TAS — Woodworking
Changing the size, the typeface and where the pictures sit can change how easy a page is to read - and what helps you is not what helps the person next to you.
Short run: 30 minutes — the activities marked core. A whole lesson on its own, not half of a longer one.
Full run: 50 minutes — everything below.
Stage 4 Technology Mandatory. Timber workshop instructions, technical description and a safety notice.
Instructions · NSW Department of Education, Technology Mandatory Years 7-8
A halving joint is where two pieces of timber cross and sit flat. You cut away half the thickness of each piece. When they meet, the two halves fill the same space.
1. Mark the width. Hold the second piece across the first. Draw a line down each side of it.
2. Mark the depth. Set your marking gauge to half the thickness of the timber. Run it along the edge between your two lines.
3. Cut the shoulders. Saw down both lines. Stop at the gauge line. Do not cut past it.
4. Remove the waste. Make several more saw cuts between the shoulders. Then chisel out the pieces.
5. Clean the base. Hold the chisel flat. Pare the bottom until it is level.
6. Test the fit. Push the two pieces together. They should sit flush. If the joint is tight, take a little more off. Take off less than you think. You can cut wood away, but you cannot put it back.
Technical paragraph · Forest and Wood Products Australia
Timber is not the same in every direction. It is built from long thin cells that run the length of the tree. That direction is called the grain. Along the grain, the timber is strong and splits easily. Across the grain, it is weaker but far harder to split.
This changes how you cut. A saw pushed along the grain slides between the cells. A saw pushed across the grain has to cut through them, so it needs more force and a different tooth shape. A chisel driven along the grain can run away from you and take more than you wanted, because the split follows the cells rather than your line.
Grain also moves. Timber takes in moisture from the air and swells, then dries and shrinks. Almost all of that movement happens across the grain, not along it. A board barely changes length through the year, but its width can change enough to open a joint. That is why a joint that fits perfectly in a damp workshop in June can be loose in a dry room in January.
Safety notice · SafeWork NSW
BEFORE YOU SWITCH ON ANY MACHINE
Tie back long hair.
Take off rings, watches and loose sleeves.
Put on eye protection. Every time. Even for one cut.
Check the guard is down and locked.
Check the timber for nails, screws and grit.
Clear the bench. Anything loose can be thrown.
Know where the stop button is before you start.
Tell your teacher if a machine sounds wrong, smells hot or does not stop straight away.
IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG
Stop the machine first. Then tell someone. Do not reach in to fix anything while it is still turning.
Read the halving joint instructions exactly as they come, with nothing changed. Do not fix anything yet. Just notice: was there a point where you slowed down, went back, or lost the line? Mark that spot or remember it.
{# The run sheet is used for small-group intervention, so the home variations are noise on a teacher's paper. #}In a small groupEveryone reads silently from their own copy. Then go round and take one word each for how it felt - 'fine', 'crowded', 'blurry', 'too long'. One word only, so nobody has to perform.
Watch forA child who finishes suspiciously fast has probably skimmed to avoid the discomfort of reading. Do not call it out. Ask what step 4 says, and let them look again without comment.
Open the text lab and change one thing at a time. Typeface first, then size, then the space between lines, then how wide the lines run. Change it, read two lines, decide. Keep going until you have the version that is easiest for you, then save it. One more thing to try that has nothing to do with the screen. Lay a ruler, or the edge of a book, under the line you are reading and slide it down as you go. It blocks out the lines below so there is only ever one line to look at, and it stops your eye jumping to the wrong line when you come back from a break. Some people find that this alone fixes the thing they thought was a reading problem. Try it on your easiest version and on your hardest one.
{# The run sheet is used for small-group intervention, so the home variations are noise on a teacher's paper. #}In a small groupIf there are enough devices, everyone builds their own. If there is one screen, take turns of ninety seconds each and let the others say what they would change. The person driving decides. Nobody overrules them.
Watch forWatch for a child who picks the biggest of everything because bigger sounds better. Ask them to read a whole step at that size. Very large text means very few words per line, and losing your place at the line break is its own problem.
Now go the other way. Use the same controls to make the passage as hard to read as you possibly can. Then say out loud what makes it hard. Naming it is the actual task - anyone can drag a slider.
{# The run sheet is used for small-group intervention, so the home variations are noise on a teacher's paper. #}In a small groupEveryone makes their worst version and the group votes on which is most unreadable. The winner has to explain their method, which means explaining what reading needs.
Watch forThis one is meant to be funny, and the laughing matters - it puts the child in charge of difficulty rather than subject to it. But watch a child who makes their horrible version look like their normal school worksheet. That is worth a quiet conversation afterwards, not in front of the group.
Switch to the grain paragraph, with the diagram hidden. Read it. Now turn the diagram on and read it again. Did the picture change what the words meant, or did it just make you feel better about them?
{# The run sheet is used for small-group intervention, so the home variations are noise on a teacher's paper. #}In a small groupSplit the group. Half read it with the diagram, half without, without knowing the others had something different. Then ask both halves the same question about grain direction and compare the answers.
Watch forSome children will say the picture made no difference and be right. A diagram helps most when the words describe something physical you cannot picture yet. Do not push them towards saying it helped.
Move the diagram so it sits in the middle of the lines, with text running past both sides of it. Read the paragraph again. Watch what your eyes do when they hit the end of a short line next to the picture.
{# The run sheet is used for small-group intervention, so the home variations are noise on a teacher's paper. #}In a small groupTry it in all four positions - above, beside, below, in the middle - and rank them as a group. Expect disagreement about 'beside', and let the disagreement stand rather than resolving it.
Watch forThis is where a tracking difficulty shows up most clearly: losing the line, re-reading the same line, or skipping one entirely. Note it privately. Do not name it in front of the group, and do not diagnose it.
Print the card that says what works for you: your typeface, your size, your spacing, where you want pictures. Write one sentence at the bottom you could actually say to a teacher. Something small and specific beats something big and vague.
{# The run sheet is used for small-group intervention, so the home variations are noise on a teacher's paper. #}In a small groupEveryone fills in a card. Then each person reads out only their one sentence, not the whole card. Practice saying it in a normal voice, because asking is the hard part, not knowing.
Watch forA child who writes 'make it easier' has not finished. Push gently for something a teacher could act on this week - a font size, a printed copy instead of the board, a sheet with the picture at the top.
1. Did making the letters bigger help, or did it just mean less fit on the screen and you lost your place more often?
2. Which typeface was easiest? Can you say what it was about it - the shape of the letters, the thickness, the spacing?
3. Did more space between the lines help more than bigger letters did? Which would you pick if you could only have one?
4. What happened to the technical paragraph when the diagram disappeared? Did you slow down, or did you not notice?
5. When the picture sat in the middle of the lines, what did your eyes do at the end of each line?
6. What worked for you that did not work for someone else here? Why do you think that is?
7. What could you ask for at school, in words a teacher could actually act on this term?