Boys & Learning: Build, Design, Create & Experiment

Above: Experimentation & play

In an article in 'The Atlantic' Jessica Lahey called on schools to 'stop penalizing boys for not being able to sit still at school'. The article was motivated by her observations of boys as a teacher and her reading of the findings of research on boys published by the International Boys’ Schools Coalition’s 'Teaching Boys: A global study of effective practices'. Her teaching of boys suggested that while some struggled at school, others thrived. What is the ingredient that leads to inconsistency? Is it simply within the boys, or are there factors external to the boys that are at work?
As a young boy I experienced first hand what it means to move from being a talented and successful boy in the primary school years, to being a struggling student who was often in trouble as a teenager. At secondary school I slipped from A classes to B classes and then found myself struggling with a number of subjects. However, my achievements varied across subject. While in some classes I was rebellious and disengaged, in others I was motivated and successful. This is not an uncommon experience for boys. Some teachers, subject and even specific lessons work for boys, while others don't. Why? Is the answer in the curriculum? The content? The child? Or something else?

The research work by Dr Michael Reichert and Dr Richard Hawley set out to find answers to questions such as these, and concluded that the problem wasn't just within the boys. They interviewed teachers and students and observed effective lessons in eighteen participating schools from North America, UK, South Africa and Australasia. They found that the most effective lessons for boys included a number of common elements:

• They required students to be active learners (physical activities were a key)
• The teacher embedded desired learning outcomes in the form of a game or fun activities
• The lessons required individuals or groups of students to build, design, or create something that was judged competitively by classmates
• They required students to present the outcome of their work to other students
• They asked students to assume a role, declare and defend a position, or speak persuasively about something
• The lessons held student attention by surprising them with some kind of novelty element
• Lessons addressed something deep and personal in the boys’ lives; they engaged at a deeper personal level.

Getting a sense of scale!

Reichart and Hawley concluded that the learning problem wasn't due to the limitations of the boys, but rather the failure of lessons to actively engage them. What they found when they observed effective lessons in the eighteen participating schools from North America, UK, South Africa and Australasia, was that relatively simple changes in classroom pedagogy made a difference for boys.

The common features in successful lessons for boys were active learning, movement, teamwork, competition, consequential performance, risk taking, and surprise.  They concluded that successful lessons required teachers to engage and energize boys. They also found that boys were deeply relational and that the establishment of a positive relationship between teachers and boys is critical.

This last point is important. Over many years I have often asked students to name a great teacher and then to say why. The reasons given vary, and are typically idiosyncratic. But within each of the responses, invariably the student indicates that the teacher 'took an interest in them', 'understood them', 'saw some potential in them', 'got them interested in learning' and generally excited and engaged them. The general thrust of this work and its findings is that rather than simply blaming boys for their under performance, we need to seek different approaches in our classrooms to help to engage them as learners.

The excitement of chemistry

In my own life I can think of three teachers who made a difference to my life - Mr Campbell (Grade 4), Mr Blaze (Grade 7) and Mr Hoddle (Grade 11). My memories of them are rich but the methods they used to engage me were very simple (and in one case unconventional). All had a deep commitment to their teaching and empathy for their students. They wanted me to learn and saw potential within me that other teachers weren't able to see. Mr Campbell when confronted with a new aquarium in his classroom turned to me one day and said, "I'd like you to find out all that you can about tropic fish". He gave me a book and sent me off to find out about them and how to care for them. Several weeks later he asked me to present a mini-lesson to the class on tropical fish.  I was now the school expert on tropical fish!

My grade 6 maths teacher Mr Blaze (he was also my home room teacher, and cricket coach) overheard a student ridiculing me one day in class because I was overweight. He turned to the boy and said "I'll tell you what Meli, I bet TC will beat you in the cross-country race this week". He proceeded to set a wager, with the winner to receive $10 from his pocket. Now I had no intention prior to this of going in that race. But I did, and ended up $10 richer.

Mr Hoddle simply showed me that geography could be exciting by sharing his love of the subject and something of his life with a small group of senior students. He made it interesting by setting tasks that made us explore, solve problems and work collaboratively with others. And all the while he was interested in our lives and us.

The power of experience

None of these teachers used startling methods, and Mr Blaze used one that was positively dodgy, but all showed an ability to understand me and to try to reach and engage me. They also sought to understand me relationally, treating me with respect, believing in me and somehow, helping me to believe in myself. That's the art of good teaching for boys (and girls as well).

Boys and girls are different and as such at times require us to seek different approaches and forms of engagement. It is easy to dismiss boys who act out in classrooms as simply a pain in the neck for the teacher, but the acting out usually has some source and foundation. Just what is it, and how do we respond? The work of Michael Reichert and Richard Hawley offer us some clues and ways forward.

Jessica Lahey concludes her excellent article with these wise words:

"Educators should strive to teach all children, both girls and boys by acknowledging, rather than dismissing, their particular and distinctive educational needs."

My Previous Posts on Boys

I have written a number of posts on education for boys HERE

Brain Research Shows Reading Literature Matters! Some Practical Implications

I've written before about the amazing capabilities of the brain, in particular, the capacity that the brain of the young child has to learn and change rapidly in the first years of life (here). A number of research projects have shown that babies and the very young can know, observe, imagine, explore and learn more than we previously thought possible. In a second post (here) I explored the place of 'deep practice' in learning and the increased plasticity that we now know the brain possesses. In this post I want to comment on a third area of inquiry that has demonstrated some amazing new connections between 'real life' experiences and those encountered via the experiences of human intellectual activities like reading.




