It has been (as it always is) a tiring start to the new school year. Each September a new class of small children comes back from six weeks off to meet a teacher who has come back from six weeks off, and we have to turn ourselves into a functioning class.
And, as with any group of new-to-eachother five-to-seven-year-old children, my class have trouble getting along. They particularly have trouble working with a partner, or as part of a team. They have trouble listening to each other, taking others' ideas on board, and generally taking turns.
I was therefore pleased the other day when some visiting teachers commented on how well the children in my class worked together, what good speaking and listening skills they demonstrated and what a purposeful atmosphere there was in the class.
The reason for this apparently overnight transformation was one small, sad bog baby.
My year one children (two thirds of my class) are new to mantle. They've participated in maybe 2-3 sessions where I have invited them to step into the story, but they have just taken to it so well. Our current mantle story revolves around the story 'The Bog Baby' but Jeanne Willis; the children have been made aware of a pond of bog babies which they are working to protect as the Society for the Protection of Bog Babies. Unfortunately, when they build a protective fence around the pond, one small bog baby was left shut out of its habitat.
The session went something like this:
1. I had an photograph on the board of a woodland pond, with some images of bog babies edited onto it.
2. The children started coming in from break time and quickly noticed the board. They started talking about how many bog babies they could see.
3. Once they had settled into their places, I started drawing a fence around the pond (representing the pond fence they had built in the story). This prompted them to start talking about the fence.
(Watching a drawing in the making is a useful convention for quietly drawing children into the story. For more on conventions see this article)
4. Then I said someting like - 'but there is a problem...'
5. I drew a pile of leaves outside of the fence, with a blue tail sticking out of it. After a bit of discussion the children identified that it was a bog baby.
6. I said something like: when we built the fence, one of the bog babies was on the wrong side!
7. We discussed the implications of this. Then I asked whether it might be helpful to step into the story and have a look at the bog baby. The children (naturally) agreed.
8. I marked out a drama square with masking tape. I invited a child to represent the bog baby, but before he did so we made some agreements about how we would behave around the bog baby (such as... no one should touch it, and we should be very quiet)
9. The chosen child curled up in the drama square and I covered him with pre-prepared paper leaves.
10. The children discussed what they noticed, saying things such as:
He's not moving!
I can see his eyes. They're open.
The leaves probably fell from a tree 'cause it's autumn.
He needs to go back in the pond.
11. After discussing ideas, I handed out paper and pens and asked children to share their ideas about the bog baby.
... which is where the magic of mantle happened. Usually, given an activity to do in pairs or groups, there would be discussions and arguments about who would get the pens, whose turn it was to write, who was going to work with whom.... and many other things.
Not today. Today the children quickly settled into their pairs (not pre-planned - I just handed out paper and off they went) and talked only about the bog baby problem. Not about the upcoming birthday parties at the weekend (which had been a huge topic of discussion preiously), not about their favourite football player... only about the bog baby.
The thing with Mantle of the Expert is that it gives children a common purpose - something for them to work on together, a shared concern. And my class really were concerned about this bog baby.
12. We gathered together to share ideas, and from there I will do a bit of teaching about the needs of living things, what an ampibian is, and/or how to decide whether the bog baby is living or dead.
Considering how early on in the year we are, and how few mantle sessions my year one children have taken part in, and how many teachers were in to see us at work, I was frankly relieved at how well the session went.
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