Intervention: Purposeful Perspective Taking - the lesson.

In my previous blogpost, I discussed the planning behind a sequence of lessons based on critically thinking about images and the stories behind them in a hope that my learners will be able to engage more in their learning and care about the places around them.

The lesson was based around the historical street names of some of the places around Glen Innes and how and why they got their names.  Firstly, we looked carefully at the picture of the G.I train station and what the image was telling us.  I got students to think, pair and then share their thoughts.

We then looked at the train station today and discussed what they saw and why.  When I was showing them the different pictures, I needed to prompt some of the kids to really look carefully at what was in the photo, around the train station and why.  We took some time to unpack the two images and then I shared with them the compare and contrast tool with the images in the middle.  

I had to explain what each of the circles surrounding the centre pictures meant which surprised me.  I assumed students would know how to use this tool but I was able to explain that circles on the outside of each image were the differences where as the circles in the centre that were linked, represented similarities.  I have shared a completed copy above.  

Students then went into pairs to analyse a bird's eye view of our local area and to apply the tool to this new learning.  Most of the boys still found it difficult to understand.  

The next lesson looked closely at images focused on the history of our local area, starting with early Maori and what life was like for them living in Ukutoia.  

On a shared document, I provided a table with all the names of the different streets that I wanted them to think about whether they were named after a place or a person and whether they were English or Maori.  I then asked them to write a paragraph to explain what they noticed about the street names and why it was the way it was.  

Lastly, I wanted the students to create a google map showing all of the place names and where they were located.  

I knew that I needed to explain it carefully, so decided to venture out to where I haven't been before for a long time: rewindable learning.  I created a screen castify to explain to kids how to complete the mapping activity.  I needed to do this not just for my class, but also for the other year 9 classes completing this activity.  Here is the link for the video.

Reflection:

I found that students responded well to the unpacking of the images when we did it together.  By modelling it as a class, then asking them to do it in groups, pairs then individually, it gave them a chance to use questioning skills and critical thinking skills to look at the images with a different lense.  When asked idea that the many of the street names were named after places on the other side of the world surprised them and a handful of students identified that these names reflected the people who were in charge at the time.  

When it came to comparing and contrasting, a number of students did struggle but with modelling how to use it and explaining the importance of the compare and contrast tool, students were able to use it effectively.  From here, the tool guided their paragraph writing (although some did struggle to start).

The mapping exercise helped to break up the writing and further emphasised the stories of how they were formed and where they were placed.  I felt the video helped in slowing down the learning to suit the kids who needed the instructions and helped me to concentrate more on helping students who needed it.

Overall, I enjoyed teaching this series of lessons and I feel that kids got the most value out of it because it forced them to critically think of places around them reinforced by scaffolded tools and strategies.

Intervention: Purposeful Perspective Taking - the planning

Describe in detail the intervention you designed to address the student learning problem i.e. exactly what did you plan to change? Be specific about actions, timelines etc.

After redesigned my inquiry, I wanted to think about opportunities to look at perspective taking as way of getting my kids to think critically about their learning. 

I wanted to design a series of lessons on the English Street names of our local area based on a 2016 Jubilee booklet put out by the G.I Business association.  Some of these names were featured in one of the art works we saw in G.I on our art tour.  I wanted kids to use images and photos to unpack and tell a story of what, where, when, who and how in our local area. 

Planning for the teaching:

I studied Aotearoa Histories Using Historical Images site to make sure that I was planning for the lessons correctly.  There were 2 good videos on the site that shared how other schools used images to guide the learning.

I then needed some scaffolding tools that could build the understanding of the images for students to better understand what they were looking at. The Manaiakalani Cybersmart Tools and Organisers have some really cool ones that break down the learning better and I thought I'd focus on one or two as a starter.  

Google maps was also another way to explore where images or events take place so I refreshed my mapping skills by thinking about how to use google maps for students to share their learning.

From these different resources, I developed the sequence of lessons under the title 'Leading Local Change in our Community'.  In my next blogpost, I will detail the lesson itself and reflect on how it went.