Have you ever heard people say things like:

"I was lost in the book"
"I was so moved by that book I couldn't talk about it"
"After finishing the book I simply sat gripping it lost in a moment of devastating pain"
"Books are my escape into a world that is less painful than my everyday life"
"I hated that character"
"The book changed my life"

For many of us, the experience of literature can have quite profound impacts on us. Recent neuroscience research is beginning to give us some sense of why this might be so. This research has used MRI brain scans to help us understand the way the brain reacts when the subjects read certain things. Of particular interest has been what happens to brain activity when we read about experiences, compared to how it reacts when we have firsthand experiences. In short, the weight of various projects suggests that the brain doesn't behave that differently whether we read about experiences, or actually have real life experience. Whether read, or experienced, the same regions of the brain appear to be stimulated. Annie Paul wrote an excellent excellent overview and introduction to this area a couple of years ago (HERE).

In varied research projects brain scans are revealing much about brain activity as we read texts with detailed description, evocative metaphor and event emotional exchanges between characters. Just as readers have experienced while reading, science is showing how stories stimulate the brain and can even change how we act in life.

It isn't a new concept that the language regions of the brain like Broca’s and Wernicke’s are involved in the way the brain interprets written words. Research now shows that narrative activates many other parts of our brains as well. The experience of reading can feel as if it is real life. For example, experiments have shown that words like “lavender,” “cinnamon” and “soap” don't just elicit responses from the language-processing areas of our brains, they also elicit those dealing with smell.

Other research has shown that reading tastes and topics impact on how readers self-identify. For example people who read the Harry Potter self-identify with wizards, while those who read Stephanie Meyers 'Twilight' vampire themed fantasy romance novels self-identify as vampires.

Studies on the psychology of fiction increasingly provide the evidence for why we often experience deeply emotional experiences with books. Books influence our emotions and ideas and in fact can change us! It's worth thinking about what we read, as well as what our children read (and as an aside, what they watch).

Novelist and professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Toronto Keith Oatley, suggests that reading can produce vivid simulations of reality. Rich descriptions, emotionally gripping texts and vivid human encounters offer a type of passage into the real world. Fiction he suggests offers a rich replica of life! You can read some of his work HERE.

Applying this research

Most teachers of literature and avid readers will tell you that this all makes sense to them and matches their experiences. But it does underline a few basic things that teachers and parents should note:

1. Reading fiction matters and it must NOT be neglected
2. Variety in fiction is important for children as they learn about their world and themselves
3. Teachers and parents should give attention to trying to connect children to varied and good literature.
4. Persist in trying to connect our children with special books

Some Practical applications

1. Work hard to connect children with varied books that they will enjoy  2. Help children to manage their time so that they have time to read - this might require us to restrict screen time for activities those activities that offer only limited reading opportunities.
3. Provide opportunities for children to experience all forms of literature (novels, plays, poetry as well as film)
4. Show interest in the things children read - talk to them about their reading, ask them to share what they are reading and why, engage with them concerning the content of their reading and their interests.
5. Encourage opportunities for children to share their reading interests - try discussion groups, one-on-one reading conferences, 'dining room table' discussions with small groups of students (as developed by Nancie Atwell).
6. Help children to become writers as well - reading feeds writing and writing feeds reading. Get children excited about both by allowing them to take greater control and by supporting them at every step. Encourage them to write for real readers and try to establish ways for others to read their writing as well.

Raising Chickens: The Power of Experience for Learning

The benefit of 'hands on'!

I have written previously about the 'The Language Experience Approach' (LEA) to literacy on this blog (here) and how direct and personal experience is a key method for rich learning to take place (here).

Some of my grandchildren are experiencing this in a very special way right now as they raise four chickens. There are four children in the family and four chickens. Every day brings new observations, discoveries, investigation and research as they feed, hold and simply watch their development day by day. Questions are asked constantly as changes occur in the chickens. "Hey this one seems to have five toes?". "Is that possible, don't they have four?" "What is the tuft of feathers on that one's head?" Of to search the internet for some answers. "Hey, I think this one is a Silkie not a Pekin"! 

LEA is a term known primarily by teachers and educators, and probably had its genesis in the creative activities of many teachers who drew on children’s firsthand experiences when structuring early literacy. Typically, these were teachers of young children who grasped just how powerful real life experience is to the stimulation of children's language and learning:

• The squelch of mud between toes on a wet day in the back yard
• Running on a sandy beach for the first time
• Watching a worm wiggle in the palm of a small hand
• Building a cubby house from boxes in the back yard
• Watching a bird build its nest in a tree in the playground in spring
• Doing hand painting
• Observing chickens as they grow bigger day by day

Watching them eating, sleeping and at play

One early advocate of this approach was Sylvia Ashton-Warner (1963) who wrote a book called Teacher (New York: Bantam Books). In it she outlined her "organic" approach to teaching based on the recognition of what she saw as the opposing human forces of destructiveness and creativity. A second significant person in the development of the LEA was Roach Van Allen whose research and teaching led him to develop similar approaches in the early 1960s.

