What an amazing and moving end to our school day!
7 Explorer shared their pieces of World War One poetry with the class.
To begin with, we practised reading our poems aloud with our partners to make sure our intonation and expression was suitable.
We then invited Mr. Ryder, our very own published poet, to join us. He could not believe the level of craftsmanship and quality he heard as we recited what we had written.
Absolutely stunning!
Read a selection of our poems in our next blog post.
Today in HUMAN, 7 Explorer have spent time critiquing the first drafts of our World War One poetry.
We used our ‘Be Kind, Be Specific and Be Helpful’ protocol to give each other quality feedback.
Florence really liked how Harvey had used the phrase ‘night and day…’ as it gave the impression that the war was never ending.
This is what Lilly had to say about Kristian’s poem:
‘I like your use of a hyperbole in Stanza 4, ‘I have already grown six feet taller.’
‘I also like your triadic cluster, ‘the hell, the sorrow, the pain…’ because it makes your poem heart-breaking.
Improving punctuation, adding alliteration and powerful similes were just some of the helpful comments that were suggested to help develop our work even further.
Time to crack on with draft 2 tomorrow…
As part of our expedition, ‘Over the Top!’, 7 Explorer visited Hyde Park Cemetery to find out about some of the men from Doncaster who gave their lives for their country during World War One.
We were fascinated as Andria, a member of the Friends of Hyde Park Cemetery who protect and promote the cemetery, led us around and told us the stories of these brave men.
It quickly became clear to us that, even though the Great War ended in 1918, the effects of it were felt for years after by these men and their families. Even though some survived the war, their health deteriorated and many died of illnesses, such as TB, at a young age. They left behind wives and children.
Leoni, James and Florence ended our visit by appreciating Andria for giving her time and knowledge so freely.
Leoni said, “I’d also like to appreciate you for being such a lovely lady.”
Wonderful!
After a number of practical sessions and conducting a circus of experiments in STEAM, C25 have started the write up of the particle model using rubrics to peer assess their work. All students have worked hard during the session however outstanding feedback was given by Ruben, Sami and Ruby. They really helped other students to include key scientific words in their write ups to move towards excellence!
Next week we will be investigating how gas was used as a weapon in the trenches of WW1!
Year 7s will be taking part in fieldwork next week which is linked to our current expedition ‘Over the Top!’
We will be heading out in our local area on the following dates and times:
7 Explorer: Wednesday 3rd October 1.30pm – 3.30pm
7 Pioneer: Thursday 4th October 1.30pm – 3.30pm.
Please note that we will arrive back at school slightly after the end of the usual school day so please take this into account when heading home.
Students must ensure they are wearing appropriate clothes and footwear as we will be outside the entire visit.
During our last couple of HUMAN sessions, 7Explorer have started to immerse ourselves into poetry composed during World War One. After grappling with extracts from different poems, we selected one or two lines which really captured our imagination.
‘Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod‘. ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ by Wilfred Owen
‘Soldiers are citizens of death’s grey land,’ ‘Dreamers’ by Siegfried Sassoon
We added illustrations to explain what the emotive vocabulary and imagery meant to us and then took part in a class Gallery Walk, noting more examples of rich and powerful words and phrases to describe the images.
‘I saw the grey soldiers ahead of us raise their rifles and heard the death rattle of a machine gun…’
Today in our HUMAN session, 7 Explorer started to become immersed in our anchor text. We will be reading ‘War Horse’ by Michael Morpurgo throughout our expedition ‘Over the Top’.
After reading Chapter 1, we are already enthralled with the developing friendship of a boy, Albert, and his horse, Joey. We can’t wait to find out about this truest of friendships surviving in the most terrible of times.
After completing draft 1 of our World War I job descriptions, 7Explorer started to think about how we could help each other to improve and develop our work further.
We discussed how peer critique could help and the protocol we use when doing this. Working in pairs, we were kind, specific and helpful with our feedback, making suggestions about how our partner’s writing could be developed.
For example, Caiden suggested that Lacey-May could include rhetorical questions to make her writing more persuasive.
Lucie-Mae suggested to Ruben that he could be more specific when outlining the daily roles and responsibilities for a sailor in the Navy.
During our lessons today, 7Explorer have been writing their first draft trying to persuade civilians to join the Armed Forces in World War One.
Our levels of concentration, organisation and productivity have been outstanding!
Take a look at how studious we are…
Wow! What a start 7 Explorer have had to kick off their very first expedition at XP East!
During our Immersion Week, we have had two experts visit us. Our first expert shared a selection of fascinating artefacts from World War 1. We enjoyed handling the artefacts and then asking questions.
Billy asked: “Why does the shell casing have a carving on it?
Rosie asked: “What do the different badges represent?
Our second expert was Frank who races pigeons. We invited Frank in to talk to us about his pigeons after we had watched a mystery clip about how important pigeons were during World War 1.
We all wrote a message and then Frank chose four messages which were attached to the pigeons. Take a look at our video which shows Florence releasing one of the pigeons.
We are now all waiting to see whether the pigeons arrived home safely and Frank received his messages.
Feathers crossed!
