schoolscape @ future project, an EU Minerva project
c. Homeless Community Project
Adviser : Christina Preston
Summary
The UnITy project offered an opportunity to make a difference
by offering a thinking space to increase cultural, political, national
and religious understanding between students in school across the
UK and all over the world. The aim has been to encourage pupils
to create a web space for tolerance and empathy for diversity in
using multimedia and multimodal communication.
The homelessness theme came from the School Council meeting the
students came up with their concerns for the homeless.
In this pilot funded by Schoolscape @ future, students in East
London are already publishing their poetry, writing, pictures, comic
strips and digital videos by working with resident artists, writers
and film makers to create new resources for the UnITy website about
the homeless.
Learning to care for people
who are different: Teacher briefing pack six
Introduction
The teachers wanted to explore whether the computer could assist
in transformational learning and greater learner independence.
The head teacher explains what has happened:
"Helping homeless people has been voted the top priority by
our Year five and six children. The main aim of the project is to
prepare children to play an active role as citizens, a theme running
through all the Citizenship units which encourages children to "research,
discuss and debate topical issues".
"We would like to help people who have no home and no family
because who would hug and kiss them goodnight?" said Aysha
aged 10.
The children at our school are used to playing an active role in
the school community. School Councillors from Years 1 - 6 have
presented their classmates concerns for many years. The issues have
been taken seriously and acted on, including playground and toilet
improvement programmes. The older children are involved in conflict
resolution as Playground Peacemakers.
When I asked the children what they would like to be actively involved
with outside the school they decided on homelessness. As I had recently
attended an excellent Schoolscape / Mirandanet seminar on homelessness
and graphic novels I knew I would want to involve cartoonists. I
had also made a very useful contact with Crisis at the seminar.
The resident artists, writers and filmmakers are aiming to engage
the disaffected, disengaged and disenfranchised students in particular
through building capacity in communications literacy. In order to
developing a story they interrogated the UnITy website for information.
They plan to put their work there for other pupils to make use of
about the notion of citizenship.
They are also going to provide handbooks about how to make videos,
comic strips and other web resources.
Key players
The artists, writers and film makers have been working with
the head teacher and the staff to concentrate on the street environment
and educating the children in terms of visual imagery.
Technology
In one class children are participating in workshops on digital
video production. They will take home palmcorders to record the
aspects of their home life which they most value. They will then
edit the material into short clips.
In the parallel class they are working with cartoonists and writers
to create comics based on the lives of homeless people they meet,
interview and read about.
These videos and comic strips will be published on the UnITy website
with invitations for their learners to join the debates and publish
their opinions.
Learners
What is surprising is that very young children at 9, 10 and
11 have taken to this project and acquitted themselves with maturity
Methodology
- Action research in the community. Community ownership of the
study
- Analysis of the key issues
Respect, tolerance, equality and non-violence are hard to teach.
This was one way of encouraging the children to devise creative
ways of thinking about others in their own environment and seeking
solutions.
Conclusions
The children have been highly motivated by this project. The
high profile for the arts has kept their interest, especially Year
6 children who are approaching SATs. The range of activities- art,
writing, drama, role-play, has met the needs of children with a
wide range of learning styles. It has also grabbed the attention
of some Y6 boys who have been showing some disaffection with school
life. The quality of work in literacy- both oral and written- and
art has been stunning.
I felt it was important that creativity was at the heart of this
project. Drama and role play were essential to develop empathy for
homeless people. Film and video diaries provided essential insights
and were the basis for excellent oral and written work. They produced
thoughtful and imaginative drawings and written work. Children who
started the project saying they couldn't draw have produced
amazing work.
A crucial turning point emerged as we were drawing up possible
interview questions from the children. As suggestions were put forward-
where do you wash, have you got family, do you eat out of dustbins?
- Conika (Y5) suggested that these might upset homeless people.
It has been fascinating watching the children develop empathy for
homeless people and witness stereotypes challenged for staff and
children Interim conclusions
Learning outcomes
The outcomes for children of the UnITy Homelessness programme
so far are:
- A greater awareness amongst children about citizenship issues
(local, national and international)
- A greater knowledge and appreciation of the use and application
of multi media computers and other technologies in an active and
participative learning environment
Social development has included
- The raising of self esteem and confidence amongst all children
and in particular those who are disaffected or disengaged
- Improved ability to work collaboratively on task oriented and
problem solving exercises
- Increased motivation through engagement in active, participatory
and topical projects
- The artist in residence views about the pupils learning.
The artists, writers and film makers were impressed by the pupils
powers of learning. They referred to the children's penetrating
questions and the creative dialogue they had with the children.
They noticed how open the pupils were and how hard working and independent,
often being in full swing by the time the artists arrived. They
thought the 10 year old student assistant director was as good as
having an adult there. The artists relished their growing confidence
in creative endeavour.
They were surprised with young children's asking sensitive
questions about homelessness which they were not expecting them
to ask. They understood the homeless sense of profound isolation
and were very clear about the emotional content of the stories they
planned to tell. The pupils wanted to know what their childhood
was like. They wanted to explore the issues that led to homelessness.
They were concerned that the homeless people would not like questions
and would feel threatened by film crews arriving. They thought that
with many films crews at Crisis there fighting for the attention
of the homeless that they must have felt like animals in the zoo.
There have been other spin-offs in the School Council where older
children have been concerned about smaller pupils' fears. For
example, younger children were worrying about the school toilets
thinking there were ghosts there. Older children convinced them
that air freshener is an effective ghost buster. Later cheerful
mosaics were installed in the cloakroom at the suggestion of the
school council.
Appendices
Children's digital videos and stills
More comments from the artists who were involved
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