper (Student Media newspaper), Something unique and original (one word), Shout Out, Media in the online age.

2)Would information on exam revision techniques past papers and questions be helpful?

In summary, they all agree that these would all be helpful and are needed in the newspaper.

3) How would you like the information to be presented? E.g written, images.

They all agree that a definite mix of both would be best, and with clear images to help them with revision aswell as clear bullet points etc.

4) Is there any additional material you would like us to include in the paper? E.g crosswords, wordsearchs, comic strips and competitions.

In summary, competitions, reccomendations for books, jokes, activities, comic strips, terminology glossary - and they all agree that this would also help them to learn.

5) Would you like the newspaper to be formal, informal or a mix of both?

In summary a mix of both would be best, not too formal or informal but a compromise in the middle would be great.

6) Would external links be helpful? For example, blogs, websites or articles.

They all agree that these would definitely help with revision and the students will be able to quote some of these resources in the exam maybe.

7) what revision techniques do you find useful and why?

In summary, images and cards, reading, internet research, maps, brainstorms, anagrams, summarising, practice questions, seeing examples they can do themselves afterwards, revision cards, tests and videos.

Overall, these summary of answers from the questionnaire have confirmed our thoughts about what students would like in the magazine, what helps them to learn and what else they would like for additional content.