The Philosophy Man: Jason Buckley
Jason Buckley is compiling a free selection of Sticky Questions, riddles, games, videos, and stories for teachers/parents and children to enjoy together at www.thephilosophyman.com/brainsqueezers. It will be updated every Friday. You can add comments to the discussions on the questions, which will appear after they’ve been moderated. There are mixed ability online interactive Alien Adventures in Philosophy philosophy-in-role sessions for 10 to 12-year-olds and more on the way.
There are weekly online Philosophy Wranglers online seminars at https://www.giftcourses.co.uk/book-online aimed at bright, curious students with an hour-long session costing £7. There are separate sessions for 9 to 12-year-olds and for teens, and adult sessions are on their way soon. The sessions are held using Zoom, and they are a great opportunity for interaction and dialogue.
DialogueWorks: Roger Sutcliffe and colleagues
DialogueWorks is providing resources with its HomeTalk activities. Roger has also developed a structured approach to dialogue, called Thinking Moves. With schools now closed in so many countries, a good way to keep Thinking Moves and P4C going is for parents and carers to do some ‘thinking’ talk at home with their children.
See what they have to offer at: https://dialogueworks.co.uk/hometalk/
James Nottingham: The Challenging Learning Group
James writes: “We know these are challenging times, we want you to know that we’ll be here to help and do everything we can! We have created a Home Learning page for parents with regularly updated activities to share with kids, inspiring discussion, exploration, and creative thinking.”
See the great things the group has to offer at: https://www.challenginglearning.com/home-learning/
SAPERE: Society for the Advancement of Philosophical Enquiry and Reflection in Education
SAPERE has produced new freely available P4C resources for lockdown with new resources added each week. Some of these are specifically for using at home or in school with children of key workers and some of these resources have been designed to be accessible to those with no P4C experience. There’s a facility to search for P4C resources including ‘At home’ and ‘At school’ on the SAPERE website resources page https://archive.sapere.org.uk/Default.aspx?tabid=289.
SAPERE is also developing online offers of training and support. Level 1 training is currently at the piloting stage and will be widely available when it goes live in May 2020. SAPERE also has P4C taster sessions starting online on May 12th
Recommended: The Economist Educational Foundation
Steve Williams and Jason Buckley from P4C.com worked with The Economist Economic Foundation on their excellent Burnett News Club initiative. The Foundation has produced a Covid-19 learning resource. It encourages children to:
- Assess the truth of what they read about the coronavirus
- Evaluate the arguments around stockpiling
- Reflect on the different perspectives in the news
This flexible resource can be enjoyed by a child working alone or with others. Click HERE to download a PDF file with the resources
We recommend the entire website of The Economist Foundation, which also provides a lively weekly bulletin. See https://economistfoundation.org/resources/
Recommended: The Centre for Philosophy for Children, Washington
Our friends over at the Washington centre have created a resource called: CHILDREN’S BIG QUESTIONS DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS: RESOURCES FOR PARENTS
It has many recommendation for children’s books and suggestions for engaging questions. You may be able to find readings of some of the books on YouTube.
HERE IS A LINK to the file they have made available.
Thanks to Jana Mohr Lone and colleagues.
Worth a look: Philosophy Foundation online courses
Our friends over at the Philosophy Foundation are offering online courses for all ages. CHECK THEM OUT HERE.
Here’s an idea: Aaron Shepard’s Reader’s Theater* Editions
Reader’s Theater could be a great family reading activity to try out. It could also work well online either between friends or leading pupils in a reading.
On Aaron Shepard’s website you’ll find 40 Reader’s Theater scripts of mostly traditional tales from around the world. They are the sorts of texts many people use for P4C.
Each script has a suggestion for age appropriateness and an estimate of the likely reading time.
Even if you don’t find philosophical stimulation there, the readings could be enjoyable.
HERE IS THE LINK to Aaron’s website.
(*American spelling)