Tag: Sharing Practice

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

Falkirk Probationer teachers go Interdisciplinary!

WP_20151105_001[1]“In early November 2015, Yvonne McBlain, curriculum support officer with Falkirk Children’s Services enjoyed working with primary and secondary probationer teachers as part of their core induction programme. Click here to see the presentation which the primary teachers experienced, and here to see the adapted version for secondary teachers. You will note that much of the content of these training sessions needed to be similar to reflect the generic nature of interdisciplinary learning and its vital role within Curriculum for Excellence.

The culminating task for these sessions was to identify small groups of experiences and outcomes which could develop into effective interdisciplinary learning. Practitioners in most schools are engaged in developing interdisciplinary “bundles” of experiences and outcomes to help build their curriculum framework and enable them to ensure progression across all four context for learning. Probationer teachers were shown exemplar pro formas to model how a “bundle” might look when developed further – click here to see a 4th level example, and here to see an early level version.

There was no time during these sessions for proper sharing of the bundles created by each co-operative group of teachers. Consequently, it was agreed that this blog post would be used as a sharing tool, where teachers involved could have a look at some of the bundles, reflect on their IDL value, then leave any comments and observations they have. Yvonne looks forward to hearing your thoughts on the bundles below – some have contexts, and others are simple lists of experiences and outcomes.

MNU 2-09a, 09b, -9c, 10c & TCH 2-22a,03a &01a – Enterprise

SOC 2-07b, SCN 2-16a, 18a, TCH 2-12a & 14a Natural Disasters

HWB 2-08a, 09a, RME 2-09c, 09d, SOC 2-16b, 16c, 17a

SOC 1-16a, 17a, 18a, HWB 1-01a, 02a, 03a, 04a, 05a, 06a, LIT 1-02a, 10a, EXA 1-13a Developing understanding of differences

SOC 1-07a, 08a, 14a, RME 1-03a, 02a, 03b, SCN 1-17a/SOC1-08a Maps/Local Area

RME 2-04c, 06a, 09d, HWB 2-34a, 30a How do beliefs affect diet?

SOC 2-01a,04a, 09a, 14a, EXA 2-03a, 04a, 05a, 13a, TCH 2-04a, 14a, Titanic

MNU 1-20b, MTH 1-21a, HWB 1-50a, SCN 1-02a, SOC 1-13b Living things & environment

LIT 3-23a, & geography, RMPS & Maths outcomes to study potential support of local charities and campaigners using the big questions “Can people make a difference?”

HWB 4-29a, 30a, 32a, SOC 4-22b, 21a & MNU Cupcake Challenge enterprise

TCH, SOC & SCN at 3/4th level – Understanding physical, social and technological developments in society

Click here for booklet versions of the experiences and outcomes, and here for a document which collates the connections between subjects as described in each principles and practice paper.

 

 

 

 

Interdisciplinary Learning Update

IDL banner smallInterdisciplinary Learning in Falkirk – a Quick Update

 Yvonne McBlain, is working with colleagues across our authority to review and develop our Interdisciplinary Learning. As part of this work, she will be taking forward the task “Build guidance and support for interdisciplinary learning through Glow and Glow blogs”. The Falkirk IDL Glow group has now been updated to act as a “one stop shop” for practitioners looking for guidance, and can be reached using this link http://glo.li/103OdF4.

IDLFAQ

Yvonne has built in a Frequently Asked Questions section which has comprehensive answers and supporting resources for the most common queries. In addition, people can respond and contribute to this section as a discussion board. The group links to national guidance from Education Scotland, and to other national and international research and ideas about connecting learning across the curriculum. Yvonne will continue to add to and develop the Glow group – please send any suggestions you have to yvonne.mcblain@falkirk.gov.uk.

This blog complements the Glow group, and is open to all without the use of a Glow password, http://glo.li/1ftOaIZ . Its purpose is to share good interdisciplinary learning from all sectors and all establishments across our authority. When you deliver strong IDL which makes a real difference to your pupils’ understanding and skills, please email Yvonne so she can help you celebrate and share your effective teaching.

