Literacy shed

An amazing link to stimulate discussion/creative writing/themes with added prompt questions - great for starters or plenaries...
http://www.literacyshed.com/

The dramatic impact that learning through talk can have on our students...

A useful blog link for how to teach a novel...

http://howtoteachanovel.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/six-ways-to-improve-close-readings.html

Teaching a prose text

After our session on 27th November, you will hopefully have an understanding of the ways in which we can deliver prose texts to our students.  Here is an overview of the main pedagogical approaches we encountered in the session:

Carousel - set 'stations' up around the room with a varied range of stimuli that link to one, some, or all of the key areas: themes, characters, language/structure analysis, social context and the writer's intentions.

Silent debate - students work in silence to answer questions/respond to stimulus on A3 sheets whilst you tour around to extend through writing questions.  When they move to the next station, they need to extend/question each others' comments.

Use music, poetry, images or other pieces of linked literature to give the students an idea of the 'bigger picture' of the text.

Use exemplar writing to show what the skills or assessment objectives look like in reality.

Use A3 grids/graphic organisers to act as an ongoing record of their close analysis of key sections.  Create your own version for each chapter/section and use this for the students to reflect upon their own notes at key moments in the scheme of work.

Inspiring ways of teaching drama

Doing the Right Thing - introduction to key moral issues in An Inspector Calls

This is a multiple choice activity to get you thinking about the moral choices we all have and whether there is a right and a wrong way to act.

·   Alone, circle the action you would take in each of these situations. Then talk in a

small group about the following:

-   is there is a right or a wrong thing to do in each situation?

-   are there situations where it would be difficult for you to do the right thing?

·   When you have finished your discussion, feedback as a whole class on the issue of whether or not people in a community have any responsibility for each other.

1.  You see two primary aged children shoving another child against the wall. A fight

is obviously going to begin. Do you:

a)   Ignore them because you don't know what has been going on

b)   Go up to them and try to stop the fight before it starts

c)   Tell an adult that you think a young child is about to get beaten up

2.  Someone who doesn't speak English gets on the bus and tries to ask the bus driver if the bus goes to the hospital. The bus driver is impatient and can't be bothered to make the effort to understand. Do you:

a)   Push past the person, show your pass and get on

b)   Tell the bus driver that the person wants the hospital

c)   Speak to the person and reassure them that this is the right bus for the hospital

3.  An old person falls down in the street. Do you:

a)   Pass by because you are in a hurry

b)   Rush to help them

c)   Slow down so that someone else will help them first

4.  There is a bottle bank near where you live but no one in your family uses it. Do you:

a)   Think nothing of it because one family’s bottles won't make any difference

b)   Put a box in the kitchen and tell everyone to put the empty bottles in it

c)   Tell your family that you'll take bottles to the bank each week in return for not doing the washing up

5.  A beggar asks you for money outside the station. Do you:

a)   Ignore them because you disapprove of begging

b)   Apologise for having no change

c)   Pass by because you are in a hurry

d) give them money

6.  Your class is involved in raising money for a charity. Some class members openly

take some of the money for themselves. Do you:

a)   Do nothing

b)   Try to persuade them to put it back

c)   Tell an adult in the hope that it will be dealt with by them