Archive | Classroom examples – Primary

Tim Taylor’s planning for Florence Nightingale Mantle

By on August 10, 2018 in Classroom examples – Primary, News, Workshops / Courses / PD

Here is the powerful Mantle of the Expert plan Tim Taylor introduced us to at winter school in July 2018. Thanks so much Tim for writing up the notes and your generosity in making them available for all.

The planning is based on the work of Florence Nightingale and her team of nurses at Scutari during the Crimean war. As well as being a good introduction to this piece of European history, it also touches on universal human themes of standing up to authority, the experience of being away from home and the roles played by medical personnel in conflict.

Originally taught with young children (approx year 2) the planning would work equally with older age groups …  I can personally attest to this having spent two days exploring the context and becoming fully invested – along with all the other adults in the room!

Planning notes       Powerpoint slides

Tim’s planning has inspired me to make a collection of process drama / Mantle of the Expert plans based on New Zealand historical events. If you have done some planning on local history and are happy to share – or can recommend some good resources, please let me know and I will share in my next post.

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Drama and maths with new entrants

By on October 8, 2017 in Classroom examples – Primary, News, Teaching tips, Videos and podcasts

This video from D4LC (Drama for learning and creativity – a UK-based initiative by Patrice Baldwin) shows classroom teacher Terri English using teacher-in-role to teach maths with her class of new entrants.

While not a full-blown mantle, the video provides a really useful illustration of ‘mantle-esque’ aspects of drama (taking a low status role and asking students for help, introducing a fictional context for learning, using tensions and conventions). A great model lesson to try, especially for student teachers and those taking their first steps into using teacher-in-role.

[Just a couple of things to consider: Terri operates in shadow role and pretends she found a letter in the real world – given my recent post about clear signalling, I’d probably advocate being clearer from the start that Chef Jeff is an imagined character. Also, while the other teachers clearly enjoyed donning their chef outfits, it’s not necessary to hire any special costume to teach in role.]

 

Thanks to Terri and Patrice for a great resource… we need more like this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0u16p4wyoE 

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Drama in the literacy classroom

By on September 26, 2017 in Classroom examples – Primary, News, Videos and podcasts

This video from the UK-based  ‘Teachers TV’ channel on You Tube introduces a simple but effective process drama based on a sophisticated picture book. The video shows teacher in role, writing in role and various drama conventions in use.

I love how the video moves between a classroom example, the enthusiastic insights offered by the teacher and students and a theoretically-informed commentary from an education advisor. Plenty to enjoy here … a nice bit of advocacy for drama, particularly as a means of ‘energizing’ and ‘extending’ reading and writing.

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Process drama from picture books

By on March 11, 2017 in Classroom examples – Intermediate, Classroom examples – Primary, News, Teaching tips, Workshops / Courses / PD

 

Process drama is a great way to bring stories to life in the classroom – and to become familiar with the conventions and strategies used in Mantle of the Expert. Picture books provide a wonderful starting point for planning, as they provide many of the ‘raw ingredients’ for successful drama. In this post I share two resources:

The first is a plan adapted from one of the units in the excellent ‘Playing our Stories’ resource (Learning Media 2001 – now sadly out of print). It’s a fairly straightforward drama based on The Lighthouse Keeper’s Rescue by Rhonda and David Armitage. Designed to support for those trying teacher in role and drama conventions for the first time, the plan is fully ‘scripted’ with links to curriculum etc.

Mrs Grinlings problem 2017

The second resource follows on from the first and gives a set of 12 steps to follow to create your own drama using the same structure with a different picture book. This is a framework for planning I developed and trialled with student teachers over many years. It seems to work pretty well, with many fabulous original dramas developed using these steps. An advantage of developing your own drama is you can choose books that suit your context (for example using texts in te reo, or more complex sophisticated picture books for senior students). The same structure could be adapted for other books too, including novels or playtexts.

Creating drama from a picture book 2018

I do hope you find these resources useful. Just to clarify, they are not ‘mantle’ plans in the sense of setting up full-length cross curricula dramatic inquiry … but I hope they may be useful in developing the drama skills needed for mantle teaching.

See other posts on this site for  tips for teaching in role including dealing with uncertainty from participants and the importance of clear signalling.

 

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Mantle of the Expert and the Titanic

By on June 4, 2014 in Blogs, Classroom examples – Primary, News

Here’s a lovely link to check out. A teacher’s blog about using Mantle of the Expert to explore the history of the Titanic. Teacher Jenny Burrell has included details of her planning, notes on children’s responses and feedback from parents in this blog (from a UK school).  Lots to learn from and enjoy here.

By the way, if any NZ teachers are blogging their work in Mantle this team – do please send the link so we can share yours too!

Click here for linkmantle of ex titanic 005

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City of Light MOTE with Intermediate students

By on November 29, 2013 in Classroom examples – Intermediate, Classroom examples – Primary, News

If you only click on one internet link today – make it this one… Luke Willis from Melville Intermediate School (a decile 4 school in Hamilton) is 8 weeks in to his first attempt at Mantle of the Expert. His blog charts the amazing success he has had with these students. The journey has also included an impressive array of ITC – lots to inspire here including the innovative use of iphones and artwork to create animations (screen shot below)

To reach the blog click here 

Thanks, Luke for sharing this.

Screen shot 2013-11-29 at 7.29.50 AM

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Teaching history to year two students through Mantle of the Expert.

By on November 6, 2013 in Classroom examples – Primary, News, Videos and podcasts

This is a really nice video from the UK showing two teachers using MOTE to engage young children in the story of the life of Nelson (a figure from their local history). This is a great example of how MOTE can help children gain factual knowledge through emotional engagement. Bet NZ teachers can think of ways to adapt this concept to teach in depth about our own local historical figures….

Some of you may recognise the male teacher here – he is the lovely Tim Taylor, who was one of the presenters at our 2009 conference. Check out Tim’s use of teacher in role (as a teacher!) and how he uses older children  to help with “assessment”.    View video HERE

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HNS Mantle comes to a close

By on September 29, 2013 in Blogs, Classroom examples – Primary, News

Just written my final blog post for this year’s mantle at HNS school. Comments from the children include “”I liked getting talked to and talking like an adult” and “I liked being someone else but not at the same time”. Meanwhile the teacher says,  “You should see some of the writing – talk about powerful. You won’t believe some of it is from 10 year old children…”. Check out the whole six week journey by clicking here

Huge thanks to Andy, the school and the students for what has been a fantastic ride… As always so much learned along the way!

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