This week we are sharing the legend of King Arthur. We used a powerpoint presentation of the story and I modelled the retelling of the legend in my own words. Then the children worked in groups of four, taking the roles of Arthur, King Uther, Sir Kay and Merlin. I had given them questions to consider in character and then we used the ‘hotseating’ technique to draw out their ideas. This involved some of the children sitting on the ‘throne’ and responding to the questions that had been given to their character.
They had some really great answers and were unfazed when I attempted to explore deeper by asking additional questions. You could have heard a pin drop in the classroom as everyone listened to the child in the hotseat. It was smashing.
Following that they are now retelling the legend from the point of view of their specific character! I am looking forward to reading the results.