Learning & Loans

Conclusion: 92% (24) of 26 observations provided evidence of main activities. Observational drawing and writing answers to questions were the most popular main activities. These were followed in descending popularity by: art work, handling and discussing, writing labels or thoughts in sentences, ordering and comparing, oral descriptions and presentations as well as play.

Key: A "user" is a school that already uses the loan service. A "non-user" is a school that does not currently use the loan service.

1. School A: User: Primary
What was the main activity?
The main activity with the knitted farm was child-centred play.

How many students were involved?
10 students in all; 2 - 3 at a time

2. School B: User: Primary
What was the main activity?
The introduction served as a model for the students to explore their own artefacts. The artefacts were distributed to the class for exploration - one between two students. The students were given differentiated lists of questions about artefacts that reflected some of the questions in the introduction. The students were asked to answer these questions in full sentences in their literacy books.

How many students were involved?
27 students were involved in the activity.

3. School C: User: Primary
What was the main activity?
Seaside artefacts from earlier this century were in the centre of the 5 tables in the classroom. The children sat around these tables with their workbooks in which they draw a grid for making two drawings and written comments on each of the 5 artefacts. The two drawings were to represent "then" and "now" with their own imaginary drawing for "now".

How many students were involved?
27 students were involved in the activity.

4. School D: User: Primary
What was the main activity?
The teacher told the students that they were going to be curators and write labels for a number of the loan objects. She divided the children into groups and told them that they would circulate around the tables where the artefacts were located and answer the questions: What is it? What is it used for? Who used it?

How many students were involved?
30 students were involved in the activity.

5. School E: User: Primary
What was the main activity?
The teacher encouraged the children to do careful observational drawing while completing their food chain illustrations. She also provoked them to think about what would happen if one link in the chain were broken. The students were grouped and given particular loans on their tables. They proceeded to complete their sheets with detailed drawings for the rest of the session.

How many students were involved?
30 students were involved in the activity.

6. School F: User: Primary
What was the main activity?
The teacher stood at the front of the class with a marker and the whiteboard. The class then gave her detailed descriptions of the loans so that she could draw them on the board and guess what they were.

How many students were involved?
23 students were involved in the activity.

7. School G: User: Primary
What was the main activity?
The students were led by a series of questions printed on a sheet of paper which encouraged them to investigate and discuss a collection of WWII buttons and badges. They wrote their answers in full sentences on paper.

How many students were involved?
2 boys were involved in the activity.

8. School H: User: Primary
What was the main activity?
After a class discussion about what each artefact could tell them about the past, the students wrote down these thoughts.

How many students were involved?
The whole class - 30 as an estimate.

9. School I: User: Primary
What was the main activity?
I did not see a lesson. But I know that the students used the observational drawings of the loans as a starting point for making their own clay tiles and visiting the local church. Discovering the biscuit tin was magnetic led onto sorting other metals that were magnetic and non-magnetic.

How many students were involved?
The whole reception/year 1 class

10. School J: User: Primary
What was the main activity?
The teacher put one model in the centre of the four class tables that the students sat at. She introduced the activity of putting pictures of other vehicles (a set of 8 cars and a set of 8 trains) in date order. The students did this in table groups. Some students worked it out initially on picture cues then checked the dates underneath.

11. School K: User: Primary
What was the main activity?
The teacher challenged the students to use the carved animals and illustrations from a map, in addition to other books from the school library, to create a page for their topic books under the title "Animals in Africa" which she wrote on the blackboard.

The students were to choose one animal at a time, and if it was a carving, take it to their table to draw and put it back on the central table when they finished. They were to write the name of each animal next to their drawings. The students followed these instructions at their individual places on grouped tables.

12. School L: Non-user: Primary
What was the main activity?
The class was divided into three main groups. Each group consisted of several tables around one central one on which a model was placed. The students had their "draft" books and a piece of A3 paper and a pencil.

After the students had written the 5 questions from the board into their draft book and answered them, the students drew the model in detail. Then the students looked through library books on transport to see if they could find further information and answers to complement what had already been discussed.

The teacher stopped the class at regular intervals and asked individuals to stand up and read some of their work to the others. The groups were circulated so that they were able to make a start on questioning and drawing all three objects.

13. School M: Non-user: Primary
What was the main activity?
The main activity involved the students in responding to the teacher's sheet of questions and challenges. These included answering questions from observation of the loans, writing imaginative stories and carrying out observational drawings.

14. School N: Non-user: Primary
What was the main activity?
To research the questions asked about the loans in the introduction. The students worked in groups each one focusing their research on a different loan. The students used books, CD ROM, the Internet, drawing, looking and handling for their research.

15. School O: Non-user: Primary
What was the main activity?
The loans were not used in a main activity.

16. School P: Cheapside C.E. Primary School, Peter Streather, Non-user
What was the main activity?
I was not shown a lesson.

17. School Q: User: Secondary
What was the main activity?
After putting the prints directly back into the loans box, the teacher then gave the students the colour photocopies of the works to refer to. She set up the students with the following types of tasks - differentiated according to each individual child's ability: colouring a landscape from a computer printout; drawing and using colour to illustrate a simple landscape on another piece of paper; drawing and using colour to create a similar composition to the colour photocopies of the prints; colour matching by applying pastels to a black and white photocopy of the colour photocopies; using a picture as a starting point for a student's own pastel composition of a landscape; and generally using colour to cover a space.

