Using well known fictional characters to introduce and explore the Influences Cog in the Upper primary school.

The purple Influences cog should be introduced once children are in Primary 7 or above, AND are familiar with the other six cogs, individually and as part of the 6 Cog model.

To introduce the concept of the Influences cog, this Primary 7 teacher used images of well known fictional characters. As a class, pupils created with a list of background questions for the characters: Where do they live? How old are they? Who is in their family? Do they have any secret powers? Following this, pupils were spilt into groups, given one of the images and asked to record all the background information they knew about them, using the question list as a prompt. Pupils reported back the information they had. The teacher then encouraged pupils to use this background information to think how this influenced the character’s story and life.

This lesson could also be carried out as a “Hot Seating” drama lesson, using character “in role”.