WHAT?
To get a sense of whether or
not the children are getting the idea of activating their nouns and can now
apply this in a range of text types I decided to teach them another
observational poem but this time the structure was different. Instead of the
verb following the noun in the same line, it was written with a capital letter
on the next line.
The lesson sequence started
the same, with the children gluing in their exemplar, this time it was an excerpt
of a poem written in 1914 by Wilfred Owen. We were given this lesson plan by
Verity in our last PD session on authorship. I didn’t even know who Wilfred
Owen was before then, he is a master of poetry who writes with realism and
compassion using imagery to explain the contrast and reality of the first World
War.
As part of the analysis I
guided the children to ‘notice’ how the author had activated the nouns in the
poem and how it was structured differently than before. I spent some time
unpacking the meaning of words like ‘fleshes’ so the children could understand
the imagery used. There were some gasps when I said that it was the skin of the
boys until I remarked that we don’t swim in our clothes.
I encouraged the children to
make connections to our wetlands and the piece of writing that they had just
completed. The children were able to activate the nouns successfully and made
precise language choice, but more importantly could verbalise what they had
been learning.
The children were then lead
through the visualisation process and then were created the success criteria
together on what we had noticed in the analysis. The children were all forthcoming with number of sentences they
needed to write, to activate the nouns and use precise language choice. I
deliberately scaffolded the structure and setting out of the poem. Also with
the children, I created a word bank of nouns and verbs that they could use in
their writing.
The children were then
encouraged to write about our wetlands and use the new structure. There were a
number of children working with me in a
workshop situation and a few others with my student teacher. There was a busy
buzz as they recorded their ideas to create their own poetry.
As the lesson came to an end,
the children were once more brought down to the mat into a helping circle and
encouraged to share their work. Again I used the ‘ice block’ sticks to randomly
select who was sharing. The children activated the nouns and are so much better
at choosing words to say exactly what they mean.
SO WHAT?
I felt
that the lesson went as expected and the children understand the lesson
structure although we do need more practice on being happy to all close our
eyes and ‘run the movie in our heads’ before writing.
When
marking the children’s work I noticed that the children activated the nouns and
used precise language choice to say what they meant. But they hadn’t followed
the text structure of having the noun on one line followed by the verb on the
next line and those children who were confident writers hadn’t pushed
themselves to add more detail to create picture in the reader’s mind. Some had
even used the same endings - in the wetlands.
NOW WHAT?
I
need to repeat this lesson again but use a better stimulus as this is what I
feel is missing. Luckily after lunch the school had an unexpected fire drill in
the drizzle and before our allotted PE time and the children were huddled under
umbrellas waiting find out why the alarm had gone off. As well after school
there was fierce thunder storm above the area where most of the children lived
so that may activate better writing.
My
aim this term was for the children to give each other feedback and take action
on to improve the message in our work. This still a work in progress.
“A fine
writer will always make you feel that [you're right on the spot, watching the
plot happen]. And don't worry about the bits you can't understand. Sit
back and allow the words to wash around you, like music.”
- Matilda
written by Roald Dahl
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