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Tate and Aardman tap children’s ideas for Wallace & Gromit-style movie Charlotte Higgins – Guardian 19/10/2009 Devastating criticism of primary education dismissed by ministers Polly Curtis – Guardian 16/10/2009 Two quotes from this piece in yesterday’s Guardian seem to sum it up “There are recommendations in this report that could transform the Primary ethos and turn pessimism into hope.” Cambridge Review “We completely refute the claim that primary standards have not risen across the board.” Vernon Croaker – School’s Minister. One edgy, open to new possibilities, the other like the veritable prison door slamming shut behind you. No discourse, no attempt to understand a blanket NO! These lines are just too important to ignore. But today’s report found growing concern about the international evidence that finds that some children are put off school if they feel they have failed formal lessons in the 3Rs at an early age. The idea that children can learn things in anything other than a formal environment is anathema to the other lot too. However, we do not agree … that politicians should end school for four to six-year-olds.” Nick Gibb – Shadow Schools Minister. But they only said that children should not start formal lessons until the age of six! Start school at six, key schools report recommends Polly Curtis – Guardian 16/10/2009 Still the best thing is to actually read the report. We’ve been rereading ‘The Twits’ and the BFG this half term. Dipped into Matilda and Boy too. Tails of the unexpected Will Self – Guardian 17/10/2009 A link or two to some of the work our children have done. Oh Lord won’t you buy me a school load of ipod touches. ( With apologies to Janis) In ten years of being a late trained Primary teacher, I’ve struggled with the seemingly impossible demands of the Literacy and Numeracy Strategy. As I think I’ve alluded to before the Literacy Strategy has caused more heartache and lost sleep than numeracy but then I haven’t got A level English but an engineering background. I’ve been ill with CFS for eighteen months and gradual recovery, finally brought me in front of the Pie Corbett ‘Talk for Writing‘ DVD yesterday in a CPD session. YES! It’s the LANGUAGE! Imagination and enjoyment of use of language is at the centre of his work. There was so much and we still didn’t watch it all. There’s a sense perhaps in which he’s rewritten the teaching of English for us more right brained people because I know some are happy with grids and charts. But perhaps my notes will convey a flavour. Be a Magpie – Alert to the world of language. I went home and made the classroom poster
The powerpoint on ‘Why Magpie’ comes later. Name things – Not dog. Rotwieler, Dachsund……. Book Talk – How do you develop the ability to be critical about books. All things are accepted. You must be prepared to change your ideas. Teaching Styles Stand back, let the kids do it. Tell us more – mirror back. Using pictures Write what you can see. Then try to recreate the picture in words. Overtly checking spelling as he goes, registering if he’s not sure of a spelling …. Reading out loud as he goes, checking the language for the threads. Response partners learn how to comment – A variety of ways of encouraging response partnering. Author has the final say. Storytelling very important – A basis of culture. Fundamental to being human. Can’t stress this enough. Jack Zipes and Augusto Boal give real meat to these ideas. When teaching be constantly aware of the language structure as we teach. Make it explicit. Learning Communal Stories – Cultural memory, story bank. Call and response gradually fading out as the teacher so the children know it for themselves. Independence. Audience & purpose – Go and tell it to someone else. Storytelling and Writing Imitation Innovation Invention Working in pairs – retelling the story – opposite each other Working on story plan – secure the plot, then add detail and flourish. Turning into a written piece of work. Reading as writer – What effect has the writer created? How did he/she do it? Reading as a writer. Not Grammarians Which is roughly as far as we got yesterday. I hope my notes can begin to convey the roundedness of the ideas. I wish he could write some of the exemplars for the literacy strategy . For me, he opens up the world with possibilities whereas rereading an exemplar or two yesterday, it closed me down again. They’re too dense, strangled in the weeds of ‘do this, do that.’ His focus on nurturing imagination also hit a nerve to do with art. I rediscovered Marion Richardson the other day. For those of you of a similar age we learnt to write using her patterns. But I then discovered she was highly influential in art education. In essence a focus on imagination and memory in nurturing the ability to create art. And that’s not to say you don’t also teach, how to do it. No babies and bath water for those who like that scenario. It ties in with focus of visualisation and memory that is need to encourage the mental abilities in maths. Vision Gosh I’ve used the word twice now. Perhaps a little old fashioned but isn’t this what we’re about. If you haven’t already found it, a soupson ( remember to check spelling) of Pie Corbett can be found here from the everybody writes site.
I have mentioned this site before but it’s getting even better. In particular use of You Tube in the classroom They have a RSS feed too to keep you up to date. See here One of a number of Primary related Blogs. There is also a link to downloading and converting You Tube videos to use them at school. Early thoughts of the Primary Curriculum Review from someone lucky enough to go to early briefings. Rose Review Conference from Redbridge Primary ICT Conference. A video recorded at the time.
Isn’t it interesting that as the statistics of exam success rise each year and as the chorus of governmental self-congratulation grows ever louder, that we now have demands for a 5-year MOT for teachers? I asked C who still teaches a day a week in school what she thought of this. She said she would resign immediately. It’s exactly what I would do were I still teaching in school. And we had it easy. Our pupils could be unruly at times but they never threatened or attacked us and neither did their parents, which is not an uncommon occurrence in some places. In fact – to go by letters from past pupils – we seemed to have made a decent job of it…….. From George Szirtes’s blog. |
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