Teaching During Lockdown

I’m writing this as a reflective post, as we move into a different phase of lockdown, with schools opening wider and end of term looming. The expectation things will start to become more normal for the next academic year is bright and positive. I wanted to write this blog simply for me. To remind myself that I tried my hardest for my own children and my class at home, despite the hyperbolic headlines and vocal voices of discontent online, about what teachers have been doing during lockdown. Getting tans and making cakes was my personal favourite…

I remember sitting there when the news broke, unable to process all that I was hearing, and not quite sure what it meant for me, my own children and my school. That first Monday back in school (after the announcements) was one of the most stressful times I think I have faced in education, and I have had many experiences that have made me come home and want to bury my head in a bowl of cheese.

I can’t even begin to imagine what my wonderful SLT went through in those early days (and indeed throughout as new guidance was dropped). Rota groups were quickly announced and we were left to gather our thoughts about planning. We would be using the class dojo platform with parents and children, as that was already well established in school, but it would be in a way none of us had ever used before.

Those early days were like some kind of whirlwind of stress and isolation. Homeschooling my two children and completing their work as well as juggling supporting my class online, planning for the following weeks and not seeing another adult (when not on rota) got to me. I found myself slipping and sliding on invisible treacle, feeling a failure in all areas. I remember one day in particular where both girls threw biros at my head and screamed, ‘We’re on strike!’ at me. It was at that point I made the decision I would go into school every week for 3 days, as apposed to the week on and off rota, as my mental health was struggling too much. It was a hard decision. Would mean taking my own kids into school and risking their health. I didn’t make it lightly and as always, Karen on twitter accused me of putting the lives of children at risk by being in school more than I should be. Karen and Nigel have had such fun over lockdown on social media haven’t they!

That little change however worked. We fell into a happier routine at home and work and I started to practice what I preached to parents, with regard to my own children’s homeschooling. I would tell my parents, when they were stressed and struggling, not to put pressure on their children and do what they could, when they could. I realised I wasn’t doing that with my own children and was trying to implement an unmanageable schedule on them. I will openly admit some days we didn’t do maths at home. But we survived and got through. And did lots and lots of Art! Have I mentioned before how much I love the Arts? I’m not sure that has cropped up in my tweets before 😜

I didn’t just get ‘through’ though. I now realise I did great things. I have been very low and now I am pulling myself out of that treacle (with support from friends, colleagues and my wonderful SLT) I want to record some good things I did to remind myself. Karen on twitter will probably read this and make a passive aggressive post about edu-celebs thinking they are amazing. But Karen doesn’t know what I’ve been through and why I need to do this. So. Here we go. Things I’ve done in lockdown I am proud of.

1) Keeping the joy of Brightstorm going online with the children, despite being in lockdown. I adapted all of our literacy work to be accessible at home. The engagement and work produced has been stunning. Vashti Hardy even sent them a couple of videos in lockdown to keep their spirits up. She’s an amazing woman.

2) Communication with parents has been a massive positive for me. I feel I have spoken and developed a greater bond with parents during lockdown than I have in 15 years of teaching face to face. When I was down, I remember getting several wonderful messages from parents about how grateful they were for the communication and how the work was pitched perfectly. I won’t forget this cohort of children or their parents ever I think.

3) Doing silly little things to make my children smile. One that I still chuckle about is using the class pet in school to send them naughty photos. 4) Making sure reading for pleasure is HIGH profile despite lockdown. I have read a chapter of Gargantis to my children every day and made sure they are excited by generating book buzz by making little props and setting voluntary challenges for them to do around the book. Thomas Taylor (the author) is equally as wonderful as Vashti as made them a video to encourage them to keep listening to me read and make sure the interest didn’t wane. 5) Spending time with my children and appreciating all I have. Sometime the little things get lost when we are busy. I have watched them grow and mature before my eyes. My son completed his college course in lockdown and got a distinction. I am enormously proud of him and the wonderful adult he is becoming.

