Case studies
Sleuth IT games are being used in schools all over the world to engage and excite students with literacy work. Sleuth IT cases utilise gamification techniques, interactive 360 panoramic scenes, challenging widgets, cool videos and much more to create dynamic ‘whodunnit’ environments for students of all ages.
Reading, Creative writing, Critical thinking skills, Collaboration and Communication are all improved through using Sleuth IT in the classroom.
Gamification has been proven to engage and excite children, and get them involved in learning. Sleuth IT games use a range of multimedia in a bespoke application to create an intriguing ‘whodunnit’ adventure game to be solved.
The range of content in each Sleuth IT game is designed to develop reading ability, comprehension, problem solving skills, critical thinking, collaboration, all within a project based framework aligned to curriculum outcomes. The wide range of resources and lesson ideas provided with the games are designed to encourage creativity across the curriculum.
Each Sleuth IT game can span up to 10 weeks (a whole term) from one to three hours per week depending on how teachers choose to structure the curriculum with our resources. All games are supplied with extensive resources, teacher guide (including all the answers of course) and templates for creative writing projects.
The Really School Blog Review
Sleuth IT received a comprehensive review from Kat Cauchi, (twitter: @ReallyschoolK). Kat took part in our teacher game 'The Time Machine’. a free Sleuth IT event especially for teachers.
MY AFTERNOON AS AN EDUDETECTIVE!
Aside from being a great review, what really impressed us most was Kat’s understanding of the potential impact of Sleuth IT in the classroom and in particular her statement: ‘The tech was led by a purpose’. What can we say? Absolutely. This is spot on. If you’re using tech in your classroom this is the benchmark to guide you. Be clear on what you are trying to achieve with the technology and most important, can you identify where the learning is?
Belleville School, London
Belleville School are currently using : Who ate the cake? , Master Chef, The Case of the Mummy’s Curse , A Riddle of Rome and Film Star Fatality with their students.
Andrew Lynch is the IT creative at Bellleville Primary School, London. Belleville use five Sleuth IT titles across different year groups. Belleville school host a single game in one day! Students work from 9am to the end of the school day where they present their finding to the rest of the class. The detective journal is used to scaffold the work, omitting the additional educational content and project work. The focus being group work, collaboration, the development of critical thinking skills and of course, engagement with literacy work!
Southview School, Dubai
“Engage
“Engagement with Sleuth IT resulted in at least a 30% increase in reading ability. This was particularly noticeable in boys.”
Sleuth IT is fun, engaging and educational! We see a marked increase in progress with the classes that use Sleuth IT cases.
Scarlett Whistlecroft Southview School Dubai.
Southview school use five Sleuth IT games across different year groups. Scarlett Whistlecroft is the digital lead for Sleuth IT at Southview, her class of 8/9 years working with ‘Who ate the cake?’ over the course of a term. Staff utlised Book Creator’s free account allowance of 40 books to take advantage of the easy to use, ‘read to me’ function and a video on how to do this can be viewed here.
Students created a CSI style ‘evidence board’ (image below), which is the perfect example of taking the Sleuth IT experience and creating a collaborative workspace where students share ideas and theories as well as feedback on each other’s work.
TANEM SCHOOL, TRONDHEIM, NORWAY
My name is Isabell Kristiansen and this is Maja Stamnes. We work at Tanem school in Trondheim, which is located in Norway. This year we have started a project in collaboration with Joe Moretti - the game Sleuth IT. We have 38 students, divided into two classes. They are 9 years old. We have chosen to start with a game called “Who ate the cake?”. We wanted them to face a game that was relatively easy. We are very pleased with this game and the opportunity it gives students to meet the English language in text and sound. It has been very motivating for the students to play Sleuth IT. They have worked in groups of two or three and they have worked well together. They have also written a lot of English.
We have not finished playing the game yet, so it is still very exciting for the students [to discover] who ate the carrot cake. They are very keen to continue working on the game, because they are excited about the continuation. We have gained some experience around individual students who often start an English class by saying: I do not know English. When we work with English at school they do not participate in the activity. They often think they have nothing to contribute. When we introduced Sleuth IT we see that by working in groups and building on their interests into the English classes, we promote motivation, and those who have not participated so much in the English classes before have been really good contributors in the group. They participate and do their best. Several have gone from being underachievers to being good at collaborating. We see progress in the English language among the students.
This is very interesting to be a part of. In addition to working with English, the children also get to work digitally. It is a nice combination for the students, because both data and games are a motivating factor for the students. They have used tools like Google translate, they are looking for facts on the internet that can support them in theories. This has been very exciting and it has done a lot for the English teaching in our class. We would very much like to continue with this collaboration, and play more Sleuth IT with our class.
ALAND ISLANDS, FINLAND
A class of 15 year old students, working with Mark Cosgrove with English as a second language with the Sleuth IT game, The Auction House Atrocity.
‘.. the students were motivated both individually and in groups. I experienced groups of (previously) unmotivated boys ecstatic that they had cracked the code for example, after reading a short text..'
Laugarnesskóli, Iceland
Emma Danielson is the teacher delivering English lessons at Laugarnesskóli using Master Chef. A mixed class of boys and girls.
“Sleuth IT was a huge success, not least that it is a unique approach to teaching English”