GPP - Cross curricular display (description below)
One of the tasks I completed during my first placement was designing and producing a cross curricular display. I chose to chronicle the events of the science topic that my class was studying. They were learning about thermal insulators but learnt it in a cross curricular way. The series of lessons that took place and were chronicled by my display are as follows (there was often more than one lesson a week on the topic as it covered science, history and literacy):
Week 1: The pupils received a letter from Mrs. Smith telling the pupils about her problem. She was a woman living in London during WW2 and had to spend a lot of time in the air raid shelter. Her problem was that she would take a hot drink into the air raid shelter but it would soon go cold. She wanted the class to find out which material (out of the ones available to her that she sent) would keep her drink the warmest for the longest.
The pupils were given the 10 materials and in pairs had to make a prediction and say which material would keep the drink the warmest for longest and why and also, which material would be the worst effective insulator and why. It sparked some very interesting discussion and I managed to elicit a lot of the pupils knowledge which allowed to me plan subsequent lessons.
Week 2: The pupils wrote back to Mrs. Smith in the formal style of a letter. They told her what the class had predicted as well as what they will have to do next to test the materials. They were writing for a purpose and were very engaged and enthusiastic about the whole topic. I truly believe that this improved the quality of their written work.
Week 3: Before the class could carry out the scientific investigation they needed to learn how to use a thermometer. After they had learnt ways to read different thermometers, they wrote instructions on how to correctly use a thermometer. The instructions included: a list of materials needed; a section for safety; imperative verbs; an appropriate title and very easy to follow steps.
Week 4: This was the week when the pupils carried out the scientific experiment (the pupils also produced a plan but I did not but this onto the display due to lack of space). Each table had been given two drinks and two materials. They read the thermometer every 5 minutes and recorded the temperature in a spreadsheet on Excel. The speech bubbles, written by the pupils, say how the test was made fair,
Week 5: In the final week, the pupils wrote back to Mrs. Smith to let her know the results of the experiment and which material she should use. The pupils wrote their scientific conclusion in the letter as well.
Week 1: The pupils received a letter from Mrs. Smith telling the pupils about her problem. She was a woman living in London during WW2 and had to spend a lot of time in the air raid shelter. Her problem was that she would take a hot drink into the air raid shelter but it would soon go cold. She wanted the class to find out which material (out of the ones available to her that she sent) would keep her drink the warmest for the longest.
The pupils were given the 10 materials and in pairs had to make a prediction and say which material would keep the drink the warmest for longest and why and also, which material would be the worst effective insulator and why. It sparked some very interesting discussion and I managed to elicit a lot of the pupils knowledge which allowed to me plan subsequent lessons.
Week 2: The pupils wrote back to Mrs. Smith in the formal style of a letter. They told her what the class had predicted as well as what they will have to do next to test the materials. They were writing for a purpose and were very engaged and enthusiastic about the whole topic. I truly believe that this improved the quality of their written work.
Week 3: Before the class could carry out the scientific investigation they needed to learn how to use a thermometer. After they had learnt ways to read different thermometers, they wrote instructions on how to correctly use a thermometer. The instructions included: a list of materials needed; a section for safety; imperative verbs; an appropriate title and very easy to follow steps.
Week 4: This was the week when the pupils carried out the scientific experiment (the pupils also produced a plan but I did not but this onto the display due to lack of space). Each table had been given two drinks and two materials. They read the thermometer every 5 minutes and recorded the temperature in a spreadsheet on Excel. The speech bubbles, written by the pupils, say how the test was made fair,
Week 5: In the final week, the pupils wrote back to Mrs. Smith to let her know the results of the experiment and which material she should use. The pupils wrote their scientific conclusion in the letter as well.