Lesson on Martin Luther King

[Racingsnake]

AFter half term have been put down for a whole morning with the scariest ever class of y5/6, mostly boys with emotional issues who hate writing. Am doing famous Christians in RE at the moment and thought of doing the morning on MLK, with drama, maybe cartoons, etc, even using ICT (all ideas lovely MNers have given me for this awful class). Has anyone ever done any successful activities on MLK they would like to share? Will post this in religious bit, too.

Soory, maybe i've missed something. Why would dooing a lesson on MLK be more 'awful' than any other lesson or a a lesson on anyone else? im bemused.

I think she means the class themselves are awful rather than the topic?

Clearly she is referring to her pupils rather than the topic.

As others have spotted, no, a lesson on MLK is not awful. The class is!

Actually, they are not awful. Individually, the kids are great. Over 30 of them, when many of them have big 'issues', there is no TA and they do not like the subject I have to teach them and it's ppa cover anyway, so that they are not 'my' class and I have no chance to build up a relationship with them; that is awful.

I dread the class all week and end up being the kind of shouty teacher I hate. I therefore have been trying really hard to have creative ideas which produce a record for HT, OfSTED, etc, but involve very little writing and will engage the kids.

I have had a success letting them paint stained glass windows to illustrate the story of St Paul, but need to move on to the next bit of the topic.

I feel totally unsupported in my school - the class teacher enforces total silence and many punishments, which is not an option for a part timer and I don't like it anyway. Every time I take a class for ppa time, the HT takes away the TA to do jobs, so that I have to stay late/come in early to do all the preparation and I do not have the back up of someone who sees the kids every day.

This is why I have been asking teachers/parents/clever people on MN for good ideas.

I have now moaned for some time, have got no further being inspired for MLK and feel very embarrassed to have complained about kids. That is never acceptable - I would be furious if someone thought like that about my child. I am now off to photocopy and laminate for my RE display of 30 y1 pictures of their families. At least they are fun to look at, particularly the one who seems to be closely related to a black centipede, judging by his picture. In black on a black background.

Ok , I think im understanding the situation better now. Sorry you are having to teach in such circumstances. DSD did an actvity afternoon at her school a few years back for BHM. From what I gather it centred on the 'content of character' vs 'colour of skin' debate. She had to make a collage on her 'dream' for the future. Think it was called "If I were president" or something similar. The 'contect of character' aspect was woven into perceived traits of good Christians and the difference it would make to the world if those traits were a more prominent feature. Said she had to make a badge stating one dream and one positive character trait they believe themselves to have and one they want to improve. Was part of a bHM assembley and was quite touching to see how inciteful and perceptive 8 year ols can be. HTH (Apols if my earlier post caused any offence).

I might do any of the following:-

split group along arbitary lines (kids in ssweatshirts/jumpers or eye colour); give lollipops to one group then lead into unfairness etc (lolly's for rest later of course)

play youtube clip of the speech a few times and get kids to put hands to head each time the word dream is said on last play; discussion of why this speech is so important; jigsaw of part of the speech (get into right order)

drama work based on the civil rights movement - one group does Rosa Parks on the bus, one group could do a sit in, one group the four black students at the Miss UNi etc

a mood board of their own dreams. Digital pic of their face in the middle then lots of mags pics/drawn pics/clipart showing what they hope for in the future. Can include 2 material hopes (car/wii game etc but rest has to be non-material)

HTH

humph - arbitrary lines

I apologise. Of course you didn't cause offense. Had just been told that TA had 'jobs' to do again tomorrow morning when I had planned group work and was feeling fragile.

i love the ideas of the collage, the badge, etc. I had thought of doing 'brown eyes/blue eyes' being unfair (have worked out most volatile kids in the class have blue eyes, so think I'll be unfair to brown eyes first, then reverse!) I have downloaded a youtube clip, but hadn't quite worked out what I was going to do with it. I like the idea of the digital photos and the collages - better start collecting. (I really will need a TA - how often to computers work in class?)

Thank you so much for the ideas and please ignore self pity!