What a great journey we've been on through our Story Workshop. All of us have done a superb job utilising our independent literacy time to progress to the publishing stage.
Our goal was to publish our very own chapter book by the end of term. Although some children who wrote very long stories are still finishing off publishing to Google Drive for printing, many now have bound books and are looking to promote their stories by creating book trailers in iMovie. This whole process has been so rewarding for us. Now with a completed story in our hands, we really do feel like authors, which is an idea we have constantly referred back to.
If you want to take a look back at our Story Workshop process, check out the previous two blogs in this series:
Room 14 Story Workshop and Room 14 Story Workshop - Drafting
We will soon post a catalogue showing all of our books. Trailers for these will be visible in our digital portfolios and shared at our next syndicate assembly.
Tuesday, 31 March 2015
Monday, 30 March 2015
What's Up Bromley?
It's fantastic to have such a dedicated and enthusiastic What's Up Bromley? news team this year.
The group itself has been going for two years now and is run by a number of children. This year we have our largest group so far, with ten children, all of whom created CVs and applied for their advertised roles. All of the team are currently from Room 14, as we have learned that it is easiest to have one teacher overseeing the group and for the children to have close communication with each other in one place.
From the reporters and presenters, to the camera operators and editors, all members of the team are showing a great willingness to learn more about their roles and to get their fortnightly shows out to our school community.
This year we have also introduced our What's Up Bromley? blog, which we will be using to advertise our shows, post other articles of interest and to attract student voice from around our school. Take a look and feel free to comment!
We love being able to send a news team out to report on current events, go on field trips and to interview school visitors. The team are learning fast that putting together a news show takes a considerable amount of time and effort, and that communication and planning is key. As we keep hearing so many creative ideas coming out of the group, they will no doubt have a challenging and exciting year ahead of them.
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| The team watching a BBC tutorial about putting together news stories. |
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| Jack editing footage from our recent syndicate Air Force Museum trip. |
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| Reuben and Jen (filling in for Athalia) filming our first show in the studio. |
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| The team. Maia, Jen, Jack, Athalia, Quaylen, Reuben, Jess, Phoebe, Stella and Kamryn. |
Thursday, 26 March 2015
Air Force Museum
We had a fantastic trip to the Air Force Museum today.
Our visit was divided into two parts: A scavenger hunt around the museum, and a classroom lesson about the ANZACs at Gallipoli.
Our museum guide, Chris, led the classroom lesson and gave us a great insight into the Gallipoli campaign, including what it would have been like for the soldiers who fought there. We also learned about NZ's involvement in WWII's Pacific conflicts.
Earlier, we split into groups and spent time exploring the museum. Take a look at this video, which follows the Iron Men literacy group (plus Jess) on their scavenger hunt. They were so enthusiastic and asked some interesting questions…
We would like to say a special thank you to our parents - Wayne, Sonya and Sharon who accompanied us.
Our visit was divided into two parts: A scavenger hunt around the museum, and a classroom lesson about the ANZACs at Gallipoli.
Our museum guide, Chris, led the classroom lesson and gave us a great insight into the Gallipoli campaign, including what it would have been like for the soldiers who fought there. We also learned about NZ's involvement in WWII's Pacific conflicts.
Earlier, we split into groups and spent time exploring the museum. Take a look at this video, which follows the Iron Men literacy group (plus Jess) on their scavenger hunt. They were so enthusiastic and asked some interesting questions…
We would like to say a special thank you to our parents - Wayne, Sonya and Sharon who accompanied us.
Wednesday, 11 March 2015
What Does Our Class Size Data Tell Us?
We have successfully found the range, the median, the mode and the mean (average) of our class size data at Bromley School.
It has been insightful spending some time thinking together about what this information means. We were asked to spend some time analysing our findings and to answer the following questions:
1. What do we know? (What are the facts we can gather?)
2. What do we think we know? (Does the information imply other truths?)
3. What questions do we still have?
As you will see from some footage collected during our discussions, many questions have arisen that could drive further inquiries.
