Sharing Good Practice
How to amplify that
planned trip to the museum
By Lubna Sarwar
W
hen it comes to the value
and impact of different
learning
environments,
museums are regarded
as superior interactive experiences
that foster an excitement for the arts,
science, literacy and diverse cultures.
For this reason, trips have become
significant events on the school
calendar, encouraging real Eureka
moments and bringing topics to life.
Unsurprisingly, many of those Eureka
seeds are sown in the classroom.
Scores of students will tell you that
they arrive at the local museum, with
little or no preparation, clutching a
closed question sheet, which they
mechanically fill in. If we accept that
museum experiences can be powerful
mediators of learning for our students,
then we must start by thinking about
how to enhance or maximize these
experiences. What small strategic
steps can we take before our class
steps into the brightly lit chambers
and halls of our local museums?
Here are some pre museum activities
guaranteed to ignite and inspire
more of those Eureka moments:
#HomeHistoryHunt
This is a stage setting activity that will
have your students looking at ordinary
objects of today as artefacts of the
future. A Nol card, a 10-dirham note, an
Arabic calligraphy poster, and a locally
printed book - all capture a cultural
space and moment in time. Ask the
students [and their parents perhaps]
to think about ‘endangered pieces’
in their own home and community.
A playfully thoughtful activity, it will
allow them to have some fun while
encouraging them to reflect on the
things they see around them - things
that in 100 years’ time might hold real
historical relevance. This is exactly
the mindset you want to promote and
support if you want your students to
ponder as they wander round the
museum. Remember that in order for
students to learn something new, it
needs to be attached to something
they already know, understand or
appreciate.
Open-ended Vs Closed
Questions
Teachers know that engagement
and motivation in the classroom
significantly rises when their students
begin to take ownership of their
learning. This ownership begins with
question asking. If you haven’t already
done so, conduct a mini session on
the meaning of closed and openended questions. Then have your
students research the local museum
you will be visiting before you ask
them to formulate one close-ended
question and two open- ended ones.
Once these are recorded, pair and
share the question sheets across the
class. There will be a real buzz at the
museum when your students seek to
find answers to their own questions
and not the standard short answer
questions generated by the teacher.
#ContentCreators
Consider the possibility that children
might even develop career interests
on your visit to the museum. That
would be a precious outcome! Many
of them, after all, are interested in the
historical fragments on display and will
be wondering who decides what they
get to see on display. Who assembles
the carefully curated collections? Here
is a wonderful learning opportunity.
Introduce the role and mission of
a “curator” as someone similar to
a teacher who sets out to educate,
excite and inspire us to learn more. A
great higher order thinking exercise
for the class would be to compare
and contrast curators with teachers.
In addition, you can watch a video:
‘A day in the Life of a Museum
Curator’
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=4qCDSPe2-uc
It is so very satisfying to connect
these class based activities with your
planned visit to the museum. Planning
ahead will ensure that your students
experience a cycle of anticipation,
participation and reflection.
Class Time
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Nov - Dec 2015
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