Tag: international education

1 + 2 Languages & the Storyline Approach

1 + 2Paula O Hare and Caroline Cane teach primary 1 at Nethermains PS in Denny. They are both developing 1 + 2 languages with their pupils – French and Spanish.  They made effective use of Storyline methodology to engage their pupils in developing their language skills. Click here to see the plan they used to structure their storyline. You can also click here to see the learning plan they created with their pupils.

Kerry Girdwood teaches primary 1 at Carron Primary School and has also been putting her languages and storyline professional learning to good use in her classroom. Click here to see the imaginative way that Kerry structured her storyline plan for her pupils. Click here, and here to see her Postcode Lottery “initiating events”. Kerry used these to guide her storyline so that pupils learned about the culture of European countries, as well as developing their language skills.

Paula, Kerry and Caroline have all used the storyline approach to “bundle” or connect learning and make it more relevant and coherent for their pupils. They integrated their teaching of languages 1 and 2 within interdisciplinary learning to make it more meaningful, active and engaging. They also made good use of professional dialogue to share and develop their teaching and learning ideas. Hopefully this blog post will continue this process and support others in their teaching of languages within relevant contexts.

Click on the links below to see some of the resources created and used by Kerry, Paula and Caroline:

Travelling to France presentation

Travelling to Spain presentation

Pupil certificates Spain and France

France/Paris presentation

Spain/Barcelona presentation

Smart board document for Madrid

Learning about volcanoes

Primary 4 learn about Law & Order at Bantaskin PS

IMG_4651Yvonne McBlain visited Primary 4 at Bantaskin PS on 16th November, to hear about their Green Street and Friendship Street Storyline work. Mrs Russell’s class helped Yvonne write this blog post, and took some of the photos too. Mr Davidson’s P4D class held their court hearing during the visit – they were all desperate to hear the verdict! 4R will visit Falkirk Sheriff Court on 17th November and then stage their court proceedings back in class. DSCF6599

We have been busy creating a street of houses in our classrooms. Each group in our class created a “typical” Falkirk 8 year old character, then made up a whole family to live with them.

Our families needed houses, so we designed  homes which were just right for them. We got letters asking us to do different jobs. When  an elderly couple from Malawi moved into the empty house on Friendship Street, 4D had to come up with ways to make them feel welcome in their new country. Another letter said that the council had given us a piece of land near our street, and that we had to design and make a community garden on it. IMG_4654Primary 4 used their tiling skills to create a tiled centre-piece for the  garden using squared paper. The gardens had to be Eco-friendly – Olivia said that eco-friendly is “putting everything in the right bins”, Caitlin said “eco means don’t waste anything”. We learned how to tile a hexagon shape, and when our gardens were finished, we displayed them and organised a Grand Opening tea party to celebrate. The next day we were “outraged” to discover that  our community gardens had been vandalised!  Who would do this terrible damage? Why would they do it? The pupils discovered clues – a bottle of black paint, some fingerprints, and apples with bites taken out of them.    DSCF6588

Children in both classes learned about Law and Order in our country by investigating the crimes of vandalism which took place in their community gardens (SOC 1-20a). Their storyline included a visit to the local Sherriff Court, and the storyline letters they received, highlighted skills and knowledge they would develop during this interdisciplinary work. The letters helped to engage the children in their learning and made it accessible to them. The pupils also developed their understanding of the impact of vandalism on real people because they experienced it through their make-believe storyline. Storyline is often valuable for this reason in helping children to develop sound values and attitudes which contribute to their development of the four capacities. DSCF6615

 

Click here to see a version of this storyline plan which was developed by Yvonne and primary 5 teachers at Ladeside Primary School a few years ago. It has proven to be a valuable way to link or bundle, specific Social Studies and Health and Well Being experiences and outcomes with elements of Learning for Sustainability.

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Impact of International Storyline Conference

WP_20150329_002On 28th & 29th March Yvonne McBlain attended the 6th International Storyline Conference in the new Technology and Innovation Centre which is part of the University of Strathclyde. Yvonne outlines the impact of this event on her own professional learning below.

