Category Archives: 1.4 Prof. Commitment

My Story Box Experience

While on placement within a primary 4 class last year, I created a story box bWorst_witch_book1002ased on the book ‘The Worst Witch’. When I was a child, I wasn’t a big fan of reading but instead read only when I was forced too by my teacher or parents. However, ‘The Worst Witch’ was one book I never had to be persuaded to read. Although I chose books for myself from the school library, they were often never looked at or even touched until it was time to return them. ‘The Worst Witch’ was different though. I found the book to be extremely enjoyable as a child and read it from beginning too end within a few nights – not something that I was seen to do. Due to my experience of the book, I chose it to base my story box around it for the class as I believed they’d love it too.

I started off by re-reading the book in order to help inspire me with ideas for activities that I wanted to have within the box. I also focused my attention on the topics the children were studying within each subject such as maths and literacy. I then started searching the internet for worksheets or activities which were linked to magic or witches. As they were learning about coordinates in maths, I managed to find a few different witch styled activates for varied abilities images (1)based on that topic. I also managed to find a witch’s position poem along with the lyrics to the school song that the girls sing within the book. As I was finding all these worksheets on the internet, I edited them with pictures of ‘The Worst Witch’ characters and even changed the text to make them look a lot more interesting in order to engage the children. As I had read through the book once, I read through it once again and found phrases or words the children would maybe not understand and created flash cards with the meanings on the other side – the side with the words or phrases were all coloured purple as I believed this colour linked to witches. Creating the box itself was a fun task for me as I wanted the children to be able to look at it and know that the contents were related to the book. For this I found some black wrapping paper which had gold speckles on it and wrapped the box with it. I then printed and cut out photos of the characters and the name of the book in order to arrange them on the box as well.

When working through the story box with the class, I always began the lesson by reading part of the book then moved on to an activity from the box. Throughout the reading process, I would ask the children questions to make sure they’re understanding the story before moving onto the next part. I would also often recap before starting the next lesson.download

Reflecting back on my experience delivering my story box, I found the creating part the most enjoyable as I’m a very creative person and enjoyed editing the worksheets to fit in with ‘The Worst Witch’ theme. I believe I need to work on my confidence when reading out loud to a class as I felt nervous doing this and occasionally stuttered and lost my place. However, I did recover well and reread from the beginning on the sentence in order to make sure the children weren’t getting confused with my mistakes.

If I was to do the story box/sack with younger children such as primary ones or twos, I would most likely chose a fairy tale picture book. I would make sure that I would be able to use props with the particular book in order to use whilst telling the story. For example, Goldie Locks and images (2)the Three Bears would be a good story to tell as I would be able to pull bowls, teddy bears etc. out of the box/sack. Another good way to tell a story would be to use finger puppets and get the children to act as the certain characters while I read through the story. This process would help with the younger children’s understanding of the story overall.

Overall, a story box or sack is a great way to get the children engaged and interested in the book or story that is being read. The different activates which link to the book are great ways to continue the children’s learning within different subject areas while constantly connecting back to the book.

“Under the Sea” – Dance Lesson Plan

I based this lesson plan on the class having taken part in previous dance sessions built around the theme and song from “The Little Mermaid”, ‘Under the Sea’. The previous lessons consisted on the children learning how to travel, i.e. swimming movements, and twist to represents sea creatures and underwater plants.

Working towards outcomes of a Curriculum for Excellence img-thing

Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express my ideas, thoughts and feelings through creative work in dance. EXA 2-09a

Learning Intentions

To successfully use their bodies to imitate sea weed swaying within the water.                                                To successfully move loosely to emphasise how the plants move within the waves.

Success Criteria

How to loosen up their bodies and be successful when using loose movements                               How to successfully do a body roll and understand how the movement can be seen as the same as sea weeds movements when the waves cause the plants to sway.

Resources

CD player or docking station                                                                                                                         A variety of music including “Under the Sea”                                                                                             A large empty space, preferably the school gym hall

Setting the context/ Beginning the lesson (Introduction)

Introduce the lesson by recapping on the previous dance sessions encouraging the children to share what they have previously learned. Make sure the children check their l
aces are tied before beginning the warm up. Make sure I’m aware of any injuries the children may have in order to adapt the moves in order for the child to be comfortable.

