How art can inspire creative writing.

Last year I really wanted to try and improve the writing quality of my students.

So in week 1 Term 1, as we were all getting to know each other I asked them what they would like to create on one large wall in our classroom. I explained it had to be something we all agreed on as this was going to be their focus for their writing for Term 1. I spilt them off into groups to discuss it. Later we all gathered on the mat and each group got to share what they felt would be the best. After much deliberation we had it. The Magical Kingdom Of Boondagilay

IMG_0572 (1) from Team 1 PES on Vimeo.

I wasn't sure at the time how much success we would have, but the only way to improve is to take risks and try new things.

I was really excited by the children's ownership of the mural and to top it off their writing was exciting. There was so much going on in the mural that their imaginations could take off...no holding back. It was a positive outcome and their writing did improve. They had something to write about right in front of them.

I believe when kids are encouraged to express themselves and take risks in creating art they develop a sense of innovation that will be important in their adult lives. The society we live in today needs people who are forward thinking, inventive people who seek new ways to make improvements, not people who can only follow others directions. Art is one way to encourage this process.

So moving forward......

I was fortunate to stay with my same class and move with them into Year 3. Once again writing has seemed to be the biggest problem. Because my children are not surrounded by literacy in their homes they struggle to come up with new ideas. I downloaded onto their i-pads many fun, short children's stories. I read them a sophisticated picture book after lunch each day where we spent 10 minutes after reading it, discussing the characters, the setting, the beginning, middle and end of the story. We also discuss the plot, the adventure that took place, the problem in the story, the solution.

I felt I was giving them so many tools to go off and write some descriptive, amazing, and interesting narratives. Some children did and they really took off. But majority still struggled to come up with a plan or even anything to write about.

So I asked them if they would like to make another mural. They all agreed and we started to make a mural of our own made up universe. Our Inquiry for Term 3 is about space so we wanted to keep the theme running. The Universe of Zola was created with different aliens, evil queens, rockets with the children's faces on them flying around, the Moggy Moon where the Flat Foots lived. You name it we had it. Beside that we created the real Solar System beside it.
Once again writing in my class improved. The children had ownership of what they had created, they were proud of it and wanted to write some cool stories and share them with their friends.

Studies show that there is a correlation between art and other achievement. A report by the Americans For Arts, states that young people who participate regularly in the arts, are four times more likely to be recognised with academic achievement, to participate in either science or math fairs/shows or win awards for writing essays, poems, or speeches than children who do not participate.

But I still wanted to explore more with the arts and how it can benefit my students.

As it was Maori Language week we sat down as a class and looked at some Maori designs. We all decided we wanted to move away from the traditional red, black and white designs and focus more on the earth (the flora and fauna) of NZ. Below are just a few examples.
Next week I hope to introduce my students to a range of Maori myths and legends. Discuss as a class the messages behind each legend. I want them to use their art as inspiration to write their own Maori legend, pulling in all their knowledge they have learnt in Te Reo classes, their own life experiences, and some great imagination.

Following this writing exercise, we will be looking at writing a Recount on the experience of creating their art. You could also explore Instructional writing. Each format of writing requires different language, formats and outcomes.

So one piece of art work set up properly can inspire many visions.

Dr Kerry Freedman, Head of Art and Design Education at Northern Illinois University believes that children need to know more about the world than just what they can learn through text and numbers. Art Education, teaches students how to interpret, criticize and use visual information, and how to make choices based on it. Knowledge about the visual arts, such as graphic symbolism is especially important in helping students become smart consumers and navigate a world filled with marketing logos.

I am excited to see how this plan of using art to inspire writing will go.

Next week  I hope to be posting some examples of the students Maori legends.

Dog Therapy in Schools

End of Term Summary

So this term my focus has been to engage my students with learning Number Knowledge. There is no really easy or exciting way apart from rote learning to do this so I found myself in a tricky situation. I knew that many of my boys would not be able to sit still for long enough to get anything out of rote learning.

 I thought about all the knowledge my students would need to know so they could easily transition into Early Stage 5.

Once I had made up a list of information I had to teach my kids I decided to make it as interactive as I could. My Team leader came in to film some snapshots of this learning.

I have been really pleased with the results and will continue to do this all year as a warm up before we split off into our small math groups.

2017 : Math Inquiry

2017 has started with such positive energy in my class. I have been lucky enough to move with my class from Year 2 into Year 3. Because of this my students were so comfortable the first day of school and were ready to start learning day 1 of term 1.