Key note speech by Carmel O’ Sullivan, Head of the School of Education at Trinity College, Dublin: It was fascinating to learn how effective  social drama (almost identical to pupil-led storylines) has been in developing the creativity, social skills and communication capabilities of young people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. We saw film clips of this long-term research project and Carmel shared her analysis of the positive impact recorded. This included: a reduction in general anxiety among students; increased use of appropriate body contact; increased use of imagination and spontaneous creativity. She has clear evidence that young people with autism can make up stories in the drama, and is now exploring why this stops when they leave the drama.

Outdoor Education Through Storyline seminar:  Alicia Vickery from Highland Elementary School, USA explained how she and colleagues deliver their curriculum through storyline. Their education authority (like us) are developing sustainable education and encouraging teachers to take learning out of the classroom. She has been developing storyline incidents which lead pupils to environmental education and has built very effective partnerships with local people and agencies to support this. I liked the idea of a whole school storyline which happens every 2 years in Highland School. This year’s storyline was called “The River Keepers”, and  each class took a different section of their local river, researched the habitats and issues surrounding their section, then presented and shared their learning in various ways. I could see potential for this approach in our schools too – great way to link science & social studies within a Learning for Sustainability context.

Youth Games storyline seminar: Angela Speirs shared an excellent storyline she has created and used with her P6 class in St Ninian’s PS in Glasgow. Using characters from an imaginary “games”, Angela specified an overarching science learning intention for her IDL unit which also linked skills, knowledge and understanding in technology and health and well-being. There was a javelin athlete who led pupils to the study of friction, a cyclist who developed understanding of aerodynamics & air resistance, and an athlete whose training was not progressing well – pupils needed to study their diet and training regime to analyse and evaluate how to address this. Angela very effectively combined the storyline methodology with curricular learning by building on prior learning and also developed problem-solving and research skills in her pupils. I hope to get a copy of this plan and share asap.

Key Note 2 – Stories in the Land: Joyce Gilbert, environmental educator and consultant, and Claire Hewitt, storyteller and artist,  shared the development of Drove Roads of Scotland storyline. This sounded like an emotional and organic experience which had obviously impacted on pupil understanding of Scottish heritage and traditions. Teachers and pupils at Moray PS have trialled this storyline and I would like to get their views on how impacted on learning.

My own workshop – Storyline as a tool for literacy skill development in the secondary classroom: I thoroughly enjoyed working with the 12 educationalists from around the world who attended. Click here to see my presentation (minus pupil photos) where I shared storylines which took place in Falkirk HS, English department and part of an IDL project with the art department at Braes HS. I was glad to get very positive feedback and now have valuable links to follow up. One participant was particularly struck by the simplicity of developing literacy and higher order skills through the analysis of product packaging in art and design.

Whole school book-based storyline “Kladremus og de andre dyr”: Dyrini Halsaskogi, head teacher of Karsnesskoli, which is a primary school in Kopavogur, Iceland, shared their use of a very well-known story to develop eco-sustainability education and pupil self-discipline. She referred to the Self-Discipline theory of Diane Gossen which I would like to learn more about. Pupils first explored their own motivation and behaviour styles (am I motivated by Power, Belonging, Fun or Freedom)  to get to know themselves, then did the same for the characters in the story. A whole school ethos of positive behaviour, community and citizenship was created by this storyline which would seem to link HWB, RME & Social Studies in our curriculum. I felt this was a great idea and hope to explore further with interested schools or teachers.

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Connecting History Themes to Today’s Child: Rebecca Plaskitt of ACS Cobham International School shared how she has shifted from a content to a process based approach to the delivery of historical learning. She is using storyline to develop pupil independent learning and collaboration skills. Her practice reminded me of the “Joyning the Learning” resources like “The Unsinkable Ship”, and also the rich task approaches being used in our schools. She echoed our principles of curriculum design by placing great emphasis on the need for teachers to identify what is relevant about historical periods and taking time to explore this and what pupils want/need to learn. She made use of timelines with pupils and reminded my of an idea I’d had a long time ago – that every school should have a physical representation of chronological times in history to help pupils relate to and place events in their understanding. I need to look out for schools who like this idea and might like to try something out.

