KimP’s Blog

Haluz - playing with words!

  I noticed many times during our work with Haluz that the kids were re-working paragraphs or sentences to get better effects. They would start off with an OK paragraph, sentence or idea, and then have another try, often changing the word order around.Sometimes they would try out various emotions and the associated vocab or language that went with the emotion. Over the years I’ve been constantly frustrated by my students inability or unwillingness to work on their writing - to improve the meaning, even to edit their work. Yet I have noticed that many students seem to enjoy working at making their sentence or paragraphs interesting, clear and entertaining.

This playing about with words and language - either to experiment with the power of the words, or to try out different effects of words - is really positive and encouraging. 80%of my class speak another language at home, and have rarely had the time or the confidence at school to experiment and play with English.

In our hurry and intent to “teach” non-English speaking students as much English as possible, we haven’t allowed time to use language for “play” purposes. I noticed my students were excited to try out different ways of writing the orientation, or about a character, or about an event they had experienced in the game. Was it the control over their writing? over their ideas? over the language? that was most exciting? Or was it the confidence of being in charge of English and being in charge of their story? What do you think?

Haluz and Narrative Writing Part 1

 In May, Australia is undertaking, for the first time, national (as opposed to states-based) literacy and numeracy testing for students in Years 3, 5, 7 & 9. In the follow-up information received after last year’s state based testing (the NSW Basic Skills Test) my school identified a variety of areas we needed to focus on this year to improve our school results.

In the Literacy - Writing area our Areas for Focus were identified as:

• Text Processes: Effective orientation
• Text Processes: Effective resolution
• Topical language
• Figurative language
• Paragraphs
• Sentence structure
• Punctuation

The genre of Narrative is the only text type required this year, so my time has been spent working on my students’ narrative writing.

Last year I explored the use of the on-line “point and click” game Samorost with my class, and used it to work with my students on their writing skills. The results were inspiring and very exciting - you can read about what we got up to here ….

I was keen to use a computer game again to explore writing, and to motivate, engage and involve my students in writing narratives. However, I didn’t want to/ couldn’t just repeat what I’d done last year (two thirds of my class this year were in my class last year) as I was interested in a number of areas:

• to explore what other areas of writing lend themselves to using a game
• to investigate if more structured, text-based writing skills could be learnt/taught/practised using a game

Fortunately I came across another post from Ewan , who threw out a link to Haluz - a “point and click” game in the same genre as Samorost - which has meant that I can explore some more with my students  ……  and teach writing as well   :) 

You gotta love that don’t you?

ReView and PreView

 After an interesting week or so on Jury Duty I’m back – rearing to go after an enforced “time-out”. 

My last week at school saw me using our new laptops in my room. After a frazzled first session – sorting internet cords, and placement of the laptops within the room - we made a great start at our individual maths focus contracts. The students felt responsible for getting on with their work and seemed very motivated to work on their own to complete the maths topics they needed to work on. 

The setting up of the laptops got quicker over the week and the students came up with exciting ways to take advantage of the laptops when they were set up. We had a great session with the kids working in threes using Google Earth to locate places referred to in the “Behind the News” current affairs program we watch each week. 

My use of the iWB was probably not as exciting as I had hoped – a few techno problems, but they will be sorted soon I hope and I will continue on (and on and on!) 

My focus for this coming week will be:

• Laptops – in the room as much as possible - set up and ready for the kids to work on.
• Writing Focus – narrative using an internet game again to support and motivate students and improve their writing. This time I will start with the planning of the game narrative: does it fit the planning model we are using? How does it differ? How are the different parts of the narrative linked to each other?

            Hmmm, lots to work on here!

• Look at using the DSLites for daily? thrice weekly? basic maths practise. I’m sure this will really motivate the class to improve their basic operations skills, and by recording their scores we can collate and graph results. This will link in to the Data section of our Mathematics curriculum, and “interpreting graphs” is an area my students need to work on.

        The DSLites are set up to use in the Library at lunchtimes so I will have to make sure we use them first thing in the morning and then reset them up ready for lunch

 Heaps to look forward to……. BIO!  (bring it on!  :D  )

Image is “Timeout” by katenet

Just Thinking

An excellent post from Graham Wegner which he refers back to a post by Konrad Glogowski had me thinking about the way in which students work on individual projects, and the potential for the use of blogs in this process.

My thinking took me in two directions:

1. Need for “critical friends”

My class has been communicating with a school class in another state, these students were working on a “passion project” for the term. I was concerned that my students were adding only a social connection to this other school and I think I need to strengthen the academic connection - to make the comments and responses from my students more meaningful and purposeful. I want my students to reflect, consider, and engage in conversations with these other students on the topics chosen by these students for their “passion projects”.

