A few months ago, during a staff meeting at the school where I was doing an LTO, a 6 month contract teaching role, the Primary Lead asked if anyone wanted to run Primary Play Day. After a few second of crickets, I offered. I was already missing my former life of leading leaders and helping to plan school wide initiatives and spirit days. Considering my half time role, people were surprised by my willingness to take this on but also relieved. Everyone offered to help.
I worked off the previous planner for Primary Play Day. The one big change that I proposed to make was that instead of teacher-led activities, the Grade 4 students could be the leaders of the day. My colleagues seemed unsure, but I felt confident in the direction. This would also contribute to school climate, which was a key focus of the school improvement plan, so I got permission to proceed.
When I was writing up the student’s reflections on Primary Play Day for the school blog, I realized that my 4 principles for building a leadership culture were already embedded in the process and outcomes of the successful event. Also, in many ways, this is an example of Project Based Learning (PBL) outside of the classroom.
Goals
From the goal setting stage, the students were involved. Asking the students to weigh in on how the day should be organized did a few things. It got them reflecting on what worked and didn’t work in the past, and it got them thinking of the success criteria for the day, which we later wrote out and referred back to several times through the course of planning and evaluating the event.
In education we must be goal-oriented, and that is not isolated to the classroom. When we work with students to build their leadership skills, we should have general goals for the experience and, as when get to know the learners, we can develop more personalized goals. Ideally the goals are co-constructed with the team of learners and should be written in their language in an anchor chart, so it can be referred to throughout the process.
In our first planning meeting, the students decided collectively that our goal was to have the Primary Play Day be a fun morning for all the primary students. Next, I asked the Grade 4’s if the Kindergarten to Grade 3 students should be grouped by class or divided into other groupings. I wanted the students to consider the why of the event. One students said that if the goal was “fun”, the classes should stay together because kids from the same class have been together all year. Another suggested that if this was for community spirit, the classes had already been communities for the year. Another student agreed feeling that the classes had already become a team over the year of learning, so this should celebrate that. Yet another student said that the beginning of a year is a good time for mixed groups and getting to know each other, but this was a time for classes. We determined that the classes would rotate as a group in view of the goal- a fun morning for all the primary students.
One of the students added the insightful point that everyone should have name tags. I loved the idea. Name tags are great tools for community building so that kids to connect with each other by name. I told the students that they could high five each other in the halls afterwards because they would be getting to know more student's names through this experience. As such, the day of fun also became a day where we were going to grow closer as a school community. While I didn’t officially add that to our goal, I came back to that point many times throughout the process. In hindsight, I should have added it to the goal, but the effect was the same. The students kept thinking about how to plan and execute a fun event that would also build community.
Roles
For the Grade 4’s, there were two major role options for developing their leadership skills and influencing a day of fun for the younger students: to lead an activity or to lead a class. That first division allowed the students to self direct by asking themselves what would help them feel the most engaged in a day of fun catered to younger students? What is their best role?
When I first started running leadership activities for students, I created a hierarchy that separated the elected leaders from the community. As I got better at making leadership a more inclusive offering, I expanded the roles for students that range from simple tasks to more complicated ones but that also all fall under the umbrella of doing something of influence.
Still sitting as a whole group, the students suggested the activities to keep from last year and a few to add. I wrote out the 8 activities, one of which was going to be coupled with the snow cone station which our amazing office administrative assistant secured as a donation, and asked the students to self select either a rotation or to lead a class, without conferring with their friends. I actually like when the students are happy, so I don’t worry that they end up running events with their friends as long as they still contribute to achieving the goal. Also, when asked not to check in with friends before making a decision, what to do with their friends, it is less likely that kids will feel left out or not have someone to run something with. The other class teacher walked around to help the students running rotations brainstorm the supplies needed and what the written instructions would look like (procedural writing in context) for the participants. When they were done, they could make a sign that would be displayed for their activity.
While that was going on, I met with the students who opted to be classroom leaders. We brainstormed what it would look sound and feel like to be a classroom leader if they were the only Grade 4 students in the room. We also decided that they should be leaders in the Grade 3 classrooms because they were both in split classes with the Grade 4’s. As such, I combined the Grade 3’s from the split classes, thinking that it would be fun chance for them to rotate together but play against each other if there was a competition (goal- fun and community building).