Storyline and the new Finnish Science Curriculum: Ann-Catherine Henriksson gave details of the structure of the new curriculum and rather debunked recent media reports about the role Interdisciplinary learning would play. I felt that the what Ann-Catherine described sounded very like our Curriculum for Excellence – even down to the shift towards the development of higher order skills using Krathwohl’s revision of Bloom’s taxonomy. The curriculum changeover happens in 2016 and it sounds as though the whole education system is mobilising to ensure that everyone is ready for this new holistic approach to teaching and learning. Other similarities with CfE include the emphasis on transformative pedagogy (storyline being one potentially valuable methodology), building an enquiring profession and an ethos of enquiry among pupils, integrating learning for sustainability and other contexts which effectively link learning; and shifting to greater use of formative assessment which is planned into the learning. I would love to learn more about the set of 7 “competencies” which are central to the structure of the curriculum and seem to encapsulate our skills, attitudes and capacities. The main focus of staff training between now and August 2016 is these key competencies and formative assessment.

Storyline with Adult Language Learners: Shane Corbett, University College Dublin, shared his findings around his research question “Is storyline an effective method for teaching English as a second language?”. These included a huge increase in long utterances by students; greater and more varied vocabulary; enhanced enthusiasm and positivity about classes where storyline was used; greater confidence in using the language which resulted in increase autonomy in using new words in real life. All of this is very positive and makes me wonder if there could be a role for storyline in our 1 & 2, Scots Language and Gaelic programmes?

Round Table discussion about the role of storyline in secondary schools: I enjoyed facilitating this group – we had no trouble at all filling an hour with exploration of the potential value of storyline in secondary classrooms. We also had no trouble identifying the challenges involved in this – these were very similar to those cited by Ann-Catherine in the implementation of the new Finnish curriculum. I was able to offer some solutions being tried in Falkirk schools, such as the senior electives choices offered to pupils at Graeme HS.

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Closing Key Note: Brian Boyd delivered a humorous but thought-provoking overview of how storyline fits within education at the moment and the benefits it could and does bring. He linked storyline as a vehicle for powerful interdisciplinary learning through the writing and ideas of key figures like Bruner, Lipman and Vygotsky and I noted a short quotation which I felt encapsulated the aim of the whole conference for me “every child a thinking child and every school a thinking school.”

 

 

 

 

 

S2 Design Unit Update at Braes HS

 

WP_20150323_007Alison Morton and colleagues in the art department at Braes HS continue to develop and improve their S2 design unit. Since  their initial development of Curriculum for Excellence  courses for S2 in art and design in session 2011-12, they have adapted their unit through collaborative working within their department, and with student teachers and a graphic designer. Yvonne McBlain initially worked with Alison to build in elements of Teaching for Understanding and link pupils’ learning to other parts of their S2 curriculum. WP_20150323_008

These course developments and collaborations succeeded in deepening pupil understanding of the ways product packaging persuades consumers. Alison,  Yvonne and Janine White from the English department, shared this work at the Scottish Learning Festival in 2012. Yvonne also shared how elements of the storyline approach contribute to this pupil understanding at the 6th International Storyline Conference on Saturday 28th March 2015. She was able to pass on the impact and images of current S2 pupil work following a recent chance meeting with Alison. Delegates attending Yvonne’s workshop at the conference were enthused by the idea of building small elements of storyline into their practice at secondary level. Some of them had not previously appreciated the impact the use of characters and setting could have in subjects across the curriculum. They were also struck by the idea of product packaging as a “text” which could be analysed and evaluated in the same way as a written text or digital image. They felt this approach could help them develop subject-specific skills while also addressing their responsibility for the development of transferable literacy skills.

