Often children are seen merely as children and not as the young citizens they also are. How often do we make changes or do things without a second thought about what the children might be thinking or feeling? Changes often occur in the bigger world around them, changes which leave an impact on them. Society often fails to hear their voices, much less validate them. We fail to see that what happens during their childhoods has a major impact on their futures. Simply put — society often fails to value children and see that they have rights.

We would like to share a moment in the life of our school community when this was not the case, a moment when the children saw something valuable being taken from them and the teachers valued the children's opinions and concerns. Rather than taking the children's concerns lightly and passing over them, the adults instead listened intently and with great sensitivity to the children's voices. The adults chose to support and scaffold the children in making their voices heard. This was a moment which enabled the children to experience the power of advocacy and citizenship in the school community as they expressed their concerns about an issue that was important to them.

Continue reading "Children Advocates" »

Posted by Ms. Gleim at 4:21 AM | Permalink

Planning is an important part of our life. We plan for what is going to happen during our day, weekends, and trips. Children closely observe adults planning or making plans. Plans are important to our classroom life as well.

What began as a small moment with one child bringing a notepad and pen to the group meeting to take notes of our plans for the day caused us to pause and validate the intentionality of this action. In doing so, this small moment — an ordinary classroom ritual — exploded into a powerful, extraordinary learning encounter for our classroom of learners.

The children’s planning processes have transformed each day. Initially, the teachers regarded the plans as a scaffolding tool, which provided a symbolic mental map for the children’s day. The plans provided the children with a tool that helped organize their thinking and their intentions for their work.

In observing the children’s work, we watched as the plans validated their thinking processes as a means for communicating with each other their day.We observed children working together making matching plans. We watched as children would assist others or share symbols with one another. Why? What was occurring?

Upon closer observation of the work of the plans, it soon became evident that the children were on the threshold of something important and unique to this learning community — they were becoming the authors of a common symbolic classroom language! The birth of a language! The planning process enabled the children to share or lend symbols to their peers in order to make their intentions clear and to communicate with one another. Some symbols used by two or three children, such as for the loft or Legos, were soon adopted by other children. Through this process of sharing symbolic representations, we find the children creating a universal classroom language that supports our diverse classroom community and cuts across cultures. Each day we await the birth of another new word that is being added to this universal classroom language.
                                                      
                                          An Evolving Universal Classroom Language

                           There are approximately nine symbols that many of the children are sharing.

                                                                         Cockroach
   

                                                                              Cats  


                                                                    Dramatic play/Loft


                                                                           Race cars
 

                                                                      Excerbug (scooter)


                                                                             Snack


                                                                         Paint brush
 

                                                                             Legos
 

                                                                         Everything

                                                    
                                                             The Birth of a Symbol

Throughout the planning process, we observe as each child works to develop a graphic “word” that expresses her or her intentions for the day. Trying to find symbolic representations for such words as blocks, Legos, dress-up area, loft area, snack, atelier, etc. become learning knots that push the children into thinking intrinsically as well thinking about how the audience (another child or adult) will be able to make sense of her intention.  The child now has to make the graphic representation readable.

                                                
                                                                AR’s Provocation

AR struggles to find the best representational symbol for dramatic play.

AR's first symbolic representation for dramatic play, which was in the loft area where this play occurs. Notice that she represents/draws a ladder going up to the loft. We speculated as to why she added the A and the heart in the loft area. We know from last year that her friend LN's symbol was a heart. Was she perhaps wanting to indicate in her plan that she and LN would be playing in the loft together?
  
                                                               
AR abandons the use of the previous symbol for this one. Why? Does she liken this to arrows on a street sign, which indicates in what direction one needs to go?

                                                                   
Later the arrow is embedded within the written words dramatic play. Why does she make this choice? Perhaps AR is inwardly struggling between the written word and the graphic symbol. Perhaps this is a compromise on her part.
 
                                                                 
A few days later, we notice LJ, LN and AR huddled together at the table.

L J asks, “What are you making, A?” As if she is unaware of their presence, A. remains engaged in her work. LN, too, becomes curious. Does she wonder whether AR is on the verge of something new?

                                                            
Suddenly we find out what it is that is keeping AR busy. A new symbol! AR gives us a small view into her thinking. "I made this one because this is me. I’m going up and down the loft for dramatic play. That’s [arrow] what my body feels like going up and down.”
                                  
                                                              
Teacher Reflection:   
                                        
Revisiting the plans daily causes the child to rethink each “plan” and the graphic representations used. Within this process, one clearly can observe AR’s transformation in her thinking as it unfolds over time.