Controls-
When I use the term controls, I mean it from a supervisory and communication lens. It is essential that everyone in charge, teachers and administrators, are invited to weigh in at some point in the planning process. After sharing the planning document with my principal, he added some formatting changes to the document and put Primary Play Day on the agenda for the next staff meeting. In advance of any school event, the more the stakeholders can be involved, the more collective an experience it becomes.
At the staff meeting, we went over the schedule for Primary Play Day. I asked teachers to make sure that I hadn’t missed anything. The schedule also listed the student leaders by class and those running the rotations. Some teachers expressed concern by some groupings, but I assured them that with responsibility and accountability, most of the students would be “their best selves”. Plus, I had placed the Grade 4 teachers not rotating with a class in strategic positions to support worrisome combinations.
Next, I shared the students’ co-developed success criteria and asked the teachers to notice and give feedback during the morning when students were meeting this criteria. I could feel the skepticism in the room. They didn't yet believe in the leadership possibilities of the Grade 4's, and I think many of them thought I was crazy to be developing success criteria with the students for a Play Day.
After the meeting, I answered any questions that would help the teachers prepare their classes and give a heads up to parents. Besides ensuring the students came prepared with a water bottle, sunscreen and hat, it provided a clear horizon to help prepare the classes for the day ahead.
On the day of the event, I was there for support, troubleshooting and problem solving
Polls
Formal student feedback through guided reflection and blogging helps to get a clear picture of how the students experienced the event. Reflection is a key to all learning, and Primary Play Day was no exception. I met with the Grade 4's that afternoon, while the feelings were still fresh. I had each of the students write one thing that they enjoyed about the day on a stickie and put it on the chart paper. On a different colour stickie, I asked the students to write one thing they would change or improve on for next time. Using their stickies, we had a 15 minute conversation about the highlights of the day with a few noted next steps. While the student were working on a different task, I recorded them, one by one, with any quotes they had about the experience. Because it was for the blog, the audience became parents of the entire school community, so the students had to think about what they wanted to say with a different lens.
Blogging allowed me to shared the "poll" results in terms of the students experiences of planning and running Primary Play Day. It also helped to further triangulate the partnership (controls) by sharing the experience with the school community. It was also a great way to help to crystallize why the event they planned was so successful.
After emailing the teachers to thank them for a great day, there were many favourable responses. Teachers names specific children that had amazed then throughout the morning or praised the leadership of the Grade 4's. It was nice to hear so many lovely insights from the staff.
Through goals, role, controls and polls, the students used and developed a variety of learning skills including planning, initiative, organization, self regulation and communication. The student-generated goal was met, the majority of students enjoyed the roles, everyone knew what was happening before, during and after the event, and the students reflections were shared to feed back into that community feeling. This was a leadership opportuntity that was a lot like PBL outside the classroom.
Here is the blog post:
Primary Play Day was Dynamite!
Primary Play Day is a yearly event at Rosedale Heights PS, but this year it took a different turn. Instead of having teachers run each rotation, the Grade 4’s were charge with the task, and they geared up for a great day! On Thursday, June 17th, weeks of preparation and great weather culminated in a day where every student and teacher had something positive to share. Besides the snow cone highlight, smiles and fun were had by all.
As always, it is the students whose experiences paint the clearest picture, so here are the reflections of some of the Grade 4’s who either led a rotation or a class for a morning of fun under the sun (and a bit more wind than anticipated):
My favourite part of leading Primary Play Day was seeing everyone enjoying themselves and seeing them cheer each other on- Marlee M.
I loved when the kids raced and that they had fun. I liked working with my group and learning how to be a good team- Ori D.
The play day was amazing...the best part was when everyone was playing our game that we made up- Sabrina K.
The best part was...getting to know the children's names and make the experience as wonderful as it could be. - Aiden J.
The best part is when the kids talked to me about what we were doing next...seeing them with smiles made me happy - Adi Y.
My activity was bucket and sponge and with some of my friends. We were refilling the buckets and cheering on the kids. We kept saying it was a tie so everyone could feel good. My favourite part of being a leader was being an instructor and show the kids how to play the game.- David K.
My favourite part was when we changed Egg and Spoon and made it better for people because of the wind- Amanda S.
I felt good leading Ms. Mail and Mrs. Brunswick’s class. Everybody listened and were respectful. I feel proud because I was able to lead people. -Yair S.
Special thanks to the Primary Teachers, the administration and staff, all the people who supported a great day!
(These were the only images without student faces, but I hope it gives a general sense of the morning:)