Forget the Reading, Get Writing!
Presently, for the spring term my Year 7 class are studying Baroque and Classical Music, while my Year 8 class are happily ploughing through the Romantic period. I always start these projects off with a keyboard performance module that then morphs into a class performance on several instruments. These bits work fine with both year groups. The bits that the students have always struggled with has been learning the historical elements. We in the department have tried the old 'death by powerpoint' approach, and mind mapping, but it has never been satisfactory as the bright kids end up waiting for the others to catch up, while the ones who are still working on improving their language acquisition (96% of our students are EAL - some to the point that English is their fourth or fifth language) or have SEN requirements have struggled. Having been doing a lot of reading about differentiation, listening to webinars and picking peoples brains at school, I thought I would try some