To start off with my project the first thing I had to do was brainstorm ideas. This included creating the lesson plan, deciding how I was going to interact with the students and designing drafts for how I was going to showcase the final product on my blog.
Narrowing down the idea for the final product
The first step to this process was deciding what my aim for the final product was. I knew 2 things for sure and those were;
—> I wanted it to be related to creative writing + linked to my blog
—> I wanted to make students of our community a part of it
And so after a lot of brainstorming and creating many mind maps I decided to teach at a school which was helping the children of the underprivileged division of our society. I chose to teach at the ‘Teach a Child School’ System. What really inspired me was their aim which is; “to enable ‘TAC Children’ to emerge as role models and positive agents of change in the family, neighbourhood and the society at large.”
Creating drafts for the lesson plan & resources
Once I had decided on an aim for the final product, I began work on developing my project further. I got in touch with the teachers at my school (PYP english teachers & my project supervisor) and also did some research about teaching kids of grade 2 creative writing. I looked for information regarding lesson plans, resources such as worksheets and ways to communicate and connect with the students. Then I moved on to working on the lesson plan. For the lesson plan I created multiple drafts, taking feedback from my supervisor on each. Once the lesson plan was final I created resources for the lessons. This included worksheets such as a story organiser, as well as different posters with; adjectives, sensory words, character traits and images showcasing different settings, plots and characters.
Finalising the lesson plan + first contact with the school
I worked with my project supervisor to finalise the lesson plans before I contacted the school. On the 17th of June 2023, I got in touch with Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Muhamamd Maqbool. I told him about the details of my project, what I was aiming for the final product to be and shared the lesson plan as well as the link to my blog with him.
Meeting with teachers to finalise the dates/times + introduction to TAC DHA campus
After consistent communication with Sir Maqbool we arranged a meeting at the campus I would be teaching at. I visited the DHA campus of the ‘Teach a Child School’ System where I had a meeting with both their principal (Ms. Nazia Latif) & Sir Maqbool. We discussed the lesson plan in detail and also planned lesson days/timings in accordance to normal school days.
Once all the resources were finalised and everything was organised with admin at the school it was time to start teaching the students. We covered 8 lessons over the span of 5 days. We had 2 lessons (80 minutes) on 3 days, and 1 lesson (40 minutes) on 2 days. The lesson plan covered basics such as nouns and adjectives while moving on to develop into more complex topics such as constructing a setting or creating a plot for different stories.
Teaching at TAC | Day 1{Lesson 1}
For the first day the students & I talked about storytelling. We shared our favourite stories and a few of them also mentioned stories in cartoons. We read the tale of ‘Beauty and the beast’ and discussed what happened in it.
Teaching at TAC | Day 2 {Lessons 2 + 3}
For the second day we covered 2 lessons of 40 minutes each. During the first lesson we learnt nouns, verbs and adjectives. We played name, place, animal, thing and also created sentences which had 1 noun, verb and adjective. For the second lesson we discussed the elements of a story. For this I took examples of some of the students favourite books and cartoons and introduced them to settings, characters and plots. For our activity, I divided the class into 2 groups. Each group read 1 book and identified the; setting(s), character(s) and plot.
Teaching at TAC | Day 3 {Lesson 4 + 5}
For the third day we again covered 2 lessons of 40 minutes each. During the first lesson we recapped; nouns, verbs, adjectives and the 3 elements of a story (character, setting and plot). Then I discussed sensory words with the kids and asked them to give me examples. Next I gave the students an image of a playground and asked them describe it’s setting. After this I asked the students to come up with settings (orally) and share them with the class. Once the students had a solid grasp on creating and describing settings I gave each student their own story planning graphic organiser and asked them to write about their settings. They wrote what they could;
—> hear —> see —> feel (emotions)
Teaching at TAC | Day 4 {Lesson 6}
For the fourth day we had one lesson during which the students decided on a plot for their stories. To start off the lesson I discussed with them the plot of different books/cartoons which they liked. I also explained how it was necessary for their stories to have both a problem and solution. Before they began filling in their organisers I took examples from some of the settings they had created the day before and gave them ideas for possible plots so they could familiarise themselves with what they were meant to do.
Teaching at TAC | Day 5 {Lesson 7 + 8}
For the last day we had 2 lessons. To start off with the lesson I recapped 6 topics with the students;
-> nouns -> verbs -> adjectives
-> setting -> character(s) -> plot
We discussed how it was important that each story contained these factors. After this I gave them their organisers once again and asked them to begin writing their stories while referring to their organisers for help. Once the students were done writing their stories and I had gone over them, I asked them to decide on a name for their stories and create a drawing for it.
To end the lesson, I gave the students a small gift I had for them as a thank you for being so fun to work with, teach and above all being amazing people to spend time with.
Once I had completed the lessons I had to compile everything and reflect on the process. This included adding the; process, stories and artworks along with pictures of each student to my blog.