This lesson explores the concept of learning as a life-long activity and looks at the right of older people to have access to education. The lesson focuses also on the role of older people as teachers and provides many suggestions for cross-curricular activities, using older people as informants - for example, in History, Geography and Physical Education.
The overall aim of the theme Obair agus imirt is to enable the child to understand that:
The objectives of this lesson are to enable the child to:
Activities 3 and 4 in this lesson outline projects that your class may undertake - you may choose a project to suit your class and your school. For Activity 6 in this lesson, you will need to print a worksheet from the Online activities, see Things to do, Activity 1.
Click here for the words of The Marvellous Toy, the song mentioned in the Online activities, in Have a go, Activity 3.
The online activities include the following words: An Roinn Oideachais agus Eolaíochta, lándáiríre, ríomhphost, fón póca, ceamara digiteach.
| Lesson plan | Finish
the sentence Discussion Project Project Time line Worksheet Role-play |
I will stop learning
when... Learning from Gran Toys now and long ago Games now and long ago Local history Tom's story Tom's story |
| Online activities | Pop-up facts | Life-long
learning Older people as teachers |
Cloze procedure Cloze procedure Song |
I am always learning Going back to school The Marvellous Toy |
|
Worksheet Survey Creative writing |
Tom's story What did you learn? When I am older, I will learn something new |
Write the phrase "I will stop learning when..." on the board. Read the phrase to the children and then explain that everyone in the class will get a chance to complete the sentence (verbally), but all answers must be finished within, say, three minutes, depending on class size. Count down and give each child a turn by indicating who should go next. The objective of limiting the time is to ensure a rapid activity resulting in spontaneous answers.
Answers are likely to range from "when I leave school" to "when I am grown up" or "never".
Discuss the answers, using a series of questions such as the following:
Outside school, children may learn a range of things - music lessons or sports skills - taught in extra-curricular classes; how to fix a puncture, look after animals, bake cakes, sew or knit, play games or sports - taught by parents, other family members, or friends.
Elicit answers such as:
How to operate new computer or video or camera or lawnmower
How to use new recipes
How to do new types of work as part of existing or new job
How to care for new pets
How to cope with new hearing aid or walking aid or a newly-developed health condition
How to play new games with children
How to speak a new language or use a computer
Conclude by writing "I will _____ (never) stop learning" on the blackboard and emphasising that we never stop learning.
Discuss informal learning, eliciting that children learn from parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents and friends. Focus the discussion on grandparents or older people:
Answers may include:
Nursery rhymes, stories
Table manners, how to behave
DIY, farm work, housework, caring for pets, cooking
History - what children were like when they were small or what life was like when they themselves were young
Answers may include:
They went to school, they may have worn uniforms, they got homework.
They helped at home, had treats sometimes - but different treats from today.
They were sometimes well-behaved and sometimes naughty; sometimes felt happy and sometimes felt sad.
They had friends and had fun playing with them.
Ask the children what kind of toys their grandparents had when they were young and what kind of toys the children have now. Discuss the similarities and differences.
These similarities and differences between toys now and in the past are the basis for a history lesson, developed over a number of days, incorporating some or all of these activities:
You can build a similar lesson on playground and street games:
Note that you can link this project to your PE lesson - play some of the games from long ago during PE. Consider inviting an older visitor for a PE class to help demonstrate the games. Consider also asking an older visitor to demonstrate to the children some game that is more popular among older people than among children, for example, bowling.
Remind the children of all that they've learned about toys and games of the past by talking to older people. Ask what other information older people can give us:
Work with the class to create a time line. Focus on life in your local area during and since World War 2. Ask the children to list major local events or happenings from the past. Then, encourage the children to ask older people in the community about other local events to add to the list. If you already have a time line on the wall, incorporate some of these events into that time line. Link this activity to your history lessons.
Consider inviting an older person into the classroom to talk about the events on the time line. Or, invite an older person to teach something that was an important part of life in the past but no longer happens - for example, basket weaving using sally rods. In return, the children can teach the older visitors something - for example, how to use a play station.
This activity reinforces the role of older people as teachers.
Distribute the worksheet printed from the Online activities, in Things to do, Activity 1, called Tom's Story. Allow the children to read the worksheet and write answers to the questions. Note that the children can complete the worksheet using a word processor during computer time or in their copies as homework and then discuss the worksheet in class.
When the children have completed the worksheet, discuss what happened to Tom, focusing on why Tom had so much difficulty going back to school and looking at the effect the experience had on Tom. The following questions may be helpful:
Answers may include:
Maybe Tom had to help at home and missed lots of days at school.
Or maybe he had to go to work and couldn't go to school.
Maybe his parents couldn't afford to buy him clothes and shoes to wear to school.
Maybe he did go to school, but he didn't understand everything and no-one helped him.
Maybe he did learn everything, but forgets it - maybe because of illness/a stroke that affected his memory
Maybe he wants to learn up-to-date lessons because the lessons he learned are out-of-date.
Maybe he wants a routine - somewhere to go and something to do every day.
Maybe he wants attention, praise, a feeling of accomplishment.
Maybe he is bored and wants something interesting to do every day.
Answers may include:
People thought he should have gone when he was young like everyone else.
People thought he was too old to learn new things.
People thought he wouldn't fit in with the children.
People were afraid that other older people might want to go back to school also.
Explain that older people who go to secondary school or university are called mature students. You may like to ask the children to look up 'mature' in the dictionary.
Explain that mature students go back to school or to university or college for a variety of reasons:
Other points worth making include
Possible reasons for the lack of older mature students:
Ask the children to form teacher-assigned groups of 4. Set the scene for the following role-plays. Assign one role-play to each group. The children can practice for a few minutes and then do the role-play one group at a time, while the rest of the class watches.
Roles:
Instructions:
This lesson provides opportunities for many cross-curricular activities and links directly to the curriculum for primary schools as follows:
| SPHE | Myself and the wider world | Developing citizenship |
| History | Local studies | Games
and pastimes in the past Buildings, sites or ruins in my locality |
| Physical Education | Games | Understanding and appreciation of games |
The key questions in this lesson include: