Year: 2014

Moray Primary School Teachers Develop Storyline Practice

Gillian Brodie, principal teacher at Moray PS, and her Raci task colleagues have been working since last session to develop staff use of the storyline approach to enhance interdisciplinary learning. All staff agreed that they would use this approach with their pupils between January and March 2014 to link experiences and outcomes within social subjects: people, past events, and societies and other relevant areas of the curriculum. Staff identified historical contexts for learning which they felt addressed the principles of curriculum design, consulted with pupils, and then planned the learning in a collaborative and mutually supportive way.

Nursery pupils tracked Dora the Explorer’s travels across the world which will lead to development of their knowledge of the Commonwealth Games later this term. Through various activities, they have been able to develop and apply their literacy and fine motor skills.

 Primary 1 have also focused on literacy skills using the Fairyland Learning Unlimited resource as a starting point. These pictures hopefully give a flavour of the way the pupils and teachers have developed this storyline. Staff reported that pupil motivation for writing and the amount of writing produced was greatly increased by the Fairyland context. It was a very successful context within which pupils could develop their independent writing skills.

 

Most teachers have offered pupils the opportunity to choose from a range of rich homework tasks which can be done with parents and grandparents.

Primary 2 pupils led their storyline to help them learn everything they need to know about Pirates. Their teachers are ensuring that they develop skills across the technologies which extending their knowledge and understanding of piracy in the past. Click here to read the pirate code created by the pupils, and here to see and example of a power point presentation created by a pupil.

The children are revelling in their pirate alter ego characters, as can be seen from the biography here.

The primary 3 teachers are using the character of Howard Carter to guide their pupils through a range of challenges which extend their knowledge and understanding of Ancient Egypt. These challenges allow pupils to develop their problem solving capabilities, and apply skills within a small selection of relevant curricular areas.

 The pupils have also written some “little questions” which they want to have answered during their studies.

 Staff in primary 3/4 & 4 have adapted Falkirk’s own Roman storyline to meet the needs of their pupils. They are comparing the lives of rich and poor Romans and considering the conflict between the Romans stationed on the Antonine Wall and the native Celts already living here at that time.

Connor said “I learned that there’s a lot of differences – the rich ones have bigger houses and they can afford slaves… and the poor have to help their mums at home.”

Primary 5 staff and pupils are adapting Falkirk’s own Scottish Wars of Independence storyline. to broaden understanding of Scottish history and extend and consolidate a range of skills. Pupils are now creating a museum space for the exhibits they have made.

Primary 6 staff  worked with Sallie Harkness to pilot a Storyline Scotland Drovers plan. Pupils have followed Rob their young drover main character from his home in Lochaber to the Falkirk Tryst. This plan develops pupil understanding of people, place and society as well as people, past events & society within the Scottish context.

 

Staff have used the context to apply knowledge of Scot’s Language with traditional tales. Pupils were particularly worried when the prize bull of the herd went missing and they suspected he might have been kidnapped for slaughter! Click here to see their appeal for help during this incident in their storyline. 

Yvonne McBlain worked with Gillian and the raci group last session and returned on 23rd April 2014 to see how things had developed (unfortunately, she didn’t make it to primary 7 to hear about their drugs and alcohol work). Teachers, staff, SMT and pupils gave positive feedback about how the storylines have impacted on learning. It is clear that good progress is being made through collaborative planning and professional dialogue about interdisciplinary learning. Some storylines have really taken off and are ongoing. A few teachers have adapted and combined their storyline with other approaches such as rich task and big question, little question. Others can now see how they would like to adapt and improve their interdisciplinary learning through these contexts next session.

S3 Pupils at Bo’ness Academy Learn About Local Potteries

Following a chance conversation about Bo’ness Potteries at a meeting last session, Colin Findlay (teacher at Bo’ness Academy) and Elaine Reid (depute head and primary 1 teacher at Bo’ness Public PS) realised that their pupils could work advantageously together.

