WHAT?
The focus for the first terms has been belonging. We haven’t really put enough effort into this so we looked into names and family names and their meanings and how they relate to one another. The children spend some time finding out what their names meant as part of an art activity.
Each part of the square depicted a different part of them using pictures - first name, last name, where their ancestors came from, their nationality and the members of their family including pets. The children were highly engaged in this activity and learnt about their own names.
As a follow on from this, we used the ‘I am from’ poem lesson from Terry Locke that I had used before. But this time I used a poem I wrote using all the ‘pictures’ from my own quilt square that I had used as a model for the art activity. This helped the children to scaffold their writing and shape their own poem.
Having a distinctive structure helped with the short stages of writing as well. The children were only required to write one stanza at a time using the prescribed success criteria. The first stanza being about where their family originated, and where they lived or had lived. The second stanza described their names - first and last, some even did their middle name. The last stanza and lesson, places and events that are important to their family.
I Am From Poem
I am from parents who came from a country far away
From a major city in the world, where the Royal family live
I am from big cities, towns, farms, Maori kingdom, countries
From houses, villages, tall apartments and flats.
I am from the cabbage pickers, market gardeners
From witches and roaring motorbikes
I am from large lettered names
From a listening ear and voices that need to be heard
I am from a ship named after an island in the Waitemata Harbour
From a trip that took over 7 weeks, to get to a new country
I am from a large South Island family living in Christchurch
From a husband, a son, a daughter and their partners and grandchildren
The writing took two weeks worth of teaching, as we were wanting to display the writing for our belonging display. The children also had to publish their work using Google docs and share them before we could print them out. The children were very excited to share their writing with their family when they came in for their PEP meeting at the end of the Term.
SO WHAT?
Again having the experience of finding out about their names and ancestors for the art activity beforehand gave the children what they needed to be successful writers. Also breaking the lesson into ‘do-able’ chunks gave the children a sense of success and the effort was more deliberate.
We were very pleased with how the art activity and the writing worked together and the engagement of the children during this time. There was a sense of achievement and determination to do their best. This would be a great activity to do at the beginning of the year with new children to establish their class culture by getting to know each other and themselves.
I am from
I am from a mother who came from a country on the other side of the world,
From a father was born in the land of the long white cloud.
I am from the busy streets and roads of Lynmore,
From a good old house I have lived in all my life.
I am from the hazelnut trees in the orchards of New Zealand,
From the “son of Iver” (someone who called his son Iver in Denmark).
I am from an acronym (HAZ)which is half of my name,
From small lettered names.
I am from a flag that has only lines,
From a town that smells like sulphur.
I am from a plane flying to a capital city at the top of the land of the long white cloud,
From another flag that has lines and stars.
By Hazel Iversen
NOW WHAT?
It is important that the children understand the ‘why’ when we ask them to complete a task. Having a sense of direction gives purpose to the activity and creates engagement for all. Also making a personal connection helps the children to write what they need to.
When creating a new writing plan, I need these ideas to be front and centre to enable my students to have continued success with their writing.
“People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.” – Simon Sinek
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