 Octopus Tag2db7a88b5890e15e67663a083dfeaa77

One person (the tagger) stands in the middle of the gym hall. The rest of the children line up at one end of the hall and when I shout go, they all run to the other side. Whoever the tagger tags, they must stand where they got tagged and become an octopus. The octopus cannot move from their spot but must move around their arms in order to help the tagger tag the other children.

Quick stretch of the muscles the children are going to be using in order to learn the specific dance moves i.e. their arms, shoulders, neck, back and abdominal.

Teaching the learning intentions (Development)

Before starting the main lesson I will have the children find a space where they’re able to move freely. I will also check whether they are able to see me clearly through using the method of ‘if I can’t see them, they can’t see me’.

Begin by getting the children to sway lightly from side to side with lose movements.   Encourage them to follow their shoulders allowing their arms to dangle by their sides.                               Then have the children imagine that someone is pulling them by their belt which has their loose upper bodies follow their hip – Do this movement over, while counting in eights, until the children are successful with the movement.                                                                                     Now, encourage them to allow their arms to swing without them controlling the movement too much as this will cause them to tighten up.                                                                           Throughout this process, I will have music playing in order for the children to learn how to move loosely to the beat while counting in eights.

 After the children have managed to loosen up their bodies and do simple loose movements, I will move onto firstly telling them what the name of the move they’ll be learning – a body roll.     I will then show the children an example of this move before talking through it st5a41a5b5a19496512d516fd72f8cc591ep by step.   Start by rolling my head back, telling them to imagine someone pushing against their foreheads, then rolling the movement down to their neck, shoulders, chest, tummy, hips, then legs (demonstrating as I speak through each rolling movement).                                               Then have the children join in, slowly rolling each body part I am naming and imitating my movements (counting in 4s for this section).           Have the children try it on the own allowing them to speed up with practice.                                           I will walk around the hall observing the class and assist any children who are struggling.

Once I see that most of the children are becoming confident with this move, I will switch the music to “Under the Sea” and have them pretend to be sea weed within the water using the new body roll they’ve just learned.                                                                                                              I will encourage the children to other movements they have learned from previous lessons by shouting out their names and demonstrating them at the front of the hall for all the children to see.                                                                                                                                                          Count in fours for this song.

Ending the lesson (Plenary)

For this I will have relaxing ocean sound effects in order fit the theme of ‘Under the Sea’.

For the cool down, I will have the children and myself stand in a circle, having them hold hands in order to do this quickly.                                                                                                                             I will get them to drop hands once everyone is in position.                                                              The cool down will consist of having the children take deep breaths, raising their arms when breathing in and dropping them when breathing out.                                                                     After this, I will have the children lay down on the ground, close their eyes and listen to the calming music for a few moments in order to allow me to prepare for heading back to the classroom.

My next steps

During this lesson, as the children have been introduced into how to move their bodies loosely in order to successfully do the body roll, the next lesson will consist of more loose movements such as the arm wave which will represent the waves within the sea. For this lesson I will watch Youtube videos in order to give me ideas on how to break down the move and explain it step by step.

What it means to be an enquiring practitioner.

An enquiring practitioner is someone who works collaboratively with others. This includes them bringing their own thoughts and ideas to the table to achieve a goal they share with the other group members. As a student teacher, co-operative working can include working alongside other teachers, support teachers or even parents in order to improve education. This can be done through team teaching, staff meetings, parent’s evenings, school events etc.

Benefits of being an enquiring practitioner

An important benefit of collaborative working includes the fact that everyone’s knowledge varies and what individuals could bring into group discussions may be something others aren’t aware of. This is helpful as the group members are learning from one another. As for being a student teacher, this is a great benefit as it will help me learn interesting ways of teaching different subjects or even different behaviour management methods. Another advantage of being an enquiring practitioner is that the more knowledgeable members can help fill in the gaps of others understanding. If someone is struggling with an area, someone who has a better understanding will be able to step in and help explain it to them. As a student, having a peer explain can sometimes be more effective than the explanation giving by a lecturer. I personally feel more comfortable being able to discuss areas I don’t understand with other class members as it’s comforting knowing when others are in the same position as me.

Disadvantages of being an enquiring practitioner

There are many disadvantages to co-operative working. One of these disadvantages is if members are not contributing to the work load. This can be very frustrating and will impact on the group as whole including falling behind on work load. Another big issue within groups can also be know-all behaviour from different members. This can lead to the individual not listening to others opinions or making others feel like they do not have a value within the group. This attitude can lead to the individual dominating the group as they believe they know better than everyone else and therefor might scare others from speaking up against them.