Explanation Writing - Analysis of Structure.

Today I was lucky to get the chance to visit Panmure Bridge School, where Mrs Robyn Anderson +Robyn Anderson  was taking her class of Year 7 students through a literacy task.

To get ready for the activity, the students were moving the furniture around. They have obviously done this before and are used to the set up.

They have been given a print out of a piece of writing. They all have their own. 

They are all placed so they can see the screen with the instructions on it.

Explanation Writing

They are going to focus on what they did correctly. They are only looking at the good stuff. Robyn says that it is her job to pick out the bits that need work and to help them with those parts.

Learning intention

To structure and write an explanation that tells your reader what you need them to know.

Notes from observing the lesson

The class say all the words really quickly to get used to the sound of them.

They are then asked which words they already know. What are they. Linking to what they already know. Where will they find the words in writing. Which parts of writing will they find the specific writing elements?

Tell your partner one thing that they don’t know from the list. Does anyone want to share one with the whole class? The teacher goes over these and explains what they mean.

The class then say the words to each other again really fast.

Repetition.

The teacher goes over / reminds the students what the writing task was that they have already done and they are going to analyze today.

She goes over what some of the students covered in their writing - what content they had included.

They then read their own explanation.

All the tasks are done in small chunks at a time so they can follow and learn the sequence and the skills.

One by one - the items are gone through. TIIC - this is written under their work and they are going to check these things off. Robyn explained to the students that this TIIC idea was one that she took from Mr Rob Wiseman  from Point England School in one of his Class OnAir lessons.

If they have got any of these things they are at the “practicing” stage and will improve but the teacher doesn’t need to start form the beginning with that element.

Now they swap with a partner and they check each other’s work and do double ticks on the TIIC list.

Information - the bulk of the information - needs paragraph structures. This was the most tricky part, so they work with a partner to pick out these elements.

They work on the printed out work with highlighter pens for each of the structural elements in the information.

The class work in pairs while the teacher goes round and helps individually where needed. Some need more support with these elements than others.

They are looking at their own work and working out which are the writing areas that they need to work on.

The class look at their own work first, so they can see the value of their own work. Then they look at the exemplars from TKI and they compare their work to the examples. This then helps to group them into what is needed to be focused on.

Good work /  samples are highlighted and read out by the teacher. Cue, embarrassed student!!.... Smiling though.

Work with their partner to talk about what they are finding in their own writing. They then tell the whole class.

This focus lesson is on the structure - the deeper features, and not worrying about the surface features, like spelling.

They have their class DLO on the class site and they navigate to the exemplars in pairs so they can work together.

Robyn explains the TKI exemplars to the students so they know they are the levels for all students in New Zealand that they are comparing their own work to. They are looking at the exemplars from the lowest upwards and seeing if they can work out which one best matches what theirs looks like.

Their teacher wants them to see where they are at for themselves and that they write the same as students throughout the country. She is trying to build self efficacy and self confidence. She is trying to break down the “I can’t do” barriers. Using “you have got” language and not “you haven’t got”.. or “you must have”.

The plan for this class to move forward is to look at the surface features next to clean up the writing. They will again work in teams of two to do this.

How can I apply what I learned today?

• We already look at each other’s design work in the class Google Plus community, so can I get them used to looking at each other’s written work together in pairs?
• I can get the exemplars from the NZQA website for them to use. I will have to pick out the sections that we need and seperate them as their exemplars are whole projects not individual elements.
• I can showcase the framework and structure visually around the room for them to refer to when they need.
• I can supply them with the support structure that they need to use for their writing.
• I can print their written work for them so they can highlight relevant sections to focus on.
• The students can assess themselves against the exemplars to see where they are sitting. They can then plan for improvement themselves too.

Thank you once again to Robyn for letting me come and steal / borrow / use / share ideas with her.

Sharing is good!

STEAM Project with Y7 and Y8 - Week 1

Before the last school holidays, Robyn Anderson from Panmure Bridge School talked to me about an exciting STEAM project she was planning with her Year 7 and 8 class and asked if I wanted to be involved. I see her students every Friday for their Technology lessons at Tamaki College so I was very keen to have some more fun with them.
The project Robyn wanted to do was catapults so we say and brainstormed some ideas together and decided on a plan for the term. I am going to go through to Panmure Bridge School every Monday afternoon as I don't have my own classes then and we will work on the project for the rest of term 3.