We are currently learning about migration and the movement of people from their countries of origin who have settled in other areas of the world, specifically New Zealand. This links with our overarching theme for the term, My Voice is Powerful, the essence of which is about culture and identity. Our new learning about statistical information will no doubt assist us gain a deeper understanding about diversity in Aotearoa.
It has been insightful spending some time thinking together about what this information means. We were asked to spend some time analysing our findings and to answer the following questions:
1. What do we know? (What are the facts we can gather?)
2. What do we think we know? (Does the information imply other truths?)
3. What questions do we still have?
As you will see from some footage collected during our discussions, many questions have arisen that could drive further inquiries.
We are currently learning about migration and the movement of people from their countries of origin who have settled in other areas of the world, specifically New Zealand. This links with our overarching theme for the term, My Voice is Powerful, the essence of which is about culture and identity. Our new learning about statistical information will no doubt assist us gain a deeper understanding about diversity in Aotearoa.
Room 14 Story Workshop - Drafting
We have had some very peaceful mornings this week in Room 14. All of us have been drafting the stories that we have been writing through our Story Workshop process.
For two weeks now, we have been working on our own individual story, with the end goal of every child having a bound book on our class bookshelf.
Some children have already been publishing on Google Drive (a great place to write and receive teacher feedback), which will be printed. Those in the publishing phase have also been creating their cover art and a blurb in order to complete their project.
It has been very interesting reflecting on the Story Workshop concept from a teaching perspective, as we can see promising outcomes arising.
Have a listen to Kerryn, Quaylen and Jacob discussing the stories they are writing and attempting to articulate their creative process.
For two weeks now, we have been working on our own individual story, with the end goal of every child having a bound book on our class bookshelf.
Some children have already been publishing on Google Drive (a great place to write and receive teacher feedback), which will be printed. Those in the publishing phase have also been creating their cover art and a blurb in order to complete their project.
It has been very interesting reflecting on the Story Workshop concept from a teaching perspective, as we can see promising outcomes arising.
Have a listen to Kerryn, Quaylen and Jacob discussing the stories they are writing and attempting to articulate their creative process.
Monday, 2 March 2015
Room 14 Story Workshop
Many classrooms at our school have been running Story Workshops this year. This is based on an idea that myself and several other teachers witnessed in another school during a professional development trip last year. The concept of Story Workshop is driven by us exploring the role of the arts in literacy. See some of the other Bromley School class blogs for information about how it has been used in their contexts.
In Room 14, we have used an adaptation of this concept to generate the 'spark' for stories we are currently writing. Today all of us were given time (all morning) and choice when moving around different stations. Although some prompts have been provided for the children to help with initial thoughts, it has been interesting to see that very few children have stuck with the obvious ideas present in these prompts, taking inspiration and opting to go in a completely different direction. This may be because moving around a number of stations helped to bring more ideas together.
Engagement has been great, with many children already planning and drafting their ideas, with the goal of writing a chapter book they can be proud of. We have constantly been referring to the idea that we are authors, taking ownership of our stories and self-monitoring our writing to a high standard.
Our video shows the first session, until our morning tea break.
Keep an eye on our Twitter and USpace accounts for more information about our stories as they are created.
In Room 14, we have used an adaptation of this concept to generate the 'spark' for stories we are currently writing. Today all of us were given time (all morning) and choice when moving around different stations. Although some prompts have been provided for the children to help with initial thoughts, it has been interesting to see that very few children have stuck with the obvious ideas present in these prompts, taking inspiration and opting to go in a completely different direction. This may be because moving around a number of stations helped to bring more ideas together.
Engagement has been great, with many children already planning and drafting their ideas, with the goal of writing a chapter book they can be proud of. We have constantly been referring to the idea that we are authors, taking ownership of our stories and self-monitoring our writing to a high standard.
Our video shows the first session, until our morning tea break.
Keep an eye on our Twitter and USpace accounts for more information about our stories as they are created.
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