May 13, 2011

The Lady is back - how to celebrate the end of Year 6 SATs

Last night, at the end of #ukedchat, I asked for some help as to what I could do with a Year 6 class the day after SATs had finished. I do PPA cover every Friday morning in Year 6, but this Friday was different.

There is such a build up to SATs in our Year 6 that you have to mark their end in some significant way. Their teacher had already planned a party for the afternoon, but what was I to do? Some handy suggestions came my way, as is always the case with #ukedchat, but then I remembered using Audacity to make some music from the voice of the Lady Who Reads the Mental Maths Test.

Audacity is a handy piece of software, but I've always found it a trifle challenging to teach to a whole class of thirty 11-year-olds. I've found that a significant minority just don't get it and it takes up a lot of teacher time to support them. Maybe it's just me - but last year's attempt was a case in point. Everyone had a go, but only about ten children finished their piece.

This year we have Aviary as part of our Google Apps learning platform and using it today was a dream. Fearing the inevitable hitches of thirty children all accessing the same online system, my trepidation turned to delight as I saw child after child:

import and edit audio;
choose different types of music to complete their compositions;
mix-down their music to a downloadable MP3 file (which you can now sample as part of the post.)

I'm aware that very little 'quality control' has happened yet. In my next session with the children we will be evaluating their compositions and deciding what criteria are important to determine a successful finished piece of music. It would be great if you would help in this process - if you would like to listen to some of the pieces and say what's good about them, or how they could be improved, then I will pass on your comments to the children in the next session.

(download)