After our brainstorming session, Robyn put a great planning doc together and we started on practical investigations this week. Last week they did research.

Here is some of the planning doc showing what they are doing this week and what research they did last week in preparation for the project.


Wk 1
LI: To make connections to the history and design features of catapults

History of the catapult
What is a catapult?
What are the different types of catapults?
Find an image and attribute
Use the summary scaffold to write a short summary that explains each design
Compare and contrast using SOLO map 

Wk 2
LI: Practical build challenge to introduce triangulation

Challenge 1:
Use cardboard/split pins to replicate meccano to construct a square
Use the iPads to photograph the process
Apply pressure. What did you notice?
Construct a square with an additional piece of card diagonally across the middle
Apply pressure. What did you notice?
Define triangulation
Where have you seen triangles used in construction locally? In the world?

Create a DLO to explain your learning - must include images of process

Robyn started the lesson asking them, questions about the catapult research they did last week to remind them. She then took them through the practical methods they were going to use to make their card structures today. The students were working in project groups.



I then took the group and we did experiments to do with triangulation. They built their shapes out or card and split pins and tested what happened to the shapes when you apply a force.
We then had a challenge and the groups had to work out what was the minimum number of extra pieces it would take to strengthen the shapes I drew on the board. The conversations in each group were great to listen to as they were working these out.  Lots of problem solving and explaining to each other.
We talked about where they saw triangles being used for design and strength happening in everyday life. They worked together on this in their groups and produced diagrams together.

It was a great start to the project and I had a lot of fun.
I can't wait for next week!

Talking Self Assessment .....

Recently, I have been becoming more and more interested in self assessment in regards to the SOLO Taxonomy work that I have been doing. Link here
After the last CoL meeting where we had to look at what we had done and where we were going, I decided that I wanted to go and see teachers in other schools who were using self assessment in successful ways.
My first stop for this was this morning when I went to see +Robyn Anderson who works at Panmure Bridge School.

My key take outs that I can use with my classes from today were :-

• Critical friend - as well as working and analysing all together in the class communities, I will look at having them working in pairs to analyse each others work based on pre prepared levels.
• Build the success criteria in from the start at the project planning stage.
• One step at a time, oral feedback and assessment is ok depending on the students.
• Building the academic language into the assessment slowly with explanations as you go.
• Structuring the open / paragraph questions for student feedback into smaller parts with openers, key words and starters, or give them a list of points to work through on their feedback.
• Work through the self assessment (in whatever format) with the students, maybe with an example to work with.
• Self assessment can happen at any point in the process of the task and be supported in a number of different ways. It can also say how they have done for the whole task or guide them in how they are doing throughout the task.
• Put much more support stuff on the wall for the duration of any particular task.

It is great that I went thinking that I was going to be talking about a very tight, specific, at the end of a task "self assessment" topic, but I came out with a huge amount of ideas of where I can add support and self assessment / awareness into the whole process.

Thanks Robyn and your fantastic Year 8 students who came to talk to me too. I learned such a lot today.

______________________________________________________________________________

I had shared the questions with Robyn the day before I went so they were not not a surprise on the day. The notes below are a combination of what Robyn had prepared and what we talked about on the day.

Questions for the teacher ….

What format do you use for student self assessment?

Docs, forms, ……..

• Forms or docs for end of term evaluations - we ask what the students liked/didn’t like - they evaluate how they think they are going as well as work wise.
• Rubrics are level dependent. Some lower level support is done orally and not on a rubric, and it is done on a student by student basis.
• Modelling books - these are done in pairs and teams. This can then be referred to again by the students to see how they had done something and also for them to see how much progress they have made. The groups are based on the strategies that the students are using, so they can give each other support. They can also look at these and verbally state what they need to do to improve.
• Critical friend conversations
• Written as: ‘You will have done this correctly if you have…’ - these are written on the board for individual tasks and are also on the wall for topic structure.
• Thought about in long term plan but co-constructed usually on whiteboard with students then discussed/unpacked. This gives them a focus for peer feedback and a key to know what it is they need to do. All the assessment / support structure is embedded at the planning stage in each task that the students will be doing. All the success criteria are there from the start then the students are guided into structuring it for themselves.
• Embedded in lessons - depending on group a lot is done orally
• Hyerle’s thinking maps eg: donut circle what I know now...what learnt etc
• Strategies used for a task are highlighted at the end of a session by asking the students questions about what they have done and how they did it.

Do you “student speak” it?

