Background 1 Session One Introduction 4 Session Two Local Football 6 Session Three Football Language 8 Session Four Creative Football 9 Session Five A Question of Sport 11 Session Six What’s the Score? 13 Session Seven Football Skills 15 Session Eight Football Commentary 16 Session Nine Advertising 18 Session Ten Advertising (2) 19 Session Eleven Behind the Scenes 21 Session Twelve Evaluation 22 More ideas 25 Resource Sheets Evaluation Sheets Acknowledgements i Links If you would like to run a shorter project the following sessions can be matched together. Sessions 1, 7, 9 and 10 These are gentle introductory sessions which could be used with a group who are undertaking work of this nature for the first time. These could then lead on to session 2. Sessions 3, 4, 6 and 8 These sessions all look at the language of football – developing vocabulary, communication, description, creative writing and speaking skills. Sessions 5 and 11 Participation in a ‘Question of Sport’ leads on to a session developing different questions for the rounds. These new questions could be used with another group with the young people playing host. ii Background Project Aims: • To develop and support the group’s literacy skills • To develop and support the group’s football skills • To provide a positive learning experience • To enable progression into other opportunities in the community • To produce a resource pack for youth workers Format: This twelve week project ran as a 2.5 hour session each week. Each session was divided into two parts. The first part of the session involved literacy activities centred on football (1 hour). The second part, run by a football coach from the S.F.A. involved developing skills on the pitch. Young people could not sign up to the project unless they took part in both halves. Setting up the project: Through discussions with the library staff in Sighthill it was determined that there is a regular group of young men who sit around in the library on a Wednesday afternoon with very little to do. These young men used to play football in a local league but this had ended. Posters were produced and displayed in the local area with a sign up sheet being left in the library. On visits to the area young men were asked whether they would like to take part in the project and given more information. Throughout the project between 5-15 young men attended each week. Initial interviews and assessment of the learners did not take place before the project began. This was a deliberate strategy for two main reasons: 1. The staff involved in the project were new to both the area and to the young men. The young men involved in the project do not take part in any other learning opportunities in the area and are very hard to engage. As a result we felt that we would either not get much information from an initial interview or it would put them off the project by making it too formal. 1 Background 2. We developed the programme with a clear progression of tasks and activities from week to week. The starting point of the tasks was adjusted until we gained an understanding of the groups and individuals levels. From this we were able to develop and progress the skills and the engagement with learning of the group members. Aims of the resource pack This resource pack aims to highlight, explain and evaluate the work undertaken each week. As a result activities are included that did not work! This is to enable similar projects to build on our successes and learn from our mistakes! The pack should be regarded as a template rather than a document that should be followed point by point. This will ensure that the central idea of it being a flexible project remains and content can therefore be negotiated with the young people involved. The links detailed in the contents page should be regarded as ‘mini projects’ which could be undertaken if a 12 session project is not appropriate to the group. Equipment List All the paper-based resources for this project are located at the back of this pack. The numbered sheets, which go with each activity, are highlighted in the margin of each page. Additional equipment includes: pens, paper, flip chart, digital camera and a video camera. We had funding to buy a football top for each group member. Although not essential we felt that at the end of the project it enabled the sense of group identity to continue and hopefully lead on to them playing football as a team again. At least two workers are required to cover the literacy and football elements of the project. 2 Background Outcomes: The activities are designed so that the young people will develop: Confidence: Activities are enjoyable, non-threatening and enable success. This will allow the young people to believe in their ability to learn and develop new skills. Team work: The tasks involve the young people co-operating, sharing ideas and learning from one another. Literacy skills: Within each session particular skills are highlighted as ones which will be developed and supported. These skills should not however be seen in isolation. The skills are very firmly placed within the context of the activities undertaken and therefore both knowledge and understanding of these skills: their application and value in the young people’s world will be developed. 3 Session One Aim: To enable the group of young people and staff to get to know one another and to begin to create a sense of group identity. Skills: Communicating information, decision-making, art and design, reasoning and the alphabet. Equipment Activities Introductions Sheet 1 The first part of the session was devoted to introducing the Folders staff and going over the aims of the project. These were written out in the style of a back page of a newspaper. This style of back page was used each week to highlight the aims and activities to be carried out that afternoon. The young people introduced their next-door neighbour explaining what they hoped to get out of the project and who their favourite footballer was. The general agreement by the young men was that they were here to improve their football skills. despite this they were all happy to attend both parts of the project. Each person was given a folder which they could keep their work in each week. Sheet 2 Ground Rules The young men split into groups and decided what rules were important to them. These were then put to a vote and the following ground rules were established: 1. No slagging 2. No fighting 3. No cheek 4. No farting 5. No swearing These were written up as a poster and displayed on the wall each week. 4 Session One Kit design Sheet 3 We had funding to buy the young men a football shirt each. In Sheet 4 order to personalise it we asked the group to design their own badges that reflected the area they live in and their lives. This was set up as a competition with the best design being put on the football shirts. An important element of this activity is the reason that was given for the choice of the design. This activity was well received by the group and lots of great designs were produced. Football Alphabet Sheet 5 This activity involved thinking of football words for each letter of the alphabet. This activity was enjoyed and between them the group produced a wide variety of words. Evaluation Sheet 6 The group were asked to fill out an evaluation form. Although not everyone filled out the forms sensibly valuable comments were made. The most enjoyable part of the session was designing the football kit. The form asked whether the session had helped them think differently about anything. Comments included ‘my skills’, ‘being nasty’, ‘football’ and ‘rules’. The group was surprised by ‘talking about football’, ‘writing and not being cheeky’, ‘my drawing’ and ‘coming to the session’. The average score for how much fun the session was 4 out of 4 and for how much they learned was 2 out of 4. These comments highlight a key point that the group undertook activities that they would not normally do but although these were enjoyable the young people did not feel as though they learned much. This demonstrates the importance of going over the aims and skills at the beginning and end of the session to highlight the learning points and to discuss whether or not the young people feel these have been achieved. 5 Session Two Aim: The aim of this session was to look more closely at football in Scotland and local issues surrounding Hearts Football Club. Skills: Decision-making, cooperation, discussion, empathy and reasoning. Equipment Activities Football strip Sheet 7 The winning badge design was announced and the group chose Catalogue the football top that they would like to have. SPL Sheets 8-10 The first warm up activity was to name the teams in the SPL and then to write down as many suffixes of team names as possible e.g. united, city and county. Pairs were then supplied with a map of Scotland and a list of football teams and the aim was locate the teams on the map. Tynecastle versus Murrayfield Sheets 11-12 The group split into two groups each discussing the relative arguments for or against the proposed move to Murrayfield. A writing frame was supplied to aid the recording of these discussions. This activity was not successful for a number of reasons.