 

 

 

Denny PS makes BBC 10 Pieces into Powerful IDL

IMG_2341Catherine Cybulska, primary 5 teacher, and Susanne Bell, Youth Music Tutor, at Denny Primary School used the BBC 10 pieces project to truly enrich and link their curriculum for pupils. Primary 5 were among many Falkirk classes who attended the premier of 10 pieces at Falkirk Town Hall last autumn, but went on to become one of only 4 Scottish winners. Their “prize” was to host a Scottish Symphony Orchestra-led BBC 10 Pieces music takeover day which happened on 23rd March 2015. Mrs Cybulska and her pupils are also learning how to the play the violin from scratch and are enjoying their lessons from Mr Atkinson, their music tutor.DSCN0180

These musical experiences have naturally linked learning and skills development across the curriculum and made a very positive difference to the life and ethos of Denny PS. The SSO/BBC visit was a truly transformative experience for everyone involved. Pupils applied to take part in stop motion animation workshops linked to the pieces of music and got to work with a BBC film crew. Catherine said “There are no words to explain how good it was…just amazing…I would advise anybody to do it” The people in Denny PS also made an impact on BBC staff involved, who wrote a lovely thank you letter with the following extract “Denny is a truly wonderful school…staff/pupil interaction we witnessed were both humbling and inspiring”. 145

Catherine and Susanne felt that BBC 10 pieces helped them bring CfE to life for pupils by linking their analysis, interpretation and evaluation skills across music, ICT, media studies and literacy. The project has also developed pupil confidence, motivation, enthusiasm and creativity and contributed to a more positive attitude towards learning which pervades the classroom and certainly extended across the school on the 10 pieces day. Pupils model the 4 capacities better in their contributions to all areas of learning, and in their increased attention to detail, behaviour and ability to persevere with tasks. Use this link to hear some of the primary 5 pupils being  interviewed about their experience by Radio Scotland.

Catherine and Susanne have succeeded in involving others very effectively in the project in order to create a lasting legacy from the project. Click here to listen to the pupils’ composition, and here to read their song lyrics. The PR video P 5 made to inform other classes about the upcoming takeover day can be viewed by clicking here. The photos below show one of the banners each class made to interpret one of the pieces of music. P5 invited 2 pupils from each of the other cluster schools to join in on the day.  Look out for 10 Pieces 2 which will begin in session 2015-16 for primary 7 – S2 classes.

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Integrating skills progression into learning at Hallglen PS

WP_20150317_051 Following a meeting at Hallglen PS about staff development of skills within their curriculum, Alison McCalley and Linda Hastie gave Yvonne McBlain a tour of the learning walls around the school.

Click here to read more about this development process. Staff had made very effective use of walls around the school to share and celebrate learning. In every classroom the “learning walls” were used to help pupils understand what they were learning. Pupil self-evaluation and next steps were also displayed.

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Themes like Houses and Homes linked learning and skill development in social studies, numeracy and technology.  Teachers used their themes to integrate literacy skill development in reading, writing, talking and listening. WP_20150317_013  There was evidence of pupils developing their vocabulary and their higher order reading skills by being “Thinking Readers”. Writing tasks were carefully planned by teachers to progress literacy and numeracy across learning within the social subjects or science topics. This included homework tasks at all stages.

From the meeting, and the tour, it was clear that staff are collaborating very effectively to build their curriculum. Their joint exploration of the skills built into the experiences and outcomes means they can make progression explicit to pupils so that everyone can track and profile learning in a meaningful way. It was a pleasure to experience the depth of reflection going on at Hallglen PS. The following pictures give a flavour of the development of the curriculum and how staff are addressing the 4 aspects of the curriculum. Next steps for staff is to pull their bundles of connected E & Os together with the significant aspects of learning and contexts and build their curriculum framework. Staff worked on this during the May inset day and will combine it with subject specific and discrete skills progression to build and review their curriculum.