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Braes HS is developing interdisciplinary connections across all departments, with teachers looking for opportunities to take full advantage of natural overlaps between subjects in order to deepen and enrich pupil learning. Read more about Falkirk’s contributions to the 2015 Storyline Conference by clicking here.

Deep Understanding of Global Citizenship at Kinnaird PS

 

Gemma Douglas, principal teacher, and Brenda Bennie class teacher from Kinnaird PS have been using WOSDEC global storyline Our Crop, our Land with their primary 5 and 6 classes. As can be seen from their wonderful animation, this work has had a huge impact on the children’s’ understanding of sustainable farming, fair trading practices and the ethics of land grabbing.

Gemma will present this work and animation with Diana Ellis, Global Education Advisor,  of WOSDEC and teachers from Glasgow Council schools at the International Storyline Conference on Saturday 28th March. The pupils of primary 6 were thrilled when their animation received 300 hits on the first night they uploaded it to YouTube.

It is clear that pupils have gained deep understanding of these global issues within the cross-cutting theme of Learning for sustainability and taken part in really valuable interdisciplinary learning. Brenda noted that

“The children are so proud and excited! It’s just amazing to see them so empowered. We’ve written letters to MSPs as well asking them to watch the video and tweet.”

Click here to see how Gemma integrated her storyline with the rest of her curriculum, and here to see how Brenda did this.

Global Storyline develops at Carron PS

Heather Nicol and her primary 6 class at Carron PS in Falkirk, are working on the Global Storyline project “Our Crop, Our Land” created by WOSDEC. Click here to learn more about this excellent global citizenship resource.

Heather’s pupils created the community of Springfield where most of the villagers rely on farming the crop Berryblush to earn their living. Each pupil has a Springfield persona which they pop in and out of during the storyline to help them understand complex global citizenship and sustainability issues. Click here to see how pupils shared their existing knowledge of farming, and here to see the daily diary of Olivia Spriengeer, one of the Springfield farmers.

Within the drama, it is harvest time and the people of Springfield are preparing to sell this year’s crop of berryblush to the highest bidder at market. (See their marvellous harvesting machines on the right). Outside the drama they have been learning about farming and global commerce and how the cost of real life crops is appropriated to each party who helps to get it to our shops. Click here  and here to see how pupil thinking has been affected by a learning experience called Banana Split, and explore pupil thoughts on why people are hungry by clicking here.

These are some of the learning activities integrated within the storyline to develop real and deep understanding of global commerce, rights, fair trade and social responsiblity and help pupils to become responsible citizens and effective contributors.

Heather’s class are really enjoying this connected learning experience which links experiences & outcomes in social studies, expressive arts and health and well-being. The storyline approach develops empathy and genuine understanding of global issues, as well as making the learning coherent and relevant to the pupils. Heather has applied her global storyline training and context building so well, that pupils asked to take some of their learning experiences home to work on them with their parents. They feel outraged that most farmers get so little payment compared to the other parties involved in getting food to us, and want to make sure others get to know about this too. Heather and her pupils will soon discover just how volatile this market can be, and how that volatility impacts on food producers around the world.

This is an excellent example of type 2 interdisciplinary learning where pupil skills and understanding are broadened and challenged through the cross-cutting themes of global citizenship and sustainability. The storyline approach and integration of drama and art and design ensure that pupils are consistently engaging in higher order thinking and reflection, which results in real progression.

What is interdisciplinary learning?

 Education Scotland states that  interdisciplinary learning: “enables teachers and learners to make connections across learning through exploring clear and relevant links across the curriculum. It supports the use and application of what has been taught and learned in new and different ways. It provides opportunities for deepening learning, for example through answering big questions, exploring an issue, solving problems or completing a final project.”

