About our project: Dream Playgrounds and Mysterious Oceans
How would it be if you could redesign your rather boring school playground in ways that were practical as well as imaginative? And what does a ‘deep dive’ learning adventure into the world of oceans look like? These were the main issues tackled by 21 Year 2 students in their Creative Schools projects in 2023.
Context:
Jandakot Primary opened in 1992 in its present form but has been operating since 1901. It is a community-driven school which supports around 500 students from Kindy to Year 6 and has a wide range of cultures including Indigenous Australians. Room 5 has 21 Year 2 students of varying abilities including students who have processing issues, apraxia of speech and are neuro divergent.
What happened:
When planning the activities for this class, experienced teacher Louise Muggeridge and visual artist Shona McGregor (who specialises in using multimedia to examine unnoticed aspects of natural and urban environments) had a few things to consider. Students were used to a very structured learning style and had little opportunity to organise themselves or make their own decisions during class time. This meant a fixation on the class timetable and routines especially for the neuro diverse children. Flexibility was not one of their strengths! Room 5 also had several big personalities who liked to lead as well as some very quiet members who were reluctant to participate. Lastly, most of the kids just weren’t that curious about anything and much preferred to be told what to do rather than question what was going on around them.
So we opted to begin with something already happening in the school, and let our class come up with some ideas for reimagining he school’s playground for Years 1 – 3. We had the children use their senses to explore the space and notice things they hadn’t before. They collected information and thought about changes they could make. We planned and discussed what a dream playground could look like. The children created models using recycled materials from Remida and gave each other feedback about what was working and what they could change. However, we realised it was unlikely the students would be able to carry out any of the changes themselves and therefore gain insights through authentic, hands-on experiences.
It’s all about learning and trying things that you really want to do.
- Student
Louise decided it was time to make the kids’ agency a priority. We asked them what they wanted to learn about and how they would like to demonstrate their learning. A class brainstorm came up with topics of oceans or countries. Oceans won the secret ballot. The students decided what sea creature to investigate and were put into considered groups to allow them to support each other with their research and help each other to produce their projects. We would be taking a backseat as the ‘sage on the stage’ and become their learning coaches unless explicit teaching was needed for things like new software instruction.
The kids took to this experience like pros and the energy in the room was buzzing! We coached them through processes such as improving their questioning techniques with dry (closed) or juicy (open) questions and using Popplet https://www.popplet.com/ to make mind maps of their research questions and the information they found. They used the Give One, Get One (GO GO) process from Trevor MacKenzie to come up with ideas and find out what their classmates were thinking about before adapting these ideas for their own projects. Eventually they were ready to take what they had learnt and decide on the best way to show it to an audience. The choices included 3D models, paintings, Minecraft habitat re-creations, books on paper and in digital form, comic strips and even a word search.
We ask lots of questions in Creative Schools. I like finding the answer and we get partners so we can figure it out together. We give each other feedback. We use give one get one. It was fun going around and learning about what everyone else was doing.
- Student
How did we use the Five Creative Habits of Learning?
In the beginning the kids took a while to figure out which one was which, especially the tricky ‘disciplined’ Habit, but by the last session they would volunteer what Habits they were best at that day and the ones they struggled with. They could justify their choices and now had the language to talk about how they learnt and the processes they were utilising. Louise began to talk about using the Habits outside of our sessions and the students could see that they were using the Habits after school and on the holidays too.
I like all the Habits. We are not going to forget them. We have learnt so much about the Habits this year.
- Student
In addition to this, the students loved the warm-ups. Louise also began to use them at other times and loved how they could support the session with a Habit focus or just bring about a change in the energy when needed. We used warm-ups to improve the students' questioning, wondering and collaborating, to take into the sessions and beyond. Even just asking the kids to rearrange the room for the activities became a useful tool for helping them self-manage their behaviours and pull together as a team.
I’ve been using collaborative so much. Before Creative Schools I wasn’t so good at that.
- Student
I realised I was being collaborative. I feel proud of myself.
- Student
The more you try the better you get. I’ve been sticking with difficulty when I’ve been doing my drawings.
- Student
What did we discover?
There was a clear positive impact for the students who were still happily working on their projects even after our sessions had concluded for the year! They spoke about how many ideas they were having now and how the sessions ‘get us thinking and get your mind working’. We definitely had fun, but it was energising to see the students not only excited about their own learning but helping each other too. Being able to watch students who normally struggle in the classroom be able to use their strengths in computing or art to support others, was wonderful and gave them a real sense of purpose and pride in themselves they often don’t find in the classroom.
I was scared about getting things wrong. I started getting some ideas about why you don’t have to scared about being in Creative Schools.
- Student
Sometimes it gets difficult in my project about Sea Eagles. But it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s about learning something interesting and learning about what you are really interested in.
- Student
The impact on the teacher and the class:
I have learned to take a step back and to allow the children to attempt to solve problems without my direction. This has been really challenging at times as I became frustrated with the lack of progress. I discovered that the children were so used to being micromanaged that they had very few collaborative skills and the room would descend into chaos without my instruction. It took time and patience, but with Shona’s expert guidance, the children and I developed the Five Habits and started practising them more regularly. As the weeks passed the students were more cooperative and open to each other’s ideas. The quieter ones developed more confidence and the bossy ones learned to be more collaborative. The impact on my class has been profound, especially for the more academically able children who have developed independent learning skills. I feel the children have become more excited about discovering new things and having agency over their own learning.
- Louise
Main Curriculum Focus: Technologies / Biological Science
Technologies: design your dream playground.
Biological Science: exploring oceans and their inhabitants
Cross-Curricular Links:
• Literacy
• Numeracy
• Media & visual arts
• Health & Physical Education
• HASS (geography)
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