In news that surely would make Hermione proud, the Daily Mail is reporting today about a school in the UK that has experienced a significant turnaround in the academic performance of their students after introducing a Harry Potter curriculum this year. While the use of Harry Potter in schools is nothing new, the paper reports that a primary school in Arnold, Nottinghamshire, England "has jumped from the bottom 25 per cent of schools nationally to just outside the top 5 per cent over the last three years after deciding to let pupils pick a theme for the curriculum each term." A recent inspection of the maths lessons where "the children were motivated to learn about subtraction by pretending that it is a magic formula created by Harry Potter. Pupils were not allowed to answer questions without first saying a spell - "numerus subtracticus", which they devised themselves.The official report describes achievement at the school as "outstanding."
Headteacher Donna Chambers said: "Other schools do topic-based learning, but not to the extent we do."With maths, the teacher will say 'today we are learning how to do inverse operation'. They put on their Harry Potter hat and wands, and work it out in their books."
Other examples of the Harry Potter cirriculum include the following:
Art: imagine what Harry Potter would do if he painted a version of Vincent Van Gogh's 1889 masterpiece The Starry Night. The Potter-inspired versions featured witches, dragons and other beasties.
History: the history of flight, starting with a discussion of Harry Potter's broomstick, then discussing if that is real and tracing the real development of aviation, including the Wright brothers.
Geography: comparing the children's home town of Arnold, Nottinghamshire, with Goathland, North Yorkshire, where the scenes of Hogsmead Station were shot for the Potter films.
Science: put a stick of celery in a beaker of blue dye and see how it takes in the fluid, turning the celery from green to blue. Discuss whether Harry Potter could use this to turn one of his foes a different colour.
Should I comment on the shift of society from teaching the value of delayed gratification to only caring about instant gratification and the effect it could have on future societies and even lead to a fall into the dark ages?
No? Well then let me just comment that maths is easily the most annoying British-ism EVER.
Easily the best thing I’ve heard in YEARS! I was a 1st grade teacher, in San Diego, California (USA) and imagination is the key to learning! Leave it to a British Teacher to use, what is (easily) one of the best and most popular series of Children’s Books, as a tool for learning! I wish more teachers would use their imaginations. Bravo!
Hermione WOULD be proud!As I’m sure JKR is. The possibilities are endless!
Posted by Confederate Lady on November 14, 2007, 01:30 PM
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Fantastic! I am all with whatever works to get kids to learn. I remember my daughter’s Kindergarten teacher helping the kids learn the sounds of the letters by singing to the tune of “Who Let the Dogs Out” (Who let the S’s out, Sssss, sssss, sssss, ssss) Really fun for the kids and memorable.
Math is one of the most annoying americanisms, although how americans pronounce aluminium is really annoying. Most words seem to be pronouced phonetically.
I love stories like this. Being an educator, I enjoy any insight into what motivates people to learn. I’m sure that not every kid in the school responds to this sort of thing, and it probably isn’t even so much that it is Harry potter that makes it work – rather, I’m guessing that it is giving kids a little bit of respect to take ownership of their own motivations ot learn. Go kids!
and @ Molly: In the US, we DO pronounce aluminum phonetically – we just spell it differently!
Jessie I totally agree….I sincerely hope that Mallory woman has read this….if anyone needs to understandanything about education(with or without Potter)its her.
And which great school is this????I wouldn’t mind repeating all my elementary years again if they were gonna be like this….
A friend who teaches fourth grade in one of the worst NYC schools has had much success with this kind of approach. At the beginning of the schoolyear, kids throw out ideas for that year’s theme. Then they research, present to their classmates, campaign for “their” theme and finally vote on it. For the rest of the year all the studies are tied into that theme.
One year it was “the history of New York City”, and the next year it was “Ancient Greece”. I don’t know if they’ve done a “Harry Potter” year yet!
Brilliant idea. I think Jo would love it. Most important is that the school has gone from bottom 25% in the country to near top 5%.
Actually, Pat, MATH is one of the most annoying Americanisms ever. Maths is the abbreviation for Mathematics. They are plurals because Mathematics is an umberalla term for a multitude of different subjects: algebra, arithmatic, geometry, triganomitry, calculus, statistics etc etc.
Posted by karen (the one without the avatar!) on November 14, 2007, 10:53 PM
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I think this is pretty neat. I happen to Homeschool my kids, and I always thought it would be fun for a couple of semesters to call our subjects those of Hogworts. We could do Herbology, and learn about plants and gardening, we could do chemistry and call it Potions etc… Kids eat this stuff up, and it makes it fun. I think it also helps them see that all knowledge relates to something in the world. It may just be a series of books that’s made up…but it has valid knowledge contained within! Very fun!!!
"What're you doin' here?" said Hagrid furiously. "Get outta my house!"[br]"My dear man, please believe me, I have no pleasure at all in being inside your -- er -- d'you call this a house?" said Lucius Malfoy, sneering as he looked around the small cabin.
interesting! learning made much more enjoyable—that’s wonderful! i commend this. it doesn’t harm the kids… it does the opposite. so great! =)