The Course
Year 7 students take one semester of IT with either Ms D Hatch, Mr J Evans or Mr A Van Langenberg. Three lessons a week are taken in either the B10 or the A6 computer lab. These may be 3 single lessons or a double and a single per week.
Lesson by Lesson for HAT's classes
7G |
7A |
Topic |
| KEY Typing Tutor practice at the start of most lessons for 10-15 min | ||
| DESKTOP PUBLISHING | ||
| Who I Am poster in Microsoft Publisher - Due 11th August | ||
| WORD-PROCESSING | ||
8/8 |
8/8 |
Headers and Footers and the McKinnon Conventions |
13/8 |
13/8 |
Thinking about Changing Technology - Report - Due Monday 25 August |
20/8 |
20/8 |
Word Processing Exercise 1 Homework Task #2 - Due Wed 27 August |
| 25/8 | 25/8 | Word Processing Exercise 2 |
| 27/8 | 27/8 | Word Processing Exercise 3 - Paragraph Formatting |
| 29/8 | Word Processing continued | |
| 1/9 | 1/9 | Word Processing Exercise 4 - Images |
| 3/9 | 3/9 | Word Processing catch up and revision for test |
| 5/9 | 5/9 | Word Processing revision and Introduction to the 4 phases of an information project - Investigation, Design, Production and Evaluation Homework - Investigation for the How To Project - Due 10 September |
| 8/9 | 8/9 | Word Processing Test |
| 10/9 | 10/9 | Discussion - what makes good instructions? Decide on topic for the How To Booklet |
| 12/9 | 12/9 | How To Design due 15 September |
| 15/9 | 15/9 | Feedback re Word Processing Test |
| 17/9 | - | working on How To Production - Due 10 October (end of lesson) |
| 6-10/10 | 8-10/10 | How To Production - Due 10 October (re-scheduled to END of lesson) |
| 10/10 | 12/10 | Introduction to Spreadsheets |
| Continue with self-paced sheets in Spreadsheets (in the drawer) Need to complete sheets 1 to 5 as a minimum for the test. Extension sheet - Goal Seek - is available. |
||
| 5/11 | 5/11 | Spreadsheets Test |
Areas of Study
- Touch-keying
- Word-processing using Microsoft Word
- Desktop Publishing in Microsoft Publisher
- "How To" Project
- Spreadsheets using Microsoft Excel
- Multimedia and Programming in Microworlds
- Theory of Computers and their use
Touch Keying
The students are introduced to the benefits of touch-keying and commence study using a self-paced tutorial program called Key. This program is a single PC compatible file which is available for students to take home for practice as long as he/she is a student at McKinnon S C. A lesson must be completed with 3 or fewer errors and signed off by the teacher/parent before progressing to the next lesson. Progress is recorded in a Key record sheet. Students are also requested to reflect on their progress and try to identify their main difficulty - Looking at keys, maintaining good posture, rememering the placement of the letters, or rushing.
Word Processing
Students complete a series of tasks in Microsoft Word designed to teach/revise the basics of Word-Processing and introduce them to good practice and the McKinnon Conventions. Assessment is by means of a test with both practical and theoretical components.
Desktop Publishing
A single A4 poster is created about the student called "Who I Am", which introduces them to Microsoft Pulisher and the use of text boxes, Word Art, images, Clip Art and its gallery as well as the general formatting available for each of these. These posters are then printed in colour and displayed in the form room.
"How To" Project
Following the Information Processing Phases of Investigation, Design, Production and Evaluation, students create an instructional booklet on the topic of their choice using either a word processor or desktop publishing software.
Spreadsheets
Microsoft Excel is introduced along with the concepts of
- types of spreadsheet entries,
- cells, rows and columns,
- formulae
- charting
- printing
Microworlds
The students are introduced to programming concepts using Microworlds. They are then asked to create a Microworlds story representing a fairy tale.
Theory
The theoretical side of computers and their use is covered with homework tasks - approximately one per fortnight.
| Handed Out | Task | Due In |
| 16 Jul 2008 | Health and Safety Posture Sheet (no download available) | 23 Jul 2008 |
| 30 Jul 2008 | IT HW#1 - How a Computer Works (no download available) | 8 Aug 2008 |
| 20 Aug 2008 | IT HW#2 - Computer Hardware | 27 Aug 2008 |
| 10 Sep 2008 | IT HW#3 - Networks | 17 Sep 2008 |
| 8 Oct 2008 | IT HW#4 - Software | 15 Oct 2008 |