
With our grade 5 students we’ve been exploring how the learners can be more in charge of their learning, even if we’re off campus.
While we’ve been exploring the barrage we’ve had student groups look for problems that have been happening in Singapore. Each group can choose their own particular problem and learn in the gallery how Singapore has tried to solve it. At the end of the day students could either add the solution or communicate their solution in some way. The students really enjoyed choosing their own problem, and almost every group (over 200 students) chose something slightly different, which makes it way more exciting for me.
Earlier in the unit we went to Fort Canning to look at primary and secondary sources. They then used this information to create stories about Fort Canning. Again each student had slightly different stories based on the information they collected and how they interpreted this information.
Both trips allowed the students some voice and choice in their learning, while we went to the same places, each student saw or thought about something slightly different. The parent volunteers enjoyed watching the students make sense of what was around them and contributed to some thoughtful discussions about what was important when observing different sources and galleries. All in all I think we learned a lot and had a lot of fun.