As part of their ASDAN course, Colin’s pupils needed to develop their skills and capabilities by engaging in a community project. Colin realised that investigating the role of the potteries in local industrial heritage might be an engaging context for these pupils. He also realised that working in collaboration with Elaine’s primary 1 pupils could enable his pupils to develop their social and communication skills, and deepen their knowledge and understanding of their local area. Pupils began by researching Bo’ness Potteries and finding out where they were on Google maps. They had a visit from a local pottery expert called Robert Jardine, who brought along various examples of Bo’ness pottery. Robert also told pupils that there was still lots of physical evidence of pottery waste lying on the shoreline at Bridgeness.

Curiousity was roused then and visits to the site were made to collect shards. Pupils went once a week to work with primary 1 pupils to support their learning about the potteries. This obviously had a significant impact on the older pupils as can be seen from their comments:

Lisa – “I enjoyed working with the primary 1s and want to work with primary 1s when I’m older. I kind of thought that, but wasn’t sure.

Ryan and Matthew – How to work with them and how much they know.

Rebecca – “It gave me something different from school work – I was still working, but not written work. I liked making the pottery and I helped them if they needed help. It helped me understand how they understood things… How to be more responsible – how I should be acting compared to them”

Click here to read a previous post sharing how this local heritage impacted on the Bo’ness Public PS pupils taught by Elaine and her colleagues.

As can be seen from these photos, the S3 pupils have realised that their collection of shards can be upcycled. Pupils have cleaned them, smoothed their edges, and added simple pins to make the shards into brooches. They are currently selling to members of staff within the school, and pupils are investigating other enterprising opportunities developing from their learning experience.

When Yvonne McBlain joined them to find out what they felt they had learned and enjoyed, pupils said:

“I like it because I get to do this (preparing the shards) and getting the money. It’s developed my confidence and relaxed me. We’ve worked well as a team to build on what we’ve done. Claire

“Teamwork. Working with groups – social skills and all that. Sitting in a group talking.” Matthew & Ryan

“It was good when we went to Bo’ness Public School. It was good to get some time out of school – I felt older and good helping younger folk.” Ritchie

Colin’s original aims: to develop the confidence of pupils, their knowledge of local history, and their ability to work with others would therefore appear to have been met. His intention is to develop this course further next session by including some clay work and firing of pots by S3 and P1 pupils in Bo’ness Academy. He will also review the timing of his course, and work with Elaine to plan for the collaborative work with primary pupils.

St Francis Xavier RC PS host Rich Task Open Day

On 23rd March, staff and pupils at St Francis Xavier RC PS welcomed parents, guests and members of the community into their school to share their interdisciplinary learning. Yvonne McBlain of Falkirk Council curriculum support team did her best to visit each classroom to capture a flavour of the learning which had taken place. The afternoon was a real success with a strong turnout of visitors leaving very positive feedback.                                             

Primary 1 & 1/2 classes had studied the film Monsters Inc to develop their ability to interpret digital text. Their teacher employed a storyline approach to guide their learning using the character of Boo. The class explored pattern and shape in a range of ways and worked with a parent who was an interior designer. They created a new room for Boo, complete with a new bed. Tegan enjoyed “when we made the pipes…because we got to paint them and put glitter on them”. Pupil learning linked experiences & outcomes in literacy, science and ICT.

Primary 2 used the story of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory to develop their understanding of the design process. On the open day the children in each class experienced a rotation of tasks which their parents & guests could join in with. One of the tasks was making real chocolate crispy cakes.  Every classroom visited had great examples of rich task homework which pupils had self-selected.  

Primary 3 studied Ancient Egypt and most were dressed as Egyptians. Ahmad said “My favourite bit was doing my name in hieroglyphics.”

  In primary 4 Isla was an expert guide and explained the moon missions, alien creation and outdoor survival skills developed during their Space topic. She “enjoyed learning how the rockets work.”

Primary 5 pupils had studied the rainforest and linked learning in science, social studies, and developed their research and literacy skills. Primary 6 classrooms had gone all French and one even had a very large model of the Eiffel Tower in the centre of the room.

    Primary 7 had been working on a SCIAF project to develop their understanding of sustainability and global citizenship.

Staff across all stages had obviously planned thier interdisciplinary learning in a creative and collegiate way. They have impacted positively on their pupils’ engagement in and enjoyment of learning, and employed a range of approaches to “enrich” the curriculum for their pupils.