6) I am particularly proud of my work around vocabulary during lockdown. Words and vocabulary have always been massively important in my teaching and I developed posters to share with my class online in pdf form and also in videos using a big book I could discuss with them. Despite lockdown, they will have been exposed and taught over 150 new words, then exposed to in context as I read the class book.

7) Stronger friendships have been forged with colleagues at work (Amy, Becky, Gemma I love you lots) and my friendships with twitter pals has only deepened. I can’t mention you all but my heart has a special place for these amazing tweeters who have been there for me through highs and lows of lockdown:

Kat Howard @SaysMiss

Louise Lewis @MissLLewis

Louise Cass @louisecass

Ele @lllwriteitdown

Joanne Jukes @MissRegardless

Joanne Tiplady @MissJoT

Shannon Doherty @MissSDoherty

Emma Cate @emmaccatt

Callum @Callum_SEND

Helena Brothwell @educurious2015

Ed Finch @MrEFinch

Matt Swain @mattswain36

Kevin McLaughlin @_kevinmcl

Nimish Lad @NLad84

Visualising The Future

I’ve been waiting to write this blog post for ages but for some reason or other, there has always been something that has cropped up that has stopped me. I am not sure why, as using a visualiser is probably one of the most influential techniques in my teaching armoury, and I have found it has given me the greatest impact in the quality of work produced and knowledge retained. I am going to discuss the various benefits of using a visualiser based on my experience as a primary school teacher. This however is relatable to secondary classrooms and indeed further education.

MODELLING.

I can not say that word ‘modelling’ without enough emphasis. The key to getting things right in the classroom on every level (from a sheet stuck in correctly to an accurately converted improper fraction to a mixed number) is down to how you explicitly model that to the learners. For me, the best way to do that is by using a visualiser. I have used one for the last 5 years now and I honestly can’t imagine how I would produce the quality of work I do without one. As a child, I adored seeing art tutorials where they gave me step by step instruction how to succeed. A visualiser allows you to do just that. In every single aspect. Primary teachers will know that you can tell a child how to do something multiple times and they will still interpret that oral instruction in their own way. Seeing it laid plain and bare, with no wriggle room, makes it clear precisely what you expect. Presentation, expectation, achievement laid out in front of the child. Those of you who have read my ‘presentation pest’ blog will know how important this modelling is within the classroom.

EXPERIMENTATION WITH A W.A.G.O.L.L

For those unfamiliar with the phrase ‘W.A.G.O.L.L.’ it literally means what a good one looks like. Whatever lesson I teach, I will use a visualiser to create a live W.A.G.O.L.L. to serve as example children which will inspire to achieve. The great thing about a W.A.G.O.L.L. is that it allows for instantaneous differentiation of the SAME taught task without the tedious (and pointless) need to create separate work. I will create a W.A.G.O.L.L. which is constructed through dialogue with the children and then give the same set phrase:

‘You can use my W.A.G.O.L.L. to guide you at the start, change elements of my W.A.G.O.L.L. or completely ignore it and do your own thing.’

Three choices. Same task. Allows for scaffold, support and challenge. All provided under a visualiser through co-construction. The above photo shows how they took shared ideas in a DT session and followed that pattern.

FEEDBACK

The ability to provide whole class, immediate feedback under a visualiser is simply breath-taking in how powerful it is. As I walk around the class room, I can find examples of powerful, excellent writing, art, critical thinking and whip it under the visualiser straight away for the whole class to see. We all know the power of peer and how seeing the work of another child displayed to the whole class has in terms of engagement and reaction to improve and want to emulate.

I would NEVER use a visualiser to display misconceptions spotted in children’s work (although have heard horror stories where teachers do this) but when I spot them in work, I write them down, stop the class and invite the children to look at what I have done wrong. We discuss and they go back and check own work to make sure they haven’t made those errors. So no pointless next step marking they check the next day that means nothing. Immediate whole class feedback, under a visualiser, during a lesson in context to support progress.

