Exploring Learning

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...

In conjunction with my Learners' Reading Challenge , I have also decided to start the year with a writing challenge. Inspired by a student's blog post, shared by  @intrepidteacher , about noticing the sunset and the importance of paying attention to our surroundings, I decided it was time to cajole my learners into noticing more about their world. Everything I read about writing starts with a) reading and b) observing. I think we have the reading part covered, so I want to get my learners to begin to be more present. Writers all say that we must take note of everything around us - to fuel our characters, plot, dialogue etc. But I am not sure how present my learners are. We have made a great start in writing, and spend time every lesson working on our Spilling Ink journals (see Christmas , Halloween , Inspiring a Writing Community  and Spilling Ink Journal agreements ). This year, I am also going to include some mentor texts in Spilling Ink time, to develop close ...

This week, in Spilling Ink , we have been working on spooky writing for Hallowe'en. My cauldron, bubbling At the start of the week, I provided learners with a variety of writing prompts for stories, poetry and non-fiction,  to stimulate their writing. They were, of course, also encouraged to use their own ideas. Busy writing We wore masks, hats and fangs; we shut the blinds and listened to a spooky soundtrack . I prepared a fire for my cauldron full of gruesome creatures.  A witch, an owl and Count Dracula Vampires We wrote and edited and reworked until we were ready to share. Ghouls and wizards Writing poetry Today, we gathered on the mat, around the cauldron, to share our finished writing. We discussed how to build tension, appropriate settings and characters, the difference between a cliffhanger and an open ending, effective vocabulary, repetition and the effect of different sentences.  Three witches around the cauldron Each contr...

I have started this year with a commitment to develop literacy through reading and writing. I dedicate the start of every lesson to ten minutes silent reading. Sometimes I listen to the learners read, sometimes I ask them to tell me about their reading. Read about this in my post, Inspiring a Reading Community . We also write for fifteen to twenty minutes each lesson. This writing is done in a separate book to their lesson work. It is an opportunity to explore and play with language and is a chance to write what they want to write. Read about how I set this up and where I got my inspiration in my post, Spilling Ink. Each lesson they are given the option to: - write something they need to write about - re-work or continue with something they have previously written - use the writing prompt. I provide a new writing prompt each week - and they can write a poem, a list, a story, a letter, a speech, a script - whatever they want. Some prompts I have used so far this ye...

Writing Journals I started reading an awesome book today. ' Spilling Ink' is aimed at children and encourages them all to become writers. I got about half way through by the pool this morning. I tend to fold down pages where there are great ideas I want to return to (I know this is will irk some people, but this is my method). As you can see, I folded down almost every page. It has so many great and workable ideas I can use in the classroom that I know will help them find who they want to be as a writer. I am so excited about sharing them with my learners and to see their progress. We start our journals next week - this weekend, learners are buying their own or decorating the one I gave them ready to be filled with their scribbles and musings. Learner Agreement As I launch, I will provide a writers agreement. This is a combination of ideas from both the Spilling Ink book and another book I read recently, ' Notebook Know How '. It consists of a learner agree...

When it comes to directed and constructivist approaches to teaching and learning (Roblyer and Doering, 2013, pp.34-52), I fall more on the side of constructivist. As a kinaesthetic learner, I recognise that I learn when I 'do' and therefore, I believe my teaching style imitaties my learning style. However, I do believe that it is important to implement a blend of approaches to meet all the needs of the learners. I believe that: some learning requires instruction; learning is exploring; reflection cements learning. Within English, aspects such as grammar for example are learned somewhat through osmosis and a healthy reading habit. But, as I am well aware, reading is not something that every learner does automatically or easily or regularly enough for it to have the desired effect. Encouragement of reading for enjoyment is crucial but skills such as grammar, sometimes need to be actively taught - followed by plenty of opportunities for exploration and constructivist activities...

Recently, I have implemented some time at the start of each lesson for creative writing. I have allowed learners to bring in their own 'special' books and have given them 20 minutes at the start of each class to explore and play with language, as well as put into practice some techniques we have been learning. I have tried a variety of methods to inspire their creativity including:- free writing - no boundaries, write what you want/feel art-inspired - we visited the IB art exhibition and they wrote based on the work that 'spoke' to them walk-around - we moved about the school and stopped in various places to write what we saw/felt/heard/smelled etc. breathing kindness - to build on the work we are doing to develop kindness in our current unit, based on the novel Stargirl , we did some meditation. Each inhalation 'sucked' out of the world something unpleasant, negative or unkind. Each exhalation transformed that into something pleasant, kind and positive ...