Saturday 5 November 2016

Week 5 - 28th August 2011




THIS BLOG WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN AUGUST 2011, POSTS FROM THE FIRST 3 WEEKS WERE LOST AFTER THE BLOG WAS HACKED. 
 POSTS FROM WEEK 4 ONWARD WERE RECOVERED AND ARE REPOSTED HERE IN THEIR ORIGINAL FORM....



Sunday, 28 August 2011
Week 5 - The tension!

Just planning for our next session (tomorrow).
Originally we had planned to spend this week focussed on design skills - specifically, birds eye planning and simple front on elevations. One of the student teachers has a background in design and is all poised to go into role as a 'trainee' "checking her understanding" with the experts.
However, I'm now having a rethink.... Having been so very 'hands on' and in the field last week, I think it might be good to have a different kind of session. The design lesson is another skill based hands on session. It would be good to encourage some critical thinking about what was learned last week.
More importantly, my instinct tells me the children have had a long stint at looking at this issue from one perspective only (that of the company). So, I feel it may be time to bring in some drama for learning to help them look at another point of view.
Also, we have not encountered many 'tensions' in this mantle - we've been happily humming along achieving all our goals - tensions have been to do with time constraints, constraints of the task, difficult or incomplete text and so on. SO I think it may be time to introduce some more ethical difficulty / obstacles. We discovered in last year's MOTE that if we left the key tension TOO late, the company did not really have time to adapt to what it brought in...
But if we introduce the tension of neighbour's opposition to the development at this stage, their concerns can be factored in to the design process...

SO, here is my suggested sequence for tomorrow.
1: The usual company meeting to recap on the field trip, find out what the company members have written in their reports etc - revisit the terms of the commission - a shared vision for our play area. Any housekeeping points (e.g. design groups for each zone), communications with Tim and Gerry, timeline for completion, photograph sharing.
2: Invitation to 'trainees' to look at the research boards on bats and see the work that has been done on bat movements.
3: Using DFL (drama for learning) conventions, revisit the statues of park users that were created last week. Develop an alternative point of view on the development - oppositional.... Possible conventions "Gossip Mill" "overheard conversation" "Flash forward" and 'freeze frame"
4. Regather as company to discuss implications for the commission.
Possible next steps for Lynette during the week might include: writing in role as park users - letters of complaint to the paper? - could be followed by telephone or written responses from the company addressing the concerns raised...? A Company letter to Tim and Gerry to say thanks for their help - plus as clients inviting them to the presentation (2 weeks time)
With only a couple of weeks to go, the groups will need to get stuck into their concept design work - bearing in mind the issues raised by the 'neighbours', the need to 'flow' from one zone to another and the original commission brief.
All this will lead them up very nicely to the lesson on birds-eye-view planning and elevations NEXT Tuesday. 

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