The following post was written by Belinda who is completing her final year of university. Belinda writes her own blog called BDORIOTEACHING.
Our inquiry central idea is: Personal histories reflect traditions and culture. They key concepts are change, perspective and reflection. Over the past two days children have been bringing in items that show their ‘personal history’. Items such as baby clothes, photos, medals etc. have come in so far. Today I was able to share some of my personal history with the students, and they really enjoyed seeing the photos of me at their age.
To explore perspective, we began with a discussion. The aim of the discussion was to expose students to the fact that people have different points of views, opinions and perspectives.
I showed the students the front cover of the book My Place, by Nadia Wheatley and we spoke about how people thought the book would be about different things depending on their perspective.
I had them break off into groups and discuss their thoughts and then come back and report to the class.
After our whole class discussion I opened the book to a page where a school boy is walking down a path way, but it is unclear exactly what he is doing (for those who are not familiar with the book, it has no words).
I asked “Where might he be going?” and received different responses from each child. Every child’s answer was plausible, as they were taking cues from the picture.
‘He is going to meet the girl at the gate, he is going to school, he is going to the shed, he is going to ride that horse’ etc.
5/9/12
Today I expanded on this discussion by re-capping our conversation from yesterday and showing that same picture. Tying in with our narrative focus, I then asked the students to write a story about the boy walking down the path. I stressed that they could write anything they liked, as long as it was their thoughts or perspective of the picture. I was really impressed by the quality of work.
Post by Belinda Dorio
Cheers Nina
Nina Davis: Teaching & Learning in Australia 