RETRIEVAL

I am a huge fan of daily retrieval practice and you can read blogs I have written about what they entail and mean on my WordPress site. For me, the ability to use a visualiser to quiz children instantly means my work load is down (as I am not generating resources to display) and can act instantaneously on things I see need immediately addressing. A visualiser allows the questions you have to be written and displayed. Yes, this can be done on word or other software, or indeed written on a white board. I personally find the ability to write, draw, scribble, use dual coding to express my thoughts SITTING DOWN COMFORTABLY can not be underestimated.

ONLINE PLATFORM DURING THE SCHOOL CLOSURES

One final comment to make about the use of visualisers during recent stressful times is that that provide a wonderful support for parents at home to watch how you would deliver lessons. It isn’t the same as having their teacher there but that grounding of modelling and feedback can still be shared and used to produce excellent work at home using a visualiser.

My teacher is a presentation pest

I have a saying I use daily in my class, which I teach them from the second they enter after the long summer break. ‘Miss Eccles is a presentation pest.’ I say to the children ‘I am a presentation’… and then instantly they shout PEST.

It sounds like a ridiculously small thing to get hung up over in the grand scheme of what we need to do as teachers, but I have personally found it has always served to filter into everything they do.

I don’t do it for book scrutinies from SLT. I don’t do it because Ofsted might be looming. I do it because I fully believe that taking pride and care in the appearance of work is directly linked to the quality of the content of the work produced. If you care enough to ensure your work is well presented, you care enough about the content you are putting down in words.

I use art as the biggest drive for this. I admit this is not probably applicable to secondary teaching (although I would be whipping out the watercolours if I was in KS3) but it comes back to hooking a child into learning. I teach the skills in art I wish to promote in that subject all year and use that to inspire them to replicate that joy and excitement in other areas.

I can’t say I have research surrounding it. I don’t profess to say this is something that will work for all settings. I just know that when I ensure I use the ARTs to inspire and have high expectations of presentation, the quality of the written work produced becomes significantly better.

The children won’t take second best on word choice. Art is the one true subject where there is no ‘black and white’ right or wrong. They produced a piece of art that knocks the ball out of the park so they want the vocabulary and sentence composition they use to equally match. Who wants perfect eyebrows but will settle for smudged lipstick?

We are there to deliver knowledge and ensure they retain that knowledge to become the best they can be. But do we need to separate that from a creative experience? I appreciate the arguments around ‘doing’ lessons and how actually they will focus on the activity not the content but if you manage the two together, with effective retrieval, you are onto a winner. You are filling their emotional bucket with joy, building pride and self worth and ensuring curriculum content is retained.

Research Ed Reflections

Having attended #rEdRugby last June, I naively thought I was slightly more prepared in what to expect at the National Conference, but nothing prepared me for the volume of people, when entering the building. There is something truly inspiring in seeing so many teachers gathered in one place, on a Saturday, for one reason only: to be the best they can. It was refreshing to see a mix of people, who crop up on my timeline, with wide and varied opinions in education, coming together in one place. Everyone welcome and valued.

Entering the Sports Hall was like emerging into a festival you had won a golden ticket to. The buzz and excitement reverberated off the walls and in all honesty, it was quite overwhelming. Being a primary school teacher, I naturally did what comes second nature and sat on the floor at the front, although I did draw the line at sitting cross-legged. The introduction from both Dan Moynihan and Tom Bennett served to settle nerves, build excitement and allow us the opportunity to realise the unique position we were all in. To quote Tom and his Game of Thrones reference, ‘When you arrive this morning you will be like John Snow and know nothing… hopefully when you leave you will be able to say that’s what I do, I drink and know things.’ Hopefully he was referencing the tea and coffee in the entrance hall.

These are a a few of my highlights from the day. Obviously they won’t be in any near enough detail to do them any justice.