The method draws on children’s firsthand experiences that are either naturally occurring or are planned by the teacher or parent. The experience becomes a focus for discussion and exploration and eventually is recorded as a written text in some way. Some people see this as a method suitable only for young children but nothing could be further from the truth. Any adult who has done or seen things for the first time will attest to the power of a significant new experience - seeing new places, doing things for the first time, tasting new food, finding yourself immersed in a significant event - new experiences have a major impact on learning and our use of language to describe these events. Such experiences teach us new things and move us to use language to make sense of the experience and tell others about it.

The approach in a nutshell

This approach to learning has four main elements:

• Sharing an experience
• Talking about the experience
• Making some record of the experience (words, pictures, photographs)
• Finally, using the recorded experience for further reading, discussion and the stimulation of further writing

More details for teachers or homeschoolers

I thought it might help to see as a typical language experience for each of two age levels. The second example is centred on raising chickens.

A Preschool Example - 'Hunting for creatures in the yard'

a) The experience

Collecting insects in the back yard

One of the favourite activities at our house when children visit is hunting for insects or other living things in the back yard. If you live in an apartment you'll have to walk to the closest park or open space where there are gardens, trees and grass. If you have a magnifying glass all the better and perhaps a couple of bottles (or a bug catcher) and a couple of used ice cream or margarine containers.

As a parent or teacher you do need to exercise great care with this activity. Know about any dangerous insects in your area and be able to recognise them. If you don't know enough, have someone else with you who does. Worms, snails, slaters, ants and slugs are easy and safe. If you don't like the thought of holding a worm then there are lots of other insects to see in any yard. Look at the bark on any tree, lift a rock in the garden (with care if there are spiders where you live - use a stick), lift a pile of mulch, turn a sod of moist soil, look closely at the leaves on a tree, search the flowers and so on.

b) Talk about it

You can't help but talk about an experience like this, your child or children will be talking incessantly - "look at this", "ooo - it's moving", "watch out!", "what is it?", "it smells", "it jumped" etc. Ask questions as you share the experience (see my post on questioning here), extend their language - "yes, it's slithering", "smells like mummy's curry", "that's its stinger, don't touch it".

c) Making a record of the experience

A composite drawing of creatures observed

One qualifier is that we shouldn't turn every great experience into a formal school activity, don't make your children draw or write about everything. But often, your children will want to remember the experience or write something so that they can tell others about it (siblings, a parent, friends, grandparents etc).

For very young children a drawing will be a wonderful way to record and communicate the experience and this is the beginning of writing (see my post on beginning writing here). Older children will label their drawings and maybe write a sentence or two, list some words that say how they felt or what they saw, or write elaborate text to go with the illustration (see my 7 year old grandson Jacob's illustration of a Blue Tongue lizard observed in his yard). You can also record photographs or videos (cell phones make this easy) as a record of what you've seen.

d) Telling others about the experience

It is important with experiences of this kind to give opportunities to share the experience with others - mum or dad, grandparents, other siblings, classmates. Not always, but often. This can involve showing the writing or drawing to others, hanging the product on a wall, the fridge etc, sharing it in any way that is appropriate to the product or record of the experience. Jacob gave my wife and I the picture above that he drew and told us all about the experience.

The sharing of the experience can lead to other experiences: a video on insects, the reading of a related book. Literature can also be an important end to a wonderful experience together: Eric Carle's 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar', and Bruce Whatley's 'Looking for Crabs' immediately come to mind as books I'd want to share.

2. A Primary School Example (children aged 5-12 years) - 'Raising Chickens'
a) The experience

This example can work for preschool children as well, but my notes below assume primary aged children. Raising creatures of any kind is one of the most wonderful experiences children can have. This can include silk worms, earth worms, an ant farm, tadpoles (this may be illegal in some countries due to environmental issues), chickens, ducks, birds, rabbits, fish, tortoises, guinea pigs or hamsters.

The above cage was rented by the chicken supplier

Raising chickens is one of the best examples that I've used or observed others using. You can buy chickens quite easily, even in the city. If doing this for a whole class I'd suggest buying enough to allow one chicken to a group of 4 children. In families, you might have one chicken per child. This will allow closer observation and an opportunity for all children to be involved in the care of the chicks. You will need a good cage with a wire bottom and a safe coop on the end that can be moved outside onto grass or dirt and then moved into a shed or weather shed for safety. If raising them from the first week of life you'll need a special cage with heat lamps and special feeders (see the image above). You can hire these from chicken suppliers. As well, you need an exit strategy! Schools might build an outdoor pen, families might do the same. There are many commercial versions at major hardware stores. What will we do with the chickens when they become hens and roosters. Knowing someone with a farm would be a good fall back.

I don't have the space to go into great detail, but here are just some of the dimensions to this rich experience:

• The first day or two is always very exciting, simply let the children observe, handle (carefully) in groups (close observation by the teacher is important at first - do it a group at a time) talk about the chickens, draw them etc.
• Establish a routine for how the class will observe and care for the chickens - feeding, observing, talking about, writing about etc.
• Structured observation is another great extension to this experience - examining the food, weighing the food (and graphing over time), weighing the chickens, measuring their height, wingspan (a teacher job usually), looking at specific parts (feet, comb, beak, tail, wings...).
• Observing behaviour - eating, activity, communal actions, 'personality....

b) Talking about it

You won't be able to stop children talking about the chickens. Allow the children to talk while they observe (this won't be a quiet activity), at times structure or direct the talk with careful questions (e.g. "Can anyone see the tail feathers?" "Do chickens have teeth?" "How have the feet changed from last week?" "How do they drink?" "How do chickens sleep?").

