Group-planned Lesson

We (Luke, Ria, James & Denise) planned a four hour art activity at the Wren Academy, for the year sevens. The brief was to teach the children about the namesake of their school, Sir Christopher Wren. After much research about him, to inform ourselves we decided to look at the writing on his memorial as inspiration for this project.

"If you seek his memorial, look about you."

We positioned this project, focussing on the identity of the students, using the multifaceted structure of sir Christopher Wren's identity as a framework for both learning a bit about him and for the students to reflect about their own identities.

(Installation view of student work produced in this session)

Introduction and Icebreaker - (Luke):

"Welcome everyone to our day of creative activities. We have planned some very fun activities for you as we learn about Sir Christopher Wren.

We will of course start by introducing ourselves, so you're familiar with us and feel free to ask us questions at any time.

As we introduce ourselves today we will tell you a secret fact about ourselves that no one else here knows. As you're listening to us, think about a secret fact about yourself that you would like to share in just a minute."

- Focus of the introduction was both engagement and

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Icebreaker - In this activity we will be reflecting a lot on who we are.

transition of transparency to James' task introduction

Ria and Denise [Name tags]

Task information [James]:

Ask students to respond to 'Look about you'

Expectations [Ria] - we have a lot of time together,

Christopher Wren the Collector [James]:

- Students showcase - if they have no object, there will be objects in the classroom and in the displays - ask students

- Portrait/ landscape

- instructions on task

Christopher Wren the Astronomer [Luke]:

- Link/Title - In addition to being a collector, one of the titles that he collected is an astronomer

- Does anyone know what an astronomer is? (think Astronaut...)

- Moon - Wren's work as an astronomer - Maps the moon, gave this as a gift to the King.

- Materials - Has everyone got a black piece of paper - Has everyone got a white pencil

- Demonstration - Demonstration of a circle

- Tone - Talk about tone while they're working

Reflections:

Moments when everything was working & how can you tell?

Something fantastic about the discussions we had in our group is that we all reflected on individual relationships within the classroom - understanding the class not as a singular body but as a collection of individuals with unique voices, perspectives and experiences.

- Students reviewing their work in the breaks between the activities

- Children saying this is the best piece of art I've ever created,

- Students encouraging other students positively - building a supportive environment

- Students asking lesson specific questions. - demonstrates focus

- Students engaging with the work through storytelling - finding connections between their own works and helping other students think about their work on a deeper level.

- Students proactively solving problems - use of technology and resources in the classroom.

- Lesson developed more naturally and responsively - avoiding rigidity

Moments when everything was not working & how can you tell?

We did have a slight issue with timing, although we had a fantastic structure throughout, we did have an issue when the materials provided for the task did not work as successfully as our experimentation: we were able to respond by:

1- Ria bought some time by creating sensory stimulus - using the materiality to make sound, making everyone engaged as we rethink how to approach the task

2 - Building off of the guidance of Ria who was leading the session and asking students to focus on creating texture, we encouraged the students to fold, cut and scrunch the material to make marks - encouraging the students to problem solve and be creative through play.

Timing issues

More practice with the acetate

The role of the teacher to find strategies to manage energy and enthusiasm levels. - allows you to create meaningful experiences and environments for learning.

Lesson Plan feedback:

When identifying the learning goals, adapt the themes identified in the overarching big question into specific statements of learning.

Supporting students to articulate their learning is fantastically important.

Identify three groups in the class and cater for all the groups in the lesson plan.