A new mantle
Having finished one mantle, it was time to start a new one for a new half term. I'd recently watched Luke Abbot, MoE guru, in action so I had all sorts of ideas for how to improve my own practice. This is what happened.
The idea
In literacy, we were going to be focussing on The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl. As my class really likes a purpose for writing, I wanted to try to link this to our new mantle. One of the strategies for introducing contexts I'd read about* invovled sharing a complete story with the children. One Monday morning, that is what I did. We went into the sunshine and read The Enormous Crocodile all the way through.
From here, the plan was that we would have:
Client: The Notsobig One
Expert Team: Some sort of Crocodile Protection Agency
Commission: To protect the Notsobig One from whatever event/animal has resulted in his friend (The Enormous Crocodile) going missing, and a threatening note being left at his swamp.
The swamp
I asked the children whether they'd be interested in a mystery this afternoon (a technique learnt during my first training weekend). Of course, they agreed. We went outside where I explained I needed a swamp for this mystery. Sitting in a circle, the class drew a swamp using chalk.** As it finished I stepped into role as the Notsobig One. I began to mutter about the swamp: "yes, yes, this is it. This is my swamp, where I last saw him." This was the first time I'd tried this techinique: subtly easing into role through language.***
I carried on, with the main theme being: I hadn't seen my friend for a long time and I'd heard terrible things might have happened to him. The children gradually caught on, saying such thoughful things as: "He got shooted up to the sun and sizzled like a sausage" as well as useful descriptions of the atmospheric difficulties with being shot into outer space.
The children began getting very excited, shouting over each other and over me (the Notsobig One). They'd forgotten all that careful work I'd been doing with them on how not to do such things. To be expected, of course. I stepped out of role to regather them and then continued. As the Notsobig One, I was trying to get across the idea that I didn't feel safe and that I was worried about my friend; the children didn't quite catch on to this so at an opportune moment I showed them a note I had in my pocket that had been left at my swamp. I explained that it had made me feel quite sick and worried. It said:
Having finished one mantle, it was time to start a new one for a new half term. I'd recently watched Luke Abbot, MoE guru, in action so I had all sorts of ideas for how to improve my own practice. This is what happened.
The idea
In literacy, we were going to be focussing on The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl. As my class really likes a purpose for writing, I wanted to try to link this to our new mantle. One of the strategies for introducing contexts I'd read about* invovled sharing a complete story with the children. One Monday morning, that is what I did. We went into the sunshine and read The Enormous Crocodile all the way through.
From here, the plan was that we would have:
Client: The Notsobig One
Expert Team: Some sort of Crocodile Protection Agency
Commission: To protect the Notsobig One from whatever event/animal has resulted in his friend (The Enormous Crocodile) going missing, and a threatening note being left at his swamp.
The swamp
I asked the children whether they'd be interested in a mystery this afternoon (a technique learnt during my first training weekend). Of course, they agreed. We went outside where I explained I needed a swamp for this mystery. Sitting in a circle, the class drew a swamp using chalk.** As it finished I stepped into role as the Notsobig One. I began to mutter about the swamp: "yes, yes, this is it. This is my swamp, where I last saw him." This was the first time I'd tried this techinique: subtly easing into role through language.***
I carried on, with the main theme being: I hadn't seen my friend for a long time and I'd heard terrible things might have happened to him. The children gradually caught on, saying such thoughful things as: "He got shooted up to the sun and sizzled like a sausage" as well as useful descriptions of the atmospheric difficulties with being shot into outer space.
The children began getting very excited, shouting over each other and over me (the Notsobig One). They'd forgotten all that careful work I'd been doing with them on how not to do such things. To be expected, of course. I stepped out of role to regather them and then continued. As the Notsobig One, I was trying to get across the idea that I didn't feel safe and that I was worried about my friend; the children didn't quite catch on to this so at an opportune moment I showed them a note I had in my pocket that had been left at my swamp. I explained that it had made me feel quite sick and worried. It said:
I explained that, being a crocodile, I needed help to understand exactly what 'LEAVE OR ELSE' meant; the children kindly explained that "something bad might happen to you." They really were very matter-of-fact about the whole thing. From this point, children began to become quite motivated by the fiction and suggested all sorts of ideas. I stepped out of role again and suggested they find some way to communicate their thoughts.
While they found paper, searched for clues outside, drew maps, created pictures of crocodiles being shot into the sun, etc, I visited each group of children (out of role) to try and establish which of their ideas were useful and which I would have to let quietly slip. Into the latter category went one child's idea that bears had moved into the swamp, left the note and had moved the Enormous Crocodile into their own house in exchange. Interesting. However, others ideas leant themselves to the fiction; I was able to experiment with stepping regularly in and out of role as I went around the room, sometimes talking as the Notsobig One if I felt it would help. As a result, I took some threads of ideas from the children and built upon them, for example:
Small child: "the Enormous Crocodile got shot up to the sun"
Teacher in Role: "You're telling me my friend is up in space somewhere?"
Small child: "yes"
TIR: "It doesn't sound safe here anymore.... what if I'm next?"
Small child: "Perhaps you need to hide."
And that was it: a way into the idea that this character, the Notsobig One, might need to hide and therefore might need protection.
At this point, I gathered the children together and asked them what sort of things they had to report back to the Notsobig One when they saw him again. This way, I was able to use their ideas while also sticking to my 'givens'*** I also used this time to remind children how to talk to each other without shouting over each other; it is very useful stepping in and out of role for such purposes as this.
We had some initial ideas and I felt that, despite feeling a little out of control at times, the children had become interested in the fiction and were ready to go on. Having previously believed it was important to set up the whole thing (client, team and commission) fairly quickly, observing and talking to Luke had taught me that it takes time; the children need gradually guiding into the fiction with a lot of collaboration with them and agreement from them.
See next blog.
Notes:
* see particularly 'A Beginner's Guide to Mantle of the Expert' by Tim Taylor, p247)
** I've recently learnt about the power of co-collaboration with the children; involving them at every stage enables them to feel ownership and to become invested in the fiction.
*** Possibly Twilight Role: it's not yet clear who I am. Later, moving to teacher in and out of role.
**** Givens are useful to decide upon and stick to. My givens: The Enormous Crocodile had disappeared and was in trouble. I had been threatened. I no longer felt safe in my swamp.
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