The days of getting your pupils to pretend they are a tree because it is raining outside are old hat. Today’s teachers are using their fertile imaginations to work role play into the national curriculum.
One school won the praise of inspectors by getting its mixed class of Year 7 pupils to play at being the female reproductive system. They were asked to arrange themselves into the outline of the organ, some children being ovaries, others fallopian tubes. They then passed along tennis balls to represent ovulation and used tissue paper as the lining of the womb.
This was one of the many examples of good teaching highlighted by the Office for Standards in Education in its Good Teaching, Effective Departments report.
It said: “Many lessons are successful because of the way in which the teacher ensures the pupils’ active involvement, making a clear and direct link with learning objectives.
“Role play and modelling are used where it is important for pupils to visualise mechanisms or to allow more open discussion of controversial themes.”
Other examples included Year 9 pupils acting as copper atoms to simulate electrolysis, and Year 10 religious education pupils researching moral issues raised by the BBC soap EastEnders.
One classroom debate in a Year 10 lesson on genetics asked how the school’s black gerbil could be born from two brown parents.
The report is a compilation of evidence from more than 150 effective schools, aiming to demonstrate best teaching practice over a range of subjects.
The report also looks at good departments, saying that leadership by example, vision, and concern for the needs of pupils are key factors in their success.
Full report at www.ofsted.gov.ukpublicdocs02goodteaching.pdf
