“Start by doing what's necessary; then do
what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
As the saying goes its true, it really
works, believe me and the best part is children love it. They just like the
variety that we bring in their lessons. It was quite confusing to scan through
and choose which on to fit in my lesson when I had all the 119 starters in
front of me. Wow! What a wonderful opportunity I have, then going through each
one revisiting it again and again eventually I discovered that I will do the
starter “Passing the Parcel”.
I have been doing the features of poetry
with my children from last week so I thought let them have a surprise so that
they remain excited and imaginative to create a perfect mood for the lesson,
then they work better and it really worked. I started the activity with a quick
mind mapping on the features of poetry which I elicited from the children as my
focus was on figure of speech. But I was amazed by the fact that my children of
year group 12-13 were completely focused on the Red Box that I brought to the
class. I found them excited as they saw the box and they were quite curious to
know what I was planning to do with them.
As I started I told them it’s a magic box
and you will do the magic. I had a few pictures of different objects which I
passed from one group to another, giving the instruction to secretly remove one
picture from the box and pass it on. Each group was asked to make complex
sentences with an imagery based on the picture. I gave them 3 mts to discuss
and do their task after this each group were asked to present their picture to
the class and read out their sentences. As they read the sentences the class
evaluated their work by pointing the imagery used in the lines. They also
suggested different sentences for other pictures as well as commented on each
other’s work.
Apparently my task was achieved as they
revisited on the features of poetry and was clearly able to identify the
different poetic devices used and could appreciate each other’s work.
This way a quick recap on the features of poetry thereby stressing on the figurative
speech was done and the children enjoyed a lot.