Session One

I had agonised over this slot the entire train journey down, as whether to see Tarjinda Gill @Teach_well or Jennifer Buckingham @buckinham_j and felt Tarjinda Gill would give me practical and relatable ideas I could take back to school and implement into my teaching practice.

I felt nervous walking into a session alone, but was greeted with a big hug from Tarjinda as soon as I entered the room and her welcoming nature made me feel truly comfortable. She began by explaining the curriculum rationale from her setting that focuses on high leverage tasks (with a knowledge focus), assessing the growing domain of knowledge, building on that and a progression model that is visible in pupil’s books.

It was interesting to note that she advocates going straight into a teaching task over pre-assessment of ‘what do you already know.’

There were elements that I personally would rather have more autonomy over, such as the books I select within my classroom, but can fully appreciate the rationale behind the decision. Exposing children to archaic language and key texts that build on each other is equally important to me as exposure to modern, newly published books I have fallen in love with with.

Take home message was stripping things right back to the basics. Over-load of exposure to a multitude of text types, before the basics of handwriting, spelling, and sentence composition have been mastered, is counter intuitive.

I also really liked the idea of using ‘5 words to spell’ from a previous year group, alongside 5 new ones, provides ‘lovely big gaps in retrieval’ as promoted by @EnserMark (which I will discuss later.)

Session Two

I was equally torn who to see in this slot (which was a running theme of the day) but having been a huge fan of @huntingenglish for so long, I couldn’t let the opportunity to hear Alex speak pass me by.

As I expected, he spoke with clarity, vision, reflection and interestingly, huge humility.

Curriculum has been like a tsunami on my time line for a while now and it was surprising to see someone not presenting a magic bullet but instead exposing themselves publicly about the mistakes they have made in curriculum design.

Alex proceeded to explain the mistakes he made over this. No ego in the room. The take home messages included:

1) Lack of collaboration and co-construction stops a shared long term belief and vision.

2) An inability of consistent implementation often caused through through lack of support and the sustainability of that support when circumstances change.

3) The lack of ability to dedicate time to discuss reasonings about why and how.

4) Curriculum nonalignment.

5) Pupil’s reading ability and the challenge of accessing academic texts.

6) Enduring myths and high accountability.

Session Three

I will openly admit that the teaching of mathematics is the area I always want to develop in and it was an easy decision to chose @Mr_AlmondED for my final slot before lunch. With my brain buzzing and full of the ideas from the previous talks, it was very welcoming to hear the measured, calm approach to presenting Neil took in his delivery.

He began (like Alex) by showing humility and admitting the mistakes he had made within teaching and how cognitive science revolutionised his thinking and approach to pedagogy. Managing and reducing cognitive overload is at the fore front of Neil’s teaching and it was nice to have a quick recap on this area, particularly if it something relatively new to your teaching model.

I am very aware I won’t be able to do justice to the talk as it was scaffolded with excellent visuals that exemplified his points, but Neil succinctly talked us through the structuring of his mathematical model. Beginning with multiple choice questioning that (like Tarjinda discussed with her approach to spelling) testing new learning and old learning, often from the year group below. He discussed the research surrounding pre-testing and how actually sitting a cold test before study and instruction significantly improves the end outcome.

He then moved on to the the F word. Fluency. The importance of absolutely cementing fluency before moving into reasoning and problem solving; using the Rosenshine model of getting children to reflect on learning this week, last month, last term.

He then moved on to his delivery of new content and I loved the idea of ‘silent teacher’ to reduce cognitive overload, something I do without thinking in my literacy lessons but simply not thought of to use in mathematics- face palm. The whole process is explicitly scaffolded and opportunity to watch and engage equally balanced, finishing with diagnostic questioning. A fabulous talk and gave me lots to think about.

The Golden Panel

The golden panel consisted of @huntingenglish @Tom_Needham_ @buckingham_j @ThinkReadTweet and was hosted by @HoratioSpeaks.

