They report that:

Examples of good practice encouraged pupils to make connections across traditional subject boundaries and to respond imaginatively to technology as a resource. This extended and reinforced pupils’ development as creative learners. The following example comes from one of the primary schools visited. Here an understanding of the choices made and techniques used in film-making enabled pupils to be analytical, collaborative and imaginative.

A snapshot of the lesson is then cited:

From criticism to creation

A Year 2 teacher combined reading and writing with other approaches to interpretation, evaluation and presentation. He encouraged pupils to make connections, ask questions and reflect critically on ideas and actions. He had chosen a Japanese film, My Neighbour Totoro, as the stimulus for learning, splitting the film into sections to study different aspects of the story. This session came as the culmination of work with pupils through which they had learnt to analyse film from the different standpoints of setting, sound, action and language. Discussion at the start of the session demonstrated that the pupils had a good understanding of these categories.

Each pupil was given a small whiteboard with the different categories as headings. During the first showing of the film clip, the teacher helped pupils identify key moments for focusing on the areas for analysis. During the second showing, pupils used the whiteboards to record their own responses across any categories they chose. They discussed their observations and evaluations, showing considerable knowledge and an ability to challenge each other constructively. They not only questioned and challenged each other’s responses to the clip ‘as film’; they showed curiosity and imagination in exploring the culture and assumptions that had shaped the film.

Finally, each pupil wrote an ending for the story they had been watching. The writing was highly imaginative, with a strong sense of place and, in many cases, a sophisticated vocabulary and range of expression.

Famous at last… in an anonymous fashion!

In Orange Class we’ve been doing quite a bit of work based around the story of Joseph and his Coat of Many Colours, which included making our own coat of many colours and watching the DVD production of the musical show. The children really enjoyed experiencing the story through music and quickly started to learn most of the lyrics – quite a interesting way of developing comprehension skills don’t you think?

Last week we went to see the touring production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat starring Craig Chalmers at Whitley Bay Playhouse. We were sat on one side of the theatre surrounded by mainly secondary school children and adults.  I thought our children may have been too young to appreciate the show fully but never in my whole career have I seen children so happily engrossed in anything. There were smiles, cheers, claps and general excitement throughout. The best part for me was the megamix finale where every child stood up and started cheering and dancing (for a full ten minutes) -it was such a strange sight seeing one group of children dancing away while the rest of the audience sat down. It really made my year to see them so happy.

A few people have asked me to post some information about the Doctor Who work my class completed last week. It was planned with the aim of beginning to engage some of the learners who had negative attitudes towards literacy. I’ve always found using the children’s own popular culture in the curriculum to be an effective way to make them realise that literacy is relevant to their own lives. This isn’t a new idea of course – you just have to read some of the work of Anne Haas Dyson, Elaine Millard and Jackie Marsh (among others) to understand the importance of popular culture in the curriculum.

I chose Doctor Who because I knew a large proportion of my class were immersed in the world of the Doctor and his travels in the TARDIS. I wanted the children to see how they can be part of imaginative worlds and that their stories can extend beyond going to the cinema, supermarket and to their friend’s house for tea. I therefore decided to edit the Doctor Who main titles to include the names of the Year 2 classes (see above). The video features the Doctor and Martha Jones as they set off on a new adventure – I designed it so the children think about what happens next. It was an instant hit after the initial surprise of actually seeing Doctor Who appear on our interactive whiteboard. The video hooked them in and we were ready to move onto the next activity – drama. I set the scene by explaining that imagination is important when creating new stories (even with familiar characters). The children then had to imagine that our data projector (suspended from the ceiling) was actually an alien spacecraft – the results were fantastic. Children’s worlds of popular culture from home, the playground and school were fused together to create a stimulating activity.

The next stage involved the children creating character profiles and their own versions of the stories. We had much more imaginative ideas that usual with most children choosing to incorporate other characters and settings that we did not discuss in any of our lessons. I embrace this – letting children control writing as a craft to communicate their own ideas is something that I believe should be valued and cherished.

Thank you to everybody who sent really great feedback about the Brer Rabbit critical literacy project I really appreciate it. I’ve also heard that it was being talked about at the Decatur Book Festival after The Wren’s Nest (the birth place museum of Joel Chandler Harris in the USA) picked up on the project. All of this really helps raise the awareness of critical literacy with real-world texts.

As soon as the Brer Rabbit project was over I started to think about other big projects that I could build into our curriculum.  This blog post brings together some of my threads of thought for the new project.

