Wow Words and Connectives

Improving Writing Skills with Peer Tutoring

Teacher James Blomfield and his pupils visited Be Very Afraid III at Bafta to show their WW2 movie project and explain how using SuperClubsPLUS Mobile has helped their writing.

Watch the movie at Be Very Afraid III.

James says:

"In addition to higher order skills it’s encouraging creative thinking. For example, the children have been doing some collaborative writing using a secure online environment called SuperClubsPLUS.

They are writing science fiction stories, posting them up on the Internet, then getting their friends to send in their comments - positive and negative. So making positive suggestions like, "Maybe you should use more connectives, better sentence openers". It’s a peer learning effect where they are helping each other to raise the level and standard of their writing and that’s without me.

I started the project, but they are making it happen. We've been using hand held devices to enable and empower the children to walk around the school or to take the devices home and work from home. We found that giving children that capability has completely changed their relationship to the technology and to the course work.

So often, the problem for primary school kids especially year 5/6 when they are nine and ten years old, is that they have to wait at home - they're the last person to use the Internet after mum and dad and after older brothers and sisters doing their GCSEs. So giving them kit which enables them to connect to the Internet really transforms their ability to work."

- James Blomfield, Capel Le Ferne Primary School at Be Very Afraid III