To the gathered 13-year-olds, the PowerPoint slide was baffling. There were two pictures, a set of instructions, a text box containing key terminology, another with four suggested sentence starters and, naturally, success criteria – the old All, Most, Some – in three different colours.
The task? A piece of empathic writing based on the experiences of slum children, written from the point of view of a child born and raised on a Brazilian rubbish dump.
Up to this point, the lesson had rollicked along at a reasonable lick. Students had watched a moving video made by a charity which worked with such youngsters, showing the children leaving the dump to experience a day in school and, more affecting still, visiting the beach and stepping into the ocean for the first time.
Register now, read forever
Thank you for visiting SecEd and reading some of our content for professionals in secondary education. Register now for free to get unlimited access to all content.
What's included:
-
Unlimited access to news, best practice articles and podcast
-
New content and e-bulletins delivered straight to your inbox every Monday and Thursday
Already have an account? Sign in here