• Yes - often use their words after all it’s their learning we are assessing
• Needs to become routine 
• Student speak is set up to access the academic language needed for individual tasks. This is built in so they students can access the topic / subject specific language as they go.

How do you lay it out in terms of ….

Colour, columns, images, font style and size…..

• Forms uses paragraph answers if evaluating
• Columns for rubric - eg: speeches
• Otherwise we use bullet points that can be ticked or highlighted with examples eg: DRAFT
• Structure the open questions into sections. Focus the sections. 
• Give them lists of points to work through.

Do you use the same self assessment for more than one class / group or do you tailor them to specific groups?

• Term evaluation/PMI same for whole class
• Subject specific is up to individual teacher and tailored to suit the particular group.

How much preparation do the students need in order to use a self assessment sheet?

• You have to unpack it to get buy in and/or accurate use
• Familiarisation is the key eg: ‘You will have done this correctly if you have…’
• They need lots of preparation and need the material to be gone through thoroughly in order to understand what it is they have to do.

Do you make self assessment sheets targeted for specific task / projects or do you aim them for broader things like key competencies for example?

• Subject/task specific is what we usually link to
• KC’s identified separately (eg: group participation/camp) - CARE awards cover and reinforce KC’s
• Pictures in PE of self v professional athlete - draw comparison lines in (idea from Jason Borland MIT 15)

Useful Links

• Explanation low
• Info Rpt / Stdnt eg
• SC eg
• Speech rubric
• athletics

Do you get feedback from the students about how they find using the self assessment that you set them to do.

• Sometimes. This is a different challenge every year depending on the level of my groups. Most is done orally in pairs or groups to put a positive spin on the learning. This breaks down the ‘hard’ and shows them how much they do know
• Focus is put on where they are and what they have achieved, rather than where they should be as this can be a little demotivating at times.

Does your whole school do this or is it optional for individual teachers?

• All classes use own format - age/ability dependent eg: Juniors use pictures whereas we use words 
• My rubric was simplified for juniors so language is consistent across the school
• Some teachers use hand signals
• Some like me use PLI - where students identify their own next steps
• Using a consistent format means the kids really understand and strengthen connections to where they were.

Do you show the students the self assessment before they do the task so they know what they are looking for afterwards?

• Yes - we do this together before the lesson.
• Formats are consistent so the students understand them quicker and easier as they are already familiar with them.

Questions for the students …

I got to speak to a fantastic group of Year 8 students today

Do you like being able to see for yourself where you are in your work without the teacher always having to tell you?

• Yes - this first answer was due to the terrible way to phrase the question from me. After Robyn came in and got them to explain why, we got more depth.
• You get to see what you "did good" and you you need to work on
• Set a goal for yourself
• What you need to improve on
• Prefers the teacher saying as it is easier to understand and make connections.

How easy is it for you to do self assessment? - I also asked the what type they liked.

• Yes
• Grids
• Critical friend - helps to improve - gives honest opinion on what to work on
• Feed back and feed forward

Do you understand what you are doing when using a self assessment sheet and do you know what it means for you? 

• No, not if Ms did not go through it first
• Ms always goes through it so we understand

Does it make doing the task easier if you know you are going to assess it yourself at the end?

• Yes
• Learning intentions are clear at the start
• Side prompts and scaffolding in the task help as you go along
• Unpacked in pairs or with teacher so we understand it

Here are some photographs from the displays of support material that is on the walls.

CoL Inquiry Thoughts for Next Year

What achievement challenge are you considering as an area of focus in 2023 and why? Include in your WHY both evidence and your own passion/expertise

 Achievement Challenge 3 - Lift the achievement in reading for all students.

 The projects that my senior students have to do involve a lot of literacy work. They don't realize this when they sign up for DVC as they think it is all about drawing. They have to write a lot of analysis of their own work and read a lot to do the required research. To be able to apply what they have learned in their reading to their own designs is where this falls down as we have not been reading for understanding.

As a department, we have started working with Marc Milford, our school literacy specialist, on reading strategies. I had started trying them out a couple of times in my Y9 class, to get them to read the recipe for the following lesson’s practical session. I would put the resources together on the class site and send it out to them to access before the lesson and they would come to the practical session not knowing what they were going to do as they had not read it. Since working with Marc, we have been using the single session on a Friday afternoon to do the reading exercise to prepare for the following week. I have been taking the method from the recipe and breaking it down into an information transfer table as Marc showed us. I have also tried this with my senior classes with one of the materials research activities that they had to do. I combined it with the work on SOLO taxonomy that I have been doing for a long time. 

