One of the delights of a typical day in a school is the chance to work with Reception. At that age, there are three main aims to a session – maximizing engagement, improving paired talk and getting children to give reasons for their answers. Of all the approaches we have, there’s none better than creating a story together, with the children supplying all the essentials of the story and you adding a bit of colour along the way. This Story Creator (click the link for the PDF) is a handy guide until you get the hang of it.
Here’s an example from Georgian Gardens school on Wednesday, followed by some tips. Their topic was “Down on the Farm”, so we started with pairs sharing animals and things they might see on a farm, things that might be happening on a farm etc. Then we were off…
What’s this story about?
A pig.
And the pig’s name was…
Piglet.
Of course, He was just a little pig after all. And what did Piglet want most in the world?
Mud.
Why did he want mud?
So he can bathe in it.
Right. But there was no mud on the farm where piglet lived. So he decided he had to go and find some mud. How was he going to do that?
He can fly.
Why does he need to fly?
Because it’s a long way.
Of course. And how do you think Piglet is going to fly? Stand up and talk to your partner and share your ideas about what he should do…
Who’s got an idea?
I think he should use a jet pack.
Use a magic carpet.
OK, we’ve got two ideas there. Who’s got a reason for why a jet pack, or why a magic carpet?
Piglet opted for the magic carpet because it wouldn’t run out of petrol. It emerged that sausages meant forwards, bananas meant up and cucumber meant down. The first thing he saw once he was up in the air was a huge cloud, and soon he couldn’t see where he was going. Should he go up, or down, and why… I left the story at the point where he was plummeting quickly towards a ten-pin bowling alley…
Teacher Tips
- You can ask questions, but it’s more economical to leave gaps for them to fill in.
- The crucial question in the setup is, “What does X want most in the world?” as that begins the story, drives the middle and provides an ending.
- Get the character in trouble, then have the children suggest different ways to get out of trouble, and then choose one.
- Take some suggestions from individual children, move the story on quickly, and then when you reach an important choice give the opportunity for paired talk. Then when you hear back, once you have two different options ask for reasons for and against each option.
Finding the Philosophy
This exercise is well worth the time for the creativity, turn-taking and focused attention it creates, and also simply because it’s a shared joy. They are really excited by their agency in creating the story, in an analogous way to how teenagers will really get into role in Dungeons and Dragons. But sometimes, the hero might face a dilemma – break a promise to one person in order to help someone else, for example.
For Older Children
They can use much the same approach but independently, telling a story in groups. You can also layer in some questions that invite the use of richer language in telling the story.
What’s On in the Philosoverse?
Jason went on from Kettering, hosting the P4HE Winter Weekender for 40 curious-minded secondary age students to Brighton Girls Prep, for a day that mixed demo sessions with some work on oracy strategy. Meanwhile, Tom returned to Taunton Prep School, for two days of whole-year-group events, mixing philosophy, argumentag wrestling and our Speculate to Accumulate riddle-solving game. Then we joined up for a day at Georgian Gardens in Angmering, where between us we were able to do demonstration sessions with every class in a two-form entry school. With staff training at each school it was quite a busy few days!
We really do think one of the most valuable things we do is showing teachers the techniques in action, so you can see the principle of effective oracy at work with your own students. The CPD that follows makes so much more sense when you’ve seen it happening “for real”. Get in touch if you’d like to talk about getting us into your classroom.