Case Study David: Creating a Roman Galley In the week following the Dunblane tragedy, I drove to a city in the

southwest of England to visit a primary school and observe a teacher for a research project. The school was on a large council estate in a very deprived part of the city. It had electronically-controlled doors, a voice-entry system and visitors passes. Such heavy security is now common-place, in the wake of that tragedy, but I was surprised, and realized that vandalism and theft must be rife in that area. I wondered, as I pressed the bell how it would be to teach there, and what lesson I had come to observed would be like. I was privileged to watch one of the best and most exciting lessons I have ever seen or taught. David taught a Year 4 class of 28 children. Many of the children had reading difficulties, and there was two classroom assistants working full time with the class on reading. As I entered the room, two children arrived carrying an overhead projector (OHP). All the children had their coats on, normally against school rules, but David explained that he would be taking them into the playground later, and had given them permission. This change in routine, and my arrival caused some excitement. There was more bustle as a child brought in cartons of milk. While the children drank their milk, David placed an overhead transparency of a Roman galley on the projector. The childrens attention was immediately focused on the image on the classroom wall, and there was a buzz of interest, followed by quiet. In the lull, David reminded the children about classroom routines, such as putting hands up to answer questions. He introduced me briskly and moved on the lesson with the minimum of fuss. He started by asking two questions: What have Romans to do with Celts? What did Julius Caesar decide to do? The children were still looking at the picture. David moved into role as a storyteller. He told the children it was 55 BC, and the picture was a clue. It was picture of a Roman galley, a trireme, and the ship had one purpose only. One child put up his hand and exclaimed: A warship! David explained concisely why they had coats on, linking it into the theme of the lesson: Later on we are going to draw the ship in the playground. He asked the children what they thought the plank on the front of the ship would do. Another child suggested that it would be used to ram the opposing ship. David explained the idea of poles and ramming, acting out ramming with movement and gestures. There followed a questions and answer session in which David asked questions about the picture and questions to make
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children think, do simple sums, estimate measurements and apply existing knowledge. It seems impossible to do justice to this discourse without quoting some of it. David: Child: David: These ships were very fast. How is this ship powered? How does it move? These days ships have engines. Those things on the side. It would take about two men to one oar. If you were bad, youd work in the galley. Children: Slave. David: David: Yes, slaves. How many people rowing 24 oars? In that case. Thats only one side. Thered be people just the same on the other side. How many altogether? Children: 92. David: David: David: Child: David: Child: David: Child: David: David: No, more than that. Are all these going the same way? They had to keep in time. What would happen if one side rowed faster? Go round to one side. How would they row in time? Someone in charge to make them. Could they escape from there? Theyd be chained by the neck. If the ship sank, who would die first? They had a way of keeping time. Children: 96. Children: Yes Children: 48. Children: Oars!

Children: Slaves!

At this point David got a large drum out of the cupboard and drummed a beat. The childrens attention was immediately caught and held by the beat. David moved back into role as storyteller: David: The slaves dont want to be there. Thered be two of us. Id be drumming and one would be whipping.