I will need to examine the ways my students learn about asking questions about the projects - in-depth and worthwhile questions that will help to clarify or extend the learning about a topic. I need to work with my students to enable them to move on from “I like the part about XXXX - it was very descriptive” to develop deeper, more probing questioning about content.

2. Another way of using blogs

Konrad Glogowski writes:

The one thing that technology makes easier - that blogging makes easier - is the Immerse - Build - Contribute aspect of the model I described.

IMMERSE: I wanted my students to become researchers who locate valuable content, read, interact, and document their learning on the blog by writing entries about the topic and their journey as researchers.

BUILD: The students used their blogs to document their research and to build their own knowledge in their respective fields of expertise. There were many connections that emerged among students researching related ideas. The students interacted with each other by posting comments and by sharing and commenting on resources.

CONTRIBUTE: This final stage happens when, as learners, the students begin to contribute through their own creativity. It happens when, having acquainted themselves with the topic, they begin to rewrite or remix it in their own unique way and thus contribute to and enrich the field they’re researching. This is the stage when the students begin to create unique artifacts that contribute to the existing body of knowledge on a given topic.

Most of my class has been blogging since March this year and to date their blogs have been a way of publishing pieces of writing they have done. I have made a few attempts at getting the class to reflect on classroom activities and to report on school events. But I am quite excited at the ideas that Konrad raises and the uses for blogging he puts forward - blogging as an important, even integral part of the research/learning cycle.

Using blogs to document student learning whilst they are in the middle of their learning is very exciting and is an area I would like to work on and develop with my class.

Wondering Why????

We all had a great time working with and through the Samorost games over this last month. What I found myself wondering though, was why it had such an impact on the students’ writing. Was it just a case of grabbing their collective imagination, was it that they worked on the game as a class - problem solving together and collectively solving the game, or was it the fact that it was a game that the students found so engaging?

The class and I used De Bono’s thinking hats to organize our thoughts about the games (see previous post and individual student posts) but this didn’t really answer my questions.

I have explored narratives with many age groups over the years: we’ve used stories and texts to inspire, we’ve looked at paintings and pictures to set scenes and watched movies to see characters and explore story lines. I have always tried to share whatever was available to help my students “put pictures and experiences in their heads” to use in their writing. Sometimes results were encouraging, but never has the quality of ALL student writing been as high as it was this month, using Samorost.

Tim Rylands’ blog and website are inspirational, and  his success with using MYST with students to help their creative writing encouraged me to have a go at using some form of game to try out his ideas - albeit in a small and isolated way.

So I knew that this had been tried before, that success had been documented before, but still no real why was this so?

What often happens when I’m unsure about things: I ask my class what they think.

This is what they came up with:

• the scenes and environments are out of the ordinary - they appeal to you because they are different/ unexpected
  • the environments show great detail which you can describe
  • you are within the scene, not static, there are hidden things that you don’t expect
  • it is surprising - keeps you active
• the game aspects - you think differently in a game rather than in a book - you are actually DOING IT
  • it could really be happening to you
  • you are part of what is happening
  • you control where you go - in a picture or book you have to stay where the character is
  • you choose what happens to you - you make the adventure
  • the sounds give you the mood and the atmosphere
  • it’s interactive - you use all of your senses

Interesting, don’t you think?

Games are very important to these students.  They like being the centre of the game, in control, and making decisions. It gives them the experiences that they could possibly write about. They have sensory experiences to recall, they have scenery to describe, choices they’ve made, places they have explored. Experiences ready and waiting to be articulated, discussed, expanded upon, labelled, thought about, talked about, shared and finally written about. Cool!

Do it!

Talk it!

Read it!

Write it!

Thinking about Samorost

Sorry, but this is a long one ……. 

I thought I would use De Bono’s Thinking Hats to organise my thinking and reflecting on using Samorost as an aid to teaching Narrative with my Year 4, 5 and 6 students.

     White hat:    Just the facts…..