 Blog post about Year 9 reading information transfer

Blog post about Year 11 and Y13 reading information transfer using SOLO

 

What learnings from the 2017 - 2022 CoL teacher inquiries have informed or inspired your thinking.

 Robyn Anderson’s Reading for Enjoyment this year was great. It took the emphasis off the reading and put the focus onto enjoying what they were doing. 

It got me thinking that if I made the focus of the reading activities a more supported one, then they would get more out of it as it will be fulfilling a purpose and helping their project. I have been guilty of thinking I was being helpful by giving them links of where to do the research and readings but not supporting them in getting the most out of what was there.

 

How would your work support Manaiakalani pedagogy and  kaupapa?

 There is a Manaiakalani wide focus on literacy and especially reading at the moment so I think that it will fit in well, with a slightly different emphasis on reading for research purposes.

Which elements of the extensive Manaiakalani research findings inform or challenge you as you think about this?

 The fact that the students are coming out of Year 10 with a lower than average PAT reading score than the mean / norm for the country does not set them up well for attempting everything that NCEA throws at them. My students coming into Y11 next year will be below where they need to be in terms of their reading ability and understanding so everything that I give them to do in regards to research will be extra demanding for them. The first thing that my Y11 students do is a research standard where there is a lot of reading of information found about a chosen designer. I give them links to read through but this research has made me realize that is not enough support. They will need me to structure how they are reading this information so their understanding of what they are reading grows.

 

How would you like to be supported in 2023 as you undertake this inquiry?

 I always get a huge amount when I visit the classrooms of other teachers in Tamaki College and the classrooms of other schools in the CoL. Watching how literacy elements are approached by specialist teachers, both in the TC English department and intermediate schools. I have visited Robyn Anderson in the past when she was specifically doing literacy elements with her class.

Here are all the blog posts that involve Robyn's class.

The support that I would like would be the ability to visit a wider range of schools and age groups as they go about reading activities.

 

How would you plan to support your colleagues in your school with THEIR inquiries and/or teaching in the area you are exploring?

 All of my inquiry work always goes onto my blog so it is available for anyone to read and access all my resources. We are doing literacy / reading work within the department so my experiments and findings will be shared weekly in the department meetings. Sharing to all staff via emails of blog posts and presentations will be done throughout the year.

Acknowledging that while literacy is not the main focus of the subject it is an integral part of reaching those higher achievement levels. We all need to work together to help the students to realise that literacy / reading / writing is in every aspect of school / work / life.

STEAM Project with Y7 and Y8 - Week 2

Today for the STEAM session, Robyn supplied the students with long dried pasta, tape, marshmallows, card and 3 paper cups.
Their challenge was to build the tallest tower.

After a quick review of what they learned last week about triangulation, the students got into their groups and made a start.

I gave them a "top tips" session ..

We talked about which one was the most stable and why, and the fact that they can include the triangle as an overall shape not just an add on to another shape.

I did a little bit of help as they went along, by building some structures myself to show them some different ways of thinking about the problem.

At the end of the session Robyn went over with them what had gone really well - 

The team work, the discussions and talk in the teams, the trying of new things, the willingness to fail.

We also talked about what they could consider for next week's challenge, which was looking at and thinking about the usefulness of all the materials they are supplied with.

I gave them two new words to think about before next week - tie and strut.

Making Reading Activities from the NZQA Exemplars

I had a really good meeting with +Cheryl Harvey (specialist classroom teacher) today about various things and one of them was finding reading activities about design for my students to use.
She suggested that we have a look at the exemplars on the NZQA website for the standard that the students have just started. Link to exemplar work on the NZQA site here.
She said it is good for students to see the work of others across New Zealand. This also fits with what I saw happening in the classroom of +Robyn Anderson when I went to visit her. Blog post here.

I decided for their first reading task, that I would isolate just one design from each level, via a screen shot,  and type up the student notes with that design, rather than have my students try to read the hand writing on the examples.

I am going to also copy what Robyn did in regards to printing these out and getting the students to highlight key elements with highlighter pens.
Design terms, sentence connectors, descriptions, reasons given for decisions made etc.....


Excellence Exemplar

Merit Exemplar

Achieved Exemplar

Not Achieved Exemplar

Learning from others about Literacy ....

