Isn't "wot do we 'ave to put fer this" for most depressing question?

[UnquietDad]

As part of my work I teach writing classes, often for school pupils (primary and secondary) with some of these based in school and some based "on location" in places like museums ands galleries.

There's a team of us who do this, with 2 allocated per visit; we always pair up, so that if we get 30 kids we can have half the group each and then swap at lunchtime.

When I do museum/gallery sessions, rather than just throwing them into it (lots of kids won't ever have been to an art gallery before) I give them a "note" sheet with a few ideas/questions on it in quite a structured way, with the idea that this will form the basis for their writing. I often do a "grid" of questions with room to write ideas in for several paintings, with questions like "Who's in the picture?" "How did they get there?" "What time of year is it?" etc.

Sometimes this works well. Sometimes it doesn't. You can tell when it isn't going to, because you get lots of them asking THAT question about each part of the worksheet:

"Wot do we 'ave to put fer this?"

Primary school kids are usually better, because they are quite happy to use their imaginations and realise there is no "right" or "wrong" answer. But KS3/4 kids take it all so bloody literally. They want the exact answers, and they want to be spoon-fed them. (For "What time of year is it?" I swear nearly all of the last group copied down the date the picture was painted. And for "How did they get there?" I had some of them asking "Wassat mean?" and "Ow do we know?")

And they think that's it. Job done. All answers filled out. Hand in "the sheet" and, presumably, they think they can go off and do whatever they like. They are astonished to discover this is only intended to be the start of their piece of work.

Sorry if this sounds like a rant, because I have, often, worked with some great kids who have produced some really imaginative work. But to me the fact that I can be asked these god-awful literal questions is either a damning indictment of a National Curriculum which suppresses individual, imaginative thought, or of a generation of dullards who don't know how to use their imaginations.

Comments etc. welcome!

It varies from board to board. Some don't allow a 'full marking' but will allow you to make comments. But most will allow for some form of feed back.

Kids don't always listen! But that is a whole different issue!

You can't say 'You must re-write X to include Y' for example, but you can say, 'Do you feel that when you discussed X you covered all the factors?'

MB try putting up a sign which says "I don't know yet is not a wrong answer, but this constant demand for spoon feeding does my bloody head in"

LOL. With one class (now in the sixth form, and I've taught them all for ever and love them dearly) I wrote on the board in HUGE letters, 'I'm not going to tell you until the end! THINK FOR YOURSELF!'

They laughed.

I also bet them £50 that the definition actually is in the book. One boy (NT 14) told me that Zygote wasn't in the index. Not only was it in the index, it was the last work in the index!

Oh how I laughed!

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of shit yes, 'Miss does this have to be in a full sentence'

We don't have enough text books for the kids to have one at home. So the class book has to allow enough information to allow them to revise (hollow laugh).

So rather than copy blindly from the text, you set them questions.

But as the lazy little cherubs will not write the question or write a sentence that actually make sense when read in isolation, they have pages of answers that read thus:-

1. Yes
2. A thick layer of fat
3. Because they have forward facing eyes

all of which may well be right but are bugger all use for revision!

so I insist they all write out the question now, saves on my blood pressure

I've pulled my children up in the past for not answering in full sentences and they've told me that they were told they didn't have to. When I asked the teacher (just to make sure) she said that was correct as sentences were covered in a different lesson

To be fair, when I do a quick starter activity that refreshes the last lesson, I do let them write quick answers....but that is because I want to save time and move on to the current lesson activities. When that happens I ask them to put the answers in the backs of their books

how about asking them to look at all the art in a given area - and choose the one theyu like the most and the one they like the least - and then explain why.

They would have to think for themselves then - and hopefully have some memory of what they have sen by the end.

Somehow our school system beyond the first few years of primary seems designed to stifle imagination and creative thought - or even logic and working things out for themselves. They are trained to expect "the answer".