In a recent World War One unit for MYP Individuals & Societies, we were practicing primary and secondary source analysis skills, looking at the origin, purpose, value and limitation of each source. I prepared a multimodal source pack which included text (diary entries of soldiers, poems, nonfiction explanations) and visuals (photographs, posters, video clips). I designed it as an oral assessment, in which the students had all the sources ahead of the assessment date, but didn’t know which ones I would ask them to analyse on the day. I spent a long time preparing this, as well as practice exercises. It turned out to be worth it, as the students loved the oral component of the assessment and the multimodal variety.
When I look back on this experience, working with a TL would have really enhanced this experience. It took me so long to put all these resources together. The unit continues to be taught. In hindsight, working with a TL to create a bank of resources that myself (and then successive teachers) could pull from would be fantastic, rather than starting the whole process over again every year. I did spend a little time looking at visual literacy in regards to the visual resources, but asking a TL to do a mini-lesson on this, using resources not flagged for the assessment, would be fantastic. I spent time on unfamiliar vocabulary on some of our practice poems (Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon) as well pointing out a few literary devices (but I’m an I&S/History teacher, not an English teacher so my expertise does not lie here). A collaborative mini lesson with the TL regarding the practice poetry may have really elevated the experience.
We are constantly pushed for time and I feel like we are lurching from one assessment to another. I honestly don’t know where I could schedule extra time for the above but I know in the interest of the students, it would be for the best as it would bring in the TL who would have a deeper understanding of the teaching and learning processes for literary learning. Ultimately, this could be an interdisciplinary unit combined with English, with the TL embedded in the unit planning.