Every year our Year 9 and Year 10 students sit their asTTle tests for writing and we are given a level that they are working at.
It has been a continuous weakness of mine that I did not really understand how I could apply this knowledge in my subject and to my teaching. This is something that I am determined to rectify this year.
With this is mind, the opportunity came up to learn how the asTTle writing tests are marked by members of the English department and we had our first session in the staff room after school yesterday. Mark, our literacy coordinator had the exemplars ready that they had used for the recent asTTle moderation meeting. He also had all the marking schemes ready for us to look at.
I found the exercise frustrating, hard and fascinating all at the same time. The frustration came from having to try and read student's hand writing while learning something completely new. I found my own understanding of structure hard to use and apply to the task and it was a fascinating process to see exactly what goes into one little number that you are given as a level.
I managed to get through one exemplar in the time and that was with the help of two English teachers pointing things out and guiding me every step of the way.
The next step for me is to sit in with the English department next week and look at work that they have marked and go through the process myself to see if I can see why they decided on that mark / grade.

I was talking about this to +Robyn Anderson today when her class were here for their Technology lessons. She has suggested that I look at the instruction language used in tasks.
So the second plan for next week is to visit Robyn's class at Panmure Bridge School where she will be doing explanation language tasks with her class. Then I will visit the English Department Teachers at Tamaki College to see what language is used in the English lessons at the collage and how they do it. Then I will analyse what instruction language I use in my lessons.
Seeing how these different approaches affect how the students understand what I am asking them to do will hopefully change how I structure literacy based tasks to the better.
If we all speak the same language to the students will this make it easier for them to understand what they are being asked to do?

So, a lot of learning from a lot of different people. Sharing is good.

Literacy in Action

I was lucky today to visit Panmure Bridge School to watch +Robyn Anderson with her class. She very kindly offered to be teaching a maths class when I visited so I could watch how she approached literacy and vocabulary in a subject other than English.
I have just started working on literacy strategies in my inquiry as I have realised that this is holding them back in progressing in the SOLO levels and are unable to move onto analysis. I have been working with the English Department on some strategy ideas and was delighted to be invited to visit Robyn's Year 7 and 8 group to see what they do.




My key take outs from this session are ...

• Make the new vocabulary words the focus before they even know the meaning of them. Let them get used to what they look and sound like.
• Working in groups to encourage talking and sharing the new learning.
• Making the students use the word straight after researching the meaning, so they see it in context and are not worrying about writing and typing it up with a definition that they are copying and pasting.
• Short, fast paced activities that kept their interest and encouraged competition and group / team work.

Here are the notes I made at the time, during the lesson (unedited) :-

Key words are written up on the board

To recognise the different types of angles

They met angles for the first time a couple of days ago and are now going to learn some maths language to do with these angles.

New words are introduced

All angles have a name like the students do.

The correct name for elements is important.

Recap what they already know together - they all call out the words they know together when asked questions.

Challenge - working in teams - find out the names of angles.

Move to work in groups of 4.

This is a brand new topic to them today so there is a lot of teacher support at this point.

 Words are given to the class that are new. The teacher says the words to the class.

Class are given time to say the words to each other.

The vowels are taken out of the words and the class are to say the words to each other again.

The teacher then points to words on the list and the students say them all together.

Class to set an online timer.

See how long it takes for them to each say all of the words in the list - using the words with the vowels missing.

The class are mostly ESOL so this activity was a fun one to get them used to the new words. Seeing what they look like and sound like. They raced each other saying the words while timing get each other.

Next challenge is 15 minutes and they have to find what the words mean.

They then have to label the diagrams with the correct name. They have not been told what the new words mean yet.

The class are to put the new words on post it notes and stick them on the board next to where they think they are to go on the angle diagrams.

Working in small teams - they don’t all have to work on the same word at the same time.

The students do not have to write the definition anywhere for this activity, so they don’t have that pressure of writing or getting the wrong definition from the dictionary.

They have to talk in their groups and decide which word goes with which diagram.

The teacher physically takes herself away from the students so they are encouraged to talk together about the problem.

The students have also drawn the angles in their books and are adding labels to them there too so they have this to refer to afterwards. They go through the angle answers together at the end of the activity and the students label the drawings in their books with the correct names.

Definitions are written with the labels so the students are clear what each one is after their own research.

The teacher is encouraging the students to let all of the team join in.

The key words about line types at the start have been repeated about 6 times during the session with the teacher demonstrating different types of line with pens and rulers and getting the students to shout them out.

