The Primary School's National Day of Action - Part 2

It is the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence. This continues the story of the Grade 4's running sessions for the other students in their primary school. This has been part of a 4 week project (see earlier blogs.)

11:15 am  - Sam's group work with the Preps

Sam, the Principal,  had split his group of Grade 4's into 3 groups of 4 students, with each group presenting to the preps, grade 1's and grade 2's during the day. I watched the group with the prep's. First, Sam introduced the session. He then showed a music video on making friends which the class enjoyed. Then a boy and a girl read from the book Crusher is coming, about a boy who comes to play with his friend but ends up helping his mother, playing with his baby sister, while his friend looks on frustrated.  

As the girl presented, the prep teacher exclaimed at her storytelling ability, the way she showed the pictures, pointed at each element and explained it.  I wondered whether older students had read to younger students like this before and what opportunities there were to develop their storytelling skills. 

Then the girl led a discussion for the class about what was it that Crusher did that was nice, calmly accepting answers. She introduced the next video about "filling your bucket" which was what you could do for others that were kind and which could make you happy. Then another girl facilitated a discussion about what would you put in the bucket, pointing to students with hands up, sometimes repeating what they said. Finally another girl concluded the session, saying that at lunch time there would be Grade 4 students to help the preps write their stickies for the Say Something Positive Wall and the session ended. 

After the session the teacher said to me she would follow up the "filling your bucket with positives" idea with the class during the next week.  She said that she would get the older "buddies" that were coming in the next session to help the preps write their stickie notes to go on the "Say Something Positive Wall." I was really pleased because Sam and I had not prepared the teachers much for what was happening and it was great to see a flow on effect.

The Grade 4's trooped out of the class and Sam knelt down and looked each one in the eye and said something positive about what they had done. "I really liked the way...."  It seemed that the students stood taller.  It was great acknowledgement. 

Should I have done something like that with my students and been more overt and specific? Instead I had done a rather adult-like debriefing where everyone had the opportunity to appreciate what we did, drawing from the feedback/participation of the audience. This one moment gave me pause about the notion of student agency, and the role of teachers in building self-efficacy through teacher praise in combination with self  and peer praise. I wondered about giving Sam's students the chance to reflect on what they liked to compliment his own compliments. Here is the video with some surprising answers....

I asked Sam how he had prepared the students and he said they had practised being facilitators taking answers from the audience.  

What do you do if the answer is stupid, or repeats, or you can't hear it, or they forget what they were going to say? 

He told them this is what teachers are thinking and now you will know why teachers do what they do when taking suggestions from the class. I thought this was a terrific way of demystifying the facilitator role and creating a meta-awareness.  I wondered if it would help these students to be better students in class discussions.   Because of the rehearsals with my students acting as the audience as well as the scenario actors, the narrators had got some experience by osmosis in dealing with audience answers - mainly just nodding and saying yes/OK, and moving to the next one. However, I wonder whether unpacking this further might have helped them deal with the nuance better. 

The Say Something Positive Wall

I had been watching students throughout lunch and recess approach the Say Something Positive Wall. Some students were pulling out "CHIPS" - a word or a statement, like POSITIVE  - and then imagining what they could do to be more positive. Some little kids told me that this was their fourth time and every time they would think of someone else in their class and do something  for them that the CHIP suggested. They loved the lucky dip notion of pulling something out. I had to keep stapling the cardboard containers back to the wall, they were getting so much use.

Other students were writing on stickie notes about what they appreciated by another and then putting that up. The girls in my class had already taken the grade 5/6 classes stickies and put them up. Students were looking through the notes, reading each one, and seeing what they said. 

The wall was beginning to grow. It had enormous value as a central point of awareness. It enabled interactivity and playfulness.

Engaging the teachers

When Sam and I developed the program for the Grade 4's we did so tentatively and privately with little engagement of the other teachers. There was always a danger in not getting teacher buy-in and awareness, but in the last week we had been more overt in organising the sessions and explaining what was happening. 

During recess and lunch I went into the staff room engaging teachers in conversation about what we were doing and giving some of the backstory and how some of the misbehaviours and cheeky moments of the students were important in shaping the program. We discussed some of the nuances of bullying and how the three statements had come up - That isn't right, how are they feeling, what could you do to make it right? The Grade 5/6 teacher said she would put these on the wall of her classroom. She was also going to get her class to answer letters of concern written by the grade 4 students that afternoon. 