In the first graphic representation, AR clearly represents the loft but something isn’t right to her. It is missing the idea of going up and down the loft, for this clearly is how this space and the play in this space occurs each day for her.

Trying to untie this learning knot, she shifts to the up-and-down directional arrow. Again we find that she isn’t satisfied with this graphic symbol because it still isn’t clearly communicating her intentions to herself or in her thinking process. 

In the next representation, AR shifts her thinking by embedding the arrow within the word “Dramat LPA” (dramatic play). AR is trying to tie the idea of going up and down to the dramatic play area even tighter. Perhaps sensing that this still isn’t getting her idea across to the viewer, we find her rethinking this.

In the last representation, AR draws an image of herself, then places an arrow inside herself. This powerful symbolic representation fully embraces the idea of going up and down the loft, and she leaves room for little doubt by including the words dramatic play above her head, as this helps in making this understandable to the audience as well. She is able to confirm this for us when she verbally articulates to us the meaning of her representation and the reason for the use of this symbol.

Posted by Ms. Gleim at 2:50 PM | Permalink

The story that we want to share with you is simple yet powerful. It is about a beautiful moment in the atelier that I had the honor of documenting. It speaks to us about the child and the materials, particularly clay.

Jordan had opened the studio space between the three- and four-year-old classrooms. The fours were given the provocation of a chunk of clay and wire. They were left to explore at their own pace and rhythm. B had been in the studio for a while, so I stepped in to see what had captured his attention. Over the next twenty minutes, I documented his story. There are over sixty images of this moment. I want to share with you many of these images and the story of his hands and head becoming one as the clay speaks to him and he responds.


As the story begins, we find B “talking" to the clay with the wire. His hands slowly read and absorb the message of the clay.

                                                

      

Responding to the clay, he begins to carefully move the wires through the clay, as if he were a master jeweler cutting a facet into a diamond. His hands move with deliberation and precision!

Each slice is sized by his skillful eye.









He appears as if he is having a deep, silent conversation with the clay and the clay with him.

Finally a small round ball emerges from his hands.  


 

What will he do now?








Slowly he flattens the clay. He begins to pinch small pieces of clay

from the large chunk. Again, he deliberately places pieces one at a time
onto the flat base.

He makes his way slowly around, piece by piece. We watch as he goes back around to each, pinching them into place, securing their position.

Wondering if he is finished, we watch as
he then begins to roll up one piece of clay
at a time.  One by one, these pieces are
placed inside the clay structure.

As suddenly as he began, he ends. The nest with five eggs is complete!

This moment with B was beautiful to witness. To watch a child engage with the materials at this level was incredible. Although not a word was spoken until he finished, we clearly see his thinking made visible to us. In his revisiting the medium that day, we find that he was connecting to the medium in new and challenging ways. The wonder of his learning could be felt and seen through the engagement of his hands with the clay.

Because clay is such a forgiving medium, we find that it allows B to wonder, explore, and challenge himself from within. Many strategies are at work, such as how to slice the clay and how to attach the pieces to make them stay in place. This moment was priceless to observe!

The atelier speaks to B in so many ways that we have yet to see. He clearly sees this space as his for the asking, so to speak. The atelier is a space in which he feels safe to express himself in new ways, a space that challenges and scaffolds his learning.

As teachers, we need to be attuned to B and be ready to listen to the dialogues that he is seeking with the multitude of media available to him. We see this strength reflected in his work in the block area. We need to be ready to provide him with provocations that scaffold his thinking

Family Reflections:
What do you value about this learning story? What struck me immediately was the way the Learning Story was written about B -  how words like “beautiful moment” and “honor of documenting” were included. I was floored when I read that from a teacher observing my child. How honored we are as parents to have such people educating our child!!! To have the educators value our child as we do! I value the insight into B’s time in the atelier that I never get to witness. His devotion to the art of “creation” in whatever medium it may be is very exciting.

How does this speak to you about your child’s strengths and competencies?
I am pleasantly surprised to notice that he is showing attention to detail, taking his time to enjoy and explore things that interest him. B is a person who is just simply “satisfied” - he loves life, food, people. When you described him as a master jeweler cutting a facet in a diamond, it didn’t surprise me but gladdened me that you noticed the same things we do.

Talk to your child about this learning story. Have your child share what they think about the learning story and record verbatim what your child says:
I was making a nest and then there were eggs in it and I was trying to make the Mommy bird but I couldn’t make it so I didn’t make it. I made little balls to fit in the nest. They were eggs. I found a piece on the ground attached to a tennis shoe and I put it on the inside. Ms. Jordan gave me the wires so I could cut big since I didn’t have a knife. I told Ms. Jordan I liked the atelier.


