I've just signed up to do a teach meet presentation on Thursday (THIS Thursday...mad woman) and have decided to do a completely non-whizzy/techie presentation about my thoughts on how to teach WW2 to Year 3. If I get my act together I might learn to use Prezi to help things along...but I might not. I've decided to blog about it to collect my thoughts and work out what I might say!
Then there's 'Hide-away Day.' When I taught about Anne Frank I wanted a way to make it come home to my class how difficult the 'hiding' must have been. How difficult not to have fresh air, how difficult to leave all theri friends, how difficult to be quiet all morning- most mornings. ...how difficult to live for 2 years in such a confined space....
I blacked out the classroom (link to science (materials) and checking out which material was the best for a blackout using a data-logger) one night after school. The next morning I brought them in urgently...EVERYTHING had to be brought in, it had to appear to the rest of the school as though we weren't there. Blinds were down, dim light in the classroom, no IWB on. I explained in a hushed whisper what was going on, they had to be quiet (tough call) all morning, no noise for fear of being discovered...They also had to amuse themselves apart from one set task - a diary. They had to write about what they thought/felt at the beginning - at playtime when they were missing their 'basketball day.' and at the end of the morning.- Each day a class gets the basketball court as their special area - mostly boys play football and girls try to avoid the footballs!..I picked their day on purpose, hoping that missing something they loved would help them to understand to some extent how hard/difficult life must have been in the Annexe.
I'd also arranged for a member of staff to knock loudly on our door...the class froze!! We later discussed this - how must it have felt in the Annexe when they thought they were about to discovered? Indeed how did it feel when they were discovered?
Toilet watch was a popular job - they had to work out when the best time was, try to be quick, not be seen and definitely keep an eye out!...
All in all I think this worked, they really didn't like missing their football time - this was ONE 20 minute session in their life - Anne Frank spent over 2 years cooped up and missing her life...their diaries were good, full of thoughts and feelings, especially about missing their playtime and what might have been happening! As the morning went on it became harder for them to keep quiet and there was a big sense of relief when it was all over. It's so difficult I think for us - in this world we have - to really have any idea of what that must have been like....
So - WW2, 'real' videos, living history and a bit of a creative idea...feel free to steal!
A bit about me - I'm in my 4th year of paid teaching and before that I drove around the country like a maniac for about 20 years playing the double bass professionally for anyone who would pay me before deciding that that was a bit of a mad - often brilliant- life! Mad driving such as a concert one night on the Isle of Wight and the next one in Newcastle kind of made me decide that I needed a 'proper job.'...so....I did the GTR course, did playing & teaching for 2 years (+2 other jobs) and then decided I just needed one job when I was offered full-time teaching last year in Y3.
So, last year at this exact time I taught WW2 to Y3 for the first time - boy, what a tough thing to teach I thought. How on earth do I get that across to children who are 7 or 8 years old? How do I make them understand the terror, mindless killing, madness, horror - and also goodness, working togetherness, goodness despite everythingness in a 'Y3' way?
I decided to use videos from U-tube, videos that hit home - especially those with powerful music...BBC newsreels, quirky things such as an instructional video on how to put a gas mask on or how to dispose of an incendiary bomb that might have fallen in your back garden...all to be found on U-tube or teaching videos.co.uk...I was thrilled at the response I got, shock, worries, thought about questions - some just not understanding and being helped by others to understand...very good teaching tool.
Then I thought about 'living history.' My mum is German, she was about 7 years old when her town was completely flattened - see photo below. My 'Opa' (grandad) was hauled out of bed in the middle of the night by the German Military and conscripted. He was in Stalingrad just before it was invaded - he got leave 2 days before this and so enabled me to know him. My mum's neighbour's husband (sadly no longer with us) escaped from Colditz Castle - his wife has his diary, photos, memories and his tale to tell. My mums' other neighbour was a Land Girl...Living history - grab it while you can...my class last year were hooked. I hope to repeat the afternoon with my class this year....
Then there's 'Hide-away Day.' When I taught about Anne Frank I wanted a way to make it come home to my class how difficult the 'hiding' must have been. How difficult not to have fresh air, how difficult to leave all theri friends, how difficult to be quiet all morning- most mornings. ...how difficult to live for 2 years in such a confined space....
I blacked out the classroom (link to science (materials) and checking out which material was the best for a blackout using a data-logger) one night after school. The next morning I brought them in urgently...EVERYTHING had to be brought in, it had to appear to the rest of the school as though we weren't there. Blinds were down, dim light in the classroom, no IWB on. I explained in a hushed whisper what was going on, they had to be quiet (tough call) all morning, no noise for fear of being discovered...They also had to amuse themselves apart from one set task - a diary. They had to write about what they thought/felt at the beginning - at playtime when they were missing their 'basketball day.' and at the end of the morning.- Each day a class gets the basketball court as their special area - mostly boys play football and girls try to avoid the footballs!..I picked their day on purpose, hoping that missing something they loved would help them to understand to some extent how hard/difficult life must have been in the Annexe.
I'd also arranged for a member of staff to knock loudly on our door...the class froze!! We later discussed this - how must it have felt in the Annexe when they thought they were about to discovered? Indeed how did it feel when they were discovered?
Toilet watch was a popular job - they had to work out when the best time was, try to be quick, not be seen and definitely keep an eye out!...
All in all I think this worked, they really didn't like missing their football time - this was ONE 20 minute session in their life - Anne Frank spent over 2 years cooped up and missing her life...their diaries were good, full of thoughts and feelings, especially about missing their playtime and what might have been happening! As the morning went on it became harder for them to keep quiet and there was a big sense of relief when it was all over. It's so difficult I think for us - in this world we have - to really have any idea of what that must have been like....
So - WW2, 'real' videos, living history and a bit of a creative idea...feel free to steal!
Hi Nicola. Thanks for sharing this great teaching story. All I can say is Wow! I wish my kids had had teachers like you. I was thinking of teaching Anne Frank with my Year 6/7s later this year - I wonder if this would work with 11 - 13 year olds.
Thank you for your lovely words Pam!...Yes definitely think that the utube & living history would...hmmm hide-away, I think that would work with older children if there's a place they could go to rather than just be in the classroom?