Trick children into learning

Author:
Hywel Roberts
Main Subject:
CPD
Subject:
Creativity
Date Posted:
06 December 2013

With a little cunning, patience and the right tools, children won’t spot your learning snares until it’s already too late, says Hywel Roberts...

Okay. Tool up. You need:

A shovel
Some branches
A class
A repertoire of instant classroom engagement
To ignore 1 and 2 as they are metaphors

The image projected on the wall is of workman and surveyors dangling from the top of the Empire State building. The camera points down, watching the men working as New York City sprawls out beneath them, dizzying and splendid. The men are talking, ignoring the camera and focused on the task in hand. They are gripped by their work, casually holding on to their mortality without, it appears, a care in the world.

The context is a Y11 borderline English Language GCSE ‘group’, created especially for the session with me. The teacher welcoming me into school with a brew and biscuit whispers a “good luck” as I go into the classroom. Ouch. It’s empty. Just desks and chairs.

I get the projected image up. I’ve used it with teachers before as well as primary children. It makes some adults and kids woozy with its perspective, and I’m hoping it’ll produce a similar reaction today from these more streetwise teenagers about to experience a structured ‘intervention’. The expectation is that we get some writing done. These boys (as they all turn out to be), don’t want to write. I wait.

I suppose the shovel is the preparation. It’s used to dig the hole that will catch these lads off guard, a trap manifested in the photograph. The branches covering the hole are my behaviours: my demeanour – the way I’m just sitting at the side of the room waiting for the group to arrive, with butterflies running amok in my stomach as they often do. I feel like this a lot when working with a class for the first time. It’s the calm before the storm: the rapport-building tsunami that whips around my head as the first young man walks in. The trap is set. And it works: hook, line and sinker. He enters, eyeballs me, then looks at the men hanging from the top of the Empire State Building. The back to me, eyeball to eyeball.

“I could do that,” he says. It’s not a conversation starter from him; it’s a statement of perceived fact. It’s him projecting his view of the world onto a picture of a view of the world. It’s also a declaration of investment.

Now I have a choice. Here is a possible response to his casual statement: “That’s splendid. Now please sit down and let’s wait for the others to arrive.” Yes, I could say that. But of course I won’t. I say this: “Really? I couldn’t. No way!” (That’s me delving into my creative repertoire and pulling out teacher fallibility.) “Why?” he hisses in a grinning, biddable way. “You scared?” And that’s it. When his peers arrive he pulls them into the conversation around courage, heights, fears and spiders. When we settle and look back at the picture, we see the workmen and consider what circumstances have led them to the top of the tall building. We enquire into their motivations (‘earn a living?’) and make assumptions about the lives that they might lead. We consider the document they must have signed to get them so high up. And we talk of their attributes and qualifications. And then we create it. An official document. An agreement between The Empire State Building and these blue collar contractors. It is created in draft form in their books to be transformed into an ‘authentic fake’ (and GCSE piece) later.

Now, put this through your edu-filter. I know this is an anecdote regarding GCSE children, but I can offer similar responses from much younger people. For example, a Year 4 child when looking at the same picture recently asked, “What have they got in their bags all the way up there?” The class decided the men were carrying photographs of loved ones.

The investment in the work grew from the ‘settler’ activity at the start of the session – something to do straight away. Too often as teachers we are bogged down with administration, registers, school lunches and other routines. Don’t get me wrong, routines are very necessary in any classroom and are there for a reason: to get what needs doing done.

Don’t forget, a settler doesn’t necessarily have to link to the whole session. It’s there to do what it says on the tin: to settle your learners into the mood for learning and enquiry; to get them happy to be with you, to support them in leaving their baggage (physical or otherwise) in the appropriate place. This is the stuff you’ve obscured with the metaphorical branches I mentioned at the beginning. This is the hook. The lure.

The best place to start hooking children into learning is to begin with your greatest resource and take a look in the mirror; who do the children see when they walk into your room? Teachers need to maintain some basic behaviours they often forget to mention at teacher-training institutions.

I call them specific teacher acts:

smiling
laughter
enthusiasm
energy
patience

These are, perhaps, a little groan-inducing for the more weary reader, but to a child, these are vital; and, like our hearts, we need to wear them on our sleeves. What do these ‘acts’ look like in your classroom? Could you consider them? Should you consider them? They can be really hard to muster, but I hope you’ll agree they are important. I’d want my child to be taught by someone who was good at all these things. Wouldn’t we all?

It’s those first five minutes that show who you are as a teacher and what you expect from your children. Try not to waste them.

Stocking your toolbox

Consider the following when setting a learning trap…

A fat (open) question on the whiteboard – a new one every day. Two minutes to think, two minutes with talk partners, then feed back responses. For example: ‘Why do we have bones?’; ‘How can we reduce poverty?’; ‘What are we going to do about the Big Bad Wolf?’
A fascinating photograph as described above — type ‘rich poor contrast’ into an image search engine and you’ll see what I mean. This image stimulus can invite the same process as the fat question.
On a pen drive, build up a collection of powerful images and questions that you can access quickly, no matter what room you are in — this is particularly good for colleagues who teach supply or who are on cover supervision.
Never underestimate the power of using appropriate music.