James Murphy presented specific questions to panel members and eloquently summarised their answers into a pithy sound bite. I was actually so mesmerised by the speakers I didn’t write down many notes (again I won’t be doing the speakers justice) but things I scribbled down that have stuck with me include the following:

Alex- ‘Vocabulary teaching isn’t separate to curriculum and is the fabric of subject domains.’ It was really important to hear how vocabulary cannot be taught in subject isolation and exposure to meaning in a maths lesson of a word has a completely different meaning in a history lesson and a wider understanding of that is needed.

Tom- ‘Teaching through examples and structured sequences with foundations are the building blocks of fluency.’ I am actually massively annoyed I didn’t get to hear Tom present and I hope very much he is on the list to speak at #rEdnorthampton so I can hear more on what he has to say.

Diane- ‘Don’t put a ceiling on what children can do. An inability to read isn’t a sign of lacking intelligence.’ I actually was incredibly inspired by Diane and the staggering work she has done around supporting children in reading. I particularly liked how she noted that just because a child might not get a GCSE, isn’t a reason not to invest time and energy. By supporting a child to read, you are enabling them to live in society and function in a word rich world.

Jennifer- ‘All teachers should have a strong knowledge of decoding.’ Jennifer shone a spot light on teacher training and how not enough focus is given on equipping teachers with the knowledge of how to teach reading. In primary, teachers will have a secure knowledge in decoding and strategies surrounding how to support children with reading. It was interesting that within the secondary sector, that isn’t given as much time, training and support with. A science or history teacher needs as much understanding of why a child can’t read their text book as an infant teacher navigating a 4 year old through phonics. She also discussed the role Primary year 6 teachers have in equipping children with vocabulary needed to cope with transition into secondary education.

Ending with an Enser

The highlight of the day for me was listening to @EnserMark discuss interweaving within the curriculum. With a powerhouse speaking style, that slam dunked his first words out with a mic drop, Mark meant business. He regaled us with stories how in the past, lessons that focused on ‘doing’ and evoking episodic memories (such as teaching geography lessons using cake) are now shown to be a waste of time in cementing knowledge. (This may not be as straight forward as this in light of the blog dropped by Paul Moss @EDmerger earlier today but that is an aside.)

He then moved on to discuss interleaving, something entirely new to me. Using two things side by side to draw out differences. It was something I felt I wanted to read up on more and found this quote which was helpful in securing my understanding:

‘Interleaving refers to the benefits of sequencing learning tasks so that similar items – two examples of the same concept, say – are interspersed with different types of items rather than being consecutive. This results in a more variable and challenging task but is associated with benefits in terms of memory and transfer, which apply to concept learning as well as other domains (Kang, 2016).’

Full of energy, excitement and enthusiasm, we were given the analogy of treating curriculum like the preparation of making sour dough. (Mark Lehain would be happy hear this.) When making sour dough, you keep something back to use later. So in terms of the curriculum Mark eloquently discussed the need to

‘Keep something back to use later. What can we take out of one topic to put into the next? What are the threads that I am weaving through my curriculum that will keep appearing elsewhere?’

He then hit us with a planning model of beauty, which unfortunately you can’t see very well in the picture below.

Take home messages from the talk include:

1) Decide your big picture; fundamental knowledge, threshold concepts and examples.

2) Think how you will structure this.. ‘to understand x they first need to understand y.’

3) Plot the schema.

4) Build this into planning with places referenced, images used, knowledge organised to scaffold, retrieval quizzes built in and assessment to pull together.

‘Move away from a culture of doing to a culture of learning.’

Friendship

In conclusion, if anyone is wondering if these kind of events are right for them, the only way you will know is if you attend. I enjoyed my day massively and have lots taken away to reflect on. It’s also about friendship, shared passion and meeting people you spend hours chatting with online in person. I wouldn’t be me without ending with a series of selfies. Thanks for reading if you got this far.