This is happening while they are learning the new words about angles.

The students then got out protractors and could see the angles and degrees for themselves and compared them to the definitions.

Summary exercise - in a set number of words summaries one of the angles they have learned about.

They can compare one with another one so they can see the difference.

25 summary to explain.

They were given research and preparation time.

Then given times to make the 25 word summary.

Students given options on how to present their summaries - online how they want, paper and pens - whatever they are more comfortable with to show what they have learned.

This is not pretty work - it is working notes so they don’t have to spend time making it look pretty - the content is the key.

Working together to create the summary means they have to talk and collaborate.

The class are paused while putting together the summary to emphasize the need to use the correct vocabulary and words. Use the new technical words they have used in context.

Lots of conversations about the best way to summarise what they have been learning.

What am I leaning from AsTTLe marking PD?

I have had another short session of going through an exemplar from the AsTTle marking moderation that the English Department have been working through. I had help making my way through each section of an exemplar, seeing what level I thought it was for each of the sections and comparing it to the supplied examples for that particular level. We looked above and below to see where it was sitting.
While I am not doing this with the intention of ever being responsible for any ACTUAL AsTTle marking, it is proving a very valuable experience in understanding what criteria the students have to fulfil in their writing in order to gain a level.

How can I use what I am learning?

Ideas - We can discuss ideas for the topic as a whole class or in small teams before they start to write.  We can put all our ideas together on shared docs or drawings. This can then support the students in their individual writing that they have to do and make sure that they are covering a range of ideas in their work. I have been building a lot more team work into tasks recently so this will fit in well with what I have already started doing.
How this fits in with SOLO taxonomy? - this fits in the multistructural level where the students are using information from multiple sources.

Structure and language - most of the time, the writing styles that my students are doing are description, analysis and reflection. In SOLO, this takes us from multistructural to relational through to extended abstract, depending on the depth that they do it.
I need to give them a support structure to write to where they can lay out their ideas, show development of the ideas and give reasons why. Some of the ideas that I got from my visit to Robyn's class will help here. Link to blog post about this here.
Guiding them to start with an introduction and end with a conclusion.

Organisation - Giving them a structure to write to to provide an organisation will help them get their thoughts in a meaningful order. Using some of my SOLO thinking charts will be a starting point here for my own planning but I need to make topic specific support material for the students to use. The more they use structures like this in their projects, they will get more used to writing this way as a normal thing. Guiding them to use paragraphs to layout their ideas so what they are saying is clear.

Vocabulary - I have been working on building more activities around subject specific vocabulary and I will continue with this as a high priority. The students need to hear and use the words on a regular basis if they are to get used to using them in their work.

Sentence structure - Having exemplars for them to read will be helpful here so they can see how to construct what they are saying and how to say it. I can get the project exemplars for them to look at from the NZQA website. This will keep it in the same context as they are working. We can also use the peer checking ideas that I saw being used in Robyn's classroom.
Going through exercises together to describe and analyse other products will help them to practice before doing this in their own projects.

Punctuation - The main punctuation that my students will use is the basic ones - full stops, capital letters, question marks, quotation marks, commas etc. Peer marking will help this as will ongoing feedback from the teacher as the project is progressing. These are things that can be corrected as the project goes along so it is not left till the end.

Spelling - My students get the choice of writing in their sketchbooks or typing up on the chrome books, so spelling is very dependent on these two things at the moment. The auto underline / correction of Google Docs is helpful when online. more use of the subject specific terms will get them used to spelling them. Having them available / viewable on the classroom walls will help too.

Art with Year 7 and 8

Earlier in the year I had been doing media experiments with my Senior students to try and encourage them to use a range of media instead of just colouring pencils all the time.  I had put these up on the wall and they were seen by one of my Intermediate classes. They asked of they could do something like that too. Their class teacher, Mrs Robyn anderson was happy about this as she wanted to do more art work with them.  She wrote a great blog post about it here.



After we had done that it got me thinking about an art project that I had done with Year 7 students when I taught Art in England. 
I put together an example and discussed it with Robyn. It was a mixture of colour blending with oil pastels (which they has already had experience of in the previous Art activity) and looking at really simple cubism. She was keen so after the students had completed their technology project we did this activity at the end of the rotation.
They then went back and taught the rest of their class how to do it.
When I visited their class today their art work was on the classroom wall and it looked fabulous.







I have included photographs of them here.