To wonder what year 7 pupils get from building a castle model

[Verycold]

In history? What is the point?? How does it actually improve their higher level history skills?

Isn't it amazing that I managed to get a degree in history without ever having made a castle model?

verycold wwould you like to join me on the historically accurate scale model of tthe naughty step?

Gladly

i agree with the OP tbh
i hate parental involvement in hw

PLus I think I know what school she goes to

I felt exactly the same as the OP when DS1 had to make his Y7 castle, but he won 3rd prize in his year, and his castle was displayed in the school library.

I learned from my mistakes when building that castle, and plan for DS2 to win atleast 2nd prize when he is in Y7 next year. DS2 isn't as academic as DS1, and I actually think he will learn more from researching and building a castle than he would from just being handed a book about castles.

Sometimes these seemingly 'curve ball' tasks in lesson are things that the kids will remember as different/fun BUT will hang lots of other learning off it...why did we have castles, who owned them, locations, events, community around them.

If kids do a tasks like this once in a while or per topic its ok but nit every week. No substitute for reading/writing/discussion.

..adn yes there are many of the 'softer skills' being built into the currciculum. It may including team work emphasis, problem solving, communication...arggh pleaed I am out of it in some ways.

I also have a history degree and only got to build a castle when my children reached Year 7 .

I remember doing this with my eldest son , who is very bright. We visited castles , he drew it out on a CAD programme with his father, he spent ages researching different castles and it ignited a passion for history in a young man who was not really into the " humanities". He actually built a wooden castle with the whole family and gave a young man - who because of his special needs is not very creative - a creative and therapeutic release.

We still have his castle - many year later in the History Department.

Well,in year 7 she should be doing it herself, for starters! And if she doesn't like those sort of things,keep it simple! She's just going to have to not be top of the pile for this one. The main thing is to complete the task.

My youngest son was the same when he had to do it, a couple of years ago. He would much rather write about things or do a powerpoint presentation, but that is not the point. It involved research to find the main features of different types of castle and show them in your model. My daughter did it a couple of years prior to that...a motte and bailey castle made out of papier mache and cocktail sticks!

Some people (on both occasions) turned in pink fairy castles!! Beautiful, but not quite following the remit!

As a teacher I'm 'po-faced' because on a daily basis we have to put up with negative attitudes from pupils promoted by their parents. And then read the press telling the world that standards are rubbish because teachers are shit. If you had any idea how many man hours went into planning/marking/assessing etc. only to be slagged off by anybody who has ever been to school (because that obviously qualifies them to know better than teachers) you might realise why so many people think the OP's attitude stinks. Has she told us which stage she 'teaches' yet?!

We made our castle from cake, it was fab

The more I think about it the more I think it is a waste of time. The skills that go into planning and building the castle contribute nothing to developing skills you need to be a good historian. Why not find accessible ways of doing things that have actual relevance to history as an academic subject?

OP, please could you answer the question so many posters have asked? What/which age group do you teach? Because a few posters have beautifully explained the value of the task and you seem to disregard it. Anybody with a decent knowledge of the learning process would see the value in the task. As a teacher have you not heard of cross-curricular skills? I teach languages but set tasks that tap into every area of the brain, not only the 'language acquisition' area. I would guess that 99% of kids won't end up being historians by trade, but 100% of them need a variety of skills such as problem solving, creativity... I get the impression this will be like talking to a brick wall...

Verycold surely the vast majority of those who study history and go on to do related subjects (let alone unrelated) require those skills, even if the very few who become historians don't.

HDEE - I really want a slab of castle cake now!

Surely it is better to have an holistic view of a child and know that learning cant be compartmentalised?
Everything is connected. Just because it is history, doesn't mean the teaching has ro be dry and just about facts.
I am astounded to think that a teacher does not know that children learn lots of things from different activites and apply what they have learnt to different situations to become better learners.
School is about learning skills, not just facts.

I know OP, History is chaps, Geography is maps.

That's what I was taught.

Spent £30 on marshmallows to build ours. DD didn't win but her friends had a great time eating it afterwards! I thought it was a bit of a pointless exercise but she had great fun doing it.

you are right insacerre this task could involved cross curriculur planning and be intergrated to a lot of other stuff.

I'm astounded by how much my DS's primary school achieves this as they do so much out of traditional teaching contexts eg they did the firs of london in PE - it was great DS still talks about now.

I know I am right felingfuckingfestiveok
I know a bit about how children learn- I have a degree in Early Childhood Studies, admittedly, not year 7s , but they can't be that different.
fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/1463569_398186896981824_1015935282_n.jpg Einstein was right too

Acutally to be fair I have just re-read OP post it does say higher level history skill

I would now say...it proably doesnt if it is open ended and they can just go away and build any old castle.

BUT if they had to build a specific type from a given period and were required to reserch this using historical evidence then I would say it does support higher level learning. The castle therefore is the product of a learning process that does not always have to be in written form.

I still think projects like this can add a fun element that is used as an aide memoir for other learning and be powerful in this sense. If they were doing this in year 10/11 I would wonder the value of it.

So the type of task is fine by me but how well defined it is can determine its overall value.

I am an ex secondary teacher insancerre currently doing a pysch degee whilst SAHPing. I've just done Child Development module (with OU) it was bloody hard, harder than the pysch one. Anyway away...!

I loved the creaitivity of lesson planning - I do miss that and being in the classroom (mostly) insancerre

Of course schools will encourage parents in supporting their child's learning. I doubt if most support doing the risk for them, treating assessment as a joke, disrespecting the teacher's planning and all that such an attitude entails.