As well as group talk, there will be wonderful opportunities to have children do prepared talks in their groups, to the class, to visitors to the class, or to other classes. The talk can be factual, imaginative or even dramatic based on their observations. For the latter, children can even invent dialogue between their chickens, give them identities etc.

You can also make good use of literature and other non-fiction to stimulate other discussion and learning about chickens. 'Hector and Maggie' by Andrew & Janet McLean and Colin Thiele's 'Farmer Shulz's Ducks' are just two books that come to mind that could enrich the experiences and stimulate new types of creativity.

It is in talking about their experiences that children can talk their way to new insights and understandings. Language and learning are intertwined (I'll blog on this on another occasion).


c) Making a record of the experience

The observation of chickens is an activity that has to be recorded in some way. Here are a few ideas:

• Keep a daily log or journal (these could be individual, group or class based - probably all three).
• Do regular drawings - a single chicken, chickens in groups doing different things, detailed drawings parts of the chicken (head, feet, wings, beak etc). Compare drawings over time etc.
• Record food and water quantities (and maybe graph this).
• Record and graph the chicken's weight and size.
• Attempt some creative writing - 'The battle of the chickens'.
• Produce a video of the chickens behaviour, key observations etc.

d) Telling others about the experience

Such a rich experience needs to be shared with others. This can be done in many ways:

• Display student writing and drawing on walls
• Have the children take home their journals to share with their families
• Have class presentations at school assemblies (present information, stories, pictures, videos, or just teach the chicken dance!)
• Create a class blog on chickens - different class members could blog each day, pictures and photos could be uploaded, video clips shared
• Prepare a dramatic presentation for another class

Sharing one's work and observations is important

The benefits of a Language Experience Approach

As I wrote in my last post there are many benefits for language and learning. These include:

• New knowledge
• Increased language proficiency
• New vocabulary (specialist and general)
• Literacy learning - for the young this will include simple concepts of print, new words, and a growing grasp of sentence structure etc; whereas for the older child this can extend to knowledge of new written genres, writing for new audiences, growing reading and research skills.
• A stimulus to creativity
• Increased interest in learning

The LEA is not just a technique just for young children, older children also benefit from firsthand experience as a significant vehicle for language and learning. I'd be keen to hear from parents and teachers of experiences that have worked well with your children.

How Creative Play Helps Learning in Surprising Places

First the context for this post on play

I recently had the opportunity to visit the Imperial War Museum at Duxford near Cambridge in England.  I went with four of my grandchildren as well as my daughter and my wife. As a lover of planes I was excited to have the chance to visit this wonderful former WWI and WWII air base with many large hangars filled with over two hundred aircraft, as well as tanks, military vehicles and boats. The museum was opened in 2007 and has so many iconic aircraft, including the legendary Spitfire, Lancaster, Harrier and the fastest passenger plane ever, the joint British/French Concorde. But this is NOT a post about military weaponry!

The thing that impressed me most about the museum was the way the whole site was planned to involve children in learning. It does this using varied methods, including play. The result was that in our party of 7 people, two 60ish year-old adults, a 36 year old mother, three girls aged 2, 6 & 8, and a 10 year old boy all had a wonderful time and learned many things.

The use of play in learning

The main purpose of this post is to highlight how this exhibit used play so brilliantly. I was surprised just how much play was used. For example, IWM Duxford has one of the best playgrounds that I've ever seen. A playground for fun, but also a place to learn. The Air and Space building also uses a wide range of interactive mechanical, automated and scientific apparatus that teach children about aeronautics and basic physics. All the while children use these they are having great fun with many complex apparatus. It was obvious that the designers of this place understood the role of play in learning. Play was as important for my grandson as it was for three of my granddaughters aged 6, 8 and 2. For each of them play was instrumental to how they enjoyed and learned from the experience. What's more there were just as many adults enjoying the same scientific apparatus and having great fun.

Above: A basic experiment in air pressure

The Playground

The playground just inside the entrance had just two items, a replica plane and a control tower connected by a simple acoustic telephone. This was the ultimate piece of playground equipment. Its setting next to the runway offered the opportunity for one of my granddaughters to pretend she was the flight controller, giving directions to her sister who was the pilot.  At one stage a WWI Tiger Moth took off on the runway as she called instructions to her sister waiting on her own take off.

While this was all going on, my 2-year granddaughter was exploring every bit of the plane at a running pace. She was walking the balance beam to cross the open bomb window with safety net below, she ran to try her hand at the controls, the rear gunners station, she slid down the wings on the slippery dip and explored the numerous interactive pieces of equipment spread throughout the plane.  At one stage she ran breathlessly past me and when I asked, "Are you having a good time" she called out:

'This is the best fun ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, in every way'.

This playground was more than a place to run around and enjoy the usual slides and climbing ropes.  This was a place to explore an aircraft on the edge of a famous runway before going inside to enjoy looking at planes and being involved in other interactive displays. Provision of knowledge was mixed with physical activity, kinaesthetic experience of parts of an aircraft modelled on the Spitfire and Lancaster bomber, and lots of fun!

