Then and now, part one.

Finally, finally we seem (I hope) to be Back at School for Good. 

To celebrate this, I am embarking upon a castle-based Mantle with my R/Y1 class. 

It just so happens that the first time I attempted a Mantle, around three years ago, I focussed on the topic of castles with my Year 1 class. This was before any training, going from what I had picked up from the Mantle website and from reading parts of Tim Taylor's brilliant book for beginners. 

As such, my current Mantle offers a marvellous opportunity for reflection, comparison, and other such things. 

I shall start at the beginning. 

Steps in: Then

I didn't actually have any idea of 'steps in' to the fiction three years ago. I began my Mantle with a video my helpful-and-kind man made of himself, dressed as a king, running from a battle. He jumped into shot and spoke to the screen, saying he had lost everything in the battle and needed a crew of people to create a new kingdom for him. He'd pay well. 

The client and the commission, all in one 50-second video. At the time the class, of course, were excited, hooked in and happy to help. We turned ourselves into The Castle Crew that same session.

Steps in: Now

Since that first attempt I have learnt about things like steps in, conventions, the forms of representation and all those Mantley things. 

My client, commission and expert team are pretty much the same as it was three years ago:

Client: Queen Matilda
Commission: To work with her to establish a new kingdom
Team: A group of medieval villagers-turned-castle council.

The difference, however, is in the subtlety with which I am attempting to ease the children into the fiction. The 50-second video approach worked well in terms of the tension (high level) and the interest/enthusiasm levels of the children. What it lacked though (in hindsight, of course) was depth, or any consideration for the continuum of engagement.  The children wanted to participate in the exciting activities... they weren't actually that concerned for the king himself. 

For my current Mantle I have planned several steps in. They will of course be adapted as we go, however they will still end with a Queen asking the children to help her:

Step 1: walking around our local village to establish what a 'village' is and look at its features.
Step 2: wondering what our village would have looked like 1000 years ago. Using images to learn about the features of a medieval village.
Step 3: building a medieval village (we used large wooden blocks with paper on to represent the buildings, see image)
Step 4: Inviting the children to take on a role within the medieval village. This will involve some learning about life in a medieval village. 
Step 5: Inviting the children to draw a representation of themselves onto a pre-prepared map of the village, showing where they live/work.
Step 6: Spending 'a day' as the villagers, carrying out their day-to-day tasks in the village and gradually becoming the villagers. During which:
Step 7: A woman will come to the village. She will tell her story - she is a queen, but she has lost everything. She desperately needs help to re-establish her kingdom. The children will be invited to interact with the woman, finding out more and establishing whether or not the believe her and what they think of her.
Step 8: At the right moment, the queen will invite the villagers to leave their old lives behind and come with her to form her new Council of the Castle. They will be lords, ladies and knights in her new kingdom... if they will follow her. 

When planning steps in, I try as much as I can to think: What will the children be doing? This is something Tim said to me once and it has stuck with me. I have tried to include the three forms of representation in my planned steps in (enactive, iconic and symbolic) and have planned them to develop the children's investment in the story, before they meet the Queen. 

By setting them up as villagers I am hoping that they will feel part of the story we are telling. Additionally, the decision to leave their lives and follow the Queen should - I think - be a harder one with more at stake than when my Year 1 children became 'The Castle Crew' for King Brannagan. 

We are up to Step 4: the children have chosen a role in the village. It quickly became clear to me that there can be no rushing into Step 5 and Step 6: the children are not yet invested in their lives as villagers. I'm going to spend some time with them building this investment, so that when the Queen appears with her invitation, they will have more to think about. 

This evening's task: to work out how to do this.