He suddenly modeled a gesture of whipping with the drumstick which flew out of his hand across the room. The children ducked. This was accidental. There was much laughter while a child retrieved the drumstick and returned it to David. Still almost in the mode of storyteller, through question and answer, he got the children to tell him how they would row on calm day with a long way to go: then what they would do if they saw an enemy ship. The children showed that they understood the idea of varying the speed of rowing according to the circumstances. When he asked how they would row if he wanted then to ram the ship, they called out: Faster! All the children were very involved with the imaginary scene. David beat faster and faster, then stopped. He drew the outline of the ship on the board, telling them that the ships were designed to be long and fast. He asked them why the spike was long and thin. He reminded them about Julius Caesar setting sail from Gaul in 55 BC and asked them who was there on the shore. The children replied that the Celts were. He joked that they werent taking notes! The children responded with ideas such as they were getting ready for battle, or making war sounds. He told them that they were going to make a noise: shout for one minute, and asked them what they would do if they saw the Romans coming. The children suggested shouting Help! The whole class, with David then shouted: Help! very loudly. There was much enjoyment. The children were smiling at each other and showing their engagement and excitement. David pointed out that if one Roman left the ship with something, the rest would have had to follow him. A child suggested That pole thing, obviously remembering the standard and its significance, if not the actual correct name. David explained about the standard and the idea of disgrace: how the soldiers would realize they would have to follow him. David then asked the children how long they thought the ship was, returning to earlier talk of measurement. In response to the question: how many metres, one child offered five metres as an answer. David held up a metre stick and asked if it was longer than that. It was clear that he knew the children did not yet fully grasp the idea of the size of the ship, and he wanted to make it clearer before they went into the playground. There followed an episode of the
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lesson in which David, using well-behaved children as volunteers, measured out a one third section of the ship. He spaced 12 children down the side of the class, and measured the line using the metre rule. This was four metres. He asked them if that was one third, how long was the whole ship. The answer came back: 12 metres. He introduced another idea: that of each person needing a metre to row in comfort. The children worked out that 12 people would need 24 metres. He suggested that the measurement might be between these two, all the time using language like I think or we think. He said that he thought the length of one third of the ship would have been between 12 and 24 metres, perhaps about 20 metres. The next question was how wide was the ship. He used the diagram on the board to show there was a walkway in the centre, and suggested a walkway one metre wide with three metres on each side. David told the children that they were going down to the playground to draw out the ship. He had to tell them two things. One was that Gaul was quite a warm country and that the Romans were shocked by the temperature. The second things was that he didnt want anyone being silly. We all trooped down the stairs and out into the playground. One boy carried the drum and David gave it to a girl, Sadie, to beat during the role-play. The only other equipment was a large lump of chalk and several metre sticks. It was extremely cold. As we stood there, flakes of snow drifted down. This preparatory part of the lesson had taken 30 minutes in all. David got the children to stand in a long line, reminded them about other classes working, and told them they would not be chosen if they were silly or moved out of the line. The children waited patiently. David drew out the length of the ship, which was about 65 metres, using the metre sticks as markers and the chalk for the outline. He made the ship seven metres wide and selected children to stand on chalks marks he had made on the outline. He placed them boy, girl, boy, girl, down each side, and drew the battering ram on the pointed bow end. Once all the children were in position, he asked them to all face the front, and look around them at the ship. He said seriously that it was freezing cold and they now knew how those Roman soldiers felt. The children were silent, gazing at the size of the ship, which stretched almost to the other end of the playground. David then moved swiftly into storyteller mode again. He said they were about to attack, and needed a fast beat. They had to row together. The children mimed rowing movements. David allocated the role of the man with the whip to Sean, who made whipping actions. Another girl he told to be
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Julius Caesar and had to shout: On to Britain! Sadie continued to beat the drum. The story continued: David: So were approaching Britain. Its shallow water, so slow down and stop (the drummer slowed the beat as he spoke). Drift for while. We can hear in front of us on the beaches a war-cry(The children shouted loudly) and now youre thinking: No way! Now, stop being slaves. Be soldiers now. Come together. (The children moved together on the imaginary walkway running the length of the boat.) Quiet! Youre soldiers of Rome now, very disciplined. The slaves are now beneath you. You can hear the Celtic army and you are very afraid. Youre waiting to fight. Robert is the standard bearer. He thinks if I go, they will go. Julius Caesar, tell him to go.

David:

The standard bearer jumped off the ship into the water. The children followed him and rushed to the beach. They pretended to fight. The metre sticks had become swords in their imagination. David: Back to the ship! Back to your oars! Its getting late now. Back for tea. Back to Gaul for a warm climate and some wine. Off you go, Sadie: a nice beat.

The children returned to their places on the ship. Sadie beat the drum slowly and steadily. After a few moments, David broke the spell and returned to the manager role. He asked a child to go round to the reception office and arrange for the side door to be electronically opened. David lined the children up and led them back in. The children were excited from the episode in the playground. One boy turned to me and said: Did you see, Miss? When we jumped in the water, I fell over and got wet! None of the others did though! On our return to the classroom, which was orderly despite the excitement, David put away the drum in the cupboard and rescued the lump of chalk from a child. He set them the task of writing a front-page of a newspaper about the invasion. He commented that they did not have newspaperr in Roman time: it was just a bit of fun. He held up a prepared news-sheet to show them and suggested that they think of a good headline. His example of Crippled Celts! was enjoyed by a child who countered with: Us Fighthing Romans! There was very little time left, but the children started on their headlines and pictures immediately, totally engaged with the writing task.
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Source: Turner-Bisset, R. (2001). Expert teaching: knowledge and pedagogy to lead the profession. London: David Fulton Publishers.