Rich Task CPD

Last night I attended a CPD event run by former Hamilton Grammar staff member and now Head of English at Hamilton College, Paul Mason.

Paul introduced the concept of the Rich Task - having pupils work independently on a project that involves cross-curricular themes.

The one Hamilton Grammar did was on Planetary Colonisation and had Primary kids who were coming up to the big school plan everything to do with starting out on a new world. It involved Science, Maths, Geography and English.

The Rich Task idea came from Queensland and is now very much part of the CfE!

It got me thinking that the two S1 units myself and Mr Robbie Alexander introduced into the S1 IT curriculum last year were in fact mini Rich Tasks.

Rather than just teaching pupils powerpoint we created African Adventure - which not only had pupils working in teams but having to touch on many different subject bases (Geography, Modern Studies, Languages, Business) as they investigated, researched and presented their findings to a class final and then through to the Year final. Our project was a success and seems to be going well again this year. It was mainly based on the idea of Citizenship and getting pupils to think about the wider world.

The other unit was a mock Dragons Den whereby the skills they had learned through the year were brought together to create a final product. They had to send emails, use graphics to draw prototypes, type up letters, create posters, scan in images, and research competitors. It was basically to introduce some Enterpreneurial spirit into our S1!!!

So while our ideas did not come under the Rich Task banner, I do feel there is some commonailty and perhaps writing a proper Rich Task could be the next step. As Paul explained there are ways to write the planning sheet which I actually quite like.

One final thing though which I have to point out to Paul... our S1 African Adventure DID have Presentation Assessment criteria! That was one of the main ideas behind it. It was not just the actual powerpoint skills that were being assessed but also the content and the delivery. I like teachers to add value and if we can teach pupils presentation and communication skills at an early age then that helps every subject and pupil in the long run!

Paul did a great job and I look forward to seeing what new Rich Tasks he will conjure up in the future.