Inspiring media/English students with Cannes film festival

'Festival de Cannes 2015' runs from 13th-24th May this year - what an engaging way to immerse students in various topics, one being 'target audience'.

There will be lots of coverage about the festival and it provides a great spotlight for lesser-known, upcoming films.

Our free task, Chugley Film Club, has been created specifically for 11-16 year olds. It helps students apply their knowledge of the concept of target audience and demographics. They do this through the scenario of Mr. Spine, who lives in a village called Chugley, running the local film club. Students are asked to help him decide on a suitable film for the other residents.

The resource recommends setting a homework or pre-session activity for students to gather a list of films. They will then carry out the task and in doing so, select which of their films is most suitable for the people of Chugley. One idea is rather than have the list they must gather general, you could say to narrow it down to former Cannes film festival winners, this year's nominees or films by previous winners' starring actors.

You can use this task completely free, in one of three ways:

•  iPad app: read more and download here
• Windows PC/laptop: download a free one-month trial here
• PDF: email info@reflectivethinking.com for a PDF copy which you can print out

Can technology help encourage more young people to get involved in politics?

In our previous blog post, we shared with you that we created a dedicated task for 11-14 year olds to discuss the UK 2015 general election.

Over the past few weeks, it has been brilliant to hear of teachers using the app/task across the country.

On the morning of the election day itself, the team went to the largest school in Newcastle, Kenton, to work with year 8 students and see whether the task had made any difference. It was incredible to see the transformation from before to after - one student said they had 'no interest in politics', but afterwards was asking lots of great questions about the different parties. They wanted to find out more.

In a couple of minutes, this video explores the session and has an interview with some of the students who took part:

Some quotes from the students:

• "If I did have the opportunity to vote, I think I would have a better idea of who I would vote for."
• "I also think I've got a better idea, because when it's on the news, it's often just clustered together, what people said. It doesn't give you the full insight of what the different parties want to do."
• "You want to know which (parties) are good for you, so with your friends, you know you can have a conversation with them to know which one is better."
• "I think it (the Digital Mystery) gives you a better understanding of stuff and you can know what's good and what's bad and I think it would be good to introduce it at other elections."

One of our brilliant pieces of feedback from Twitter:

@Refthinking Yes, of course! Brilliant, inspiring and extremely useful.

— Dominic Newbould (@DominicNewbould) May 5, 2015

Thanks to everyone for supporting this task/iPad app, including everyone following our social media updates, those at BBC Radio, the Northern Echo, Bdaily, Schools North East and North Tyneside Learning Trust.

If you've got something to share about 'Digital Mysteries: UK Election 2015', let us know!

Learning about the Crucifixion of Jesus on iPads

With Easter weekend upon us, we’ve released an iPad app to help students age 11-16 learn about the topic in an interactive way. Rather than the usual price of £1.49, the app is FREE for the whole of April. Click here to download now.

Don’t have iPads? Try our free Windows PC/laptop/whiteboard trial here.

Digital Mysteries: Crucifixion of Jesus is a unique app which allows pairs to work simultaneously on one iPad – designed to encourage discussion and collaboration on the question ‘Why is the crucifixion of Jesus significant?’

Users are given digital, illustrated slips of information which look across different Biblical writings concerning the crucifixion. Direct quotes are included within these. They must read them all, organise them into groups and then arrange into a sequence to represent their thought pattern in coming to an answer. To give a full answer, students will have to build their argument using quotes from the Old Testament and New Testament as well as their own ideas.

Following the process of solving the task, an automatic report with screenshots and information of the session can be shared or printed. Students can also go through the Reflection Stage in which they playback the process and reflect on their ideas. This can be done alone, with their group, with their teacher or even as a class. It is an excellent way to help develop higher level thinking skills, while at the same time, learning information crucial to their education and exams.

The mystery comes with 3 difficulty settings. On the easy setting, there are 14 slips, medium, 18 and hard, 20. As the difficulty level increases, the added slips provide more information to help students focus on different elements.

Who is this app for?

This app works well with those aged 11-16. By having three difficulty levels, it supports differentiation in class and can be suited to varying abilities/levels of knowledge. As the difficulty level goes up, more slips are added which bring in more complex discussion points and themes. There is also different hints provided depending on which level you are on to help with grouping or sequencing. Sub questions are suggested too which help teachers streamline the session to what they would like students to focus on.

What is different about Digital Mysteries?

• Truly collaborative: It is unique in that more than one student can interact with it at once 
• Retention: Working with information slips from two different perspectives (grouping, then fitting them into a sequence) ensures students remember more
• Higher-level thinking: The multiple discussion points, combined with the task’s open-ended nature, leads to students developing these skills
• Engagement: Mysteries split bulks of information into short snippets which makes it more digestible, plus working with peers leads to higher engagement levels

What does a mystery consist of?

• Illustrated slips: Including facts on the topic alongside story-based snippets about a particular character and their experiences
• Open question: To maximise the potential of discussion and expression of ideas, the nature of the task is usually open ended
• Extras: Most tasks come with personalised hints for those who need them. E.g. suggestions for grouping or sequencing their slips
• Description: This gives teachers the information they need to plan their session including the curriculum point each task links to, the advised age range and possible learning outcomes