.

Posted by Ms. Gleim at 7:55 PM | Permalink

Throughout our day, we observe many rich learning moments that reveal the children's thinking to us. Many of these are short moments, so we must be sensitive so that we can capture them. However short they are, they can be monumental within a child's learning process. We would like to share a brief but important moment of learning, the moment when K revealed to us that a shift in her thinking had occurred.

During a shared morning of work between the 4’s and 3’s classrooms, we observed the children who were engaged in the message area. Initially the children were creating jewelry, using paper and what the children call the rainbow string. It was interesting to watch

one of the 3’s interacting and following the work of the 4’s with great intensity. 

While observing the dynamics of this play, I watched as K left the jewelry-making process and shifted toward writing on small pieces of paper.

Wondering why she had made this shift, I realized that the other girls in the classroom were busy preparing for a hula performance outside. Had she overheard the other girls? I speculated that this could be the case, for in the past we have observed her writing on a small pieces of paper. When asked about this, she explained that the writing was for everybody to come to the performance. Was she perhaps making tickets for everyone? This piece of the performance was of great interest to her. Is this what she was doing?

Continuing to watch her work, I saw a sudden change in what she was doing. She abandoned the ticket-making process for the creation of a list of who was coming to the performance.

What happened next was unexpected. I heard her asking:
K: “What’s your name, Ms. Leslie?”
I said, “Ms.Leslie”
K: “No, what’s your name, Ms Leslie?

Her emphasis on "name" led me to look closer at her work and to pause for a moment and think about the context of her question. In doing so, I noted the change in materials that she was using.

I asked, “Do you want to know how to spell my name?”
K: “Yeah.”

For each letter of my name that I shared with her, she created a symbol/letter. This was not in a hurried or whimsical fashion; each mark was made with great intention and thought. To the casual viewer, these would seem to be “merely” marks. However, something far more had occurred and was being revealed in this moment.
 
Click on the blue link below, and watch as K assigned a mark for each letter told to her. Notice that as she ran out of space, she made her symbols smaller to try to keep them together rather than putting them on another line. Why was that?

 

Kearlywriting.mov

When K finished, she showed my name to me. A moment later, I heard K talking out loud.

K: "H's name." When I looked toward K,  I found her looking toward the message boxes, copying H’s name. She would look at the message box, write a letter/symbol, and look over again, repeating the process until she was satisfied that she had all the letters/symbols from H's name represented on paper.

Once again, we found K assigning a letter to a corresponding symbolic form. 

 
Teacher Reflections:
Children are constantly trying to make meaning of their world. During ages 4 and 5, we find them shifting from making meaning from verbal thinking to making meaning from written symbols. This is a complicated yet powerful experience for children.  In our learning community, we continuously are supporting the child's learning processes by allowing them to experience the powerful functions of print. One way we do this is through our ongoing plan-making for our day. This process has had a major impact in many areas of our learning community, from literacy to the work in the atelier to the organization of thinking processes and expression of thoughts.

This moment with K allowed us to see into her theories about the printed word. K clearly knew that a spoken name is different in representation than a written name. We also saw K's confidence as she realized that each person has their own set of graphic symbols or representations that must be grouped in a particular arrangement in order for it to be called a name.

K seems to in the midst of a huge leap into the world of literacy and the written word, for we found that she had developed a theory around “names.” This was evident in her question, "What's your name, Ms. Leslie?" When I responded, "Ms. Leslie," she said, "No, what's your name, Ms. Leslie?" Clearly she wasn’t after the verbal spoken name; she wanted the symbols that would turn the spoken "Leslie" into the written "Leslie." Her theory became visible as she assigned a graphic symbol to each letter that I told her. Again, each mark was purposeful and intentional.

During this learning moment, K was making her thinking visible to us through her spoken and unspoken actions. We found K to be beginning to grasp the value of words/names in her world and environment. K nailed down the meaning or intentions of her work a few moments later when we observed her using the message boxes to scaffold and support her as she added H to the list of those coming to the performance.

She could have easily asked me for the information to spell H, but instead we found K solving this dilemma using her own resources -- looking at the message boxes nearby. This moment demonstrated to us a shift from relying on others to solving her own problems. K clearly is learning how to learn.

We have since observed K connecting and cycling through this theory of hers around names. Today she created a bracelet for Ms. Leslie that included a name tag. She again asked me for my name. As I said each letter to her, she repeated the letter and assigned a symbol. Earlier she constructed a book in which she began writing symbols and letters that were close approximations of actual letters. She clearly has emerged into the powerful world of words as she now is formulating theories about the function of words and the graphic representations that are assigned to make up words. 