• Curriculum Link: narrative writing in English
• Class had already discussed
  • structure
  • purpose
  • problem/complication
  • characters
  • language of narratives
• First experience with game = played the game together as a class and wrote down our first impressions of the game.
• Talked about Intro scene  (45 minute session) –
  • Discussed purpose of this scene and linked it to a narrative
  • Students shared words and phrases that could describe the little planet. Tried to set the atmosphere of the story – calm, peaceful, mysterious
  • Played around with interesting language, shared vocab, wrote sentences using shared vocab (kids scribbled in notebooks), and rearranged these sentences to see what would happen (were they better, worse, more/less effective?)
• Played Samorost 2
• Collaboratively brainstormed (in three’s) words to make a “Feelings” matrix of words and phrases to use that would show rather than tell  how a character is feeling or the mood in a scene.
• Discussed similes, metaphors and imagery as ways of adding to descriptions. Found examples in literature that used similes, metaphors and imagery. (We collect great sentences or phrases, type them up and put them on the wall for language/literature activities)
• Explored the Anteater scene (1 hour session) –
  • Imagined what it would look, feel, sound like in the metal ball that descended into the anteater scene of Samorost 1. Closed our eyes and imagined.
  • Thought of ways that Sammi would move that would indicate how he was feeling. Actually acted out ways he might exit the ball and how they would show how he was feeling.
  • Tried to “step back” from the scene and look at the environment to identify any images that we could use.
  • The kids were writing down any interesting ideas, phrases, words, sentences that they came up with as we went along
  • Time for writing throughout the session – jotting as well as constructing
  • Sharing each student’s “best bits”

       Red Hat:  Feelings and emotions …..

      Black hat: Negatives and cautions ….

  Yellow Hat: Positives and optimism …..

   Green Hat: Creative ideas and alternatives …..

  Blue Hat: Thinking about the thinking ….

Writing with Samorost

“Phew!” what HARD work! but ….. what fun! We have had a couple of sessions working with Samorost this week - everyone is still really motivated and I am really pleased with the quality of work produced. What do you think?

We worked first on setting the scene and mood of the story. Students tried their hand at using the setting to create different atmospheres - lonely, peaceful, mysterious:

Roaming peacefully, the planet drifted calmly through the tranquility of space.  Timothy

Floating in the isolation of space, the miserable planet wandered…  Marshall

Drifting through the silence and blackness of outer space, the mysterious planet sways through the bright lights of the stars…. Natalie

The silent planet, waiting for the unknown to become known.     Celia

We spent some time this morning trying to put ouselves into the little character in Samorost (generally called Sammi!). We discussed using emotive descriptions of what the character was feeling, we closed our eyes and imagined that we were in the metal ball that descended into the scene above: 

Swinging like a pendulum, the ball on the rusty chain starts descending through a pitch black tunnel.      Emily 

Feeling dizzy and confused and helpless, I dangled amongst the mossy roots and branches of the gnarled trees, in an ancient, rusty ball ………      Timothy

Swinging from a chain in the round, brown sphere, I felt sick and dizzy. Squeaking and screeching, the sphere suddenly came to a stop. I thumped onto the floor of the metal ball. I grabbed the metal window and pulled myself up like a baby trying to stand……..          Sharon

The hollow, swinging sphere fell down and down, leaving Samorost to listen to the deafening clanking of the old and rusty chains. The chains finally stopped clanking and everything seemed still and quiet. Samorost peered curiously out of the circular, barred window wondering what was going on………….       Nancy

I was falling in a ball, so fast. I could hear the chain rattling. I sat in a corner of the ball, the falling seemed to last forever. Finally the terror stopped and I was swinging gently from side to side. I just sat there. I was like a mouse ath the time, afraid of seeing what was out there ……..        Clement

I peered through a little window and caught a glimse of a larger forest, inhabited with fungi, moss and mushrooms spread across the forest floor like butter on toast ……..    Gloria

 The branches of the trees look like the massive body of a pterodactyl. On the neck of the pterodactyl - like branches, sat the lazy and hungry anteater.     Marshall

In the maze of prehistoric trees, an old box was hidden …..    Naomi

The trees were like tentacles, all twisted up together, connected to an unknown monster, waiting hungrily for a lost traveller to approach.         Sarah

…..I decided to explore a bit more. I walked a few metres to my right and saw roots that were tangled up like a dozen cords all trying to get into the one power point……..         Ramiz

Feeling helpless I dangle amongst the ancient branches and plants of the aging rainforest, suspended only by a rusted metal chain……… This was just like an amusement ride, I think to myself, but the only difference is that if something goes horribly wrong there will be no one to help me if I am wounded. Rocking unsteadily in the darkness of the metallic ball I wonder if I will get to the ground safely or drop to my death ………        Martin

Samorost - Day 1

We have had Samorost fever this week! I knew the kids would be hooked by the story & game and I really hoped that I wouldn’t spoil this engagement by using the game as a teaching tool.  

