Dramatic Inquiry and Home Learning
Drama NZ webinar with Dr Viv Aitken
As some know, I'm a bit of a true fan of Viv's and of Mantle of the Expert. I learn from her, get all inspired and enthused then these treasures fade to the background as day to day life tasks seem to takes over my time and energy. It was great to have the opportunity to connect with her again at this time, revisit this amazing learning and spark some thinking - and action!
Viv has been working with teachers from Hillcrest Normal School. Questions they have asked themselves during this period of home learning:
What are our new assumptions?
-'at home' means something different for every child
-we're creating IEPs for every child
-we are trying to be equitable
-Learning from home is already happening (with whānau etc.)
-we need to be flexible - moving from Level 4 to Level 3...how long? then what?
What do children need in times of uncertainty?
-we need to learn from whānau
-connection to natural world
-creativity to provide escape from everyday world
-remember we are manuhiri in our students' homes.
How can we create learning experiences that encompass this?
Dramatic Inquiry - inquire and solve problems in the safety of imagined worlds.
Think about what we value in this type of teaching - which is usually face to face (creativity, open ended-ness, redistribution of power, opportunities for all to participate...) and how might we facilitate this during this time of home learning?
1. Support Play - Child-structured, socio-dramatic play (which can include projected play i.e. with lego, puppets etc.)
Play where adults are not leading - just responding, clarifying, extending language. This play is developmentally important to children up to the age of around 14 year old. Children need to play in order to make sense of what is happening in the world. At this time, it also gives them opportunities to 'revisit the normal'.
In some of our students' IEPs - this might be what many of our children need.
What will we need to ask of our whānau to support play?
2. Drama for learning - a bit of structure around the play - i.e. an imagined context, problem...
Consider a task you may have recently assigned - how can we turn it into drama? Two questions -
Who would need this knowledge in the real world? Who would they help/be doing it for?
For instance - children have been assigned a task about creating boats that float. Reframe addressing the above questions: You are a boat designer - a customer want to understand how boats made of heavy materials like metal float.
Or a task requiring children to make an observational drawing of a bug in their backyard - You are a scientist/entomologist who draws bugs, we need a detailed drawing of a bug that lives in the area you live for a book being made...
3. Storydrama - look for opportunities in stories which allow for us to pause and use as a springboard for possibilities to play (probably not the end of a chapter).
See image -example from Hillcrest Normal School
Viv did note this was a Eurocentric example (she'd recently been to Anne Milne webinar so thinking and reminding us about being aware of 'white spaces' in our education.)
Viv also mentioned that Padlet was the one new tool/app that this school had decided to introduce at this time and support kids/families to use to share learning.
4. Cross Curricular Adventures - Mantle of the Expert - as inspired by Explore More
Viv outlined (and will share with us) a unit her and a colleague created in this format which has apparently been a massive hit with learners - based around Richard Henry and his dog Lassie. Their 'why' was to get children outside and to give them a buddy (their imagined dog).
She talked about how when learning at home - children can respond in their own time and according to their interest level. This is an exciting concept to build on - genuine 'flipped' learning? - while we don't have our 'everyday school' - reading and writing and assessment etc.
A challenge left for us - and a next step for me (my action) - was to think of a context that could be explored at home via this type of learning. We can use/innovate on the format Tim and co use in Explore More (well worth checking out). I'm also going to challenge myself to design Seesaw activities that incorporate Drama for Learning.
There's a second webinar coming up looking at designing the cross-curricular adventures. Yay.
As some know, I'm a bit of a true fan of Viv's and of Mantle of the Expert. I learn from her, get all inspired and enthused then these treasures fade to the background as day to day life tasks seem to takes over my time and energy. It was great to have the opportunity to connect with her again at this time, revisit this amazing learning and spark some thinking - and action!
Viv has been working with teachers from Hillcrest Normal School. Questions they have asked themselves during this period of home learning:
What are our new assumptions?
