The following is our plan for teaching in 8th grade, which took place last thursday.

Literature was the theme for the day, and based on the observations we have made the last weeks, we wanted to make the teaching different and stimulate the learners in different ways. As mentioned earlier, the common way to teach, both in the Township school and at Woolhope, is a very deductive form of teaching where the teacher "fills" the learners with knowledge.

We named the day 'About stories', and started the day with an activity, where some of the learners had to improvise. We called it 'story-in-a-hat', because the learners had to pick a word from a hat and then make a small story with the word included. The next learner continued the story with the next word and so on.

About stories

Educational goals

By the end of the lectures the learners should be able to:

practise telling stories including getting a feeling of how bodylanguage and appearence affect the story.
spot structure and characteristics in the fairy tail genre
relate acient stories to contemporary literature
derive important places in the story and relate it to the sociaty today

Didactic reflections

try out different and alternative teaching methods whilst working with literature. E.g. Coorperative Learning and workshops, with focus on the individual learners prerequisite and learning styles.

Program of the day

1) 8.30 – 8.40 Introduction

2) 8.40 – 8.55 ’Story-in-a-hat’

3) 8.55 – 9.00 5 min break

4) 9.00 – 9.15 Teacher reads out the fairy tail ’The ugly duckling’

5) 9.15 – 10.10 Split the class in 8 groups (CL):

Analysis groups:

The themegroup – Find the themes and the message of the story. Give examples from the text to substantiate your statements. Write it on a piece of paper and hand it in.

The languagegroup – Explore the language – look at the verbs, nouns and adjectives. How does the use of the different words affect the story? Give examples from the text. Write it on a piece of paper and hand it in.

The ugly-ducklinggroup – Personal characteristics - find out everything about the ugly duckling’s feelings. How does he feel in this part of the story? Write it on a piece of paper and hand it in.

The perspectivegroup – Can the message of the story be seen in a societal context today? How? Discuss that, write it down and hand it in. You can look at the sentence

Creative groups:

The rapworkshop 1 - Rapworkshop – imagine that you are the duck. You are walking alone down to the pond and suddenly you start to rap. Make a rap about your feelings.

The rapworkshop 2 – Rapworkshop – imagine that you are the duck in the end of the story. How do you feel now? Make a rap about your feelings.

The cartoon workshop – Cartoon workshop – use the following sequence of the story and make a cartoon out of it. Focus on feelings, colors and speech- and thoughts bubbles.

The dramaworkshop - Dramaworkshop – mime the following sequence of the story. Remember that your body language and your facial expression are very important.

6) 10.10 – 10.45 Lunch break

7) 10.45 – 11.30 The learners present their products

Each group gets 25 minutes to complete their task, and then the groups swap, so everyone tries to work with the analysis and in a creative group.

Some of the groups worked outside...

... and some worked inside.

Reflections after the teaching

The day was a succes; the learners worked concentrated throughout the whole day. Their presentations emphasized this.

A group presenting their cartoon

Another group ready to perform their rap.

The rest of the class were very enthusiatic and concentrated

But some things came to our attention throughout the day, and there are some changes we are excited to try out at the city school.

Some of it concerns the content, some concerns plain logistict, but most importantly we are very interested in seeing how learners from a different invironment with a different background will welcome this way of teaching …. We will be back J