Music And Storytelling

A few months ago, the wonderful Tiny Owl children’s book publisher @TinyOwl_Books messaged me to ask if I would be interested in a copy of their new book, The Phoenix Of Persia by Sally Pomme Clayton and Amin Hassanzadeh Sherif to review. When it arrived, it was a visual delight for the eyes, but also presented a beautifully crafted story that would appeal to all ages. Then I discovered the magic of the musical element. Running alongside the story, you can play a musical soundtrack, that brings the story alive in a whole new way. I immediately knew I wanted to base my next unit of music around it.

Tiny Owl have put together a wonderful teaching guide, that gives a variety of ideas how to use the book, and I used their Skeleton frame work to create 4 sessions.

Session One:

Before we even opened the book, I felt it was important to give the children an understanding of the culture, backstory and context of the book, so I made a PowerPoint to highlight key features. The children particularly enjoyed seeing video clips of the various instruments used in the book and quickly were discussing their favourite new instruments and how it made them feel unprompted.

We then settled down to listen to the story. I dimmed the lights, put on fairy lights and just let the magical story play using the QR code in the front of the book. You could have heard a pin drop. They were completely mesmerised and drawn into the story in a way I haven’t seen before. I observed children moving their hands and bodies unconsciously to music and not one child spoke until it finished.

We ended the session with orally appraising and discussing the book, and where they were spell bound and silent before, they made up for it with their boundless enthusiasm to talk about what they had just heard.

Session Two:

We listened to the story again, but this time I wanted them to specifically focus on how the music made them feel. What quality did it bring to the story? How do certain instruments make them feel at key parts in the story? Again the oral discussion was significant here. To finish the session, the children chose their favourite instrument to research and explain how it made them feel.Session Three:

Session three involved exploration of Iranian rhythms using 7 beat time. This was completely out of my expertise but the power of Teacher Twitter is the community of sharing. The wonderful @andykeegan jumped to my rescue and created some excellent video tutorials for the children to follow and copy. They were able to use this to follow and then eventually created their own 7 beat rhythms. Thanks again Andy!

Session Four:

The final session involved the children creating their own musical soundtrack to accompany the story. I split the children in small groups of 3 and gave each child a page from the book. They then had to select instruments to represent the characters and provide rhythmical backdrop. When the music trolley comes out, it is like cat nip for kids and inevitably letting them just bash and crash for 5 mins is part of the joy. Once, the novelty wore off, careful focusing to keep them on task was needed.

When using the drums, I reminded them to use the 7 beat rhythms. I also reminded them of the impact haunting melodies had if using a recorder. One child in the group would read their section of the story, and the other members provide the musical accompaniment.

Once the groups were secure in their creativity and section, we made a circle and sat in order for the story. I then just allowed them to become the musical and oral storytellers. The piece flowed from group to group and was a very magical moment seeing the end result.

I have thoroughly loved using this book in our music lessons this half term and would like to thank Tiny Owl again for giving my class this opportunity.

Books Are Powerful

Using books is powerful. Let us just analyse the word powerful. What does that mean? For me a great book has the power to shape and influence a child (and adult) in many ways.

As a teacher, I am blessed to have the unique opportunity to use books to help a child reflect, analyse, challenge and access every emotion possible.

I have been very reflective this academic year about what I use in my classroom. I knew that I wanted to open the eyes of the children to things they haven’t thought about. I decided our Space topic would put Katherine Johnson at the heart of it. The children really engaged with the narrative and the discussions we had (that were not planned) were possibly some of the best I have had in my teaching career.

Using a book to be the heart of a topic has a multifaceted approach. It can excite; inspire; evoke emotion; generate discussion; challenges stereotypes; be powerful.

A good book has the potential to open up dialogue about subjects we often worry about how we tackle. The last few weeks we have been reading Vashti Hardy’s glorious Brightstorm. The discussion we have had surrounding the book have been ‘powerful’ this week. We have discussed gender and can women be leaders? Stereotypes: can a beautiful person be bad? Age: does age matter? Family dynamics: can a kingdom be run by two kings? Pacifism: is Harriet right to not carry weapons in her ship?