How many students were involved?
8 students

18. School R: User: Secondary
What was the main activity?
The evaluation recorded the following activities:
- Group to select simple patterns and decide on a layout of batik on the fabric
provided, whole group to use the wax to create the batik effect.
- Homework to produce two designs on layout from photocopies for suitable
transferring into polyprint.
- Pupils to transfer designs and polyprint tiles in the second lesson.
- In the third lesson the pupils are to embellish the wall hangings with gold paint
and/or sew sequins onto the fabric; pupils will also produce drawings of the dolls
and puppets

19. School S: User: Secondary
What was the main activity?
Several works were the result of using the loans:
- Y8 landscape drawings showing perspective
- Y7 figurative compositions created from news cuttings and then the students own
figures.
- Y7 question sheets relating to AT2 aspects of Art

20. School T: User: Secondary
What was the main activity?
I did not witness a handling session but the intention of the display was for tutor groups to come and explore the artefacts. Julia said that sometimes teachers set homework on the displays.

21. School U: User: Secondary
What was the main activity?
The main activity was to continue painting or drawing patterns based on the Native American beaded artefacts.

22. School V: Non-user: Secondary
What was the main activity?
Each secondary group of students did an oral, written or/and dramatic presentation and then asked the primary students to answer questions individually or in groups.

23. School W: Non-user: Secondary
What was the main activity?
The teacher and aid started on opposite sides of the class with one loan each and showed the loans to small groups of the students where they were sitting. They allowed the students to feel the loans and ask questions and make comments. This was a calm activity. The other students who were not being shown the loans at that moment in time continued with their work with no impatience to see the loans until they were brought to them.

How many students were involved?
20 Year 9 bottom set students, all boys.

24. School X: Non-user: Secondary
What was the main activity?
The main activity was looking at the artefacts in small groups - looking, touching, questioning, thinking and discussing.

How many students were involved?
27 Year 7 students

25. School Y: Non-user: Secondary
What was the main activity?
The students were sitting down two long tables and were split into groups of 4 and given an artefact by one of three teachers who were in the room. They were also given sugar paper, pens, pencils and A4 sketching paper. One student in each group took turns in being responsible for writing down the comments of the whole group. Four artefacts in total were explored in this way.

How many students were involved?
25 mixed group Year 7 students

26. School Z: Non-user: Primary
What was the main activity?
In the skeleton group, any discussion was random and was elicited by the children's own inquisitiveness and desire to show others in the group what they were holding. In the shoes group, the teacher asked the students a number of questions related to the function and form of the shoes with a particular focus on materials.

Schools O and P (2) did not demonstrate or a main activity

Play: 1
1. Child-centred play. School A: User: Primary

Writing answers to questions: 5
1. The students wrote answers to a list of questions about the loans in response to handling and looking. School B: User: Primary
2. The students wrote answers to a list of questions about the loans in response to handling and looking. School G: User: Primary
3. The students researched questions asked about the loans in the introduction using books, CD ROMs, the Internet and observational drawing. School N: Non-user: Primary
4. The students wrote/found out (by looking) answers to questions set by tutors/librarians centred on the loans on display. School T: User: Secondary
5. The students analysed the objects and asked/answered written questions about the
loans. Some of them did observational drawings. School Y: Non-user: Secondary

Writing labels or thoughts in sentences: 2
1. Following a discussion, the students down a list of sentences about what each loan
could tell them about the past. School H: User: Primary
2. The students wrote labels for the loans. School D: User: Primary

Ordering and comparing: 2
1. The students did "then" and "now" drawn/written comparisons of the loans.
School C: User: Primary
2. Ordering pictures of vehicles through history based on clues given by the loans.
School J: User: Primary

Observational drawing: 5
1. The students did observational drawing of the loans in a food chain order.
School E: User: Primary
2. The students did observational drawings of the loans as a starting point for making
their own clay tiles. School I: User: Primary
4. The students did observational drawings of the loans for their topic book and wrote
the name of the loan next to it. School K: User: Primary
3. The students did observational drawings of the loans on A3 paper and looked
through library books on related objects. School L: Non-user: Primary
5. The students did a combination of observational drawings, answering questions,
and writing imaginative stories. School M: Non-user: Primary

Oral descriptions and presentations: 2
1. The students' oral descriptions of the shape and parts of the loans to the teacher so
that she could draw them on the board. School F: User: Primary
2. The students did an oral presentation to other students using the loans as
illustrations. School V: Non-user: Secondary with Primary

Art work: 4
1. The students did differentiated art work based around the loans. School Q: User: Secondary, User.
2. The students produced designs in batik and print in response to the patterns on the
loans. School R: User: Secondary
3. The students produced their own landscape/figurative drawings and collages as well as written answers to questions in response to the loans. School S: User: Secondary
4. The students painted or drew patterns based on the patterns contained in the loans. School U: User: Secondary

Handling and discussing: 3
1. The students looked, smelled and handled the loans in small groups. School W: Non-user: Secondary
2. The students looked and handled the artefacts in small groups. School X: Non-user: Secondary
3. The students looked at and handled artefacts in small groups. They answered the
teachers questions orally. School Z: Non-user: Primary