This 4-day thinking project began as a borough wide Literacy project from the LINCCS group (Camden based, now defunkt) in 2010 and the only input we had was the slightly cryptic statement: "Linking Words, Linking Places". I discussed this with my Year 4's - some of whom had already begun to develop more lateral thinking skills. We agreed not to respond literally to the brief - the work that followed aimed to take advantage of the broadness of the remit.
In a single week, through four 60-90 minute lessons we:
- Established that we could interpret 'Linking Places' as subjective memories - places in time
- Shared stories and memories and the language that we associate with them
- Explored language - and how words signify 'things'
- Developed and recorded a formal response to the brief
After the first session I realised that although we were supposed to be rehearsing some work for performance, by far the most fascinating aspect was the process. When I presented unusual linguistic ideas - e.g. George Perec's book
A Void - children were not only showing a surprising depth of understanding but they were all highly stimulated and engaged - at different levels they were exploring, and becoming curious about language itself, in isolation and in its typical context.
The video came about by accident - although I do use video frequently. I asked the children if they wanted to perform their pieces live or show a video 'journey' . They chose the latter; although the final 4 minutes is essentially what we would have performed live.
I would like to do more work in which creativity is central to learning...curriculum permitting.
Year 4 hope you enjoy their video,
gx