I wanted to let the students guide me on how to work with them exploring the game, in terms of a narrative, and to work together at discussing and sharing observations and impressions.  Not sure exactly how to begin, I started with a joint walk through of the game.

We sat on the floor around the iWB and took it in turns to move the stylus over the page and work out what to do. I wanted the students to get a feel for the game – especially the characters and setting – so I thought that playing the game together would give them a reference point from which to work later when we did some writing about the game.  

Most of the students thought that the game was going to be “shoot’em up” game and were puzzled and perplexed when none of their predictions came true. The lack of instructions also proved problematic to some students and it took a while for everyone to work out what was happening and what they were required to do. 

“I never thought it would be a brain game. ” Clement

“It’s simple, but to get to the next level you need logic.” Gloria

The “hard thinking” was a highlight of the game for many of my students – they loved trying to work out how to make things happen, and for some just the idea of cause and effect, and logically working out what might happen as a result of something that had happened earlier, was new.  

“If I did that - what would happen next?” Gloria

“When you activate certain objects or certain people you have to think how it will affect your surroundings.” Martin      

“There might be a message hidden in the game that you have to find out.” Nadine

I hoped that we wouldn’t get bogged down and frustrated, but the students pulled together and worked co-operatively as a team to solve the problems as they arose. Most of the students commented that had they tried to solve the game alone it would have taken much longer than solving it together. 

“When we worked as a team we did well. Everyone thought it was exciting so they all wanted a turn.” Timothy

So our first experience of Samorost was really positive – the students were buzzing about the character (Sammy, Sam O. Rost, pyjama guy!) and the planet/space station. Most students wanted to be able to play the game at home and so a link was put on our class blog to enable them to do this. We scribbled down some first impressions of Samorost and most of these have made it onto the students’ individual blogs which can be found here. 

“The game is great. The best thing is that you can’t die!” Marshall

“Keeps you working, thinking and playing.” Nadine

Samorost

Since playing around with “Samorost” last week, my head has been full of ideas and possibilities for using it as a stimulus for developing setting and character descriptions in my students’ narrative writing. 

Here is how Ewan MacIntosh describes it: “just full of potential for some creative writing - the art in the landscapes is surreal and beautiful, with all kinds of nooks and crannies for our imaginations to rumble in.” 

Each step of the game provides a detailed and unusual setting that is explored and used to move onto the next stage. The scenes are visually rich and provide a common starting point that the class can share to practice their descriptive writing.

Descriptions of any sort seem quite hard for my students to write – they consist of basic details of what can be seen, without any emotional connection to either character or setting. I’m hoping that the beautiful, fantastic and surreal Samorost environments and creatures will provide an engaging and tangible starting place to build up experiences, ideas and some background knowledge about writing descriptions. 

My students need to use details and sense impressions to bring places and people alive.  At the moment both people and places in their stories are “flat” and perhaps “cartoony” – characters are either happy or sad, good or bad; stories take place in a school or in a shopping centre  or at home. Word choice and sentence structure are basic and rushed, or overlooked completely.

I’ll plan writing lessons around these ideas and will post student responses and writing samples as we go.

Wanted: Creative Passionate People

Learning is changing - what sort of vision do we need to help navigate this change? I put forward that

creative

passionate

people

are the answer! 

CPP take the old, the tried and the tested  content and use ICT to interact with  it in new, exciting and creative ways. Students and teachers (all learners) get to take the content and work together to manipulate it, modify it and have a personal stake in it.

At BETT (British Educational Technology Trade Show @ Olympia, London) today, I came across two stand out CPP - a large organization and an individual who love what they do, want to make a difference and have stepped up to creatively lead the way.

Promethean, with their Promethean Planet  teacher website, their online Training and Develoment opportunities and their new AcivPrimary 3 software, are promoting a range of products, tried and tested that encourage both teachers and students to creatively approach their learning.

Students and teachers are supported through new learning experiences, but not directed in an over-bearing way. Users can interact with each other and the programs to create new and exciting learning experiences that combine different bases of knowledge to raise questions and solve problems together.

Shooflypie promotes big books in digital form. Students interact with these texts, with each other, and with technology to explore, develop and articulate ideas and concepts. Students use the texts on the interactive whitebord as a springboard to develop traditional storytelling skills and enrich language through other cross-curricula areas ( such as music, drama, art, design and citizenship).

Anne - the author and developer - drew upon her strengths and skills as a passionate teacher, a gifted story teller and an educator to develop creative and inspiring materials.

For students to become passionate and creative about their learning they need to be exposed to, and make use of , creative teaching practices and creative ICT applications - which they can interact with and have control over. I found two examples at BETT today!