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Great Arty Collaboration at Comely Park PS

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On 27th March, staff and pupils at Comely Park PS proudly presented their successful collaborative work  with The Park Gallery. This project was initiated by the gallery and was inspired by Ruth Nicol’s exhibition, Three Rivers Meet which combined landscape painting with poetry. The project links to Falkirk’s successful Creative Place Award and encouraged pupils to look at their place and select their favourite icons of the area.

Ruth Nicol is an award winning Scottish Contemporary landscape artist based in Edinburgh. In her exhibition Three Rivers Meet she is inspired by Alexander Moffat’s “Poets’ Pub”, and investigates the landscapes of the seven great Scottish poets. She worked directly with 8 P7 pupils from Comely Park School in her Edinburgh studio, where they produced their own landscape paintings of well-known Falkirk landmarks. The pupils had to go through a selection process to be one of the final 8 who learned new techniques and  created the stunning works included in this post.

Kelpies by Megan and Zara

Zara said it was “A really different experience from what we were used to.” Her partner Megan said “I was really glad I put my name down. I loved being in the real artist’s studio. It was great to work with Ruth.”

Reid and Amy chose to depict the Kelpies and said “It was really easy cos we’re best friends. I drew the background then we did a horse each.”

Heather and Lisa said “I just enjoyed a bit of everything about the paint – we sprayed, and painted and chucked everything, then it really started to come to life when we added parts in.”

Grangemouth by Molly and Tomi

Tomi said “I think my favourite bit was actually going to the artist’s studio. I’ve wanted to be an artist since I was 5”

Yvonne McBlain and other invited guests were highly impressed by the whole occasion and the work shared. The paintings took centre stage, but the poetry linked to their local area produced and read by the pupils was  well-written and moving. It was obvious that teachers Gillian Hepburn and Gillian Cain had maximised the value and impact of this interdisciplinary learning for their pupils in partnership with Ruth Nicol, and Barbara Murdoch, visual arts assistant with Falkirk Community Trust. Comely Park PS has a Makar named Ruby, who read her poem inspired by her local area and said “I like writing poems – it’s another way of expressing yourself.” Click here to see Barbara’s record of the second of the studio visits.

Ruth Nicol said:

“Working with the pupils and staff of Comely Park School was very exciting and has been a privilege. The creativity, commitment and expression of all the pupils was evident to see. I hope everyone enjoys the paintings and poems we have made together.”

The Kelpies by Reid and Amy             The steeple

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.

Falkirk Storylines Shared at International Conference

WP_20150329_002Teachers and senior managers from Kinnaird and Moray Primary Schools shared their use of the storyline approach at the 6th International Storyline Conference on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th March 2015. Gemma Douglas and Brenda Bennie presented their global storyline practice with teachers from Glasgow schools and the West of Scotland Development Education Centre (WOSDEC). Ashley Thomson, teacher at Limerigg PS prepared the Falkirk contribution with Gemma, but was unable to attend due to illness and Brenda thankfully stepped in. Everyone involved shared the powerful impact of the Global Storyline training on the 14 teachers involved and their pupils. Feedback from the workshop delivered on Saturday was very positive, and the delegates attending engaged fully with the practical elements built in to help them understand how powerful this interdisciplinary learning is. Click here and here to read previous blog posts with more information about these storylines.

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Lynda MacDonald, DHT, Gillian Brodie, PT, and class teachers Alison Feasby and Simran Multani also shared their development of storyline within Moray PS. In their  session entitled “One School Telling Many Stories”, this team described the storyline journey taken by their whole school community over the last 2 sessions. During this time a small group of teachers have worked with and championed the storyline approach. Session 2013-14 saw every class embarking on a Storyline at the same time; their classrooms and playrooms were filled with vivid representations of characters, settings, plots and an abundance of new learning. In April 2014, all stages from nursery to Primary 7 celebrated and shared “Telling Many Stories” with parents, grandparents and other special guests. The school journey continues this session 2014-15 with an aim to improve practice and achieve greater consistency across the whole school and a drive to build in progression of skills across learning. The pictures above and below come from the nursery storyline floorbook.  WP_20150328_004

At the conference, Lynda and colleagues made connections with 2 schools in the USA whom they plan to share practice with next year – there will be opportunities to link classes and storylines across the Atlantic which is very exciting for everyone involved.