This year, for my Professional Inquiry, I am looking into how I can achieve the best Math results for each individual student.

I decided for Term 1 that I was going to focus on teaching my students the Math knowledge they would need, so they could apply this knowledge to the new strategies they would be using to solve mathematical problems.

Even before they start school, most children develop an understanding of addition and subtraction through everyday interactions. For example, Thomas has two cars; Joseph wants one. After Thomas shares one, he sees that he has one car left. Other math skills are introduced through daily routines you share with your child—counting steps as you go up or down, for example. Informal activities like this one give children a jump start on the formal math instruction that starts in school. The ability to think through a problem, to recognize there is more than one path to the answer. It means using past knowledge and logical thinking skills to find an answer.

I am excited by this Inquiry as I have never had a Math focus before. It is taking me out of my comfort zone of Reading and Writing and it will challenge me in ways I can’t even imagine. I look forward to sharing my ideas with my colleagues and getting constructive feedback in our Inquiry meetings. I will keep you updated on my progress as I continue to inquire into my practice.

The Magical Kingdom Of Boondagilay

In the last half of Term 3 I decided to try something different for writing. We spent a week creating this beautiful mural. I let the students take full control over what they wanted to put on the mural as they were the ones writing about it. They had so much fun and their writing was amazing. Here is the mural.
IMG_0572 (1) from Team 1 PES on Vimeo. I also gave the students a list of adjectives, a list of different words to use instead of the normal words they had been using. For example instead of using the word 'big' they could chose from a list of words - huge, gigantic, enormous etc. Here is the first example. Ryder's writing has ben improving all year but it had started to become very boring.

One month later Ryder's writing about the mural.

 Once upon a time there was a tiny pixie called Elizabeth and she lived in a forest of feathers. One day she saw some small pixies having a party on the petite house. Next she went inside but then suddenly a huge giant was coming to the house. Then all the ten pixies went out of the house and went to the rainbow castle and told the princess that a tremendous giant was coming to the rainbow castle. After that the princess got her brave knights and the knights got their swords and had a fight. Finally the huge giant was killed and they lived happily ever after. Allowing the students to take ownership of the mural and giving them the creative freedom to design what they were going to write about had such a positive influence. It is something I would definitely try again. After they had written their stories, they animated their stories using their i-pads and the mural for their backdrops.

Update on writing

When I first started giving the students free choice I knew I the girls would be writing about princesses and fairies and the boys would be writing about zombies and super heroes. That was ok as I could see the difference in their writing straight away because they were interested in writing about the topic they wanted to write about.

Here is an example of one of my girls writing who was reading at level 3 and could not write independently.

She could only write simple sentences using her yellow butterfly card with the gifted words I had given her.

As a class we moved on to writing narratives. I had set up on their i-pads a simple structure to follow for the lower writing group and a more complex structure for the students who were writing independently.

Here is the same little girls first attempt at a narrative.

For some reason my awesome plan I had placed on each i-pad didn't seem to be working. I was still getting the same sentence starters even from the writers who were independent. So I wrote on the board some sentence starters and we wrote a storey together.

This is the same girl's writing 2 weeks later

The whole story goes like this.

Once upon a time there was a leopard called Aaliyah and Aaliyah lived in a jungle. One day Aaliyahs babys were hungry and Aaliyah went to get food. Finally Aaliyah and the babys got the rabbit.

Once she had blogged her story we sat down and discussed the backdrops she would need to animate her story. She went on to Google and saved images, drew the leopard and baby's and this is her finished animation.




So I am thrilled with the progress. Allowing the kids to animate their stories has been a huge incentive for them to finish their writing. So now we just need to add more detail.

Free Choice!

 I left at the end of last Term feeling really positive. The lower level students were writing independently, albeit a single sentence, but they were happy and settled and their confidence was growing.

Term 2 started and I pushed them too far. I realised after meeting with my Inquiry group that I had gotten so excited with the progress they had made in Term 1 that I missed out some vital steps. So once again the kids couldn't do anything independently and I was pulling my hair out wondering where it had all gone so horribly wrong.

So one day I just said "right, today you are going to write about anything you like".

I am now a firm believer in free choice. I always have been but usually once a week or even every 2 weeks. For my focus group of lower learners they all sat down and started to write. You could not wipe that grin off my face. So from now till the end of Term we will be having free choice everyday.

At the end of Term 1,  I will post some before and after photos of some of my students writing.

Watch this space!