Category: Curriculum

Play With Fire

CurriculumPublished onUpdated on1 Comment on Play With Fire

Gever Tulley is the founder of Tinkering School which allows children the time, space and real tools to make things. In 2009 he spoke about his school at TED.

He has also a book out which intrigued me, titled “Fifty Dangerous Things (you should let your children do)” it sets out to be a “manifesto for kids and parents alike to reclaim childhood.” The accompanying website provides space for people to share their stories about the projects they have completed and to reflect on what happened. That is where I discovered Liz Smith’s comment explaining how she and her boys had completed the Play With Fire task, I thought it expressed so much about learning, parenting and life.

Fire is an awesome thing, it creates and destroys and often simultaneously. My sons Josh and Hooper can often be found hovering around our backyard fire pit testing the power of the flame. Water is a necessity, as is basic safety(no bare feet, long pants, awareness) and we have learned some powerful lessons. Fireplay from a fairly early age-s\’mores were just the beginning- has allowed my sons to be aware, be careful and be adventurous. My eldest, now fifteen, is a certified blacksmith and has constructed a simple traditional forge with his dad in our urban backyard. The nine year old has created primitive pigments and used the blackened ends of sticks to draw and decorate the patio(rain washes it away) and on occasion himself. We have cooked entire primitive meals over this fire pit, and watching the boys experiment with both the heat and the aftermath of fire has been a powerful parenting tool. We have burnt fingers, made holes in pants, and seen what happens when we heat a variety of materials. Being able to be safe and independently explore fire is a necessary skill, it confirms knowledge is safety, and it allows them to hold the power to create objects and light the night skies.

I think I would like to visit Gever’s school one day.

What intrigues me is how the children who take part then go back into normal school life – how has the experience affected them? What new skills do they put to work? Do they see school in a different light? Do they hold on to the “anything is possible” spark when they return home, to school and to learning?

Pale Blue Dot

SciencePublished onUpdated on5 Comments on Pale Blue Dot

This has to be one of my favourite recent pieces of animation. Adam Winnik’s thesis project animates an excerpt from Carl Sagan‘s book “Pale Blue Dot” read by the author himself.

I’ve been enrolled in illustration at Sheridan College for the the last 4 years and this is my final thesis project. I have always thought of Carl Sagan’s writings as “scientific poetry” since they lack the cold touch that science is often cursed for having. I think Sagan’s words resonate more than ever, and will continue with each generation until the human species “wakes up”. The first time I heard this excerpt from his book “Pale Blue Dot” it literally changed my life, and I hope it does for you too. Enjoy.

I think Adam has struck a fantastic balance between the Hans Zimmer soundtrack, the tone of Sagan’s voice and his own playful animation of the words. What do you think?

Are Online Behaviours Affecting Reading Skills?

Curriculum, Google, LiteracyPublished onUpdated on4 Comments on Are Online Behaviours Affecting Reading Skills?

In my final weeks of school our class had our usual Tuesday afternoon guided reading session, where we get the opportunity to work on some reading text with a small group of children. One particular comment from a pupil has stuck in my mind, so I thought I would share some of my reflections with you.

Whilst exploring a text we came across a particular word that became the focus of our attention. Although the group had no problem reading and pronouncing it they didn’t know what it meant. I aimed to set the children off exploring the definition from the information we could acquire from the sentence and the text overall, we may have even cracked open a dictionary or two…

“We could just Google it!”

As you can see the comment from one of the group stuck in my mind for a number of reasons. Firstly it indicated to me how much web searching had become part of how these 9 and 10 years olds process the information they see in the world. The concept of search applies to so much around them and the need for a better understanding of how we instruct and guide our classes to filter what they find, has never been so more acute.

Equally the appropriateness of using different tools is a key part of navigating the learning landscape, indeed one of the most difficult aspects is helping young learners make better decisions regarding the tools they use.

Of course I was not surprised by this comment after all many of the children have Kindles and the latest model has a full Oxford English Dictionary available on it. The children simply have to move a cursor and the definition will be displayed on the screen at the bottom. I remember writing lists of words I didn’t know from texts during my English degree and finding out later.

The immediacy of information and indeed the expectation for it is all to clear. We expect results, definitions and answers faster nowadays and so do the children in our classes. The question is what are we doing about it?


Googledictionaryplugin

Within the browser too you have access to dictionary tools to help when you are reading online. I use Google Chrome’s extension which allows you to double-click a word and a little pop-up dictionary definition appears. I use this loads – no more written lists of vocabulary for me!

