Exploring Learning

I have just started a new MYP Language and Literature unit called It's a Kind of Magic with my Grade 7s. To begin thinking about the concepts , they conducted some research on the genres of fantasy and magic realism using Multi-Media Text Sets that I created for them. They then taught each other about the genre they had researched and completed a Venn diagram about the similarities and differences of the two genres. Using this knowledge, they then wrote their initial thesis on our statement of inquiry: Fantastical fiction helps us to understand complex, real world ideas and issues. A few ideas about what creates scary atmospheres (Gr7, Jan 2017) Next, we moved on to exploring setting and how writers craft effective and evocative atmospheres. I began by asking learners to describe the scariest place they had ever been to their partners. I asked them to try to recreate the feeling they had using description (which we worked on in our last unit, Scraps of Me...

… what we have loved, Others will love, and we will teach them how (Wordsworth, 1888). This quote embodies my belief about reading and is at the top of my Books 2014 page, which charts my attempts to read 100 books this year. It also heads my latest essay documenting my research into the impact daily reading can have on overall achievement in middle-school learners. ***** I have always believed that reading has a significant impact on our understanding and appreciation of the world. As both a life-long passionate reader and an experienced English Language Arts teacher, I have witnessed first-hand the impact that reading has on the ability of learners in terms of comprehension, grammar, empathy, confidence, vocabulary and expression. This has however , only ever been phenomenological through informal observations in the classroom, and in an effort to incorporate sustained silent reading (SSR) as a regular, valid and essential practice, I have embarked upon this resea...

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow If ever I read a book that advocates the teaching of code to school kids, this is it! All teenagers need to read this to think about the implications of technology - about how it helps but more importantly, WHO it helps. It paints a dark portrait of a not-too-distant future in America, where our every move is tracked and analysed . BUT it also shows how those who can get beneath the surface of computers, can change the world. Computers are not new anymore - but the facade that we see masks what is really going on. Children need to be able to go behind the facade that presents our interface as beautiful and learn to control and manipulate it. The future is not about those who can use a computer because let's face it, two years olds can do that. The future is about children who can get behind the pretty and into the nitty gritty. Many educators are coming around to this notion and lots of us are introducing basic code into our classrooms ...

Sometimes, with all the best will in the world, and even with eons of research and hours of planning, the best lessons are the spontaneous ones. The ones that serendipitously arise from teachable moments. I experienced such as occasion over the past week. Laurie Halse Anderson, The Impossible Knife of Memory My Year 8s are learning about different cultures and traditions around the world. Underpinning the unit is the novel T ies That Bind, Ties That Break by Lensey Namioke, which concerns foot binding in China at the beginning of the twentieth century. From this, I teach note-taking and search strategies, while groups learn to research customs and traditions of a country of their choice. The culmination of the project is an exhibition of their findings. A new teacher joined our team part way through this unit. She wanted to have a piece of writing to gauge her class's needs. So, as part of the novel study, we built in personal account writing. I devel...

Boxers and Saints boxed set Boxers and Saints by Gene Luen Yang Boxers and Saints are two graphic novels that tell the same story from a different perspective of one of the most controversial episodes of modern Chinese history. I read Saints first. In this beautifully illustrated graphic novel, the protagonist is a young girl who, born as the fourth and only surviving child, on the fourth day of the fourth month is deemed bad luck. Synonymous with death, Four Girl is shunned and miserable in a village that has no place for her. She is taken in by Christian missionaries and finds, for the first time, a home with them. As the Boxer Rebellion gains momentum, Vibiana (as her new name is given to her by the foregin devils) must decide whether to abandon her Christian friends or to commit herself fully to Christianity. Boxers tells the opposite side of the story from the perspective of Little Bao, a Chinese peasant boy whose village is abused and plundered by West...

I am currently planning an inquiry based unit asking learners to think about the future of fiction. Where fiction is going is of great interest to me. I own a few Kindles, though personally, have not fully integrated myself into this realm. I love the fact I can have a book in seconds - but, I still go out and buy the 'real' version of any I read and love on my Kindle. I do not think you can beat the feel and smell and sound of a brand new book. Geek that I am, nothing excites me more than an hour or so to wander around  Kinokunyia  (Singapore hosts the largest store outside of Japan), or my  lastest  arrival from Amazon, of a stack of books to explore and lose myself in. Throughout my  MEd ., I have been focusing on where reading and writing might be going for learners growing up in a digital age. I wrote an essay about  Kindles , exploring whether they may re-engage learners who read less and less. I also wrote an essay entitled The  ...

I am an advocate of reading. I am an avid reader. Many posts and Tweets contest to such. Always wanting to improve my practice and approach to delivering reading to my learners, I recently picked up a copy of  @Donalynbooks The Book Whisperer . It confirmed much of what I do in regards reading, as sound and effective methodology, such as free-reading, and reading time every day, as well as modelling being an actual reader. The book also gave me some areas to think about and re-work, such as the ubiquitous class novel. Red Dot Book Awards We are already reading every lesson, and learners have accepted my Reading Challenge 2014 . In addition, as part of my Future of Fiction unit which explores where storytelling might be going, and how technology might help us to tell stories, I am including some reading circles, using books from the Red Dot Book Awards in Singapore. The  Red Dot Book Awards   is a student choice book awards organised  by the Intern...

Doll Bones by Holly Black Definitely for Middle School readers, this a book about friendship and adventure - with very creepy overtones. Poppy, Zach and Alice are best friends, and invent magical, fantastical adventures. In their constructed world, the Queen resides over the lands, a precious porcelain antique. Locked safely away in the cabinet, the friends feel safe to give her powers to rule the kingdoms - but once they take her out, her powers seem real. A twisted tale underscores the history of this doll; a father, a master craftsman used his dead daughter's corpse to create the doll. Her hair is woven from the remains of the girl's own, the limbs are made from bone china ground out of the little girl's skeleton, and her stuffing is a bag full of her ashes... The friends are visited by her ghost in their dreams, where she demands to be laid to rest once and for all - or promises a deadly curse upon them all.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe  by Benjamin Alire Saenz This is a story of friendship, growing-up, loyalty and love. It is a joy and a pleasure and I read with a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. Two Hispanic boys more dissimilar than alike, form a bond stronger than friendship, the kind that can teach a lesson to us all. Whilst written for Young Adults, this is a book that is worth reading by adults too - the role we play in shaping the lives of our children is laid bare and resonates across generations. It forced me to want to be more honest and open, to support and not judge - particularly when my children get to trickier teenage times ahead. I would recommend this to anyone struggling with the courage to be themselves, or anyone who wonders just whose rules we are living our life by. If you like this, you will love: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan Every Day by D...