The Not-Yet-Expert Team

After a few weeks without much mantling, it was with joy that we took the first steps into our new mantle today. While pondering upon the session later, something that occurred to me was that we found ourselves inviting children into the expert team much sooner than we have done previously. With our WW1/Arthur mantle the team came somewhere towards the middle, after the children had learnt about Arthur. With the Fire Marshals the team was created somewhere in the middle. Other teams have appeared at various points during their relative mantles. 

I don't really think (though I may be wrong) that it matters when the team is created; what I've found is that as long as the children are interested and motivated, the team can be created and the deeper levels of investment and 'expertise' will follow. 

Anyway, this is how one particular team started to form. 

The folder:As the children came in there was a plain brown folder on the carpet with a name on. The children were quite fidgety and taking a while to gather on the carpet so to bring their attention to the folder I just said: In a house somewhere quite far from here, in the attic, there is a box. It's full of someone's belongings. This folder was found in that box."

Of course, that's all it took for the children to become interested. They opened the folder and passed items around, chattering excitedly. The folder belonged to an explorer; it contained such items as a diary, photographs, a post card, expedition kit lists and maps of a variety of places. Having a puzzle to solve was very effective as a way to attract children's attention and interest.

Sharing ideas:As children began to identify that this was an explorer/adventurer, I said something like:
so, if she was going to go on an expedition tomorrow, I wonder how she'd prepare?

I have yet to meet a KS1 child who is not interested in being an explorer and, sure enough, the ideas flowed freely. I tried to use twilight role a bit here to guide children into the fiction: while talking to them about what 'she' would need I also used phrases such as: 'so if I were to represent this explorer I'd need a tent.'  and 'It sounds like I have a lot of preparation to do.' I was trying to refer to the fiction without the children actually being inside the fiction yet.

I invited children to record ideas on paper to show me and, speaking at times as a teacher and at times as the explorer, depending on what the situation needed, I spent time with different groups to gather their ideas.

Important Disclaimer: I'm trying to learn about twilight role at the moment, therefore the above may be a partially/wholly inaccurate use of it. 

Inviting children in:
The children gathered to share their tips for preparing for an expedition. As they did so, questions came up such as 'Where are you going?' and 'What will you eat?'. Misconceptions also arose: one pair advised me to take boxes of Dominoes pizza with me. 

At one point a child (accidentally) said, "So what we'll need is...." and that was the opportunity I'd been waiting for. In role, I said: "I noticed you said 'we' .... are you coming on this expedition with me?"

The lure of an adventure naturally had the whole class agreeing to come, however...

The team's credentials:
Speaking in role more consistently by this point, I explained that I would like the children all to come and be my team of explorers: however, this expedition was only for the experienced explorers. I needed to know that the people coming with me would be able to cope with everything that came their way. 

I invited the children to complete an explorer profile and a folder (made from the finest infant school sugar paper) showing their past expeditions and experience. The children were keen from the outset but a bit confused: they 'hadn't been anywhere yet' and 'didn't have any photographs of themselves'. However, once we established that in a story about explorers they could be anything they wanted, they were off. They created maps of previous expeditions, photographs of themselves and lists of equipment. Some particularly pleasing folder contents were:

• A pouch of wolf hair
• A 'photograph' of a child scaling a pyramid in Egypt, and my favourite...
• A star collected during a previous expedition to the moon.

At the start of the afternoon the children were not a team. By the end of it they were highly invested in their own stories; they'd given themselves histories, expertise and credentials. The folders, like many items in mantle work, took on deep significance; while they were only intended to support the children in their work today, I now intend to use them now throughout the mantle as a way to keep a record of the children's work and build up the expert team further.  They have been collected into a box labelled 'Explorers' Profiles' - this box will contribute to the start of our next episode. I'm not sure how yet. 

Anyway, despite my wobbly attempts at twilight role, today felt like a good start to the final mantle of the year. 

Notes:

Four Projections of Role:
Full Role: someone in full role for the whole session. This needs an additional adult in the room to facilitate the session, support behaviour and so on.
Teacher in and out of role: I've used this a lot when alone with a class: the adult switches in and out of role as needed, indicating to the class when this is going to happen.
Secondary role: a role referred to but not present - a role implied or talked about.
Twilight role is where I get into a pickle 

Luke Abbott has written about this here and, using many more words, here.