Scheme of work- Thinking actively in a social cont

Scheme of work: Thinking actively in a social context Year 6 science
Thinking Actively in a Social Context (TASC) is a tremendously powerful tool for reaching and extending all the learners in a mixed-ability class, especially the most able. I went on a TASC course led by Belle Wallace and listened to some fascinating presentations by teachers who had tried the method. I bought a TASC Wheel Problem Solving pack and waited for an opportunity to try it out. Go straight to the scheme of work.This came after my Year 6 science class had completed their SATs tests and I needed a different approach to maintain their interest. I had hoped to carry out fieldwork in our school grounds but the weather moved in and made this impractical. I decided for the last few weeks of term to use the TASC Wheel to teach a topic on ‘time’. The TASC Problem Solving Wheel 1. Gather/organise: What do I know about this? 2. Identify: What is the task? 3. Generate: How many ideas can I think of? 4. Decide: Which is the best idea? 5. Implement: Let’s do it! 6. Evaluate: How well did I do? 7. Communicate: Let’s tell someone 8. Learn from experience: What have I learned? I arranged the class into mixed-ability groups of four or five with each pupil having a role: leader, note-taker, collector or checker,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], to be agreed among group members. The children set about planning their work, using the TASC Wheel pack. (The pack contains a classroom poster, explaining the TASC Problem Solving Framework, and 15 TASC cards.) The first lesson was naturally noisy and at times chaotic as pupils negotiated their roles, decided what they were going to do and what resources they would need. The TA and I stepped back and observed: any help could wait until the groups had made some kind of plan.ActivityThe planning stage is contained in the first four sections of the TASC Wheel. The second part, beginning with the ‘Let’s do it!’ section, is about putting ideas into action and evaluating success. My role, supported by the TA, was to facilitate the pupils’ ideas, providing equipment, advice and suggestions. At the end of each lesson the checker, whose role is to see that the group keeps on task, reported back on the group’s progress.Advantages of TASCThe TASC method of working enabled me to stand back from the activities and observe the processes that the pupils were using to achieve the objectives which they themselves had set. The structure created by the wheel could always be relied on as a framework to show how their thinking progressed in the lessons. There was always a starting point with the task,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], where the collector would locate the cards and equipment, and an end point, where the checker would report which stage of the wheel the group had reached and what had been achieved. EvaluationWhen we had spent some lessons on the implementation stage of the wheel I considered how to complete the evaluation, communication and reflection stages. I booked the class into the computer room for two lessons so that the class could plan presentations of what they had achieved and learned, and use the whiteboard to show the rest of the class. Able pupilsThere were four able girls in the class, each with a distinct personality and method of working. Phoebe, the most academic, was able to assist in the design of a marble timer and to reflect that one could experiment with variables such as the materials from which the tunnels were made and the angles at which they were mounted on the board. Francesca, who is impelled to succeed, was able to try and fail with a water timer and switch ideas to a sand timer which gave a time of 1.15 minutes. Hannah, shy and quiet, was able to establish a firm partnership within Eden’s group and conclude that the sundial was an unreliable means of measuring time considering the English weather. Chloe used her creative drive to harness the skills of a very disparate group who succeeded in making an excellent water clock. Her group reflected at the end that they could do more research and speed up completion of tasks in order to improve on their failed sand timer.How the groups workedEden’s group decided to make a sundial. At home, Eden constructed a gnomon which he brought in so the group could calibrate it. But the rain persisted so they fell back on their second idea of using a candle.Francesca’s group decided to use an egg timer device. They made a number of models, trying different water timers but then rejected these and eventually constructed a sand timer from two funnels, tinfoil and tape. After dealing with what was described as ‘a major technical difficulty’ when the sand leaked, they managed to improve it and measured 2.4 minutes with their timer.Chloe’s group thought of a range of measurements from seconds to millennia and considered a number of methods, eventually deciding on a Chinese water clock. They cut down five plastic milk containers and using sticky tape and a clamp stand devised a series of steps so that one would flow into the one below it, taking a time of three minutes and 15 seconds. They then tried a sand timer which ‘did not work and soon fell apart’.Aarron’s group were struggling with their plan. I showed them how to make a water clock by boring a hole in the bottom of a plastic container. They were intrigued by the fact that water poured out faster when it was full because of the pressure, making it difficult to calibrate.Phoebe’s group eventually devised a timer by running a marble down card tunnels assembled on a plank of wood. This initially took 10 seconds but changed depending on the angle at which the plank was set.Gemma’s group split into two, the girls researching a poster to show the passage of time while the boys made a model clock. The ideas in the poster ranged from the Egyptians and Babylonians, dividing day and night from sunrise to sunset into 12 parts, to Huygens’ development of the first pendulum-driven clock in 1656. For more information about TASC on the NACE websiteMeasuring time using TASC Project title Measuring Time: 1 hour introductory lesson plus 6-8 follow-up lessons Subject Science Context and curriculum links Set in TASC (Teaching Actively in a Social Context) Framework; Use of group working methods; Links to technology, history, mathematics, English, art and ICT. Teaching objectives Introduce different ways of measuring time. Working collaboratively. Problem solving. Learning outcomes Understand how time can be measured. Design and make a device for measuring time. Evaluate success in problem solving in order to achieve objectives. ECM outcomes S Safety H Healthy Ea Enjoy and Achieve E Economic wellbeing P Positive contribution S – care with tools, candle flames,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], water spillage. Ea – working successfully as a group, completing a model, an experiment, a poster, rethinking. P – participating in the work of the group. Activities In lesson 1: 1. Intro to TASC (15 mins). 2. Group discussion, collection of reference material and completion of sections of TASC cards (30 mins). 3. Checkers to report on ideas and progress (15 mins). In subsequent sessions: Make a candle clock. Make a sand timer. Make a rolling ball timer. Make a water timer. Experiment with a pendulum. Grow cress. Research the history of time measurement. Make a sundial. In the final sessions: prepare presentations (TASC stages 6- Cool

. Extension/support Support from teacher and TA to organise discussions and help with technical skills. Assessment Complete TASC cards. Give a PowerPoint presentation or demonstration of what the group has achieved to the rest of the class. Resources TASC materials: dry-wipe pens; reference books; laptops with internet access. Construction materials: variety of candles, plastic bottles, funnels, wood offcuts, card, sticky tape, tinfoil, fine sand, marbles, cress seeds cotton wool and cutting tools. What next Further problem-solving activities such as Paper Structures and Elastic Energy.
The Court of Appeal pointed out that R and F's submission in the county court was of overt, conscious racism, and it was not prepared to find that there had been unconscious discrimination.The decisionThe Court of Appeal said that, unlike the ordinary civil claim where the judge decides, on the claimant's evidence only, whether the claimant has made out a case, in this case the judge had had the benefit of the whole of the evidence. Despite the school's failure to comply with the statutory requirements, the judge had been entitled to find on the basis of all the evidence that R and F had not proved racial discrimination.

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