Performance
Nov. 27th, 2008 05:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
start_to_finishPerformance seems to be a really motivating factor for the children - we've had quite a few different kinds this week.
The school has decided to go in for the BBC Off By Heart competition, so last week's homework was to learn one of the pieces of poetry and we listened to them in Louises Literacy lesson on Wednesday. I was really surprised by the level of effort and participation the kids put in - they know that someone from our class will go forward to the colour area assembly to recite their poem and everyone, even the kids who're normally reluctant, did a really good effort, with expression and actions and in some cases, props! I just wouldn't necessarily have expected them to engage so strongly, but the chance to show it to others obviously seemed to make a difference.
In my literacy lessons, we're working in groups on writing our own anti-bullying play to perform, and again, they've mostly got really engaged with it. The groups are mixed ability so those who find writing difficult can delegate that to other members of the group and let their ideas roam free, which is working really well. There's only one group who've not really knuckled down and got engaged with the task, which over all, I'm quite pleased with - there were two or three that I was keeping an eye on but mostly they're into it, which is great.
The downside is that group work and rehersal are difficult to manage because of noise levels and space. When we have an LSA, I sent one group out to work in the wet area with her support and that made quite a bit of difference in terms of rehersal space but the noise is still quite high just because of the necessary discussion. I think it's partly that this group of children have very high volume by default, but it does feel kind of exhausting, even when most of the talk is on task! I've been reminding them to be considerate of the other people in the room, which does keep it a bit under control, but I don't think it would be easy to do this kind of lesson with children much younger than this.
The school has decided to go in for the BBC Off By Heart competition, so last week's homework was to learn one of the pieces of poetry and we listened to them in Louises Literacy lesson on Wednesday. I was really surprised by the level of effort and participation the kids put in - they know that someone from our class will go forward to the colour area assembly to recite their poem and everyone, even the kids who're normally reluctant, did a really good effort, with expression and actions and in some cases, props! I just wouldn't necessarily have expected them to engage so strongly, but the chance to show it to others obviously seemed to make a difference.
In my literacy lessons, we're working in groups on writing our own anti-bullying play to perform, and again, they've mostly got really engaged with it. The groups are mixed ability so those who find writing difficult can delegate that to other members of the group and let their ideas roam free, which is working really well. There's only one group who've not really knuckled down and got engaged with the task, which over all, I'm quite pleased with - there were two or three that I was keeping an eye on but mostly they're into it, which is great.
The downside is that group work and rehersal are difficult to manage because of noise levels and space. When we have an LSA, I sent one group out to work in the wet area with her support and that made quite a bit of difference in terms of rehersal space but the noise is still quite high just because of the necessary discussion. I think it's partly that this group of children have very high volume by default, but it does feel kind of exhausting, even when most of the talk is on task! I've been reminding them to be considerate of the other people in the room, which does keep it a bit under control, but I don't think it would be easy to do this kind of lesson with children much younger than this.