All the dialogue we had was generated by the children and things I never thought about they homed in on. So in conclusion, pick a book for your class that is funny and excites 100%, but if you can find one that has the added power to generate and tackle important issues in context, you are onto a winner.

Books are powerful.

Explorer Launch Day!

A few months ago I came across the most wonderful book called Brightstorm by Vashti Hardy. The minute I read it, I couldn’t stop thinking about it and how wonderful it would be to use it to inspire the children. For those unfamiliar with the book, we follow the turbulent adventures of two brave children (Arthur and Maudie) as they set sail on a perilous airship adventure to find their missing father; lost on an expedition to the South Polaris. It is full of excitement, action and colourful characters that fly off the page; precisely the sort of book that would allow a creative approach to our explorers topic. I wasn’t exactly sure where to start but knew the character of Harriet Culpepper would be my inspiration, so began by raiding my craft box to make a hat. As soon as I put it on, I felt one with the character and knew the day would benefit from role play, with the children dressing as explorers.

The ideas started to fall into place after that (as the book makes it easy to plan exciting ideas) and I soon had a format for the day. Key to the day would be lots of planned opportunities just to sit and read and discuss the wonderful vocabulary and plot development.

We started the morning with an explorers parade and photo shoot outside. The children had all thought really carefully about who they had come as and were keen to share. There was a mix of historical explorers, such as Amelia Earhart and Christopher Columbus, and characters from fiction and film. I particularly liked how one child dressed as her big sister, who is an Adventure Scout.

The first activity involved making predictions about the book based solely on the front cover. I decided to use the inference grid previously used in our Flotsam work as it had worked really well. Here are a couple of examples of the writing produced.

Vashti Hardy’s website is fantastic and contains lots of resources to help teachers and children explore the book. We had a look at some of the character from the book on it and were ready to start reading chapter one. The children were instantly hooked.

https://www.vashtihardy.com

The second session was a carousel of activities with an explorer/Brightstorm link. Activities included:

1) Making a compass by magnetising a needle.

2) Map reading using the story map, The Great Wide. I really enjoyed making these and the children treated them like precious artefacts so they are all carefully put away ready to use again one day.

3) Origami Aurora airships (taken from Vashti Hardy’s website). 4) Researching historical explorers to make a fact file. 5) Free Art

The session was full of excitement and fun, with learning through role play at the centre. We finished by reading another chapter of the book before dinner time.

The afternoon began with reading another chapter from the book and then was dedicated to creating artwork of the dangerous beasts we learn about in chapter two. The children really enjoyed sketching their own wolves and produced some wonderful work. We finished the day by reading one more chapter and the excitement of the arrival of Parthena was a great moment to end the day on. I recommend this book fully to KS2 teachers, as the sparkly eyes and smiles in eyes of 57 children is a site to behold.

Plastic Pollution Art Project: Year 5

I like to link as many areas of the curriculum, where possible, to the over arching topic and Art and D.T. is a great area to do this. I knew I wanted to create a statement piece of art (to generate a talking point around the issue of plastic pollution) and was inspired by the upsetting imagery of sea creatures swimming among the plastic.

Session One: We began by looking at how plastic is recycled and used by artists to create statements or to simply generate ethical art. I saw a wonderful sketchbook lesson done by the fabulous Gomersal Primary School art blog: http://gomersalprimaryschoolart.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1 It involved researching plastic art with questioning and independent exploration. It was so lovely I decided to directly copy it to start the topic. Many thanks to Gomersal Primary School. I loved how each child tackled it in their own unique interpretation and I listened in to some fantastic conversations discussing which features they liked and why they felt they were effective.

Session Two:

Session two was a glorious free art exercise, where the children could just let their imaginations run wild. I showed them a slide show I had created highlighting the issues of plastic pollution and told them they will be recycling plastic waste to give it a new life. It was wonderful to just see them busily collect materials to free create and reminded me of my days in EYFS, where I would observe the children accessing a variety of materials independently to just build and explore.

