The year-long storytelling curriculum

Sue Lyle delves into an innovative teaching practice in which pupils develop their own creative story over the course of a school year. The year-long storytelling curriculum is easy to plan and can be taught in a way that meets learning objectives from the Early Years curriculum.

Sara Stanley is in inspired infant practitioner and I invited her to Swansea to work with teachers in four different schools for one day each. She worked alongside teachers in the Foundation Phase (age 3-7 in Wales) to introduce them to philosophical play in the classroom. One of the teachers, Lucy Martin in Glynncollen Primary School, decided to take on the challenge of introducing a year-long storytelling curriculum into her classroom. Mid-way through the year I visited her for a morning and documented some of what was happening through video, photographs and field notes. Later in this article I reflect on what I saw, but before we join Lucy in her nursery classroom I report on an interview I carried out with Sara who explained what the year-long story curriculum looks like.

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      string(5672) "the age of 13 months through to school age, highlighted the importance of adults being interested in what children are saying and entering into real conversations with them. Whitebread (2003) advocates that early years educators do the same by providing opportunities for meaningful conversations between groups of children, and between children and adults. Other research shows the importance of a child’s growing control of the spoken language for the development of thinking skills; the more precisely language is used, the more children are enabled to generalise, categorise, to manipulate ideas and to explore ideas of cause and effect (Riley and Reedy, 2003). The children’s communication charity I CAN affirms the importance of language as a key skill, “central to children’s intellectual, social and emotional development.”; children with poor communication skills are more likely to have behavioural issues in social situations.For schools and other educational settings, creating a literacy culture in the broader context, rather like a total immersion in a foreign language, encourages and supports the development of good reading skills. An audit might focus across leadership, teaching and learning, parent and carer engagement and wider or extra- curricular activities (Achievement for All). It is looking at where change is needed, being creative and thinking of new ways of presenting ideas; they may not always be conventional. In one recent example, a teacher took an unconventional route to support a parent; the outcomes were extremely positive and life changing: the mother in a family of six boys realised her low expectations were holding them back. She was supported by her children’s teacher as she embarked on a programme to improve her literacy. As direct consequence, her middle four boys moved from being on the SEND register. Their mother’s motivation and raised self- esteem and confidence were reflected onto her children, and her youngest has just started school with the highest expectations, loving the fact his mum is chair of the school PTA (Blandford, 2017). Often, it is simple changes in multiple areas of practice which make the difference.Opportunities in school for pupils to discuss and share ideas and present to the wider group supports the development of many literacy skills; the Debate Mate core programme, working with schools in areas of high child poverty, has provided a further platform for this. In the classroom, it is allowing time for children and young people to work in groups, teams or in pairs, both on a formal and informal basis, and allowing time for thinking, reflecting, questioning and imagining. These skills are both developed through reading and develop reading: reading allows children and young people to develop their potential. Simple changes are often all it takes. Examples from schools working with Achievement for All show the change in a Year 3 boy who loved reading to his little brother at home, but was a reluctant reader in school, often disruptive and was at risk of not meeting his literacy targets. His teacher made him a reading mentor to other Year 3 children. The impact was immediate. Acting as a reading mentor with Year 3 pupils twice weekly had an immediate impact on his self-esteem- he enjoyed the responsibility, became more focused, less disruptive, proved to be a positive and supportive role model and had better attainment. In another school, pupils with SEND engaged in one-to-one literacy extra-curricular activity with role models. The pupils developed a different outlook towards learning through raised attainment and a willingness to take part in activities. In another school, with high levels of poor literacy skills amongst new Year 7 pupils, the school invited parents in for workshops on how to support their children at home. Not only did their children’s attainment improve, but many parents went on to achieve NVQ qualifications in literacy. Achievement for All works with schools, early years setting and further education colleges across the country supporting them in getting better outcomes for their children and young people. Through our evidence-based framework, we have reached over 100,000 children and young people experiencing challenges, needs and disadvantage, improving their outcomes in reading, writing and maths, up to 50% higher than the expected outcomes for all children. With our schools, we want to ensure that all children and young people have good levels of literacy and can thrive. The Read On Get On Campaign calls for action across schools, families, communities and government by encouraging: Parents and carers to read to or with their child for just ten minutes a day; Volunteering in schemes that help children with reading and language; Schools, the voluntary sector, policy makers and the private sector developing programmes, interventions and partnerships to help all to read; and Government parties embracing the 2025 goal of all children reading well by age 11 in their manifestos, setting out how they support this (Save the Children, 2014).The Vision for Literacy Business Pledge launched by National Literacy Trust in 2015, is seeing more and more organisations, signing up to tackle literacy challenges in their workforce, the local communities and on a national level; many have developed initiatives for schools, for example, the Premier League Reading Stars. At Achievement for All, we know that reading is the key to helping children and young people learn and fulfil their potential. 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Reading

