For anyone new to this blog, the idea is simple - each day my boys (Joshua - 9 and Archie - 8) choose a stimulus that drives the learning. We hope that you enjoy the blog and can take some inspiration from what we love doing - making learning as engaging as possible!
Performance
One of the joys of working with the Talk for Writing training centres is that I get to see some amazingly innovative teaching. Last year, I was lucky enough to see some performance poetry from the amazing children at Selby Community Primary School. This is such a fantastic celebration of words through performance and music that I had to bring it back to my own school, Warren Road. Having implemented it and seen the impact, this was something I wanted to explore with the boys.
English
Poetry - performance
Reading with expression and meaning
We began the day by reading a host of poems and talking about what we liked about each. In some cases, we also talked about what we did not like and the reasons why. I wanted the boys to know that it is ok not to like something. Just because one person thinks it is brilliant, does not mean we will always share that opinion.
Having talked through some amazing poems, the boys were given the task of finding a poem they liked and that meant something to them. Both boys immediately tuned into their interests and passions; Joshua: wizardry (in this case secrets) and Archie: sport.
Having chosen their poems, we read them and discussed them in depth, ensuring that they knew the underlying theme and meaning, as well as the writerly techniques. We then practised reading them aloud, recorded them, chose images, sounds and music.
Secret by John Agard
Ten One-Line Poems about Sport by Ian McMillan
We are so thankful to those of you who have inundated us with stimulus requests. We have made a list and will do our best to explore as many as we can. On Monday, we shall be using the following stimulus:
Feelings & Emotions
My thanks to Pie Corbett, Julia Strong and the Talk for Writing team for inspiring many of the ideas explored in this blog.
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