Interactive Learning

Above: Sitting in the cockpit the pilot can speak to the control tower

The key for a good museum to work for children would seem to be a preparedness to do a number of basic things:

1. Have an understanding of what people of all ages find interesting.
2. Using varied methods for learning, including observation of iconic objects, provision of information in spoken and written word, image (picture, video, computer programs etc), discovery learning, use of sound, and the situating of learning in exciting contexts.
3. Providing evocative objects and places.
4. Offering opportunities for play, experimentation, hands on experiences and

Above: A great moment! As my granddaughters were communicating tower to pilot, a real Tiger Moth flew overhead

The experience of visiting IWM Duxford demonstrated for me why I stress so much on this blog that play, exploration, discovery, experimentation and firsthand experience are so vital for learning. It was a wonderful learning experience for all of our family members, and a lot of fun!

Other Posts on Play & Discovery Learning

Posts on play HERE
Firsthand experience HERE
Creativity posts HERE

Making Books Come Alive!

It's the summer school holidays in Australia, and it is hot. So forgive me if this post seems more suitable for summer than a northern hemisphere big freeze. But your turn will come so you can explore these ideas when the weather clears (or I'm sure we could think of some good winter examples).

One of the most wonderful things to do with any book is to try to contextualise it by visiting the setting, or a place that is close to the setting for the book. There are some great reasons for this:

• It helps young readers gain a stronger sense of the setting and its importance for literature (see my post on 'Visiting the 'real' place in 'My Place' HERE).
• It helps young writers to see how a place can be represented in words - how do we turn the sights, sounds, smells, tactile experiences and even tastes, into written language.
• It enriches the experience of reading a book and deepens understanding of the book and its content.
• It enriches other disciplines like geography, history and science (HERE).

If you are a parent on holidays, or a teacher wanting to plan an excursion with a difference, why not make a book come alive with an outing that enriches their knowledge and deepens their reading while teaching them about writing.

I have already written a number of posts that talk about some of these opportunities. I'll mention some of these as well as pointing to some other options that I haven't mentioned before.

1. Books that are situated in clearly identified settings

a) My Place

I wrote a post back in January 2009 (here) about a family excursion to explore part of Sydney that was the setting for the wonderful book 'My Place' (Nadia Wheatley & Donna Rawlins). 'My Place' was published in 1987 for distribution in Australia’s bicentennial year (1988) and makes a strong statement about the fact that Indigenous Australians were here for thousands of years before white settlement (there isn't space to unpack this). It is a very clever book that takes one suburban block (and the surrounding area) and tells the story of this place in reverse chronological sequence, decade by decade, from 1988 back to 1788 when the first British Fleet landed at Botany Bay. The overall meaning of the book is shaped by multiple narrative recounts of the families who have lived in this spot, 'my Place' and the changing nature of the physical landscape and built environment.

Our excursion as a family around the streets of Tempe and St Peters in Sydney enriched my appreciation of the book and my grandchildren's sense of the place. As well, it gave my grandchildren a great introduction to Australia's history since white settlement in 1788 and it deepened our understanding of the book. The book has been used as the basis of a television series which screened recently in Australia (here).

There are many other wonderful books that are situated in specific places that can be explored after, before or during thew reading of a book. Here are three more.

b) Make Way for Ducklings

Make Way for Ducklings (1941) was written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey. It tells the story of a pair of mallard ducks that choose a small island in a pond in the Boston Public Garden to lay their eggs and raise their young. The plot traces the mother taking the ducklings for their first major outing. She leads the ducklings ashore and straight to the highway but has trouble (not surprisingly) crossing the busy road. A policeman named Michael who likes feeding peanuts to the Mallards, stops traffic for the family to cross. This wonderful book won the Caldecott Medal in 1942. If you visit the garden today you can view the pond and the island and retrace the steps of the ducklings. There is a statue in the park of the mother and her eight ducklings.

c) Alexander's Outing

'Alexander's Outing' (1993) by Pamela Allen is a wonderful picture book (like McCloskey's) that is set in the centre of a busy city. This time it is Sydney and the beautiful Hyde Park (particularly the Archibald Fountain). Alexander is a duck who lives with his mother and four brothers and sisters in Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens. Alexander's mother becomes bored and decides to take the family for a walk. Alexander is separated from the family and falls down a deep dark hole.

How do you get a duck out of a small hole in the ground? Hint - think about water and ducks!

d) Playing Beatie Bow

'Playing Beatie Bow' (1980) by Ruth Park is a novel for 10-14 year olds that once again is set in a precise location that can be explored. This is one of the books that I featured in a post on historical fiction last year (here). When Abigail Kirk joins in a traditional chanting game of 'Beatie Bow' in modern day Sydney she sees a mysterious urchin girl in the background and follows her. Unwittingly she stumbles into the past as she follows her up stairs and down alleys in the Rocks area of Sydney. She encounters a strange and different Sydney and finds herself walking the streets of the colony of New South Wales in 1873. Abigail is taken in by the Bow Family who believes that she is a mysterious 'Stranger' who is said in tradition to arrive to save 'The Gift' for future generations of Bows. Abigail remains in this past world to fill her role and in the process falls in love for the first time.

The Rocks is a wonderful area of Sydney right on the harbour where white settlers made their homes in the early days of the colony. The period in which the book is set (1870s) can still be easily imagined as you walk streets that have changed little in the last 150 years.

2. Books that evoke a more generic sense of place

a) Wind in the Willows

I wrote a post about Kenneth Grahame's classic book the 'Wind in the Willows' to mark the centenary of its publication. This wonderful book is read less by children today but deserves our attention. This is rich narrative, with wonderful characters and word choice and sentence structure that is as close to perfect as you can get. But there is more. Here is language that is symphonic, with the rhythms of each sentence and the choice and ordering of words matching exquisitely the settings, situations and atmosphere that Grahame has created. Or perhaps it’s the other way round.

