A
word from the author
In one of the Wayne books, I describe Wayne's teacher, Mr
Dellafield, drawing inspiration from a volume entitled Ivor Wrangle's
Book of Time-wasters for Busy Teachers. Since this was meant to
be no more than a piece of whimsy, I had no idea of what the contents
of such a book could be.
But later a young reader wrote to say how much she enjoyed that particular
Wayne book. As a footnote, she mentioned that both of her secondary
teacher parents had asked about Ivor Wrangle and where his book could
be purchased as it sounded the sort of thing they might use in their
work. Not a bad idea, I remember thinking at the time. Obviously such
a book would need a more positive title, not ‘time-wasters’
but ‘productive, worthwhile and fulfilling assignments’.
There are dozens of situations where teachers could find such a store
of ideas worthwhile. Ideally the book should contain self-driving
assignments that are easy to set up, require little supervision as
the students work and at the end, no need for marking by the teacher
– just a comparison of results in a spirit of friendly rivalry.
At the same time, the assignments should be fun, challenging and maybe
something to look forward to.
I can imagine a teacher saying, 'Well, let's see what Ivor Wrangle's
got for us today,' whereupon rows of rosy faced pupils will instantly
fold their arms, sit up straight and face the front with their little
eyes filled with eager expectation.
But I always had a vivid imagination.
David McRobbie
Collections
This assignment asks students to build a written list of things according
to a given category, for example the names of present day currencies
of the world. Ideally students should work in teams then at the end
of the session, each team appoints a spokesperson to read out their
collection to see who has the most entries.
Simple? Yes, but we can add a couple of refinements. In the first session,
students are not allowed any reference to source material. In other
words, they record what they know of the category at that moment.
We can call this the 'line honours' session.
For the second session, students stay in the same teams and work on
the assignment for a given time, say a week, during which they have
access to source material then they return to see which team triumphs.
We can call this the 'handicap' session.
Obviously in the handicap session, teams should not be allowed to include
items revealed by opposing teams during the line honours session.
Another refinement is that at the line honours and handicap sessions,
students can challenge opposing team results. If a challenge is raised,
the challenged team then has to substantiate the inclusion of the item.
Challenges could be that an item has been listed twice, that an item
is not a true example of the category or that it has already been listed
but under another name. However, teams that are challenged should be
allowed to qualify the item to make it acceptable.
As they work in their teams, students sometimes become excited but
they'll soon learn the need for discretion, especially if someone blurts
out the name of an item allowing a sharp-eared opposing team member
to pick it up!
This series of Collections extends vocabulary, general knowledge and
tests students' research skills. It also encourages working cooperatively
and in an organised way – appointing recorder, maintaining secrecy
and so on. Maybe, too, the Collections could provide some pleasure and
fun, which learning should be.
To start an assignment, simply read out the ground rules then allow
a couple of minutes for discussion, questions and answers before you
set the time limit and away they go in teams or individually. I suggest
you read out no more than the ground rules, keeping examples to the
minimum shown. For most of the collections I have supplied notes which
you can use for prompting purposes if students get stuck.