StartUp

I started off the beginning of our first Senior DigiTech lesson with Whanaungatanga.  The students sat around the front table, and discussed their holidays as well as their interest in DigiTech, with fruit and biscuits.  This enabled the students to reconnect with each after the long break.  It also enabled students who are new to the course, to be brought into the mix.  This worked well and students appeared to enjoy the introductory whanaungatanga session.

Deconstructing the Year Ahead

From here, I decided to get the students to deconstruct what the year ahead would look like.  This entailed students locating information about the NCEA Standard Entries 2018, located in my DigiTech with Anderson subject site.  The students then identified information about the standards, and unpacked the explanatory notes that would enable the students to gain Achieved, Merit and Excellence for each standard.  In addition to this, students also located NZQA Exemplars, and explained how the various grades were achieved.  This process enabled the students to develop a resource for themselves, to better understand the standards within the DigiTech course, and the requirements of meeting the criteria for each of the standards.  Some of the students shared their DigiTech presentations into the DigiTech Year Level Google+ Community.  The following links are three of these examples.

Dell - Level 3 DigiTech Information

Gustavo - Level 3 DigiTech Information

Issam - Level 3 DigiTech Information

Applying strategies such as these enable the students to become more empowered, more informed, and better equipped in terms of their understanding of the course content and course requirements for the year.