Pedagogy: Finger Puppet Parables
Friday saw the end of my 3rd week in my 2nd placement school and I thought I would try something different to capture the students attention: the target group, a mixed ability year 7. The group is 28 strong with 2 SEN pupils in need of a lot of support and around 4 who need differentiated material.
Finger puppets was a bit of a risk:
- Would the LA students be able to access the material?
- Would the HA students be stimulated enough?
- Would the activity give the students a proper learning experience, with knowledge to be gained and interest to be stimulated?
I weighed up these questions and in response, balanced the activity amongst others which I hoped would provide balance within the lesson and provide a rounded learning experience. As such the lesson ran roughly as follows:
1) Students enter room and sit for the register. I ask them a few questions to judge their understanding and adapt the level of the lesson accordingly.
2) I ask a student to hand the Bibles out, one between two and give the students the bible passage we will be reading (Luke 15:11-32). I explain how to find the bible passage and give them the page number to help things speed up. I hand out differentiated sheets with a simple version of the story to the LA students.
3) I explain to the class that we are going to read the passage as a class and ask for volunteers. Around 5 students volunteer and I split the passage with 4 verses to each student. It is read out loud with the other students following in their Bibles.
4) Once we have read through the story I quickly summarise so as to simplify some of the language and ensure student understanding.
5) I question the students about the meaning of the parable and am pleasantly surprised to find that they have each taken their own meanings from the story. As a class we explore why Jesus' used parables through questioning and discussion.
6) A video of the Good Samaritan is shown from the Miracle Maker film and the students are warned to pay attention as we will do be using the story in a minute. Having watched it I put a summary of the story on the board and we discuss the meaning again to secure knowledge of how to draw meanings from text.
7) We then move onto the finger puppet activity. I explain to the students that we are going to use finger puppets to act out the story and run through the characters that they will need. The students are split into groups of 4 or 5, if in groups of 5 they have 4 characters and 1 narrator. They each have 1 finger puppets. I give them 10 minutes to choose which character they will be and act out the story a couple of times. I go around each group and see what they're doing, asking questions as I go to assess understanding.
8) Once we have finished with the finger puppets the students work in pairs to complete a mindmap of why Jesus' told parables. 5 minutes later half the class were told to move around the room and share their information with the other half of the class; ensuring they all have the same information. This kind of dynamic sharing allows students to kinaesthetically engage with the material.
9) The lesson finished off with the students completing a written task to answer the question using the mindmap material.
I asked the students at the end of the lesson whether they enjoyed using finger puppets: the resounding yes almost deafened me, and from the look of the written task they took a lot from the lesson.
If I was to do the lesson again I would ask them to use the finger puppets to act out the parable so that they could have their excitement, and then give them a moral and ask them to make a story to demonstrate it. This would have accessed the higher levels of their understanding and pushed them further. But overall it was a success and I would definitely repeat the exercise.
Finger puppets was a bit of a risk:
- Would the LA students be able to access the material?
- Would the HA students be stimulated enough?
- Would the activity give the students a proper learning experience, with knowledge to be gained and interest to be stimulated?
I weighed up these questions and in response, balanced the activity amongst others which I hoped would provide balance within the lesson and provide a rounded learning experience. As such the lesson ran roughly as follows:
1) Students enter room and sit for the register. I ask them a few questions to judge their understanding and adapt the level of the lesson accordingly.
2) I ask a student to hand the Bibles out, one between two and give the students the bible passage we will be reading (Luke 15:11-32). I explain how to find the bible passage and give them the page number to help things speed up. I hand out differentiated sheets with a simple version of the story to the LA students.
3) I explain to the class that we are going to read the passage as a class and ask for volunteers. Around 5 students volunteer and I split the passage with 4 verses to each student. It is read out loud with the other students following in their Bibles.
4) Once we have read through the story I quickly summarise so as to simplify some of the language and ensure student understanding.
5) I question the students about the meaning of the parable and am pleasantly surprised to find that they have each taken their own meanings from the story. As a class we explore why Jesus' used parables through questioning and discussion.
6) A video of the Good Samaritan is shown from the Miracle Maker film and the students are warned to pay attention as we will do be using the story in a minute. Having watched it I put a summary of the story on the board and we discuss the meaning again to secure knowledge of how to draw meanings from text.
7) We then move onto the finger puppet activity. I explain to the students that we are going to use finger puppets to act out the story and run through the characters that they will need. The students are split into groups of 4 or 5, if in groups of 5 they have 4 characters and 1 narrator. They each have 1 finger puppets. I give them 10 minutes to choose which character they will be and act out the story a couple of times. I go around each group and see what they're doing, asking questions as I go to assess understanding.
8) Once we have finished with the finger puppets the students work in pairs to complete a mindmap of why Jesus' told parables. 5 minutes later half the class were told to move around the room and share their information with the other half of the class; ensuring they all have the same information. This kind of dynamic sharing allows students to kinaesthetically engage with the material.
9) The lesson finished off with the students completing a written task to answer the question using the mindmap material.
I asked the students at the end of the lesson whether they enjoyed using finger puppets: the resounding yes almost deafened me, and from the look of the written task they took a lot from the lesson.
If I was to do the lesson again I would ask them to use the finger puppets to act out the parable so that they could have their excitement, and then give them a moral and ask them to make a story to demonstrate it. This would have accessed the higher levels of their understanding and pushed them further. But overall it was a success and I would definitely repeat the exercise.
Comments
Post a Comment