Exploring Learning

I had a fantastic two lessons with both my Grade 7s today; we were all excited and the light bulb moments popped everywhere! We are currently studying the novel Skellig (Almond, 2000) and I have written before about using drama to bring to life their understanding of the opening and setting of the novel ; now we have moved on to looking at understanding the allusions and symbols used, and how a deep knowledge heightens our appreciation of literature. We learned about symbols and symbolism in the first unit of the year, and this unit builds upon that knowledge and moves into an understanding also of allusions. We explored the terms and then I assigned ten topics for research to either individual learners or pairs. I created a blank presentation using a Carnival Slides template on Google Slides and then created a copy for each class. All information from each learner's research will be contained in the one presentation for that particular class. To model the task require...

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...

The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson It might be safe to say that I inhaled this book and its incredibly crafted story, breathing out the smoke of words I digested and chewed over, coating my classroom in metaphors both grotesque and moving. This novel was the first of the Book a Month Challenge myself and my PLN established on Twitter, and I enjoyed this novel both as a reader and as a teacher. My learners noticed my reading it around the corridors; parents stopped me in the car park to ask what I was reading and to make sure I didn't walk into anything. An intriguing and moving novel about an intense father-daughter relationship of trauma and heartache, Amazon describes it as "Laurie Halse Anderson at her finest: compelling, surprising, and impossible to put down" - I guess I cannot disagree. I have taken and used many passages to teach figurative language as the writing demonstrates metaphor and personification in a complex yet access...

Trackers (Book 1) by Patrick Carman 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 the lastest  arrival from Amazon, of a stack of books for me to explore and lose myself in. Kinokunyia , Ngee Ann City, Singapore 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 le...

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi Persepolis is a graphic novel chronicling the story of the author's unforgettable childhood and coming of age in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution. Having lived and taught in the Middle East for four years, I have first hand experience of women and girls who live the kind of double-life shown in the book, where "behavior in public and... behavior in private were polar opposites" (p . 305). I enjoyed reading about the feelings and opinions of women who had lived without the veil, but who are then forced to wear it. I especially loved Satrapi's statement to a mullah, interviewing her regarding her 'ideologies' for a place at university (once they re-opened having had the curriculum re-written to support Islamic beliefs):  I have always thought that if women's hair posed so many problems, God would certainly have made us bald. (p. 284). I enjoyed Satrapi's constant questions about the 'regime', an...

Fangirl  by Rainbow Rowell ( @rainbowrowell ) This is the second book by Rainbow Rowell that I have read this year. I loved Eleanor & Park , and my tweets about it led my PLN to read and love it too. As a result, Starr Sackstein ( @mssackstein ) ( her review of E&amp ; amp ; amp ; P ) and I decided to read Fangirl together. We were separated by time by more than half a day, yet we read and chatted about this book via Twitter. It was great to share reading, as although it can be a mostly solitary pursuit, it HAS to be shared. The worlds we inhabit when we read, and the characters we meet have to be talked about. In The Book Whisperer , Donalyn Miller suggests that readers lead richer lives, more lives, than those who don't read, and I think that one of the main ways I am successful in endearing the majority of my students to reading is because we talk about the characters as if they are real. To me, while I am in the world, they are  - and Fa...