You can also view the wonderful DVD version (HERE), you can see the story in the form of a play in a setting that evokes much of the wistful summer charm of Grahame's book.

While the Cornish village of Lerryn lays claim to being the setting for 'Wind in the Willows' it might just as well have been any one of a number of other small villages or stretches of lazy English rivers like the Thames where Grahame eventually retired after leaving banking, spending his life "messing around in boats" just like Ratty. There are lazy rivers all over the world that resonate and help to evoke the rich experiences that Grahame writes about. In fact, a stroll along many of the creeks that I frequented as a child in Australia with their native She Oaks (a species of Australian Casuarina tree), low flying kingfishers, slow moving water and glimpses of water rats and low flying dragon flies, evokes the same emotions (for me) as Grahame's novel.

Why not find a creek bank, pack a picnic basket and head off with 'Wind in the Willows' and read it to your children this summer (or next summer in the Northern Hemisphere). I can't walk along the banks of an Australian creek on a hot day without hearing the echo of some of Grahame's words (for example):

Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing

b) Looking for Crabs

'Looking for Crabs' (1993) by Bruce Whatley could be set on just about any Australian beach and probably plenty of white sand beaches around the world. It is a simple picture book about a family outing and as always the children begin to look for things. But where are the crabs? This amusing story transports you straight to the beach. Reading it after or before a beach outing will enrich the experience and the reading of the book.

c) And lots more

There are many fine examples of children's books of this kind that can be read while visiting other places during holidays. For example:

'Hairy Maclary From Donaldsons Dairy' by Lynley Dodd - find out what a 'Dairy' really is in New Zealand as this little dog and his friends have lots of adventures.
'The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch' by Ronda & David Armitage - what would life be like living in a Lighthouse on any coastal outcrop (watch out for pesky seagulls!).
'Complete Adventures of Blinky Bill' by Dorothy Wall - you probably need to be in Australia to appreciate reading this fantasy about Australia's bush and its animals. Find the Banksia men in Banksia Trees, Gumnut babies on every branch....
'The Wheel on the School' by Meindert DeJong - life in a Dutch village and the relationship between people and the natural world
'The Hockey Sweater' by Roch Carrier - gain an insight into ice hockey and cultural life in Canada
'Night of the Moon Jellies' by Mark Shasha - find out about life in coastal New England (USA)

And many more!

3. Books that transport you to specific time periods (as well as places)

I wrote a post last year title 'Making History Come Alive With Literature' (here). I talked about this in detail then, but briefly, my point was that our appreciation and knowledge of history can be enriched by good literature. In keeping with this post, it works in reverse as well. Visiting a place rich in history can enrich your experience of literature.

For example, while visiting Fremantle in Western Australian in September last year I visited, the Western Maritime Museum, specifically, the historic shipwrecks gallery. A central part of this museum is part of the wreck of the Batavia that floundered on uncharted rocks of the Western Australian coast on 4th June 1629. The circumstances surrounding the Batavia and the fate of its crew and passengers have made it the most famous of the early ships to flounder upon Australia’s at times treacherous coast. This is a true story of death, murder, treachery and survival.

In the museum gift shop I discovered Gary Crew’s adolescent novel ‘Strange Objects’ (1990). Crew's story takes part of the tragedy of the Batavia and tells a story that illuminates this historic event while telling a powerful human story. Visiting the museum, viewing the wreck of the Batavia, travelling along the coats of Western Australia and reading Crew's story all enriched one another. History and place also enriched the literary experience and the reading of the book increasing my appreciation of the historical events.

Of course there are many more books that evoke specific periods of time as well as places. In many cases the book doesn't need to be related to a physical place but it could be. Here are just a few:

'My Hiroshima' by Junko Morimoto - a picture book that offers a real life account of the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima through the eyes of a child who stayed home that day sick rather than going to school.
'The Machine Gunners' by Robert Westall - live through the Blitz bombings in World War II Britain as a group of young boys collect the ultimate war souvenirs as they drop around them.
'Slave Girl: The Diary of Clotee, Virginia, USA 1859' by Patricia McKissack - learn about a 12 year old slave girl living just before the American Civil war who longs for freedom.
'The Thieves of Ostia' by Caroline Lawrence - I visited the ruins of Ostia about 10 years ago (it's incredible!) and wish that I'd read this mystery about Flavia and her friends in the ancient Roman port in the 1st century AD before or just after the trip.

In Conclusion

The above are just examples of the many wonderful ways that linking books with places, experiences or specific time periods can enrich literature, language and learning.

I would love to hear some of your favourite examples.

Related Posts

All my posts on Children's Literature (here)

'Key Themes in Children's Literature' (here)

Firsthand Experience, Literacy & Learning

I have written previously about the 'The Language Experience Approach' to literacy on this blog (here). It is a term known primarily by teachers and educators and probably had its genesis in the creative activities of many teachers who drew on children’s firsthand experiences when structuring early literacy. Typically, these were teachers of young children who grasped just how powerful real life experience is to the stimulation of children's language and learning:

• The squelch of mud between toes on a wet day in the back yard
• Running on a sandy beach for the first time
• Watching a worm wiggle in the palm of a small hand
• Building a cubby house from boxes in the back yard
• Watching a bird build its nest in a tree in the playground in spring
• Doing hand painting
• Observing chickens as they grow bigger day by day

One early advocate of this approach was Sylvia Ashton-Warner (1963) who wrote a book called Teacher (New York: Bantam Books). In it she outlined her "organic" approach to teaching based on the recognition of what she saw as the opposing human forces of destructiveness and creativity. A second significant person in the development of the LEA was Roach Van Allen whose research and teaching led him to develop similar approaches in the early 1960s.