100 Million Minutes Reading Challenge Matters

17 Apr 2018

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      string(5713) "This issue’s Child Files looks at Developing Professional Practice: go through each of the bullet points and reflect on what you would do for each. Child File 1: The physical learning environment Jean Piaget, the Swiss developmental theorist who developed his theories from observing his own children, highlighted the importance of providing a stimulating learning environment. Although he placed little emphasis on the important interactive role of educators in the learning process, his theory that babies and toddlers are actively involved in their own learning (i.e. cognitively engaged), eager to know about and understand what they are experiencing, has strongly influenced the way we view children’s learning and development. 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She employed an activity called Judge and Jury from Making Assessment Work, a set of activities originally developed by Drummond, Rouse and Pugh (1992).  In the following activity, early years educators (it is equally applicable to primary teachers) “explored the distance in terms of power between the assessor and the assessed, and the rights and responsibilities associated with this relationship. The crude analogy, suggested by the title of the activity… can be justified as a reminder of the relative powerlessness both of the prisoner in the dock and of children in schools and classrooms.”ActivityFor each of the statements consider how would you respond (if you have not had experience of practice, there may be some questions that you will want to leave out)When I am assessing a child’s learning. 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Childfile

Child File - Developing Professional Practice

20 Jun 2017

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      string(5740) "a different approach to those already submitted, you could compare their different methods and decide which was the best for that particular problem. Children with additional needsWhen working with children with additional needs, I often needed flexible activities which could be recorded in different ways. LTHC activities often lend themselves to multiple recording methods.  I really enjoyed using push button voice recorders both during the activities and afterwards too. During an activity, they allowed children who struggled to write to share their ideas. An added bonus of using the simple push button versions was that the children could re-record their ideas so that could add an interactive element to classroom displays. Photos, of course, are always a terrific way to record their ideas, especially with activities such as Noah.  Again, this is an engaging LTHC activity for all ages. It is also very flexible, depending on the additional needs of the children. Most children will quickly engage with the task and suggest possible animals with a total of 12 legs. For example, one very young pupil realised that three animals with four legs each would work. Interestingly, they kept thinking and realised that they might also make 12 using a number of different animals too:Depending on their individual needs, some children enjoy working with play animals as they rehearse their counting skills. Noah is an ideal activity for those pupils. It also offers great opportunities for recording their ideas with a camera too. Again, looking at the range of different solutions clearly illustrates how children respond to problems in many different ways. Here’s another response which uses a slightly more formal approach:Reflecting Squarely: a case study So far, I have focused on examples which feature the number aspects of the curriculum. It is also important that we ensure that all children access other mathematical topics too, such as exploring shape and measures. In Reflecting Squarely, the challenge is to rearrange three shapes to make a symmetrical figure. Give each pupil a set of the three shapes and ask them to make a symmetrical shape. If you try it yourself, you’ll see that it is a very straightforward activity which is very engaging too. In other words, it is another example of a LTHC activity. This time, children of ages and abilities can compare their symmetrical shapes. Are they the same or different? Once the children have had time to explore their initial answers, they can be challenged to find other symmetrical shapes. Reflecting Squarely is a very visual problem, so it can be extremely attractive for children who dislike formal maths. With this challenge, they can draw or photograph their responses. When you feel that they have had sufficient time to find several solutions, you can ask whether or not they have found all of them. If they feel they have done so, how do they know they have got them all? There’s a lovely solution to the problem submitted by a boy called Andrei. Here’s the first part of his solution. As you can see, Andrei submitted a visual solution. He also simplified the problem by focusing on just two shapes, and he kept one of those shapes in the same position each time too. By discussing these points with your own learners, they can begin to understand that there ae many ways to access maths problems. If you explore this activity on the website, you might be interested to scroll further down Andrei’s solution because another pupil, Sara, spotted that he missed one out! Can your children spot which one it was? The NRICH team also provide free, curriculum resources from Early Years to primary, secondary, sixth form and university entrance exams. Resources provide teacher notes and ways to offer additional support. If the chosen activity is not a Live Problem, there should be a set of submitted solutions. The NRICH resources are very popular, attracting almost 40 million page visits in the last 12 months. Nevertheless, NRICH is a very useful site for teachers but what about the pupils themselves?  NRICH were asked by teachers to explore producing maths resources for specific groups too. Those requests led to the development of Wild Maths and Maths in Sport.  Let’s explore the potential of both websites to support learners with additional needs. For many children, their interests lie outside the classroom. Sport is a very popular pastime and it is a fantastic way to bring their outside interests in to the classroom. A young athlete, who might not recognise their own mathematical potential, may suddenly find themselves the centre of attention when working on tasks such as Olympic Records . 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Gaming and Play-Based Learning

