ACfE In Action

A trip has been planned to take the children to the Museum of Flight on the 29^th October. The children will dress as evacuees and Jennifer and I as “old fashioned teachers” (I must look out my twin set and pearls)! We will be given a tour of the aircraft which will support the many groups in the class who chose to study aircraft and weapons. Many other activities will take place (top secret for now) and it will be a great way to round up the topic.

A decision was made by the children that they would like to hold a Learning Festival to showcase their learning and they each chose how they would like to “prove it”. Examples include creating a slide show on the computer, writing a report, making a book and giving a talk. The children have also been working on a “make it, prove it” to answer one of their key questions. This “make it, prove it” was planned to ensure that there were aspects of Art/Technology within their forward plans. The Learning Festival is to take place in the school on the 9^th November to coincide with Remembrance Day. It is sure to be a great event and work will take place during the first two weeks after the holidays to prepare for this. Good luck with this Primary 6 – I will be there on the day to support you.

The project will come to a final end on Monday 12^th November when I visit the class for the last time for an evaluation discussion. Who better to inform us of the positives/negatives of the project than the children themselves!

Thank you to Primary 6, Jennifer Daly and all at Cockenzie Primary for making me feel so welcome during my time in your school. A huge thank you also to Ann McLanachan for her invaluable support as my “mentor” and “sweetie provider” throughout the whole project, you truly know how to motivate your team:) A happy and much deserved October break to you all.

Jennifer Daly (Primary 6 teacher at Cockenzie) comments….

“As a self certified control freak I was apprehensive to say the least about transferring the control of the what, how and who to the children. Only after they all far exceeded my expectations did I have a pang of guilt that I had underestimated them so much! The children were able to identify what they wanted to learn, who they wanted to work with and how they could “prove it”. All were able to write their own forward plan with key questions and method of assessment. As if by magic, the children got into groups where there was a mix of personality, strengths and ability. At all times during our topic the children were on task and appeared highly motivated. It was almost that the topic became a liquid and seeped into all that we did, how we lined up, how they played and how they behaved.  The children responded well to developing their knowledge about World War 2 in Drama, Religious and Moral Education, Personal and Social Development , Language as well as Environmental Studies.

Working with Sheila was exciting and having a supporter to help with the facilitating of the learning taking place was invaluable. Ultimately however, the real planning, teaching and assessment came from the enthusiastic ten year olds themselves”.

Tuesday 9^th October 2007

At the beginning of this project the children chose the topics that they would like to study. When Jennifer and I compared their choices with the “original plan for the topic” we discovered that nobody had chosen to study rationing. There was therefore going to be a big gap in their learning if this was not covered. An afternoon of rationing activities was therefore planned for today and the children decided that to be successful they needed to find out what rationing was, why rationing took place, what was rationed and how much of each food and clothes people were allowed. Jennifer and I then shared the planning of 5 different activities and organised an “experiential learning” afternoon. The children learnt to sew in the “make do and mend” activity, they weighed out weekly rations for butter, jam, sugar and meat and discovered how much food you were allowed.  They learnt how to set the table in another activity, they played an interactive game on the computer discovering what rationing was, what was rationed and why.  Finally they took part in a shopping/problem solving game with clothing coupons to buy their annual allowance. They were using literacy and numeracy skills across the curriculum, using technology for learning, working in teams and solving problems within a relevant context. These children have proved that they are successful learners and effective contributors, I just hope they return home tonight offering to set the table for dinner and offering to sew any buttons that are needing done! These are hopefully skills that will be with these children for life.

Monday 8^th October 2007

What a welcome I received when I walked into the Primary 6 classroom in Cockenzie this morning. “Hurray you are here, we thought you weren’t coming today, there is no Environmental Studies on our daily plan and we really need you! Our Anderson shelter has collapsed and we wondered if you could help us to make it stand up again”. I was met by an enthusiastic Casey who is clearly motivated by the project. Luckily I was there to help, however today we did not have Environmental Studies on the plan but Drama and Religious and Moral Education. The reason…..both Jennifer and I were keen to ensure that there was a clear balance between  discovery/ independent learning within the topic and actual teaching of the facts and skills. Jennifer and I were keen to make links and ensure that all of the children’s learning was relevant, enjoyable and challenging!

What followed was a fun day of active learning which began with a practical Drama session exploring what life would be like for a child during the War. The body language, facial expressions and thoughts expressed by the children showed that they were really engaging with the task. The children successfully worked in groups making decisions, listened to each others ideas and were able to make group still images which were then photographed. The language used during discussions showed real empathy and understanding. As we were returning to the class I heard one group comment on how they were going to take their Drama into the playground and continue “the game”. What motivation - I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall out in the playground!

Jennifer and I had planned to teach Religious and Moral Education after Drama. The topic was Christianity and the Ten Commandments and we had planned to split the class in half and teach the children in two different groups. We both taught this in a very active way with my group proving their learning using a song (http://garden of praise.com) and Jennifer’s proving their learning through Drama. We came back together and performed to each other, with all children showing a clear knowledge and understanding of Christian’s beliefs and their ten “main rules”. I was concerned that I had not had enough time during the lesson to relate back to the World War 2 topic so following the performances Jennifer asked the children to shut their eyes.  She explained that she was going to say something and they were then to shout out their first thoughts. As soon as she had finished saying “Hitler claimed to be a Christian” shouts came loud and clear throughout the class…”Aye right, no way, he didn’t treat people well, but he killed, he didn’t treat everyone as an equal etc”. They were clearly relating their morning’s lesson on the Holocaust with their current learning in Religious and Moral Education. At the end of the day the children commented on the fact that they had hardly picked up a pencil all day. “It was fun learning in different ways today, it was not like REAL work” was a comment that made me smile! Indeed it was “real work” and hopefully work the children will remember because they were actively involved.