-'at home' means something different for every child
-we're creating IEPs for every child
-we are trying to be equitable
-Learning from home is already happening (with whānau etc.)
-we need to be flexible - moving from Level 4 to Level 3...how long? then what?
What do children need in times of uncertainty?
-we need to learn from whānau
-connection to natural world
-creativity to provide escape from everyday world
-remember we are manuhiri in our students' homes.
How can we create learning experiences that encompass this?
Dramatic Inquiry - inquire and solve problems in the safety of imagined worlds.
Think about what we value in this type of teaching - which is usually face to face (creativity, open ended-ness, redistribution of power, opportunities for all to participate...) and how might we facilitate this during this time of home learning?
1. Support Play - Child-structured, socio-dramatic play (which can include projected play i.e. with lego, puppets etc.)
Play where adults are not leading - just responding, clarifying, extending language. This play is developmentally important to children up to the age of around 14 year old. Children need to play in order to make sense of what is happening in the world. At this time, it also gives them opportunities to 'revisit the normal'.
In some of our students' IEPs - this might be what many of our children need.
What will we need to ask of our whānau to support play?
2. Drama for learning - a bit of structure around the play - i.e. an imagined context, problem...
Consider a task you may have recently assigned - how can we turn it into drama? Two questions -
Who would need this knowledge in the real world? Who would they help/be doing it for?
For instance - children have been assigned a task about creating boats that float. Reframe addressing the above questions: You are a boat designer - a customer want to understand how boats made of heavy materials like metal float.
Or a task requiring children to make an observational drawing of a bug in their backyard - You are a scientist/entomologist who draws bugs, we need a detailed drawing of a bug that lives in the area you live for a book being made...
3. Storydrama - look for opportunities in stories which allow for us to pause and use as a springboard for possibilities to play (probably not the end of a chapter).
See image -example from Hillcrest Normal School
Viv did note this was a Eurocentric example (she'd recently been to Anne Milne webinar so thinking and reminding us about being aware of 'white spaces' in our education.)
Viv also mentioned that Padlet was the one new tool/app that this school had decided to introduce at this time and support kids/families to use to share learning.
4. Cross Curricular Adventures - Mantle of the Expert - as inspired by Explore More
Viv outlined (and will share with us) a unit her and a colleague created in this format which has apparently been a massive hit with learners - based around Richard Henry and his dog Lassie. Their 'why' was to get children outside and to give them a buddy (their imagined dog).
 |
| An example from Viv and her colleague's unit. |
A challenge left for us - and a next step for me (my action) - was to think of a context that could be explored at home via this type of learning. We can use/innovate on the format Tim and co use in Explore More (well worth checking out). I'm also going to challenge myself to design Seesaw activities that incorporate Drama for Learning.
There's a second webinar coming up looking at designing the cross-curricular adventures. Yay.
I think those questions are really helpful...
ReplyDelete"Who would need this information?" and "What would they need it for?" They are really powerful. It's exciting to hear how this way of teaching puts the kids in the "tractor seat" to borrow an analogy from Webly Ings!!! Thanks for the links about Mantle of the Expert.
I love taking read-aloud books and doing some process drama with kids in the classroom, sometimes adding in some music too. But this way of teaching seems like it really releases the kids creativity and solving problem skills and lets them respond to a story / idea in lots of different ways. Open tasks that allow us to value what the kids bring. Exciting stuff.
I wish I had a natural talent to use drama and music in my lessons. I remember the day (at PES) that came to the realisation that I will actively have to change my facial expressions and my voice to get the students engaged. Turn into a bit of a clown. When I started doing that, behaviour in my class changed drastically. The kids were hooked. Drama and Music are such powerful tools. You got me hooked on the Flipped Classroom. Will be researching that for myself. I don't want learning to be boring at home, and the longer we are in lock down, the more it becomes boring if we do the same old same old. Thank you for your post, it made me think...
ReplyDelete