I’ve been a huge fan of Studio Ghibli after using My Neighbour Totoro last year and seeing it completely change my class’s attitude towards literacy and learning. I’ve therefore followed the release of the new Studio Ghibli production Ponyo: On a Cliff by the Sea with great interest:

I had every intention of using the film in class but knew that an extended project with real world application would give the project greater depth and be much more beneficial to the children. I immediately began searching for a real-life Cliff by the Sea and by complete coincidence had a conversation with Kate Pahl about museum outreach work and a contact she has at Robin Hood’s Bay. Robin Hood’s Bay is a charming fishing village – on a cliff by the sea and is a perfect setting for inspiring the children and imagining new stories (just look at the picture at the top of this post). It’s perfect for a local study, so for the first time I am able to bring geography skills into one of our critical literacy projects. I also want to bring non-fiction digital literacy skills into the project too but I am currently developing the area further. It will all lead to the creation of a film both in virtual locations created by the children and in the real-world such as Robin Hood’s Bay.

I’ll post more about this project as the planning progresses… bon voyage!

It’s the last week of the summer holidays! I currently feel like the only teacher in the world who is looking forward to returning to work.  I’m very excited about what the new academic year will bring. Not only am I looking forward to working with Orange Class on the new Ratatouille and Cliff by the Sea projects (more info soon) but I’m also really excited about starting the new MA in New Literacies at the University of Sheffield in October. I’m not sure how I’m going to manage working as a teacher and studying at the same time but I am going to make sure I enjoy it.

I’ve also rejoined the gym today, after months of threatening, and hope that the extra activity will keep me more active both mentally and physically.

I also hope to continue to post regularly on this blog as the year progresses but as my workload increases it may become less frequent, especially with the imminent arrival of Ofsted.

A few months ago I recieved an email asking if I would be interested in visiting Futurelab to discuss the use of digital literacies in the primary classroom.  For those of you who haven’t heard of Futurelab (you should have!) it’s an independent non-for-profit organisation interested in transforming how people learn through innovative practices mostly with digital technologies. They’ve developed a range of projects including the recent Beyond Current Horizons and Enquiring Minds projects – both of which are well worth a read.

Futurelab is a really cool place to be (that’s the best word to describe it I think). I was invited to discuss the Digital Pariticaption project with Cassie Hague and Sarah Payton. I had a brilliant day talking with Cassie and Sarah about digital literacies, critical literacies, then moving onto multiliteracies and its importance for the current educational context. It was great to speak with two likeminded people about issues that are really important to me. They were also excellent hosts and really made me feel welcome, especially with an amazing lunch. I’m really looking forward to hearing more about this project when data is collected and keeping in touch with Cassie and Sarah via Twitter.

If you haven’t read any of Futurelab’s work, you should…

http://www.futurelab.org.uk

The paper explores some of the work that Orange Class has completed over the past year in relation to film making, animation as a critical practice and the use of Twitter as a means of evaluation and reflection. All of the examples are linked to the work of key literacy figures and call upon theories of multiliteracies, multimodality, critical literacy and popular culture.

DOWNLOAD THE PAPER

Today was the last day of day of term… I don’t know how I feel. Everybody around me seems to be celebrating the end of the school year and the start of summer. I can’t.

I have had the most incredible year with my class, we have done so much, achieved so much and made so much progress. We’ve made films, learned about Japanese animations, made ‘qakamoly’ and shared our learning with people around the world throughh Twitter. I’ve tried to make their learning, exciting and relevant. I hope I succeeded.

We’ve had a lovely last day but now it’s all come to an end. I got some lovely messages from children and parents that I will keep forever. I wish them the best of luck for the future and I hope our paths cross again. It has been brilliant… it’s a shame it’s had to end.

Last night I spoke in front of parents and children at a local authority event… it was the most challenging talk I have ever done. After initial nerves (and a lot of them) I am told that I calmed down and relaxed!

I’m now on the train to London’s Kings Cross en route to Greenwich for the UKLA International Conference. I’ve really been looking forward to meeting with friends at UKLA and hopefully making many more. For anyone who is at the conference I will be speaking as part of a symposium on Friday afternoon… hope to see you there!

 I haven’t had much time recently to do any work on the Multiliteracies Learning Initiative. The website is getting a considerable amount of daily traffic so I feel the need to add to the content.

I’m really lucky to have so many great people willing to work as part of the teacher group and as critical friends.  I think over the next few months we will be able to do some fantastic work.

Above is the new logo for the ‘MLI’ – I prefer it so much more than the old identity. Hopefully I’ll get round to doing some work on the website soon and updating that too.