This week, some examples of one of our favourite types of resource for thinking – the -Ometer. If you want something where you can light the blue touchpaper, retire to a safe distance and let the sparks fly, an -Ometer is the thing!
First, though, an invitation from our friends at Thoughtful.org.uk, the charity that promotes P4C in the UK (formerly SAPERE). It’s to come see them, and us, at their annual P4C Conference on Saturday 15 November at the University of South Wales, Newport, Wales. Tom will be running a session on How to Make Groupwork Work Better, and there are a wealth of interesting parallel sessions as well as some juicy keynotes. Find the full programme here, book tickets here. Thanks to generous funding from The Royal Institute of Philosophy (TRIP), tickets are frozen at the super early bird rate of £70 and bursaries may be available. We hope to see you there!
-Ometers, -Ometers, -Ometers!
Last week I (Tom) ran a session for P4C old-hands at the FAPSA Conference in Victoria, and from it emerged these -Ometers.
The challenge is simple – print (or get the kids to write) each of the bullet points on its own piece of card and give a set of cards to groups of 3-4. Each group has their own set of cards to lay out from most to least something.
This tends to be a teacher favourite on our courses/INSET because it provides plenty of challenging “forks” for children to discuss, leads to plenty of further questions and can be easily embedded into the curriculum.
Unfairometer – order from unfairest to fairest:
- Having to pick up litter because you were caught littering
- A whole class losing 5 mins of break because one person misbehaved
- Getting in trouble for swearing at someone making inapproriate jokes
- Having to wear old sportskit because you forgot yours
- Having to wear old sportskit because you outgrew yours and you haven’t been bought any new stuff
- Being made to apologise for something you didn’t do
- Getting in trouble for refusing to apologise for something you didn’t do
- Getting in trouble for staying schtum on who put the whoopee cushion on the teacher’s chair
Trustometer – order from best to worst reasons to trust someone:
- They’re your friend
- They’ve never lied to you (to your knowledge)
- They are trusted by other people
- They’re in a position of authority
- You trust someone who trusts them
- They’re older
- They’re younger
- They’re popular
- They trust you back
Realometer – order from most to least real:
- Tomorrow
- Yesterday
- Your thoughts
- Dreams
- Emotions
- Memories
- Fear of something that can’t hurt you
- Your likes and dislikes
- The sensation of pinching yourself
- A fiction book
- An ancient myth only recounted, never written
A big thanks to everyone who took part and provided the inspiration for these. If you try one, let us know how it went!
What’s On in The Philosoverse?
Mostly jetlag after our trip to Australia! Next week is a busy one, with Jason at Loyola Prep for a morning with a lucky group of Year 6 students and an oracy twilight, then with Tom to the Great Oracy Exhibition in Birmingham where our friends at the Jersey Oracy Network will be among the presentations. Then Jason’s watching a workshop from Speakers’ Trust to see how they’ve harnessed our oracy principles in their fantastic work with teenagers before a P4HE Residential Weekender. But don’t feel too sorry for him as he’s then off to Mexico for ten days…