Suggestions from teachers please an how to best present this piece of Y5 homework?

[DrNortherner]

Research on Anglo Saxons, 2 weeks to do it in. New teacher who wants to be impressed, brief says "upto you how you present it, but this is your forst chance to impress me...."

Ds is 9. Terrible handwriting, terrible speller, BUT I am thinking because of this he should write it and not use PC?

Thoughts much appreciated.
Thanks

Write it in runes.

Seriously?
Let him use a PC and try and get into interesting areas, like the art and the riddles.

A comic strip? Timeline? Top trumps Card game? Factual Board game?

I'd probably go for the PC approach tbh.

Would you?

Why should he write it? My son finds writing tricky so we often do homework on the computer. He does it himself, spelling mistakes and all but he knows the teacher will be able to read what he is trying to say.
Or as others have said do it in picture form somehow or something else different. Don't understand why you think he should write it tbh.

Yep- let him use PC for presentation. It won't do the project for him, he still has to come up with the content. BUT teacher will be able to read it without being side tracked by the spelling and handwriting.

Any anglo saxon influenced place names near you?

If he's happy to write it, then he should.

His handwriting won't improve if he uses the computer. And the point isn't really to impress the teacher, but rather to learn something.....

Perhaps he could take extra care with his spelling in order to impress her.

And of course the content can be impressive if he wants.

It's a very slippery path letting kids with bad handwriting use computers.....

oooh! What a fab topic. If you want to get him inspired by that period, read him beowulf as a bedtime story. The language is complex but would be fine for a 9yo to have as a story. There are so many cool people from that period - Aethelflaed for example, and Hereward the Wake. Look for information on the Anglo Saxon Chronicle for more great stories.

Sorry - I have just read your OP and seen it's about how to present it . Hope you get better advice than I gave, but also hope your DS enjoys this topic as it's a really good one :)

Use a PC, but go for something different. Not just some essay but something showing understanding. Could be a story of the life of a Anglo-Saxon. Could be a letter of complaint about a new Anglo Saxon house.
My son in year 7 did a very gruesome extra section of Boewulf.
What is your son good at? Maybe draw something, make a model (working is even better). Show how Anglo-saxon has affected our language? DNA?
Is he good with PCs? Could he do an animation? A PP presentation?

I would Northerner, yes. DD uses the computer for lots of similar tasks and now she has mastered the basics of Publisher and Powerpoint she loves that she can create fab looking work so easily, and can focus on the content more.

You could do it as a newspaper article perhaps, with eye witness reports, photographs, quotes from famous people, etc.

I've had a lot of success with decorating a box (so in this case an Anglo Saxon rune covered treasure chest) and then getting the child to produce fact cards/sheets to put inside. It breaks it down into small chunks rather than being a huge research project.

Ah thanks guys, some great ideas on here. ust ordered Beowulf on Amazon.

Loving soupy's idea about fact cards in a decorated box as ds is a nightmare to get him to sit for longer than 10 mins at a time and concentrate on work, I think doing it in stages would appeal to him. Fab idea!

Can you tell I have Attention Span Challenged children? :o

Fact Cards definitely sound like a fab idea.

When given a choice my year five class always seemed to love making posters.
If I go back to teaching will definitely steal the fact card in a box idea :)

DD (yr 4) did a Roman project as a newspaper - got her first prize. She did some articles on the computer, but some things like adverts were handwritten (For Sale - One Golden Fleece, call Jason) with a combination of hand-drawn and printed pictures. Hugely influenced by good old Horrible Histories!

Powerpoint?

My dd was year 5 last year and for the weekend homework (as opposed to spellings and maths stuff), presentation and 'making it interesting' was always very highly thought of. By the end of the year it was getting a bit OTT, with kids doing things on Movie Maker and so on..... but a powerpoint is always fun and can be made to look impressive quite easily.