The Colgan Hall.
Between lessons pupils will be given ample opportunity to work on the actual building of their creation in Minecraft. I would envisage that this project would commence prior to Easter to give the pupils ample time to finish their creation. I would hope that the pupils will have had significant opportunities to use Minecraft to create small personal projects in the first two terms of the year.
Lesson 1: Pupils will already be familiar with the Colgan Hall as it is a building in the locality that is used for numerous extra curricular activities including drama and Scouts.
Using a photograph of the building pupils will be introduced to the project. Each year in June there is a heritage week in the town and a primary schools competition is part of the heritage week. Our school will create the Colgan Hall in Minecraft and present it as our entry.
A KWL chart will be used to determine what the pupils already know about the building.We will discuss briefly the history of John Colgan, the buildings namesake (this will be investigated further in subsequent lessons). Pupils will be assigned small mixed ability groups to work on their part of the project with each group drawing up a charter for behaviour, responsibility and roles within the group.
Lesson 2: Walk to the Colgan Hall. The Colgan Hall is a 10 minute walk from our school. The class will meet the manager of the Colgan Hall who can give them some insight into the history of the building and its current uses. Pupils will use sketch pads to take notes and create drawings of the Colgan Hall for reference. We will also use iPads to take photographs and videos of the building for further reference. Pupils will have been assigned a part of the building to work on so will be encouraged to take notes of their assigned part.
Lesson 3: School visit. Local historians and members of the Colgan Hall Heritage Committee will be invited to the school to talk and give a presentation to the pupils about John Colgan and the building itself. The Colgan Hall has been modernised in recent years to include a disability access lift. A large sculpture was also commissioned which graces the front of the building.
Lesson 4 and 5: Pupils will create the Colgan Hall in Minecraft (clearly this will take longer than 2 lessons). Pupils will be encouraged to create boards within their world giving information about the building. I would like to encourage them to create John Colgan who can give some information about his life. I would also like them to create some of the individuals they met over the course of the project such as the manager of the building, historians and committee members who can act as tour guides through the build. We will then record a fly through and submit it as our school entry for the Colgan Hall Heritage Week competition.
Review: Numerous subjects will be covered in this project including English: Oral language, writing and reading, History, Art and SPHE.
Pupils will work in mixed ability groups with roles assigned and agreed upon by each group.
Pupils will be working to a deadline (entry to the competition).
Pupils will be working with individuals from outside our school and will be encouraged to plan their questions to ask in advance as part of their group work.
Collaboration is key to this project with pupils and groups needing to be absolutely certain of their roles and responsibilities to the project. A lot of teacher feedback and support of groups will be needed as well as peer support.