A visit from Luke Abbott (Master of MoE)

RULE: Children have to have something to care about.

Luke shared this with us as a golden rule and I'm going to keep repeating it to myself every time I plan.

He'd come with my two fellow MoE trainees to demonstrate some methods and ideas with my class. He built on the work we'd been doing, and here are some things I noticed.

Session 1
The main point of learning for me during this session was watching how Luke went with the children. This is something
I am continually working on - the balance between going with their ideas, but also keeping somewhere close to the ‘givens’.

The class witnessed Helen (fellow MoE teacher) in rull role as a National Park Officer in a state of urgency. They were invited to ask questions about what was going on as well as to watch and listen. The children established that something was happening: they listed ideas such as a hurricane, tornado, whirlpool, flood.

The children watched Helen in role on and off but were regularly interested in looking for more ‘clues’ about what was happening. I find this happens a lot with small children and was interested to see what Luke would do with this. Scaredy Squirrel had been mentioned, so Luke said, “so let’s talk about these clues… if the squirrel was leaving us clues, what would they look like?” In this way, the children created clues which they spread around their ‘wood’ for others to find: Luke had given them ownership over the clue hunting but hadn’t allowed the story to be taken away.

The children then placed their clues around and, as one boy had made a map, Luke focussed on this. He asked the children to tell the boy where their clues were, and together Luke and the children began to create a larger map of the woods. The children then gathered each other’s clues and discussed what the problem was. Luke took this opportunity to bring some children in who, until now, had not really been involved. He ignored the louder children and explicitly gave different children chance to talk.

Next, Luke asked: so, can we help? (a way into setting up the team) The first response was ‘we can make jet packs!’ and off the children went talking about making jet packs and why (so they could escape). Luke brought them back to the fiction and endeavour by suggesting (not telling them) that their reasons seem quite selfish…. From here the children decided they could make jet packs possibly to help the squirrels. This was interesting to see - that same group of boys and girls regularly suggest ‘We can make jet packs’ before they’ve even thought about it. Luke gave them the time and chance to think about it and to justify their ideas. Their faces showed that they hadn’t been thinking of others - of the squirrels and the trees.

The session ended with the children telling the National Park officers what they had found out.

Good learning points:

• Using children’s ideas to further the story while not letting go of the ‘givens’; eg having children create the clues within a given parameter so ‘found’ clues didn’t distract
• Lots and lots of co-creation with the children; they had ownership of the story and of their team by the end of the session
• Givens: Luke did not allow ‘magical’ solutions to the problem (eg we could make the tree invisible)
• Tensions: the storm and possible damage, and the short amount of time we had until the storm was due.

Session 2:
We didn’t have much time to think about this session before it began. The only thing we really decided upon was that we would invite the children to represent the squirrels in the wood.

Ben (fellow MoE teacher) was in role as Scaredy Squirrel, in an area of the room behind a board onto which we had pinned ‘Please do not knock loudly, Ben (Scaredy Squirrel). Ben intermittently peered around the board in a nervous sort of way (full role)

The children came in and Luke talked to the children about the story and whether they would like to be in the story. The children enjoyed decoding the sign and discussing what they knew about Scaredy Squirrel. Luke said he had some news, that the dogs had told him (building immediately on where the story with the Year 2s had ended) and he needed to meet the squirrels by the great oak tree - they’d have to get to the top of the tree (Teacher stepping into full role or possibly shadowy role). He invited the children to suggest where that might be in the room. Then they ‘climbed’ and leapt from branch to branch - an effective way of getting children into their roles as squirrels. From the top of the tree, the children were invited to spot Scaredy Squirrel, and then Luke said, “I’ll be at the Great Oak - come when you can, but bring him!”

The children then went and spoke beautifully to Ben in role as Scaredy Squirrel. They used quiet voices to persuade him to come, eventually succeeding when they promised him acorns.

The squirrels surrounded Luke who told them the secret - there was a storm coming. They discussed what to do and in the end they decided to shelter in the tree. Luke discussed with them how, and then we stepped into role as the Tree (Convention 4, the role as an effigy that can be spoken to, I think). The children asked our permission to hide and also told us about the storm. As they discussed what to do, with us freezing and coming to life as needed, Luke clarified their ideas with them: they needed to dig the tree up, cover it up, and use old dead branches to protect it. So they did.

Luke ended with narrative: he continued the story, telling of how the storm came and it mainly passed over the great oak but that one limb was damaged. The children saw this in the effigy. The squirrels had saved the oak.

Good learning points:

• Children don’t all have to be one role - the Y1s took on a very different role to the Y2s
• The power of the role of Scaredy Squirrel - this role added a seriousness to the work and gave it more purpose. It also shaped the children’s behaviour and responses.
• How quickly children accepted different adults in different roles - the Year 1 children had not done this sort of work before.

Session 3

I was interested to see how Luke would bring the two groups of children together: the Tree Team and the Squirrels. We had previously discussed ways to give the Year 1s the chance to be responsible and to talk while the Year 2s listened (the Year 2s are not great at seeing beyond themselves and their agenda, on the whole).

Luke started with an image of an eye with compass directions around it - he talked about how we were in the eye of the storm and all was calm but that it hadn’t been that way a short time ago. The storm could return at any moment - though from where he didn’t know (perhaps the TT could ask the NPO). He put up the compass directions with the children and discussed the implications of each should the storm come from there. He invited the squirrels to speak and they told the Tree Team what had happened. They saw the effigy of the tree again, with its broken limb. They described how they had helped, but Luke reminded the children that the storm could come back at any point. Here he brought the Tree Team (y2s) into action - they had agreed to make jet packs and parachutes to help the squirrels to escape the storm. Off they went.

The children went off to their various activities, some crossing over into the other team/role which didn’t seem to be a problem. I stepped back and watched; I could see a lot of learning going on despite the initial impression of slight chaos. Helen was in role as the NPO helping her team out while Ben was SS being cared for by other squirrels. When Luke wanted to gather them together he added an element of tension: URGENT NEWS - the hurricane is coming from the EAST. Some children were concerned but I noticed others were not. Perhaps they were not as invested in the fiction.

At one point everyone was gathered and the Tree Team asked to give the jet packs etc over to the squirrels and teach them how to use it. Then the squirrels were off - they were saved.

The fiction ended there and we talked about what the children had enjoyed/noticed. The question of what happened to Scaredy Squirrel was raised… so Ben stepped back into role and portrayed a video of S.S. surveying the damage to his tree and woodland and sadly leaving. This was a great ending as it left the children with questions.

Good learning points:

• The use of the children in two roles meant all were involved, the Y2s were given a focus (the squirrels became their clients and they were asked to make jet packs for the other rather than for themselves) and the Y1s were given an important status.
• The appearance of chaos does not mean it is chaotic
• The adults were in and out of role a lot which was very effective in terms of adding depth to the fiction and helping to focus the work