Linda's Meta-learning Journal

First a little background:
Last Year our Network Learning Cluster held a 'Pupil's Voice Day' which brought together pupil representatives from all 6 Primary schools to put forward children's answers to the question "What makes a good literacy lesson?" The main conclusion from all the schools was that children wanted a practical approach and enjoyed lessons which were not just 'talk and chalk'. We decided as a cluster to act on this and have been collecting examples of best practice to share amongst ourselves.Find more about my school's approach to this here Or add your own experiences to the PracticalLiteracy wiki page.
Today was an example of best practice which I'd like to share. I will eventually add the details to my Firstclass site but for now here's a brief outline.
We divided the class into mixed ability groups and gave each group an aspect of harvest to focus on. We brainstormed words about harvest and Autumn. I pinned up some interesting pictures and the children described what they could see. The class teacher then read a poem written by another yr5 class based on Kit Wright's poem "The Magic Box." The groups were then given white boards, asked to choose scribes and asked to come up with a verse based on their topic. The teacher and I went round the groups helping by asking questions about how things made them feel or what things looked like. We didn't provide words but encouraged them to choose carefully. When they were happy with their verse They wrote it onto A3 paper.
This was going so well, productive happy groups engrossed in making poems, that with my encouragement, my teacher abandoned her maths plans and we carried on after playtime. The children took great pride in making illustrations for their work with oil pastels and the finished products are lovely. (Photos tomorrow)
Teacher comment "This is what teaching Primary used to be like!" followed by wistful sigh from both of us.
Each group then shared their work with the class and we (as a class) agreed the order of the verses.

Our Harvest Basket

Each group then started to learn their verse by heart to say in next week's Harvest Festival. I typed the poem out for each child to take home and learn.
Finally, at 11.30, we got out the maths books and they did an hours' work in 30 minutes!