The method draws on children’s firsthand experiences that are either naturally occurring or are planned by the teacher or parent. The experience becomes a focus for discussion and exploration and eventually is recorded as a written text in some way. Some people see this as a method suitable only for young children but nothing could be further from the truth. Any adult who has done or seen things for the first time will attest to the power of a significant new experience - seeing new places, doing things for the first time, tasting new food, finding yourself immersed in a significant event - new experiences have a major impact on learning and our use of language to describe these events. Such experiences teach us new things and move us to use language to make sense of the experience and tell others about it.

The approach in a nutshell

This approach to learning has four main elements:

• Sharing an experience
• Talking about the experience
• Making some record of the experience (words, pictures, photographs)
• Finally, using the recorded experience for further reading, discussion and the stimulation of further writing

I thought in this post I'd give an example of what I'd see as a typical language experience for each of two age levels.

A Preschool Example - 'Hunting for creatures in the yard'

a) The experience

One of the favourite activities at our house when my grandchildren visit is hunting for insects or other living things in the back yard. If you live in an apartment you'll have to walk to the closest park or open space where there are gardens, trees and grass. If you have a magnifying glass all the better and perhaps a couple of bottles (or a bug catcher) and a couple of used ice cream or margarine containers.

As a parent or teacher you do need to exercise great care with this activity. Know about any dangerous insects in your area and be able to recognise them. If you don't know enough, have someone else with you who does. Worms, snails, slaters, ants and slugs are easy and safe. If you don't like the thought of holding a worm then there are lots of other insects to see in any yard. Look at the bark on any tree, lift a rock in the garden (with care if there are spiders where you live - use a stick), lift a pile of mulch, turn a sod of moist soil, look closely at the leaves on a tree, search the flowers and so on.

b) Talk about it

You can't help but talk about an experience like this, your child or children will be talking incessantly - "look at this", "ooo - it's moving", "watch out!", "what is it?", "it smells", "it jumped" etc. Ask questions as you share the experience (see my post on questioning here), extend their language - "yes, it's slithering", "smells like mummy's curry", "that's its stinger, don't touch it".

c) Making a record of the experience

One qualifier is that we shouldn't turn every great experience into a formal school activity, don't make your children draw or write about everything. But often, your children will want to remember the experience or write something so that they can tell others about it (siblings, a parent, friends, grandparents etc).

For very young children a drawing will be a wonderful way to record and communicate the experience and this is the beginning of writing (see my post on beginning writing here). Older children will label their drawings and maybe write a sentence or two, list some words that say how they felt or what they saw, or write elaborate text to go with the illustration (see my 7 year old grandson Jacob's illustration of a Blue Tongue lizard observed in his yard). You can also record photographs or videos (cell phones make this easy) as a record of what you've seen.

d) Telling others about the experience

It is important with experiences of this kind to give opportunities to share the experience with others - mum or dad, grandparents, other siblings, classmates. Not always, but often. This can involve showing the writing or drawing to others, hanging the product on a wall, the fridge etc, sharing it in any way that is appropriate to the product or record of the experience. Jacob gave my wife and I the picture above that he drew and told us all about the experience.

The sharing of the experience can lead to other experiences: a video on insects, the reading of a related book. Literature can also be an important end to a wonderful experience together: Eric Carle's 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar', and Bruce Whatley's 'Looking for Crabs' immediately come to mind as books I'd want to share.

2. A Primary School Example (children aged 7-12 years) - 'Raising Chickens'

a) The experience

One of the most wonderful experiences that school-aged children can have is to raise and observe some living creature - silk worms, earth worms, an ant farm, tadpoles (this may be illegal in some countries due to environmental issues), chickens, ducks, birds, rabbits, fish, tortoises, guinea pigs or hamsters.

Raising chickens is one of the best examples that I've used or observed others using. You can buy day old chicks quite easily. If doing this for a whole class I'd suggest buying enough to allow one chicken to a group of 4 children, this will allow closer observation and an opportunity for all children to be involved in the care of the chicks. You will need a good cage with a wire bottom and a safe coop on the end that can be moved outside onto grass or dirt and then moved into a shed or weather shed for safety. As well, you need an exit strategy! What will we do with the chickens when they become hens and roosters. Knowing someone with a farm would be good.

I don't have the space to go into great detail, but here are just some of the dimensions to this rich experience:

• The first day or two is always very exciting, simply let the children observe, handle (carefully) in groups (close observation by the teacher is important at first - do it a group at a time) talk about the chickens, draw them etc.
• Establish a routine for how the class will observe and care for the chickens - feeding, observing, talking about, writing about etc.
• Structured observation is another great extension to this experience - examining the food, weighing the food (and graphing over time), weighing the chickens, measuring their height, wingspan (a teacher job usually), looking at specific parts (feet, comb, beak, tail, wings...).
• Observing behaviour - eating, activity, communal actions, 'personality....

b) Talking about it

You won't be able to stop children talking about the chickens. Allow the children to talk while they observe (this won't be a quiet activity), at times structure or direct the talk with careful questions (e.g. "Can anyone see the tail feathers?" "Do chickens have teeth?" "How have the feet changed from last week?" "How do they drink?" "How do chickens sleep?").