Nurturing young mathematicians

20 Jun 2017

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      string(5666) "books with work so that progress can be evidenced,a change to the curriculum and the looming pressure of tests etc. But for many children,this sudden abrupt change in the way they are expected to engage with their learningis difficult to adjust to and can cause a dip in progress as a result. Effective transition,needs to be a smooth and gradual process, that builds on and extends what has gonebefore and, as the pedagogical approach in the EYFS is often quite different to that inKey Stage 1, developing a shared understanding amongst staff is surely the first step.Planning also needs careful consideration. It is all too easy to fall into a defaultmode of teaching, a comfort zone, where the style and method of delivery is dictatedby the preference of the adult, or the subject norms instead of the needs of the child.Young children need a range of styles and methods from informal and wholly childinitiated, to very formal and wholly adult initiated, the important thing is that the bestmethod is used for the desired outcome and the age and stage of development of thechild is considered.For example, you sometimes see very young children sitting on the carpet forextended periods of time with phonic flashcards; this fits well with the idea thatphonics is ‘real learning’ and the pressure is on for children to pass their phonics checkin Year 1 – so it needs to be done. Or does it? Is there another way? Consider the teacher63Vol 8.3School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPrimaryFileEarlyYearsTransitionwho uses the outside space as a resource for learning, or the sand or water tray forchildren to fish out words and digraphs, or chalk to practice writing, or hoops withletters in to collect objects. This is an interactive, multisensory engaging lesson thatachieves the desired objective, and takes into consideration the age and stage of thechild. It can be extended easily, if the children show signs they are ready to move on.This is a recognised approach in Reception, but often does not continue into Year 1,often due to a lack of understanding of play based learning and early years pedagogy.Play in school is often viewed as something children do when they have finishedtheir ‘real work’, a treat or a chance to let off steam so that they can concentrate betterafterwards. It is even withdrawn on occasions, as a punishment for ‘bad behaviour’ ornot working hard enough to complete set tasks. Sometimes teachers set aside specialtimes for play as a treat for working hard, often called ‘Golden Time’, which sends a clearmessage that play is a reward for hard work, and that real work is always adult initiated.Most schools have teacher led classrooms once the children move into Key Stage 1,and plan dedicated teaching times for teaching communication, language and literacy;this is usually done with rigour. The teaching can become activity focussed, centeringaround worksheets, cutting and sticking activities and other tasks designed andplanned by the teacher, some of which do little to motivate and extend the learning.Real learning, however, comes from when the children have the opportunity to practisetheir skills and apply their learning to different contexts and it is this time that is oftensqueezed out in the classroom, as more and more teaching is timetabled in.As adults, we must learn new things all the time, new skills at work, new hobbiesand skills for everyday life. Rarely is that learning truly embedded if we don’t see thepoint and how it links to something we know already, and without practice we oftenquickly forget. Children are no different, but it is not that uncommon to find schoolsthat timetable teacher led activities throughout the day, with no opportunity forchildren to make choices about how to practise and extend their learning.Another issue with the teacher led classroom is the issue of speaking. Withoutdoubt the ability to speak well in a variety of contexts, using a rich and wide vocabularypaves the way for success at reading and writing. Some schools employ methods suchas ‘talk for writing’ which are successful, but do we need to go further? What about‘talk for learning’? Talking about concepts, questioning and explaining your thinkingare key for the development of high order learning and need daily practice. Just how64Vol 8.3School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comPrimaryFileEarlyYearsTransitionmuch time is planned for children to question each other, discuss concepts, explaintheir methods, challenge each other’s thinking in the average classroom? 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Special Needs

Early Years: Planning The Transition from Play

16 Apr 2018