After observing this moment how might we support K with future provocations for learning?
Seeing K’s interest in the written word now beginning to unfold, it is important for us to continue connecting this new knowledge in meaningful ways for her. Perhaps in her plan-making, we could have her make lists for us. Perhaps at home, her parents could make a list of a couple of items that are needed from the store, such as milk (which has two letters from her name in it), etc. We will also be watching for her to make more closer approximations of how the letters look.

In this learning moment of K’s, we captured only one small slice of the thinking that is occurring in our classroom learning processes each day. These small moments will impact K's (and each of your children's) future learning for a lifetime.

Posted by Ms. Gleim at 1:48 PM | Permalink

Each day we look closely at the children's work in the classroom and in the atelier. We are always looking for possible entry points for provoking learning.  We recently found one in the children's block-building play in the classroom.

We decided to offer the provocation of building but with a different medium - clay.  We felt that this medium would stimulate many interesting questions and allow the children to discover strategies for working with clay, a familiar medium, in new ways. What would happen when the children began to build with the clay? Would we find many learning knots (moments when the materials challenge the children's thinking) and provocations?

While the children were working with clay in the atelier, we documented the work in multiple ways -- video, dialogue, and digital stills -- in order to capture their work and their thinking.

ZOOMING IN TO UNDERSTAND

We are going to let you see into the work of one child, M. M’s work is representative of all of the children’s work. (Sharing with you the thinking and work of M will allow you to see how the teachers are thinking and working as well.)

A casual glance at this piece of work by M is enough for us to appreciate the details that he has included. If this piece were to go home, you would of course comment on it, and perhaps M would tell you something about it. Yet you might still wonder what the significance of it is. 

              

                                                                      

M_a learning knot in clay.mov

 

Perhaps our interest would deepen if we knew that M was creating a house. Indeed, we can see the beginnings of one. Yet we are still left wondering why the house was constructed as it was. Why, for example, did M make the circular impressions? How did he conclude that this is what he needed to do?

It is only when we dig deeper into the child’s thinking that we truly come to understand and value the work.  What if we could slip into the atelier and become part of this moment with M and observe him working on the piece? What would this reveal to us?  In observing him, would we be able to notice him making deliberate choices of materials? Would we see moments when he encounters a problem or when his thinking is being challenged by the materials?

Click on the link above to join M midway through his work. Let' s take a look.

LOOKING CLOSER THROUGH REVISITING

A key piece in helping us understand children's thinking is through the revisiting of their work. Having children revisit work through the documentation allows them to go back to that moment without having to tax their memories to recall the "facts."  The documentation preserves the moment and the children's work. It allows the children to reflect on their thinking and build upon it for us.

The teachers were very interested in the revisiting process with the children and their work in the atelier. We framed several intentional revisits around each child's work. The first revisit involved the entire group going to the technology lab to view each other's work, using the SmartBoard and video documentation. Each child was asked if they would like to share something about their work that we were viewing on the video clips. This was an exciting process. We listened and observed children who up to this point had only revealed a word or two about their work but now talked on and on about what they did. We could see each child stepping back into the moment as they revealed many new details to us.

Excited by what we heard and recorded in the technology lab, we felt that the children might reveal even more details if we slowed the pace. We conducted two more revisits. In the first, the children had the actual work in hand when they told us about it. In the second, we had the children revisit with the clay piece in hand and the video clips in front of them. During this revisiting process, we documented the moment as each child viewed the original video of their work. WOW! It was amazing and powerful! We watched children literally tell us with their hands what their step-by-step process was. Children who lacked words in earlier revisits now found the words flowing with no difficulty!  Children recalled and revealed more new details of their work.

UNPACKING M's THINKING:

Let us look closely at M's work through the revisiting process.  We will be looking through two lenses: our own revisiting of the clips and the eyes of M as he reveals his thinking to us.

                                 

Learning knot 1_M.mov

Let's look first at a moment during M's construction process. We observe M applying glue to the base of the clay slab. At first glance, this doesn't seem of great significance. We notice M taking an extra amount of time gluing one particular area of the foundation. Up until this point, M's strategy was to apply the glue quickly with one or two passes over the foundation or to apply it to each piece, but here we see him slowing down and repeatedly gluing. What caused M to work in this manner? Click on the blue words above.

During our revisit with M, he spoke about the broken piece. The teachers thought that M was referencing the wall and a broken piece along the wall. Listen as M clearly helped us to see otherwise. Click on the blue words below.

Revisit_M clip 2.mov

Posted by Ms. Gleim at 7:20 AM | Permalink