Being present with other teachers in this way was very important and it would be good to follow-up and discuss where they might take it further - how to integrate a positive approach in what they are already doing and how to build students'  skills around dealing with conflict.

1:30 pm - The media interviews the principal and films the scenarios

A key aspiration of this project was building community awareness of the National Day of Action. Suz Pennicott-Jones, Department of Education arranged a media release about what was happening at the school. We had no idea whether anyone would turn up from the media. 

There was a surreal moment at 1:30pm when the school secretary came into the staff room and said "I have WIN TV, Southern Cross TV and the Mercury Newspaper in the foyer. Does anyone know where the principal is?" I had a moment of feeling I had shifted into a parallel universe. 


They were here to film the afternoon sessions. My students sat quietly watching two glamorous women holding large furry microphones interview the principal with large cameras behind. 


We ended up having an article in the Mercury the next day, short segments of about 30 seconds on both TV news that night, a short article on the Department of Education's Facebook page (with 14,800 views), which was shared on the Facebook page of the National Day of Action. 

The interview with the principal was recorded by my student who has discovered journalistic tendencies but not how to keep a camera still.

1:35 pm  - Running the session for the Grade 3/4/5's

My students, without blinking about the media presence, put on their show for the Grade 3/4/5's. The students worked seamlessly together, helping each other with the props, sitting quietly waiting, or taking pictures or filming. I stood in the background, eventually sitting in the back of the audience with the other teachers.

The Mercury took out 3 students to get a photograph on the wall before the session began. Unfortunately one of the words was spelt incorrectly and they had to take the students out again, just when we were about to play the last scenario. However, 3 of my boys stepped up and started explaining the program and what they had done to get here. This was extraordinary and an indicator of their confidence, meaning-making and ownership. 

They helped facilitate the groups a lot better the second time around, although the noise was just as loud. A boy on the autistic spectrum surprised his teacher when he said it was hard to devise a response to the "bully" when he didn't know what he was thinking. "Why did he do it?" Another group failed to create a response because they had two opposing solutions that they couldn't agree on. The grade 3/4/5's seemed a little more creative and softer in the options they devised compared to the Grade 6's. For example, one person said the "bully" - "Do you need a friend? Would you like to play with us?"

It was interesting seeing that when I stepped away how another boy took my role as prompt. When the narrator forgot to ask the audience what they thought about the audience devised scenario endings, he hissed to the narrator "Ask the question!" The narrator then said to the audience "What do you think? Hands up if you think this was right for everyone?" The narrator forgot a second time, and the audience called out "Ask the question" while everyone laughed. There was a keenness to see what everyone else thought was a good solution or not. This, I think, was an important part of the rhythm/ritual/learning. I imagine seeing a range of solutions and having to judge them helps to build discernment.

After my students played their preferred ending I stood up again and explained the deeper aspects as before. What had changed for me, was seeing Sam stand up and be an integral part of his group's performance. In the morning session I felt I needed to intervene when I hadn't expected to and was worried I had impinged on what I had seen as totally student-owned and executed performance. This afternoon I had a better sense of the important role of the teacher in framing and deepening learning in partnership with the students. So there is a balance and a mutual respect between each other and what our different roles can bring and when to step in and when to step out. Also, I realised how my explanation in the morning had helped my own students create a patter that they could use when they filled in the gap when the Mercury took out the three students (including the narrator!)  

The students were pumped at the end, all helping to clear up and helping me take things out to the car. They said how much they wanted me back to take "science" with them next term. I was exhausted and in hindsight would have liked to have taken a moment to thank each one individually and say something that I appreciated. Perhaps smiling and laughing went a long way! I know how important it is to savour these culminating performance moments and to follow-up. 

What next?

With Sam away the weeks following the National Day, we haven't done any follow-up. I am keen to see how after the holidays any of this might have stuck with our Grade 4's - not just their understanding of bullying, or showing more positive behaviours,  or ability to  deal with conflict but who they are now as people - their sense of self, their confidence and leadership. Already their teachers have said they have noticed a difference and I would like to unpack this more. I would also like to help the students  to get feedback from others in the school to examine how their intervention might have changed attitudes and behaviour - so doing a bit of human science. 

Then, do we have the energy to work with parents, engaging our grade 4's in the process? PHEW.