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It was a dark and stormy night....
Nov. 20th, 2005 09:09 pmGuess what words a student used to open their short story today? Classic ones.
I was impressed that she got the words out of her system at the age of ten, so she will one day open a book by the late, great author of "The Last Days of Pompeii" (yes, I own it - stop looking at me like that) and discover her opening and never, ever use it again.
That wasn't the highlight of my workshop today: it was just a cute tidbit.
I had a totally fun time. A classroom full of 8-11 year olds, all wanting to learn everything they could about medieval wizardry. I don't know why we ended up talking about how castle positioning affects the defensive structure of towns and about population density and about the structure of peasant houses in England. Looking back, we covered an awful lot of turf. Bright kids.
There was one really tricky bit: these kids have been brought up on the fantasy Middle Ages. I had to get my group past fantasy reconstructions and to real history. Somehow.
Last night's TV gave me inspiration. In fact, it gave me a really neat way of explaining the difference between received pseudo-historical interpretations and actual history. I tried it on a friend after teaching and she couldn't work out why the class got it instantly. She has not, you see, read Harry Potter.
My argument is that Roger Bacon as a scientist and writer lived in muggle history, while Roger Bacon maker of the brazen head lived in Harry Potter history. Albertus Magnus, monk and scientist and teacher, lived in muggle history while Albert the Great and his Grimoire and evil wizardry are, of course, part of Harry Potter history. Nostradamus - being of Jewish ancestry - straddles both. (Ms Rowling - I owe you a coffee if ever we should meet.)
My students firmly put their stories in either muggle history or harry Potter history and every single one of them got it right. Muggle history was an accurate Middle Ages, with a belief in amulets but no proof that they *did* anything. Harry Potter history had balls of fire and decimated armies and contained all sorts of glorious magic.
I was impressed that she got the words out of her system at the age of ten, so she will one day open a book by the late, great author of "The Last Days of Pompeii" (yes, I own it - stop looking at me like that) and discover her opening and never, ever use it again.
That wasn't the highlight of my workshop today: it was just a cute tidbit.
I had a totally fun time. A classroom full of 8-11 year olds, all wanting to learn everything they could about medieval wizardry. I don't know why we ended up talking about how castle positioning affects the defensive structure of towns and about population density and about the structure of peasant houses in England. Looking back, we covered an awful lot of turf. Bright kids.
There was one really tricky bit: these kids have been brought up on the fantasy Middle Ages. I had to get my group past fantasy reconstructions and to real history. Somehow.
Last night's TV gave me inspiration. In fact, it gave me a really neat way of explaining the difference between received pseudo-historical interpretations and actual history. I tried it on a friend after teaching and she couldn't work out why the class got it instantly. She has not, you see, read Harry Potter.
My argument is that Roger Bacon as a scientist and writer lived in muggle history, while Roger Bacon maker of the brazen head lived in Harry Potter history. Albertus Magnus, monk and scientist and teacher, lived in muggle history while Albert the Great and his Grimoire and evil wizardry are, of course, part of Harry Potter history. Nostradamus - being of Jewish ancestry - straddles both. (Ms Rowling - I owe you a coffee if ever we should meet.)
My students firmly put their stories in either muggle history or harry Potter history and every single one of them got it right. Muggle history was an accurate Middle Ages, with a belief in amulets but no proof that they *did* anything. Harry Potter history had balls of fire and decimated armies and contained all sorts of glorious magic.