Another reason the comment struck a chord with me is how the decision to Google a word comes ahead of trying to establsish meaning from reading skills, such as reading into the context and exploring the sentence further. Of course, this one comment should not be over played. However in my opinion it does hint at the ways children are thinking about processing the information, from reading material or otherwise, we work with everyday.

I am of course an advocate for the appropriate use of technology, where it can transform learning and add value – and in this instance it is not a “this skill replaces that skill” scenario but an opportunity to reflect on the ways we can enhance what we do and take advantage of ideas children have.

To answer my own question in the title, yes they are in a broadly positive way, but especially children in primary school or elementary need support and guidance to help them filter the information they search. They need contextualised examples and ongoing references to the ways we search and use information tools – I think this is a pivotal aspect of teaching and can only become more acute in the coming years.

 

Paraphernalia – a short animation to use in Literacy

Curriculum, LiteracyPublished onUpdated on10 Comments on Paraphernalia – a short animation to use in Literacy

The other night I had a little whirlwind session exploring content on Vimeo and discovered some fantastic pieces of work, including this lovely short animation called Paraphernalia. It is a 3rd year film made by Sabrina Cotungo who is studying at The California Institute of the Arts – however her film was made at Gobelins, l’école de l’image in Paris.

Sabrina Cotungo describes her film as

The story of an anemic little recluse of a girl who makes a friend at the expense of her ceiling.

 

Paraphernalia from Sabrina Cotugno on Vimeo.

What strikes me about the little story is the openings it presents for a class to explore in terms of their narrative literacy unit, the questions that could be asked about the plot and the characters.

  • Why is she all alone?
  • Where are her family?
  • Where was the gentleman heading?
  • Why did he crash?
  • Why had he invented such a wonderful flying machine?

Also a class could spend time working on the dialogue that takes place between our characters. It is conveniently silent and we might encourage our pupils to explain the emotions we see on their faces, to play these scenes out in some drama and then to perhaps develop the written dialogue.

What do you like about the film and how do you see it being used with your classes?

Oil’d – How Could Our Pupils Make an Animation Like This?

Curriculum, Literacy, SciencePublished onUpdated onLeave a Comment on Oil’d – How Could Our Pupils Make an Animation Like This?

I’m fascinated by the representation of data using infographics. I like their bold visual approach and how the style and composition signals the content it is communicating.

Chris Harmon a designer and animator from the Greater New York City area created this beautiful and thought provoking animation called Oil’d. It explores how dependent we are to oil and how much was lost into the ocean from the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.

Oil’d from Chris Harmon on Vimeo.

Just from the presentation of information about the oil spill we could go in many different directions with our classes.

  • Exploring he sources of information used
  • Verifying the accuracy of the data included in the film

However if we unpick the animation layer by layer we get a much better idea of the great skill with which Chris used to complete it. Wouldn’t it be great to have Chris in front of a class of students explaining how he went about creating the animation, the stages of planning and execution.

For me there are many elements and skills that would on their own make excellent projects for children to explore and be engaged in:

Data
The maths involved in comparing and cross referencing the data, and what so many good infographic do the data-metaphor, juxtaposing information against something we find easy to refer to. For example the number of plastic bottles inside the Empire State Building, which we know is big!

Authentic information and research
Finding accurate information and data would be another important skill that would challenge a student to create something equally authentic and meaningful. We have the tools with which to find huge amounts of information and data but we need to know how to filter it. I don’t think teaching children how to search is enough, that is the first step, it is how we then process that information that needs time to be demonstrated and improved.

Persuasion
With my literacy hat on this animation pushes us to consider the impact of oil on our lives and has a strong persuasive message. The art of persuasive writing and in this case the careful scripting would be great to develop in this sort of medium, perhaps about a local issue.

Animation
The artwork and animation are obviously professional, but there is much to explore about the use of colour to convey meaning and an overall message. The colour schemes remind me of the Breathing Earth which also depicts an environmental message. It would be good for children to explore symbols and how we might convey a message in a visual way – a comparison type task would fit well here.

I think this animation is a great example of the sort of cross-curricular, multi-skill outcome that should be challenging our pupils in our schools. Making an animated infographic film about a local issue would cover so much. Furthermore if you had the opportunity to involve expertise, like Chris Harmon’s, it would provide that spark that would spur such a project onwards even further.