Making Faces

http://www.btbetterworld.com/developing_skills/free_resources/Making_Faces/home.ikml

KS1 - KS2 (Years 1 - 6)

Citizenship & PSHE

Description

'Making Faces' is part of a BT website aimed at supporting the PSHE Curriculum for ages 5-19. It also supports Speaking and Listening and Drama. The website provides general information for teachers and parents, information about BT roadshows, forthcoming events, news articles related to speaking and listening and links to other websites.

The main strength of the website is the resources section which contains free resources provided by BT, one of which is Making Faces - an online activity. Teachers are able to read a summary of Making Faces in this section as well as provide comments. Teachers can perform searches to find their required resources which are in the form of online activities (usually comprising of a video/animation and a quiz), free DVDs (postage and packing need to be paid), publications and printable notes.

Making Faces encourages students to think about other people's emotions and how they can recognise them by looking at their expression. It can be played individually by students or used as a whiteboard activity. The website suggests that it is suitable for 5-7-year-olds as well as 7-11-year-olds. This seems a very wide age gap - 5-year-olds may find it difficult to match some of the emotions whilst an 11-year-old may not find it as interesting. When using Making Faces in the classroom, teachers or pupils can enter through the K Zone. This contains only the online resources without any of the teachers' notes. At present there are six online activities and five printable resources.

Supporting Documentation

There are no instructions on how best to use Making Faces although these don't appear to be necessary as the resource is supported by a clear explanation about its content. When Making Faces is launched the user can choose to view a demonstration. This clearly shows what pupils need to do from beginning to end.

Technical Support

When Making Faces is launched from the K Zone (Kids Zone) the user is asked if they wish to run a demonstration, as described above. Therefore, when the user embarks on the activity itself, he knows exactly what to expect. There is no area dedicated to technical support. There is a section containing frequently asked questions which covers a number of technical aspects and the facility to send an e-mail about any problems experienced. An accessibility section contains some hints on how to solve some technical problems and links are provided that enable the user to install plug ins, etc.

Purpose of the Program

Making Faces is intended to support the PSHE Curriculum as well as Speaking and Listening and Drama and covers the area of emotions. At the end of the activity a screen appears explaining how important it is to read people's facial and other expressions in order to recognise how they are feeling. Discussion and role play could arise from this.

Curriculum Relevance

The notes about Making Faces state that the aim of the activity is to see how well students can make faces which match different emotions and the activity certainly manages this. If used as a basis for discussions, elements of both Speaking and Listening and Drama are covered at both Key Stage 1 and 2. The different emotions could be used to stimulate a short drama or role play.

Extent

Only one activity supports the area of emotion and it really does concentrate on recognising emotions. Taken by itself, only a small area of the PSHE Curriculum is covered. However, the discussion that could lead from this activity could cover a whole range of PSHE areas. The following Speaking and Listening units will be covered if discussion arises:

Key Stage 1: EN1: Speaking and ListeningKnowledge, Skills & Understanding: Unit 1: Speaking, Sections a-fUnit 2: Listening, Sections a-eUnit 3: Group Discussion and interaction, Sections a-eBreadth of Study: Unit 8: Speaking, Sections c,dUnit 9: Listening, Sections a-cUnit 10: Group discussions and interaction, Sections b,c

Key Stage 2: EN1: Speaking and ListeningKnowledge, Skills & UnderstandingUnit 1: Speaking, Sections a-fUnit 2: Listening, Sections a-eUnit 3: Group Discussion and interaction, Sections a-fBreadth of Study:Unit 8: Speaking, Sections b,cUnit 9: Listening, Sections a-cUnit 10: Group discussions and interaction, Sections b,c

If 'Making Faces' is used to stimulate Drama, then the following units could be covered:Key Stage 1: EN1: Speaking and ListeningKnowledge, Skills & UnderstandingUnit 4: Drama, Sections a-cBreadth of Study:Unit 11: Drama activities, Sections a-c

Key Stage 2: EN1: Speaking and ListeningKnowledge, Skills & UnderstandingUnit 4: Drama, Sections a-dBreadth of Study:Unit 11: Drama activities, Sections a-c

Unfortunately the website does not provide any teachers' notes supporting this activity. If it did, they would be invaluable as a larger PSHE area could be supported.

Appropriateness

Making Faces concentrates on the area of emotions, in particular using facial expressions to interpret emotions. The website claims that it is suitable for 5-7-year-olds and 7-11-year-olds, which is a very wide age range; it is probably most appropriate for 7-10-year olds. The website demonstrates such emotions as embarrassed, suspicious and disgusted and this is difficult vocabulary for a 5-year-old. Pupils are also expected to be able to tell the difference between happy and very happy - again, something that would be difficult for younger pupils to manage.There is nothing insensitive contained in the activity. However, the emotion 'I fancy you' is given and it is questionable how suitable this is for the given age range. This is also an emotion which is very difficult to try and recognise facially!

Quality

Making Faces is a cartoon-based activity with clear drawings. When running through the demonstration, speech is very clear. Multicultural faiths are represented. Students are able to choose the types of faces on which they are going to build their expressions. Both sexes and different faiths are represented. Spellings are British English.The BT logo appears in the corner of every page - advertising that cannot be ignored. The website does provide information about problems which may occur and it suggests that most are due to when the machine in use needs to be updated with various plug-ins. It even provides links for these plug-ins. The user did not encounter any problems using this activity.

There is a section containing links to other websites. The ones explored ran smoothly. In order to return to the BT website, the user needs to close the webpage that is being viewed.

When searching the resources teachers can select the age range which they would like to search. Making Faces is most suitable for 7-10-year-olds. Younger children will probably have difficulty reading the list of emotions and may not understand them all. Also, some of the emotions include happy and very happy, which younger children may find hard to differentiate. No claims are made that the resources are differentiated.

At the bottom of the screen there is an 'accessibility' icon which enables the teacher to make alterations to the size and colour of the text as well as change the background colour. Instructions on how to do this, using different Explorers, are given. When this was tried not all of the text could be altered. It is also possible to navigate the screens without using a mouse. There is a request for anyone who has difficulty using the site to get in touch with BT. .

Making Faces is part of the BT website. It is best suited to 7-10-year-olds and encourages them to think about emotions and how they can recognise them by looking at people's facial expressions. Twenty different emotions are given and pupils need to select the appropriate set of eyes and mouth which, when placed on a cartoon face, will portray the given expression. It is very easy to use and the website suggests that it can be used by individual pupils or as a whiteboard activity -both approaches have their merits. The ease with which pupils can progress, and the fact that they should be able to work alone, makes this an ideal resource for the classroom. For younger pupils in the 5-7 age range, it is probably best used as a whiteboard activity as pupils may need help reading some of the emotions. As a whiteboard activity, valuable discussion could be gained from using this website.

Read KS2 Classroom evaluation...

Product Overview

This product is published by BT Better World Campaign (Tel: 0870 3330373)