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Assemblies
Jun. 5th, 2009 09:51 pmSo I have now had the opportunity to do two assemblies! Last term, I took the KS1 assembly that our class teacher was down for, which was fairly straight forward. We were thinking about friendship that term and so I took in Best Friends or Not and we talked about what a best friend should do and what a best friend doesn't have to do, which worked really quite well.
This week was a different kettle of fish though - this week was our class assembly. Not only that, but as we had an inset day on Monday, I only had 3 days to prepare a class of fractious five year olds! I had talked about what the theme might be and what sort of work we might include before we'd headed off for half term on Friday and then I'd gone away and done all the lesson plans and so on. Tuesday we did the work and I selected some and wrote the script. Wednesday we did a rehersal and they took them home to learn their lines and loose them. Thursday was more practicing and trying to get in some actual non-assembly related learning as well and then today was the big day!
It actually didn't go off as badly as I though it was going to. In front of the school, the restlessness and fractiousness was kept well under control and they were much better at coming in on their cues. They did miss out a bit in the middle though, which left it rather short!
In retrospect (and if I'd had more time) I would have given each of them cards with their lines on and their cue line rather than the whole script as it would have meant less rustling. Bit trickier for those who had more than one thing to say, but overall better, I think. If it hadn't been the start of term, it would have been better to do the work one week and then use that to create an assembly that you'd rehearse next week - it would have been less rushed that way and there would have been more opportunities to create work and then get it illustrated and so on. I'm so glad that's over with now!
I can see that it's nice for the kids to get to show all their work in front of the school, but what ended up happening was that I felt like I didn't actually teach them much this week because it was all assembly work, which is not desparately exciting for them. With the best will in the world, rehersing is pretty dull when you've said your bit and you've got to wait for everyone else to have their say - they just can't do it quietly. Still, the parents seemed to like it and I guess when they're five people just like to see them get up and say something charming - doesn't have to be very sophisticated!
This week was a different kettle of fish though - this week was our class assembly. Not only that, but as we had an inset day on Monday, I only had 3 days to prepare a class of fractious five year olds! I had talked about what the theme might be and what sort of work we might include before we'd headed off for half term on Friday and then I'd gone away and done all the lesson plans and so on. Tuesday we did the work and I selected some and wrote the script. Wednesday we did a rehersal and they took them home to learn their lines and loose them. Thursday was more practicing and trying to get in some actual non-assembly related learning as well and then today was the big day!
It actually didn't go off as badly as I though it was going to. In front of the school, the restlessness and fractiousness was kept well under control and they were much better at coming in on their cues. They did miss out a bit in the middle though, which left it rather short!
In retrospect (and if I'd had more time) I would have given each of them cards with their lines on and their cue line rather than the whole script as it would have meant less rustling. Bit trickier for those who had more than one thing to say, but overall better, I think. If it hadn't been the start of term, it would have been better to do the work one week and then use that to create an assembly that you'd rehearse next week - it would have been less rushed that way and there would have been more opportunities to create work and then get it illustrated and so on. I'm so glad that's over with now!
I can see that it's nice for the kids to get to show all their work in front of the school, but what ended up happening was that I felt like I didn't actually teach them much this week because it was all assembly work, which is not desparately exciting for them. With the best will in the world, rehersing is pretty dull when you've said your bit and you've got to wait for everyone else to have their say - they just can't do it quietly. Still, the parents seemed to like it and I guess when they're five people just like to see them get up and say something charming - doesn't have to be very sophisticated!
