Date: Thursday 14th February 2013
Location: Kilmodan Primary School, Glendaruel
Workshop: Timelines
Walking Youth Theatre Team: Fiona Lochhead and Alana Mathers
This afternoon began with a brief chat with the pupils on the previous workshop; what we talked about, the activities we took part in, and what they learned. This acted as a refresher for those who took part, and an introduction to the project to those pupils who were absent on the workshop of the 31st January.
We then moved on to discuss “Timelines” – What is a timeline, what information does it show, and how do we create one? Fiona shared her own personal timeline with the youth group: Born, moved house, school, university, jobs, today, etc. This gave the pupils a visual aid to help understand what a timeline is, and how it is made. The pupils were then put into groups, and set the task of completing their own personal timeline.
Timeline Task: At the beginning, some of the pupils found this task a challenge, which was expected. WYT staff & teachers worked with the groups to help create Timelines. The Timeline task was not created to gain information for the project as such, but to help the pupils understand how to construct and read a Timeline. All the students created their own Timeline, and from general feedback while working with the different groups, it seemed it was an interesting and enjoyable task. We then brought the children together, and asked them to share iconic points from their personal Timelines. Many were eager to share! Events included moving house, holidays, successful times on the farm, pets, and injury.
We then discussed how historical Timelines are useful tools in research, and how they can be constructed and read. It was explained that, with the schools help, we were creating a Timeline of Glendaruel, looking in to the history of their home Glen.
Human Jigsaw & Timeline: Following a break, we moved from the classroom to the activity area, to play a game with the pupils. Each student was given a card, which had three pictures and a name on it. Each card was from a particular period of history, all of which were relevant to the Glendaruel area. The aim of the game was for each child to use their card to find their partner amongst the other students, by asking questions about the pictures, and the names of the characters. Pairs included Vikings, Modern Day Glendaruel inhabitants, Jacobites, and Christian Monks. When each pair had been uncovered (which actually happened a lot quicker than expected!) it was time to get the pairs into the Human Timeline. Fiona gave a brief explanation of each period of history while the pupils were arranged into the correct order.
The pupils were also given a Glendaruel Word-search, which appeared to go down well as a “break” from the information overload!
Each pupil was given brief questionnaire for them to share with their parents to help them discuss the project with their parents & guardians, encouraging the children to keep an interest in the project, to engage parents/guardians with the project, and to find out more information on the Glendaruel residents and their history for the “All Our Stories” project.