Last week, Tom ran a story-writing workshop for Year 3 as part of a wider day organised by the excellent Access Team at Trinity College, Oxford.
And this has inspired this week’s bulletin: an oracy and philosophy session asking…
It feels like one of those questions that’ll work equally well with younger and older students. Experience tells us that younger ones love being asked for their advice on stuff that relates to them, and slightly older ones tend to really enjoy not only the nostalgia of thinking back to their primary years, but also feel expertly placed to offer a considered opinion on something they’ve recent experience of.
Here’s our suggested structure, but you can add/take things away based upon the age of your students:
Starter
Think of a children’s story that has a happy ending.
Now, invent a more realistic ending. We found this far too much fun – see the PS for where our minds went.
You might find your ending happens much sooner than the actual ending. Perhaps avoid for the youngest children – could be risky – but any group with a sense of humour will relish it.
This employs the technique of “starting in the world of the child” – floating the theme of whatever you want them to end up talking about, but beginning right in their backyard. It’s one of the most powerful levers to get everyone breaking their silence.
Ask the children in groups to do the same for other stories they know – it could be an unhappy ending, or just a more realistic one,
Do too many children’s stories have happy endings?
We’ve put together a set of supporting questions that explore a particular concept or theme. Use them as you wish! You might want to focus on just a couple as a whole class, or play “Shuffleswap”:
1. Line everyone up in two parallel rows like a guard of honour.
2. Everyone steps forward to shake hands with a partner.
3. Assign one row the task of arguing “Yes” and the other to argue “No”, introduce the first question and get them arguing from their assigned side.
Optional: Get them to all swap and argue for the opposite, without repeating anything they’ve heard.
4. The last person on one side comes to the other end, and everyone shuffles down.
5. Repeat!
You can also hold a vote between each round, if you wish.
The Right Ending
Can a story ever have the wrong ending?
Responsibility
Should children’s stories teach us about the way the world is, or how we’d like it to be?
Do children’s stories give children false hope about the world? Or do they give us the hope we need?
Impact and consequence
Is there any harm in children’s stories always ending happily?
Enjoyment
Goosebumps author R. L. Stine says, “Children won’t tolerate an unhappy ending.” Is he right?
Compromise
Stories often involve the hero getting what they want. They rarely settle for anything less. Should more stories end with compromises?
If you like this..
Not long ago Jason shared the “Story Creator” – a practical tool for co-planning a story with students.
What are we up to?
As well as his guest spot with Year 3’s at Oxford University, Tom’s sharing oracy strategies with English Subject Leads in Gateshead today. It’s one of many collaborations we’ve got with local councils and trusts, so if you’re involved with organising anything for wider groups of schools, do get in touch to chat about how we might be able to help you.
The biggest one we’re doing right now is with Essex County Council to add the oracy element to their Year of Opportunity. There are tons of fully-funded oracy CPD and student events available. Essex schools can sign up here: www.oracyforschools.co.uk/essexyoo but if you’re not in Essex, feel free to take a peek to see the sort of packages we can offer to MATs or local authorities.
Tom and Jason are both returning to Caterham School next week as everyone’s favourite (and probably only) philosophical kids-TV personalities, Spot and Stripe, to run a day of debate and discussion for a whole year group
PS: We’ll leave it up to you whether you share any of these examples…
- Little Red Riding Hood and Grandma would’ve already been partially dissolved by the wolf’s stomach acid before the hunter ripped the wolf open
- Clown fish become female when the matriarch dies. So Nemo’s dad would have become his Mum and they’d probably have mated.
- All 101 Dalmatians wouldn’t have made it home. Or would they?