Lesson plan: We’re all in this together

Song Bank Link

‘We’re all in this together’  from High School Musical (words and Music by Matthew Gerard and Robbie Nevil).

Subject Links

• ICT QCA Unit 6A: Multimedia presentation. National Curriculum links: 2a, 3c, 4b and 5c.

• MUSIC QCA Unit 15: Ongoing skills.

• SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) – Theme 2: Getting On Falling Out; Theme 4: Going for Goals; Theme 7: Changes.

Duration 

Minimum 1 hour (could be split over 2 sessions)

Learning objectives

ICT

• To design multimedia presentations.

• To produce a diagram that shows the links between pages.

• To use a multimedia-authoring program to organise, refine and present information in different forms for a specific audience.

Singing

• To learn about breathing and sing songs with increasing control of breath and posture.
  
  

Resources

• We’re all in this together – audio tracks

• ICT suite

• Interactive Whiteboard (IWB)

• Microsoft PowerPoint or multimedia presentation package
  
  

Prior learning

• Children should have had some experience with multimedia presentations prior to this lesson. This lesson would work well at the end of ICT QCA Unit 6A (Multimedia presentation) as an integrated task, which can incorporate all of the ICT Skills learned during the unit of work.
  
  

Introduction

• Share the Learning objectives with the children at the start of the session.

• Explain to the children that they are going to learn a new song which they will probably know: ‘We’re all in this together’ from High School Musical.

• Display the words to the song on the Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) and play the song to the children. Encourage those who know it to join in.

• While they follow the words and listen, ask them to think about the meaning of the song, eg. what is it about? What is its message? What does it mean to them?

• Now use the echo track to teach the song. If you have a class of less confident singers, you may want to use the slower version.  It is often a good idea to start with this to ensure the children pick up the song correctly and then to move onto the full-speed version.)

• Next, look at the words to each verse and summarise the key message of each. The children could discuss in pairs or small groups, note their findings and then feed back to the whole class.

• Hopefully the groups will come up with many ideas of their own. However, here are some they might identify: having fun with friends; being there for each other; having dreams and aspirations; everyone is special; gaining strength from each other; everyone is different; being united; taking a chance; using the support of others to achieve goals individually and together.
   

Singing tips

• Ask the children to stand tall, knees loose and feet apart. Encourage them to focus on an object in the distance.

• Remind the children that they should breathe in through their mouths when singing and demonstrate this yourself.
  
  

Main activity

• This activity can be completed in small groups or pairs, depending upon your access to ICT.

• Explain to the children that they are going to make a multimedia presentation about the song ‘We’re all in this together’. In the presentation they will need to outline some of the key messages from the song – in their own words.

• The presentation should be at least four slides long but no more than six. It should include: a title slide, two to three slides displaying their key messages, together with examples of how these could be achieved, and a concluding slide summarising the key points of the presentation. It should involve text, graphics and sound.

• Discuss the Differentiated success criteria (see below) at this point.

• Encourage the children to complete a planning flow diagram for their presentation.

• Allow the children sufficient time to complete the activity and support individuals where necessary.

• You might like to play the song in the background while the children are working.
  
  

Differentiation

Support

• Group the children in mixed ability pairs/groups.

• Offer more prompts of support to the less able.

Extension

• Encourage the children to work towards the ‘A few children will’ criteria (see below), encouraging them to incorporate more design elements into their presentation.
  
  

Plenary

• Peer evaluation – ask the children to evaluate another pair’s presentation.

• Self evaluation – children can identify What Went Well? (WWW) and an Even Better If… (EBI).

• Sing the song again to close the session.
  
  

Assessment for Learning

• Peer talk

• Self evaluation

• Success criteria

• Questioning
  
  

Next steps

• You may find that two lessons may be needed to complete this or alternatively a whole afternoon for ICT.

• Children could present their presentations on a IWB in an assembly at which the song is also performed.
  
  

Differentiated success criteria

All children will: 

• Assemble images, sound and text on a multimedia page.

• Use PowerPoint to generate, develop, organise and present their work.

• Share ideas with a partner.

Some children will:

• Create a presentation, incorporating images, sound and text.

• Produce a sketch diagram that shows links between pages in a multimedia presentation.

• Review the basic functions of multimedia presentations.

• Understand the needs of an audience when producing a presentation.

A few children will:

• Prepare a multimedia presentation for a particular audience.

• Create a background, add a border and a title to a multimedia card.

• Combine clipart and graphic objects in a multimedia presentation.

• Create buttons from one card to another.

• Plan an outline for a multimedia presentation.