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Hi all, I am currently putting together an Inquiry on Masquerade for a year 8 English class, taking inspiration from the Shakespeare play they are currently studying, Much Ado About Nothing and in particular, the masked ball in Act 2, Scene 1.
The ultimate aim is for the students to gain a greater understanding of the play, its themes, the social and cultural context of the time, but also wider ideas around masquerade and masks and the reasons they have been worn, not just Shakespearean/Elizabethan times, but other times in history, places and cultures etc. The ‘Express’ part is going to be to produce their own mask following an investigation into a masquerade mask style of their choice, identifying a theme they would like to represent through the mask (plus a written paragraph explaining their choices).
I have a few questions in regards how to best run this Inquiry for this age and level:
Any help greatly appreciated,
Thanks in advance! Emma
Hi Emma,
What a super idea for inquiry – I love it! Such a rich wealth of ideas to explore and a fascinating product. How long have they got for this?
In answer to your questions:
One other thing to watch out for – this looks like an excellent inquiry but it is quite complex for Year 8 and they will need plenty of guidance along the way, in terms of what they should be doing, where they should be looking and how long they have for each stage (but I’m sure you know that). Watch out for cognitive overload as they will be investigating two things simultaneously (style and theme) AND producing a glossary at the same time.
So looking forward to seeing what you produce and how they get on. Let me know if I can help with the Construct sheet.
Hi Jenny, thank you so much for your reply, really useful!
The inquiry project is going to be over 4 lessons, with a couple of homeworks included for students to carry out research during the investigate phase and create their masks during the express phase (over Easter holidays). I realise this is not very long, so your advice on providing lots of guidance and also limits to the inquiry is really important. I think guiding students to possible/suitable inquiry questions they could ask and limiting down their investigation to a currated list of sources, plus mask styles / themes will ultimately help support and direct the students.
I really like the broad question of ‘What’s behind the mask?’ to lead the inquiry as that encompasses so much and is also elusive, which I guess is what masks are! And I’m going to have the glossary running alongside the inquiry for students to register words as they proceed as you suggest. Thank you also for the worksheet idea for the construct phase – I’ll give it a go creating something and see how it works.
Thanks again, I feel like this is also my own inquiry into inquiry – an opportunity to investigate and experiment!
Emma
Emma has just shared this tweet:
Looking forward to hearing more about:
An Easter Update on the year 8 Mask and Masquerade Inquiry
As we have reached the Easter holidays, I thought that I would provide an update on how the year 8 Mask and Masquerade inquiry has been going, including a few reflections and observations on each phase of the FOSIL framework that we have covered so far.
Materials
I have created a ‘Mask and Masquerade’ student resource booklet for the year 8 students to work from over the inquiry, including a number of the worksheet documents freely available to download from the FOSIL resources area (very useful, thank you). I have adapted a number of these for our inquiry, whilst also adding a few additional ideas that I have discovered whilst researching mask projects on the web (specifically, designing a superhero mask). In this resource booklet, I included a resource list for students to use whilst investigating masks and masquerade, which I spent quite a bit of time researching and compiling. As with a lot of free resources available on the open web, ensuring these are at the correct academic level and accessible for year 8 students has been a real challenge. I have provided mask molds for the year 8 students for them to take away and create their masks over the Easter holidays (more on this below in the Express section).
Whilst this inquiry is for one year 8 English class (18 students), I decided to extend the mask theme to coincide with Shakespeare Week, 21-27th March 2022, inviting all students in the school to ‘Design a Shakespearean mask to represent a play, character or theme’ competition in St Benedict’s Library. This was a good way of ensuring students outside the inquiry had a chance to explore the themes of mask and masquerade further and create their own mask. During lunchtimes in the library, we provided mask templates and materials to decorate their masks, including feathers, ribbons, sequins and paints etc. We had many lovely student entries; the winners can be viewed here on Twitter.
Time management and Planning
I agreed with the collaborative inquiry teacher, Dr Julie Greenhough that we would schedule the inquiry over four English Library lessons, which are 50 minutes each. During this time there have also been three inquiry homework’s, which have helped move the students’ inquiry projects forward and cover activities that we didn’t have time to complete in lesson. My key take away from this is that four lessons are not enough to thoroughly cover all the inquiry phases or to do them justice. I have also not had time to explain the phases clearly to the students (and wondered if the terminology of each phase would confuse them further).
I have also found that there has not been enough time to cover the huge topic of masks and masquerade suitably. This has required numerous adjustments and the narrowing down of what I have been able to teach and the student activities in each lesson. From this, I think in future inquiries it is important to focus what you’re teaching and the range and depth of skills you can impart in this time. It is important to not be too ambitious with what you try and achieve in each lesson, both subject content and practical activities.
Teaching
I have taken on the role of teaching both the subject content and the practical skills needed for this inquiry project, which has been novel for me, and made feel like a ‘real’ teacher (a classroom teacher etc!). It has taken me out of my comfort zone and made me question, can I really do this / am I qualified to teach this (the subject content anyway). Luckily, English teacher Julie Greenhough who I am collaborating with has been encouraging and supportive throughout the process, reflecting on what she likes about each lesson and providing advice on what students do/don’t already know about Shakespeare and curriculum content. Julie has also advised on where to share documents with the class and how to set homework on Microsoft Teams etc (which I rarely, if ever do in my role as librarian). I am hoping for overall feedback from Julie at the end of the process of what can be improved for the next inquiry.
Julie, as the class’s English teacher for the last two years, knows the students very well, which has helped provide me with an insight into their strengths and weaknesses and where more support is needed in terms of subject and skills. During the lessons, Julie has supported the students when they have been carrying out the various activities I have set, which has been of great help to both me and the students and almost felt like a role reversal from the normal dynamic of teacher – librarian in the classroom or library. The knowledge and understanding of the students in the class is something that I, as the School Librarian, don’t necessarily possess and is consequently a vital ingredient to the successful running of the inquiry – to have a collaborative partnership with the subject teacher. The inquiry lessons have demanded that I reflect with Julie repeatedly both before, during and after the lessons, discussing how much longer we should we spend on a certain activity and whether it can be given as homework etc. It has required a flexibility and adaption on the spot, which I have found challenging, but also a dynamic and exciting way of teaching and interacting with students.
Reflections on each of the FOSIL phases:
As this is my first inquiry project, I feel I have learnt a lot, but still have much to learn! Any help with understanding a number of the inquiry phases and how to best communicate and model these in practice to the students would be really helpful for future inquiries.
Thanks Emma for this wonderful summary and reflection of what turned out to be a super inquiry from the sound of it. Something that came across so strongly in your write-up was the value of teachers and librarians collaborating very closely on inquiry and learning from each other with a real focus on the students’ needs. From my own experience I know how much I have learnt from such close collaborations, and how important they are for the teachers involved too. Thank you so much for sharing (and very sorry it has taken us so long to respond – it has been a busy few weeks here preparing for the IFLA mid year meeting, among other things). We are really looking forward to hearing about your reflect stage.