A project with years 5 and 6 pupils designed to gain an understanding of slavery, drew on the quality picture book Dave the Potter Artist, Poet, Slave by Laban Carrick Hill, illustrated by Bryan Collier. Dave was born into slavery in South Carolina at the turn of the nineteenth century, became a skilled potter, was sold to several different owners, survived the civil war and eventually obtained his freedom.Thanks to The English Association for allowing UKLA to reproduce the article.
This is the first article in a new series that demonstrates how grammar can be taught in a rich literature context. The first of the series is being provided as a free resource to coincide with the UKLA Grammar conference. Further resources will be provided on the member’s site. In this first paper, the wonderful book by Carol Ann Duffy called Lost Happy Endings can be used to teach quality grammar in context for a variety of year groups. At the heart of the project was the determination that grammar should be taught in context and through high quality books. Having worked with schools on grammar training in the locality, it had become clear that many teachers lacked the knowledge of what grammar could be explored through real books.
In an extended cross-curricular project, Years 3 and 4 create a poem scroll based on a traditional Bengali form of poetic narrative. Through drama, discussion and close examination of the original poem, the children came to understand the horrors of the tsunami and wrote and illustrated their own narrative poem, which they made into a scroll.