The importance of interdisciplinary learning as one of the 4 contexts for learning is highlighted by this quotation. Education Scotland has just published assessment and moderation exemplar materials which show how teachers carefully select a relevant and related “bundle” of experiences and outcomes. These  exemplars (click here to view the collection) provide an assessment overview of the significant aspects of learning being developed  in one subject area, but almost always show the teacher making a type 1 connection between one or more subject areas and/or with the cross-cutting themes of Curriculum for Excellence.. Click here to see how E & Os within HWB & LIT were linked at early level. Click here to see how higher order reading skills were integrated with contexts for learning at first level. To see how modern language vocubulary skills and thinking skills within literacy were linked at second level, click here. To explore how RME & Buddhism were linked to modern life at third level, click here. These do not prescribe the way these things must be done – they simply show how teachers have planned, delivered and assessed linked learning  for their pupils. They may act as useful examples of very focused IDL which provides breadth, challenge and/or application opportunities for pupils.

Bonnybridge PS Commonwealth Games Legacy runners up

Sarah Ritchie and colleagues from Bonnybridge PS worked with pupils to create a range of learning experiences linked to the Commonwealth Games and building on their Olympic Games legacy. Their plan helped children learn about citizenship at a local and global level, and resulted in the school being nominated for the Legacy Award at the Scottish Education Awards. Although they did not win, everyone involved was proud of the difference this interdisciplinary learning has made to pupils this session, as this extract from their Facebook page explains:

So, we never won the Legacy Award but we had a brilliant time at the ceremony!! We were the only primary school to make the final so that’s a massive achievement and a big well done to our pupils, staff and parents. We got a nice £250 voucher and other goodies to take away.

For a more detailed understanding of the learning involved, click  http://t.co/wGfHrzXBbD

British Council IDL Resources and Competition

The British Council have a range of education resources which may be useful sources of ideas for interdisciplinary learning linked to sustainable and international education. Here http://schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org/classroom-resources is a link to the resource section of their website.

Click here to take a look at the Rivers of the World resource pack. It has learning experiences for various age groups linked to bundles of social subject, science, art & design and maths learning. These include field work skills to support taking learning out of the classroom.

You may have time to use any comparative river study work already done with your primary 5 & 6 pupils in this http://glo.li/1kx9OMY competition run by the British Council – see details below:

Win a trip to Totally Thames with Rivers of the World  
     
 
 
Enter your primary school into our ‘Design a River Creature’ competition
 
The prize We will pay for the winning team to take part in the Totally Thames season of events and enjoy lots of fun activities including a student workshop at the British Council and a visit to the Tower Bridge Experience.
What do I need to do?

Using the Rivers of the World education pack as a resource, ask students to work in groups of five to create an art work and an accompanying piece of creative writing. It can be based on a real or imaginary creature from an overseas country and river ecosystem.

Who can enter?

Primary Schools Years 4 & 5 (5 and 6 in Scotland)

Larbert Village PS Comenius Visits

Staff at Larbert Village PS have used interdisciplinary learning to  prepare their pupils for their Comenius visitors during week beginning 2nd June 2014. Children have extended their knowledge and understanding of International Education by studying traditional  tales from the 7 European countries which their visitors come from. Laura Willox and staff colleagues planned their teaching around these stories to develop their pupils’ literacy skills,  and to offer an engaging context for pupils to apply other curricular skills. Pupils in all stages have read at least one story from each country and have been able to interpret these through drawing, storyboards and story telling sessions. They collated their work into a “floor book”  and were able to share these with their visitors.

 In primary 2W, pupils asked their Spanish visitor about other Spanish legends and found out about his part of Spain and Spanish customs. They also learned that their assumption that Spanish people have a siesta at lunchtime was not true – a valuable reminder not to stereotype! 

 The children all had different views about each story. For example, some pupils relished the scary Portugese story while others liked the stories with dragons, magic and romance. Click here to view what the children said about their preparations for the visit.

The children in the Butterfly room of the enhanced provision unit had the important task of designing, and sourcing the contents for, a small souvenir gift bag for their visitors. As you can see, the children were deservedly proud of their Scottish themed bags complete with shortbread, tablet, Larbert Village pencils and Saltires!                                     

All in all, this has been a really valuable process for everyone involved and has contributed to building a really positive ethos within the school and its community as well as to their programme of interdisciplinary learning.