Popping in...

On Tuesday 16th, we visited Year 6 again to feedback what we had gathered from our last visit. We discussed what they had told us about writing and that we planned to change the negatives into positives and really try to change the way they felt about writing. The class seemed excited at the prospect of a new way of teaching and learning, and we can only hope that we keep that excitement going.

We also delivered new gifts into the classroom; a pack of literacy games filled with short, snappy starters or filler games that encourage vocabulary development, grammar skills or imagination. A set of word mats that are bursting with explanations on punctuation, grammar and prefix's and suffix's, as well as a range of connectives and tricky 'wow words'. We feel that both these resources will really benefit the children and their writing in the long run, here is hoping they get a lot of use out of them!

Furthermore we asked for their updates on how their Magpie Books and reading books were going. We were very pleased to find that both were being used brilliantly, and the vast majority of children had their Magpie Books covered and slowly filling up with insightful and interesting ideas. The reading books are going just as well as we had hoped, with most of the class having read at least one book already.

However, as we had predicted the children seemed to struggle to discuss the books in a useful and knowledgeable way. Because we had anticipated this, Emi and I had prepared a short role-play on 'book talk', to give the class a feel for how it is done. We quickly discussed the classes current fiction text 'Kensuke's Kingdom', considering our favourite parts of the story and what made those parts so engaging, speculating what might happen next, as well as contemplating on how we might feel if we were the main character. We then set the class off to discuss (hopefully in the same manner as we did) one of the reading books they had read, giving their opinion as to whether it should be recommended or not. This was a really useful activity for us too, as we were able to find out what genre of books seemed to be the most popular and therefore, try to find some more for the class (comics).

The principles of 'book talk' can encourage children's deduction, inference and awareness of text-types, whilst also fostering a love of books. For us to understand the main issues and themes of a text we need to be able to discuss them (Bunting et al., 2005). Debating ideas in a text promotes children's critical responses and allows us to questions how a writer has made us feel and how we can do the same in our own writing (ibid). In this sense, no matter in what context we write, we are always borrowing the bits of books we have read (Booth, 2001).

Although only a short visit, we really enjoyed seeing how the class was getting on and seeing our small introductions flourish and begin to impact upon the group. We have high expectations of this project and we hope to fulfil them!

Here are a few of the decorated 'Magpie Books' given with permission from their owners. We were extremely pleased to see that the majority of the class wanted to have their book photographed and to show-off what they had done.

"He who has imagination without learning, has wings and no feet."

Joseph Joubert

(http://www.inspirational-quotes.info/imagination.html Accessed 21/10/2012)

I noticed this quote and it made me think about the relationship between imagination and learning. In a seminar the other week, me and the cohort had a debate as to whether imagination is a skill or not. I believe it is, as it's something that is grown and developed over time. Yet, the lecturer raised a valid point, that most very young children have an imagination of their own. Maybe it's a gift, that if lost, must be relearned, and strengthened through practise and use. 

In relation to this project I think this debate is a useful one, the class teacher mentioned to us on our first visit that his class, although a young Year 6, were lacking in imagination. This was evident in one of our literacy games, 'Excuses'. We asked the class to finish the sentence 'I was late for school because...' to be completed with the most ludicrous and unbelievable excuse they could think of. Thus, demonstrating their creativity and imagination. 

Some found the task easy and were able to really get going, yet others struggled to extend their ideas or even begin. I believe that this is going to be one hurdle we might struggle with. If imagination is a skill to be learnt, do we have the time or chance to develop it? And what if we don't? How can we expect their writing and feelings towards writing to improve if they don't have one of the corner stones of writing?Looks like this is a debate that needs to be continued... (Rosie)