MAIN CURRICULUM FOCUS
Literacy
Cross-curricular Links
Technologies & HASS
General Capabilities: Sustainability, Critical and Creative thinking
CCP: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories & cultures
Context
Yule Brook College is an Independent Public Middle School located in the south east metropolitan region of Perth, Western Australia. The college strives to meet the individual needs of their students through the Big Picture Education Program, which begins in Year 7 and takes the approach of ‘one student at a time in a community of learners’.
Students are encouraged to search the world for good learning, to follow their passions and find good mentors in the world.
Year 7 Advisory Teacher Craig Weller worked with Creative Practitioner Claire Davenhall, a Visual Artist and Sculptor to develop a challenging project that students could work on as a group. They focused on developing students collaborative & inquisitive habits of learning with workshop style sessions, to create a high functioning space. During term 3, we integrated mindfulness at the start of each session as a warmup activity, that took them outside the classroom to gain a deeper understanding from a different perspective.
WHAT WE DID
Project overview
Our project is called ‘Expose - Explore – Expand’ and was inspired by the birds nesting in the exposed tree outside the classroom. They explored critically endangered birds at Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Sanctuary, focusing on the lost habitats of our native endangered birds and wildlife to expand their knowledge and connection to country.
Birds are a wonderful metaphor for students to express the hidden narratives for literacy, they are collaborative creatures that flock together, expanding their wings and migrating from place to place in the search for a place they call home.
“Birds are the first things we see, you know, when we wake up. See and hear. Birds are like roosters to us, they wake us up in the mornings.” (Artist Katie Nalgood)
Aboriginal Artist Katie Nalgood, has a strong affinity with birds, the diverse feathered creatures filling her personal history as well as cultural life. They are as much a part of her Country as she is, and their songs are the sound memories of her home. She finds inspiration in their different colours, forms and personalities. Students responded by making their own native birds and protecting them in their uniquely designed nesting boxes.
These were made using recycled materials and natural wood, in the schools' Makers Space, with the intention they will be later installed on the tree to monitor/record the secret lives of birds that will nest in them and give life to the tree.
How did we make the curriculum come alive?
We made the curriculum come alive by expanding their horizons and exposing them to multiple learning opportunities, with the aim of building a sense of connection to country using birds as a metaphor (for themselves) and a way of improving literacy, wellness and learner agency.
We integrated mindfulness at the start of each session, that took place outside the front of the school within the yarning circle. Here the students could access a different physical and mental space which captured learning in different ways, using visual literacy, we drew and wrote with sticks and feathers to observe the sounds and shapes of the world we could see and hear around us, connecting with nature and imagining different points of view. These personal explorations were integrated into individual expanding concertina books, each session creating one page that accumulated to the sum of the whole book.
We made literary links to the dreamtime story of ‘How the Birds got their colours’ and the ‘Soul Bird,’ a creature who has thoughts, feelings, dreams and helps students understand and navigate why they behave the way they do. Both these books explored the themes of friendship and feelings and became a catalyst for a collaborative book, where each student designed a wrote a page that would connect with others, they did this collaboratively by planning, designing and reworking the story so it would make sense. Then when we put it through, we captured their voice to accompany the book to give a sense of authenticity and flow.
How did we make the Creative Habits of Mind come alive?
They explored the creative habits of learning and made them come to life. Each student was greeted with a secret handshake before entering the classroom, each one to reflect their different and diverse personalities. Then, they would choose somewhere for a 10mins mindfulness warmup, usually choosing to sit round the yarning circle, where they observed the world through a different lens. Not only did they feel inquisitive about which lens they may look through, they activated their imaginations to open their minds for possibilities for the main activity.
Collaboration and persistence were strong habits they needed to develop. They struggled to combine ideas and materials to succeed with functional nesting boxes, which ended up as cross sections of boxes exposing the learning inside. They became a diorama for the class-learning journey. A talking point for literacy and oral presentations for their end of term exhibition. As they reflected on which of the creative habits they had developed the most during the creative schools' sessions; they selected a coloured feather that represented the habit (pink for being inquisitive, green for being persistent, blue for imaginative, yellow for disciplined and purple for collaborative). They added these feathers into their nest that also contained creative learning eggs and their clay birds. Each week they could see the learning grown as they put more of their learning into the nest.
How did we activate student voice and learner agency?
We activated student voice and expanded learner agency by utilising different spaces within the school. After each lesson we noticed that the makers space was becoming a space for learning and realising their ideas. Each time we entered the space you could see how much more they were working together to achieve results and learning about each other's strengths as part of the process and becoming much more collaborative as a group.
WHAT WAS THE IMPACT?
The impact for the students was one of being excited that today was a creative schools’ day, given an opportunity to learn in different spaces, with different people to make a difference to the birds living at the school.
“There was baby wattlebird that fell out of the nest at school, we went to look at it and check that it was OK, it couldn’t fly, so we put a barrier around it to protect it. The other wattle birds were still feeding it and protecting it. They were being collaborative.” (Student)
For the Creative, the impact of working in a big picture school, clearly demonstrates an individual approach to building confident young people, the school has lots of potential and supports experiential learning for all students.
“Exposing the students to multiple opportunities for meaningful learning is the key to them making feel connected to their environment and making a difference in the world around them.” (Creative Practitioner)
Teachers
“Working with the Creative School Program has been one of the highlights of my teaching career. Claire Davenhall is a perfect choice for the program, and it has been amazing working alongside her. Well sometimes it has been me trying to keep up with her, but it has still been wonderful. From day one, Claire sat down with me and developed a plan that scaffolded and complimented work that I was already doing. Then on the first day with my students, Claire put a huge effort into developing a relationship with all the students. Her success in this paid off so well that our sessions with her are a highlight for the whole class. Claire also made the learning visual using coloured feathers, when using the Five Habits of Learning language. Instead of just telling students about the habits of learning, Claire had them select a feather the same colour as the habits the students used that day. It worked amazingly well and was a joy to watch.” (Craig Weller, Teacher Advisory Year 7, Yule Brook College)
“Creative Schools is a great opportunity for our students (and staff) to try something new within a really collaborative environment. Of notable value is the mentors. Giving students the chance to utilise the knowledge and creativity of someone outside our usual school context is fantastic and something that I know students will benefit from, even if they don't necessarily recognise this right now. They also have had the opportunity to try different things and contribute to their project in a genuine manner, which is an invaluable experience.” (Sarah King, Team Leader Year 7, Yule Brook College)
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