Falkirk teachers are recognised for their use of the storyline approach to deliver powerful and engaging interdisciplinary learning. It was wonderful to see this practice being shared with an international audience – maybe we will have even more to share at the next International Storyline Conference in Istanbul in 2018!

 

Primary 5H Use Music to Improve their Writing

Emma Holmes (probationer teacher at Carron PS) and her primary 5 pupils have been using music to help them develop their reading and writing skills. They listened to Mussorgsky’s Night on the Bare Mountain (click to listen) and used their reading strategies to explore the music like a text. First they discussed the title and what it could mean, then they created word banks to describe what they heard as they listened. The next steps were to storyboard their interpretation of the music and, finally, to create their own piece of writing. 

Working in this way had a very positive effect on the writing the pupils produced. They found it easy to use their imagination when writing, and were able to write more than usual. The pupils created structured stories which were interesting and creative. By exploring what they felt was inferred by the music of Mussorgsky, they were able to produce longer, more detailed and stimulating stories.

Mrs Holmes was pleased  that the pupils were able to transfer elements of their learning to another context. This happened when pupils attended a performance of The Wizard of Oz in school. By chance, part of Mussorgsky’s Night on the Bare Mountain was used during the performance. Primary 5 pupils reacted immediately when they heard it and were able to say that it was used  for dramatic effect and to explain its specific purpose at that point in the performance.

Interdisciplinary Learning at Falkirk High school

Yvonne McBlain was pleased to be able to meet with teachers from Falkirk HS to explore how they have been developing interdisciplinary learning across the school. James Thomson, Head of Language faculty and his colleagues Amanda Gouther and Melanie, shared two collaborations taken forward this session.

The first involved English, Social Studies, PSE and Pupil Support staff, and took place over 2 weeks for S2. Staff in all of these departments recognised a need to develop pupil ability to speak confidently and well in public. They had observed that many pupils lost confidence between S1 and S2 in their ability to apply their skills to structure and deliver a verbal presentation. Consequently, staff worked together to plan a series of tasks which used social studies content as a focus for the pupils’ final presentations, which were delivered in English. In this way, staff were able to co-ordinate their course content with minimal change or disruption to their unit plans and normal timetables. The experience built into a cross-year competition which raised the profile of these skills for learning, and allowed pupils to appreciate their own, and others’ progression.

The second IDL development also involved S2 and was a collaboration between Modern Languages and HE. Each subject planned activities which were delivered within their usual timetable. In the early stages, most took place discretely, but then culminated in more obviousl integration of subject learning when pupils opened and ran their French Cafe. Pupils developed their knowledge of French vocabulary by using this in Home economics. They tried samples of traditional French food and used role play to deal with currency conversion between Euros and Sterling. Teachers used co-operative learning strategies to ensure that pupil groups had specific responsibilities for setting up and running the cafe. The pupils had real customers and were able to apply their conversational use of the French language and money-handling skills as well as the obvious and valuable social interaction. Staff built assessment of agreed criteria into the learning experience via a pupil quiz, and this learning experience proved very motivating and engaging for the pupils involved.

James also shared a planned IDL activity for December 2014 linked to the famous football game truce which took place in No Man’s Land 100 years ago between British and German troops. This will be called Joyeux Noel and will involve S3 modern languages and history pupils. He hopes that pupils can attend a special film screening and use associated resources to develop their knowledge and understanding of the conflict, as well as offering an opportunity to develop and use language skills.