Time travelling · Fri Jan 25, 19:31 by Eleri Straker
I’ve just finished another Dragons’ Den session with my lovely yr 11 and I’ve had a ball!
It’s a wonderful way to spend lesson time as it gives me a chance to listen to some of the most able students of the year simply speaking. It’s also a brilliant way to assess Speaking and Listening skills as it fulfils all of the necessary criteria for that element of the syllabus.
As usual, some of the students absolutely shine at this exercise and none more than R, who earlier had moved me with his wonderful autobiographical piece on Crossroads (see article by same name).
R’s proposition for the 4 dragons was…wait for it…a pencil case!
O—K I hear you say, so what is so inventive about a pencil case?
My thoughts exactly.
For about 5 seconds.
R began his pitch by asking for the Dragons’ indulgence (at this point he stuck a picture of theTARDIS on the board!) as he wanted to take them back to about 1780 something to the time when the pencil was invented.
Having transported us back, he then began the funniest, the most well prepared and polished performance I’ve seen in a long time. He kept us all entranced with his clever manipulation of language and ideas and he fulfilled all the criteria for the highest grade possible.
When R joined my class back at the beginning of yr 10, he was quiet, self-effacing and very unsure of himself. Over time his work became more assured and finally, this year, after telling me repeatedly that he couldn’t do it, and me repeatedly telling him that he could, he said to me only a few weeks ago that he now felt that he could ‘do’ English. This came about when he had made a really stupid error in his mock GCSEs. He didn’t read the question and consequently lost loads of marks. Far from being devastated by his error, which a few months ago he would have been, he came to find me and greeted me with, “Miss, I’ve been a complete plonker.”
When he explained what he had done, before I could say anything other than agree that yes, he was a plonker, he said, with a grin, “Well I won’t do that again will I? And isn’t it a good thing I did it now and not in the summer?”
All I could do was smile and agree. What a difference a few months make! Back at the beginning of yr 10, such an error would have devastated him. Now, he could put it into perspective, see it as a learning experience and, more importantly I feel, he could come and find me, without fear and know it wasn’t the end of the world.
So when R wrote about his Crossroads and told us all about ‘his’ invention of the pencil case, I joined in with the class’ delighted laughter, but also sent up a silent prayer of thanks for letting R see his own potential.
And achieve it.
