How to Wow: Day 1
2nd in a series of posts describing and reflecting on the experience of delivering a ‘wow project’.
How to Wow: Introduction
How to Wow: Day 1
How to Wow: Day 2
How to Wow: Day 3
How to Wow: Day 4
How to Wow: Closing thoughts
This was the rabbit hole to the project: an introductory day to set the narrative off, rather than one to tick of learning objectives. The day began as normal, except Agent N (me) could periodically be seen walking around with a camera and looking a bit concerned…
We used the first hour of the day for me to set up an investigation table in the corridor between the two Y3 classrooms I’d be working with and for the two class teachers to do some exercises with the pupils to find out what they already knew about light and shadow (so we could have a marker for how effective the project had been). Towards the end of the first period I called an emergency meeting in the hall where I introduced myself as Agent N and explained that I was a secret agent that had been sent to do some important research at the school.
I asked the pupils if they had seen anything unusual, and whether they had any idea what was going on. The main aims of this session were to:
- Introduce my character
- Set the tone of something awesome about to happen (whilst reassuring the children that everything was safe)
- Make the children complicit and put them in a position of responsibility by asking for their opinions and their help
- Observe their response to gauge how much they were buying into the story
- Assess what their expectations were and to see if they could be accommodated within the following days of the project.
We gave the pupils very little information other than a very superficial back-story to who I was and establishing that I would be working with them throughout the course of the day in small groups to use a particular piece of equipment to scan the school grounds for signs of impending Very Exciting Things.
I spent the rest of the day working with the pupils in groups of 5, for about 15 minutes per group whilst the rest of the pupils continued with their normal lessons. I’d designed an activity that required the children to work together as a team – each with specific responsibilities – to do a very specific task (go to 5 locations marked on the map and count how many LEDs were lit up on The Anticipator. Working with them in small groups allowed me to listen to each child’s thoughts on what was happening and to deal with any concerns they might have (I think only one actually expressed any concern over what might be about to happen).
The teamwork was exemplary, no really, it was, and they were very absorbed by the story: it was excellent to see them noticing the tiniest details around them and accommodating them into the narratives they started constructing. My job was mainly to ask open-ended prompt questions.
A Song for Skatz: using The Anticipator from nikkipugh on Vimeo.
So, there we have the first examples of the malleability that I mentioned in the previous post: I’d deliberately set Agent N up as a person who didn’t have all the answers …which meant she couldn’t tell people they were wrong. Which meant each child could potentially be right. There was space to accommodate 60 different versions of what was happening.
Speculative ideas were discussed, analysed and then commented on how probable the pupils thought they were.
The Anticipator was designed to elicit an inspirational response. It functioned, but didn’t look like it should. Most of the children started off with comments like “That’s not real”, or “It’s made from cardboard, it can’t work …can it?”. 10 minutes later I was being told things like “My Dad’s got one of them” and “Yeah, they’re really expensive, thay cost £400!”. Using shonky props (cf ones that strive to look realistic) is a great way to signal that this is imaginative play.
At the end of the emergency meeting in the morning, I indicated to the children that I’d set up an investigation table and on it there was a map and some post it notes. I told them that since I was going to be very busy investigating outside all day that if they wanted to leave anything for me they should put it on the table. I also asked them to write down anything they thought might be important and stick it on the map for me.
The photo above was taken at lunch time – table and map already covered with thoughts about what I might have been sent to investigate, things spotted in the playground that might be important and a pile of clues.
This table was to be a hive of activity throughout the rest of the project – and that was with me doing not a lot more than pin up some of the messages that came though from my superiors. There were always clusters of children around it at break and lunch times, adding objects and words. Often I’d be called over to listen to them describing what they had found and what they thought it signified.
Shortly after taking the above photo, I was beckoned into the nearby staff room where an astonished teacher told me that the boy working away in his free time to add research to the investigation table was someone it was usually very difficult to engage…
On Day 2 we really turned up the intensity.
2nd in a series of posts describing and reflecting on the experience of delivering a ‘wow project’.
How to Wow: Introduction
How to Wow: Day 1
How to Wow: Day 2
How to Wow: Day 3
How to Wow: Day 4
How to Wow: Closing thoughts