Session Three: In the next lesson we recapped previous learning and I explained to the children that we would be sewing our own sea creature. The children immediately went into panic mode. and I quickly discovered only 4 children in the class had ever sewn before. I had already countered this by planning in a session to develop their sewing skills on scrap material. I taught them the running stitch, back stitch and blanket stitch so they could decide which one they wanted to use in their final designs. To ensure the lesson ran as smoothly as possible, I created each child a sewing pack with their needle already threaded and knotted ready to use. They really enjoyed it and although they found it a challenge, relished the opportunity to try a new skill.

Session Four: 

I ran a weaving exercise alongside to create a background home for their sewn creatures. I attached various threads of plastic and nylon ribbon to a chicken wire frame and just left them to create. They really enjoyed the exercise and the fact it was a collaborative class project created a buzz and sense of belonging with the children. 

The actual designs produced by the children varied greatly, although the majestic sea turtle did prove to be extremely popular. They generated a design criteria (e.g. strong, small stitches spaces closely together) and also generated step by step instructions for the design process.

Session five:

This was the final creation session and had various stages to it. The first part involved making a template for their designs, pinning it to fabric and cutting out. I actually broke this session up and carried out this part the day before so everything was set up and ready to sew in the main creation session. To ensure the session was a stress free as possible, I again used their sewing packs and threaded their needles and did the first two stitches for them. I find preparation is the key to managing whole class sewing projects.

The children amazed me with how they tackled the sewing in the final session. Children who had struggled in the practice sessions remembered what they did wrong (like forgetting to hold onto the needle when they pulled it through the material) and all worked extremely hard. I know sewing can sound daunting but the satisfaction and pride on the faces of the children makes it all worth while.

The final element to the project is for the children to evaluate their worked based on  their design criteria.

Flotsam

My adventure into using wordless picture books began in earnest this term. Having never used one before, I did at first wonder how to make it work, but the book Flotsam by David Wiesner set my imagination running as soon as I opened it. I have thoroughly enjoyed using it and will definitely be exploring how to incorporate other wordless picture books in future planning.

You can read all about how I planned and structured my lessons and see some of the work my wonderful class did with it in my guest blog here for Books For Topics https://www.booksfortopics.com/It was a huge honour to be asked and I feel very proud my blog is part of that fantastic website celebrating and promoting books.

https://www.booksfortopics.com/blog/flostsam

Make The Time

I am very lucky, as both my parents love books. I was read to every night and encouraged to develop an individual preference for specific genres through exposure to a wide range of reading materials. I did incidentally follow in my father’s footsteps and seek out fantasy and science fiction, but I embrace any book if recommended by a friend, colleague or in a specific book review post.

On top of this family love, I had a teacher at school who valued books above everything. He loved books, lived books and even wrote books. He would take time to have book chats with me and made discussing books as normal as discussing the weather.

Lots of children do not have this family background to nurture a love of literature so we are the flag bearers as teachers and librarians, waving the banner sky high. We can make children feel the way I felt about books as a child if we take time to give it the platform it deserves. More and more I see reading for pleasure being championed and celebrated; if Teacher Twitter is a reflection of current UK teaching classrooms, we are shining a light for a future of passionate readers.

One thing I love to do to shine this spotlight in my class is to copy my old teacher and make time to chat about books; get to know what my children are interested in so I can recommend books to them. Today I had tears as a recommendation led to a special moment.

I have a little girl in my class who is an avid reader and seeks out advanced literature and can grasp complex themes. I immediately knew Thornhill by Pam Smy would be perfect for her so asked her mum if she would mind me lending her my copy. The next day she brought this thank you card in as she was loving the book. She will never know how I will treasure that card. I hope one day she sits back and remembers me as the teacher who made discussing books as normal as discussing the weather.

---