Four weeks into the unit and our students are gradually engaging with the complex ideas around how context applies to their study of The Crossing. All those carefully chosen, non-fiction resources have been helpful in getting students to understand the challenges refugees and displaced peoples encounter but, as with any first run-through with a text, this has not been without some mixed results…
A colleague raised in a planning meeting how she and her class were struggling with the text. Not enough reading time factored in, and the combination of extracts and summaries to plug the gaps was not yielding the same quality of insight she was used to from her class. They weren’t getting much out of it. Too much focus on context (non-fiction sources) to the detriment of the narrative and an ability to develop a personal response due to its fragmentation.
My group was having their own crisis, albeit of a different sort. They were struggling with depth. They recognised the juxtaposition of characters (and their situations) and were identifying techniques but found it far more challenging to move beyond describing plot and moving toward analysing reader response or empathy.
The following points and questions were raised by the team:
The need to map in more freewriting activities that allow students to get to grips with writing from character perspective - the better to consider reader response.
Mapping starting points and development of themes (a simple fix and one that should have been included from the beginning). For example, staying focused on how 'grief' developed throughout the text. Nat’s character channels her grief into something positive through the charity swim. Comparing this then with Sammy’s character’s depiction of the same emotion.
Do we feel, as teachers, skilled enough to create an atmosphere of 'psychological safety'?
How do we set the mood/tone for a lesson? Are we trained enough as staff to create that environment?
Back in the planning stages, did we decide what we wanted out of this? Did we refer back to the overall concept for the year (how are conflicts presented in texts?). Was this disconnection hindering our students?
With the above in mind, and with a PSHE curriculum that focuses more on looking outward at Global Goals and practical solutions to them, there’s a clear need for a more interdisciplinary approach in the next steps of our planning and delivery.
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