New words

http://teachlikeachampion.com/blog/syntax-play-trading-ideas-david-didau/

From Isabel Beck’s book Bringing Words to Life, give them the definition and let them play

Instead of saying: “Does anyone know what mimic means?” Say: “To mimic means to imitate someone but in a way that’s sometimes playful and often mean-spirited. Tell me an animal you could mimic easily [and insist they use mimic in the sentence?] Good, when might you get in trouble for mimicking? Good, when might it be ok to mimic someone? How is imitating someone different from mimicking them? Why might someone mimic their little brother or sister. Good, now write me a sentence about a gorilla in a zoo mimicking a person. Go.” Word play, using the word 10 times in various ways, is the way to master vocabulary,

Going ‘SOLO’ with an intro to Gothic Horror

This is going to be messy – but it’s time to make a start.

Today, with huge thanks to The Learning Spy, I tried to get my meagre think-tank around something I had seen bandied about Twitter for some time: SOLO Taxonomy.

Here are the basics of what I’ve read:

PRESTRUCTURAL

 

The student knows nothing about the subject.

STUDENT: I don’t know anything

UNISTRUCTURAL

 

The student knows one thing about the subject. Many students may share their knowledge which will move the group on.

STUDENT: I know one thing.

VERBS: define, label, match, select

FEEDBACK: How could you demonstate ‘multistructural’ knowledge?

MULTISTRUCTURAL

The student knows several things about the subject

STUDENT: I know several things.

VERBS: list, describe, complete,

FEEDBACK: How have you demonstrated ‘multistructural’ knowledge? How could you demonstrate ‘relational’ knowledge?

RELATIONAL

The student can link knowledge to make new ideas

STUDENT: I can find links and connections between the things I know to come up with new ideas.

VERBS: sequence, classify, explain (provide hexagons/triangles), question, analyse, apply, predict

FEEDBACK: How have you demonstrated ‘relational’ knowledge? How could you demonstrate ‘extended abstract’ concepts?

EXTENDED ABSTRACT

The student can apply knowledge in hypothetical ways.

Student: I can go beyond the subject and link my knowledge to other concepts to come up with new ideas (depends on BIG multistructural base of knowledge). I can suggest reasons why…

VERBS: evaluate, justify, generalise, argue, design, construct, perform

FEEDBACK: How have you demonstrated ‘extended abstract’ concepts?

(Images from http://www.amazon.co.uk/SOLO-Taxonomy-Guide-Schools-Bk/dp/192714356X )

EXAMPLES:

• UNISTRUCTURAL – Who is Shakespeare?
• MULTISTRUCTURAL – What did he do and why?
• RELATIONAL – What things did he write about?
• EXTENDED ABSTRACT – Does he influence modern writers?

• UNISTRUCTURAL -What is Macbeth?
• MULTISTRUCTURAL – What do I know about power in Macbeth?
• RELATIONAL – What were the consequences of seeking power?
• EXTENDED ABSTRACT – What can we learn about misguided ambition from this play?

• UNISTRUCTURAL -What is a sentence?
• MULTISTRUCTURAL – What are the different elements of a sentence?
• RELATIONAL – What are the effects of varying the order of those elements?
• EXTENDED ABSTRACT – How can writers use sentence structures to make their work more interesting?

And here is my attempt at the EXTENDED ABSTRACT:

The Thrill of Gothic Horror

A lesson introducing Victorian reactions to the genre

(Fighting back against the annual plethora of ‘Zombie Killer’ stories)

Starter

• The answer: Bats, gravestones, ghosts, arched windows.
• What is the question?

Share objective

• To explore the context of the gothic horror genre

Share outcomes

• I know some features of the gothic horror genre
• I can link the features to events in history and society
• I can generalise on the popularity of the genre at that time.

Multistructural

• Show the Prezi (gothic horror conventions and links to historical and cultural contexts)
• http://prezi.com/r3uavucq2_vh/gothic-horror-intro/?kw=view-r3uavucq2_vh&rc=ref-10776088
• Sts list other features of genre
• Q+As to compose class list: Give me a word. How is that GH? Why would a victorian reader find that unsettling?

Relational

• T models the ‘making links’ game on IWB
• Sts play in groups (weaker sts play in teams, directed by T, on IWB)

Extended Abstract

• Sts create a poster ‘Why the Victorians liked Gothic Horror’.

Sts RAG outcomes and discuss learning.

Do Children want to learn?

The Guardian posed the question ‘Is the curriculum putting students off learning?’ which lead to ‘Do children want to learn?’

Source: http://www.angelamaiers.com

Isn’t it a condition of basic survival that we are created to learn? So, of course children want to learn but, should it be enough that we say ‘You need to know this’ and they sit down and learn it? Isn’t it our job to put them in a situation where they realise they NEED to learn something – other than to pass a test?

I’m new to expressing these ideas but… isn’t the process of learning and wanting to learn cyclic? We use something until we exhaust its possibilities and then we look for something more appropriate/sophisticated which we use until we exhaust it. If a replacement doesn’t exist, we have to be creative and invent it. For example, we use apps until they no longer satisfy our needs when we look for a new one. If the new one doesn’t exist, then (if we know how) we create it – and if we’re lucky, we’re quids-in.

Similarly with punctuation (got a problem mixing semi-colons and 12-year-olds at the moment), we use full stops capital letters until we can do joined up thinking then we need something more and the more our thinking becomes joined up, the broader our need of punctuation.

Maybe I think like this because I raised sons who were very selective and economical with their commitment to school work but quickly learned computer games, musical instruments and software, photography and graphics programs from Youtube, blogs and forums – and books. They needed to learn for a project they’d set themselves (nothing to do with school) – so they learned. And I’m sure this contributed to them becoming more literate young men – building on what teachers had started of course.

I will have to develop this idea further with more joined up thinking, but at the moment it meets my needs. And, although it exposes the limit of my ‘achievement’  in this area, I know where to find it when I feel ready to show ‘progress’.

If you got this far, thanks for reading.