As well as group talk, there will be wonderful opportunities to have children do prepared talks in their groups, to the class, to visitors to the class, or to other classes. The talk can be factual, imaginative or even dramatic based on their observations. For the latter, children can even invent dialogue between their chickens, give them identities etc.

You can also make good use of literature and other non-fiction to stimulate other discussion and learning about chickens. 'Hector and Maggie' by Andrew & Janet McLean and Colin Thiele's 'Farmer Shulz's Ducks' are just two books that come to mind that could enrich the experiences and stimulate new types of creativity.

It is in talking about their experiences that children can talk their way to new insights and understandings. Language and learning are intertwined (I'll blog on this on another occasion).


c) Making a record of the experience

The observation of chickens is an activity that has to be recorded in some way. Here are a few ideas:

• Keep a daily log or journal (these could be individual, group or class based - probably all three).
• Do regular drawings - a single chicken, chickens in groups doing different things, detailed drawings parts of the chicken (head, feet, wings, beak etc). Compare drawings over time etc.
  
• Record food and water quantities (and maybe graph this).
• Record and graph the chicken's weight and size.
• Attempt some creative writing - 'The battle of the chickens'.
• Produce a video of the chickens behaviour, key observations etc.
  

d) Telling others about the experience

Such a rich experience needs to be shared with others. This can be done in many ways:

• Display student writing and drawing on walls
• Have the children take home their journals to share with their families
• Have class presentations at school assemblies (present information, stories, pictures, videos, or just teach the chicken dance!)
• Create a class blog on chickens - different class members could blog each day, pictures and photos could be uploaded, video clips shared
• Prepare a dramatic presentation for another class

The benefits of a Language Experience Approach

As I wrote in my last post there are many benefits for language and learning. These include:

• New knowledge
• Increased language proficiency
• New vocabulary (specialist and general)
• Literacy learning - for the young this will include simple concepts of print, new words, and a growing grasp of sentence structure etc; whereas for the older child this can extend to knowledge of new written genres, writing for new audiences, growing reading and research skills.
• A stimulus to creativity
• Increased interest in learning

The LEA is not just a technique just for young children, older children also benefit from firsthand experience as a significant vehicle for language and learning. I'd be keen to hear from parents and teachers of experiences that have worked well with your children.

The critical place of play, creativity and fantasy: Key quote 2

I announced back in April that I was going to do a series on key educational quotes. I managed just one, then got distracted. The format was to be: state the quote; describe the person; offer a response. Here’s the second key quote in the series.

Key Quote

What children need is not new and better curricula but access to more and more of the real world; plenty of time and space to think over their experiences, and to use fantasy and play to make meaning out of them; and advice, road maps, guidebooks, to make it easier for them to get where they want to go (not where we think they ought to go), and to find out what they want to find out (John Holt, 1981)

John Holt

John Holt was born on 14th April, 1923 in New York City and died on the 14th September, 1985. He was the eldest of three children, and grew up mainly in the New England area of the USA. He taught in private schools before writing his first book, ‘How Children Fail’ (1964). This book and his second book ‘How Children Learn’ (1967), have sold over 1.5 million copies and have been translated into fourteen languages.

He was a visiting lecturer for education departments at Harvard University and University of California, Berkeley. However, he sought reform to education not through academia, but instead through his many books on educational theory and practice (see list of his publications here). He eventually concluded that schools were beyond reform and turned his attention to the value of homeschooling. He started an influential magazine called ‘Growing Without Schooling’ in 1977, which was the USA’s first homeschooling magazine.

The quote is taken from his only book about homeschooling, ‘Teach Your Own’ (1981). The book was later revised by Holt’s colleague, Patrick Farenga, and published again in 2003.

A quick response

Readers of this blog know that the importance of play (see here), creativity (see here), experience-based learning (see here) and fantasy (see my many posts on literature) are important to me. Holt is playing my tune; well almost. I haven’t given up on schools, and I see a more significant role for teachers than I think he did. While I share his frustration with the regimentation of schooling and the at times narrowness of curricula, schools have played a critical role in offering mass education to all children. I see a key role for adults as teachers not just as people who provide learning environments and get out of the way. I also believe that as teachers and parents we need to know where we want children to go as learners. Adults play key roles as teachers. Let me give an example (paraphrasing part of my book ‘Pathways to Literacy') that focuses simply on how adults can support readers. As children develop as readers they need the support of teachers and parents who not only expect them to learn, and provide good learning environments, but who also actively encourage and support them as learners. We do this in varied ways, including:

• providing information and knowledge that our students do not have;
• listening to them as they share personal discoveries about learning;
• suggesting strategies that other successful readers use;
• sharing insights, successes, problems, pain, and joy experienced in reading and writing;
• supporting them when their best efforts are not up to their normal standards;
• introducing new language forms, new authors, new uses for reading, alternative writing styles, new language, new writing topics, new purposes for writing and new audiences; and
• demonstrating real and purposeful reading and writing.

Holt was an influential thinker whose ideas on the structuring of stimulating learning environments was a significant challenge to educators throughout the world. There is still much to learn from him about education in the school, home and community.