One day, a teacher and their class read a mysterious old picture book about a group of mischievous and messy tiny people with a love of stories. But when they return to the book the following day, they are surprised to find that the pages are now all blank – except for two sets of miniature footprints.
The children wonder whether the tiny people have escaped from the book and into their school, and they soon find evidence of their adventures. A miniature campsite, complete with a sock sleeping bag, appears in the headteacher’s office; a small tepee is found high in a tree in the playground. The class discovers that these tiny people love adventure stories, and if they can write some, they may be able to tempt the small adventurers back to the safety of their picture book…
This primary school class’s adventure is an example of an immersive learning experience – an approach which has been developed by Punchdrunk Enrichment, a charity that creates immersive theatre for schools and communities.
In immersive theatre, audiences are invited to move through a theatrical world as active participants. In stepping through a door to another universe, they can feel anything from awe to excitement.
In an immersive learning experience, children’s “work” is essential to the resolution of an identified problem in the story. Whether they’re learning about their local history so they can return a mysterious creature to a travelling museum or finding out about local geography to save a fictional island, pupils are cast as experts who are uniquely placed to help.
This can be very motivating for children. Learning is enhanced when it is embedded within a narrative, and immersive pedagogy transforms the learning environment in a way that reinforces the strength of the fictional world and the learners’ place within it.
Punchdrunk Enrichment is keen to enable more teachers to develop and lead their own immersive experiences. As part of this, we spearhead the Immersive Learning Collective, a group of 16 primary schools across London which develops immersive projects and discusses this pedagogy and its benefits. Since 2019, we have explored how to engage and inspire children through a range of experiences at different scales. One example of this is the creating of a myth or a ritual in the classroom.
Developing a myth in the classroom
Teachers in the Immersive Learning Collective often introduce a topic by creating a myth for their school. This is a story which has elements of mystery to help inspire curiosity or a sense of wonder in the pupils about an area of learning. These can include:
A book coming to life in school: Using a book which the children will be reading, a teacher chooses an element of it for the children to discover in their own school environment. One primary school in north London chose a book about spies. Before reading the book, they created a myth about a spy agency which had been in touch with the school and wrote clues for the pupils to discover around the school. This prompted lots of discussion, and teachers found that there was more engagement in class.
A transformation of space: Year 2 teachers at a primary school in Eltham built a dinosaur’s nest in a corner of the playground made from twigs and model bones over a number of days. The children started to be curious about the myth – that there was a dinosaur nesting in the school – which inspired them to learn more about their topic of dinosaurs across a range of subjects.
A story you tell: Working together, teachers can create a myth for the whole school which can be used to support learning across all year groups. Perhaps there is a myth of a creature who visits the school grounds and thrives in plants? The children need to learn to cultivate and look after the school grounds to encourage the creature to visit. In this example, learning varies depending on the year group, but everything connects to an exciting central story.
How to get started on creating a myth
School leaders generally introduce the idea of developing an immersive learning experience at least a term ahead. Even creating a myth for just one year group needs careful planning to understand how it fits with the curriculum and supports learning.
Where the myth is to work across the whole school, a member of the leadership team remains involved. However, if it relates to just one year group, this is led by classroom teachers, possibly with the key stage lead.
Creating a classroom ritual
As well as creating myths, the primary schools in the Immersive Learning Collective have developed rituals using stories from other worlds to create sensory experiences. These often include interesting and intriguing objects which provide extra powers of some sort. Two simple examples are:
Using a ritual to give children confidence in their ideas: A teacher “finds” a collection of stones and gives one to each child. They explain that they are called “furrow stones” and contain powers of great imagination. They ask children to hold their stone, close their eyes and chant – “furrow, furrow, read and borrow, the magic powers of our tomorrow” – to help them have great ideas in their work.
Helping to create inspiration for writing: A teacher distributes to pupils “moon juice”, a magical elixir made from the “story waters of the moon” to pupils. Moon juice, which can be brewed from herbal tea, can give the drinker great writing powers.
How to get started when creating a ritual
The two ideas above give children a sense of enjoyment and power in their own thinking and ideas. To create your classroom rituals, ask teachers to think about the kind of inspiration they would like to offer pupils (for example, confidence in maths or energy to write) and choose an object which can build a magical ritual for this.
The principles of rituals and myths
In any immersive learning experience, there are key principles which are important for success:
Children as heroes: Pupils should feel like the heroes of the experience. Whether detectives, explorers, investigators, or the receiver of magical powers, they are essential to bringing the story to its conclusion.
Children as experts: In many immersive experiences, children ostensibly have more knowledge about what they have discovered than their teachers. This is highly motivating for children and encourages oracy and curiosity in the exploration of the topic.
The space is transformed: As well as using interesting objects to inspire pupils, think about changing the light, sound, or scent to make the space feel different and to tell your story.
Final thought
When teachers use their expertise and knowledge of their class’s interests to design immersive experiences, they can create a sense of play, adventure, awe and wonder which can have a powerful impact throughout the entire school. Feeling like the hero at the heart of an adventure can be exciting for every class.
- Joanne Skapinker is project manager for the Immersive Learning Collective at Punchdrunk Enrichment. Visit www.punchdrunkenrichment.org.uk/schools