Balancing Expectations

"We expect too much of boys-- and we don't expect enough... on the one hand, we expect them to do things they're developmentally not ready to do, and to be 'tough little men' when they are just little boys who need goodbye hugs and affection. On the other hand, when they behave in cruel and thoughtless ways, we say, 'Oh, boys will be boys.' We let them off the hook over issues of respect and consideration for others."  From the book Raising Cain

This sentence has had me thinking over the past few days about balance. The concept is universal and applies to humans-- not just boys. How do we, as parents and teachers, respond to children in developmentally appropriate ways while also honoring the child by expecting them to meet their potential as brilliant, sensitive, creative human being?

We spend a lot of time at school thinking about these ideas. How do we make space for childhood to remain? For the work of play to remain? How do we challenge our students intellectually without giving in to 'the race to nowhere' that exhausts and stresses the children of our nation? How can we be in third grade but be deeply in third grade? Meanwhile, how do we support the child in being a contributing member of our community? How do we help to foster thought, consideration, compassion and empathy for the other humans with whom we spend our days and months and years?

When do we need to honor children by allowing them to be where they are and when do we need to honor children by expecting more?

Children's Blog: Vowels and Consonants

What we are learning About Vowels and Consonants in Word study.

In word study we have been learning the difference between vowels and consonants .We learned that vowels are more important than we thought. We also learned that vowels relate to syllables.

One day we came to circle and we saw the alphabet in front of  us. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       us.  Some letters were pink some were yellow. Andrea asked us to observe it. We figured out that pink ones were vowels and the yellow ones were consonants.  We talked about the differences between vowels and consonants. Then Giovanni asked ‘’Why are there two Y’s?”  One of our classmates explained that ‘’y’’ can be a vowel or a consonant.

Things we know about vowels

Henry: Long vowels say their name. Short vowels say their sound. One of the differences between vowels and consonants is that vowels make your chin go down a lot and consonants only make your chin go down slightly.

Giovanni: Vowels sometimes say their name.

Emeline: You can’t just count the vowels to determine the number of syllables

Rose: Vowels cause syllables.

Henry: Without vowels we could not communicate.    

 

 

We show you in this blog how we found out vowels are very important in Literacy. Our words would never survive without them!

Blog Authors: Rose, Emeline and Henry 

The power of being wrong

In the middle of a class conversation about shadows, we pulled out a stick for a few students to model their point. As a side note, one student pointed out, "See how the stick has multiple shadows? It will have multiple shadows out in the sun, too."

We decided to go immediately outside to test this theory.

 Unanimously the class decided that there was only a single shadow. This was puzzling to some since almost everyone had reported seeing multiple shadows at some point in their lives.

Some of the children looking VERY closely to see if there are multiple shadows.

"Ha! You were wrong!!"
"Wait a second. If he had never made a hypothesis about what he thought would happen, we never would have come to test it. Thank goodness he did because we all learned something."
"Yeah, now we realize that multiple light sources determine how many shadows."

I'm trying to bring this moment back to the class over and over again to remind them of the power of mistakes. I try to use it to help create a safe place for children to take risks and for those risks to be valued.

Children's Blog: Morning Data

                                                                                                                                            
How We Organized Our Data
Our class was wondering about what time people got to school.  Aliza decided to record what time people got to school using data. We made a line plot and organized our data about what time people got to school. Some other people in our class decided to help Aliza. They did another survey and took their data and made a line plot showing the third, fourth  and the fifth graders' results.

This is our lineplot that we made for every grade in lower school,

except for Kindergarten. Each X stands for one person.

We have all of the data together because it was easier to see the

 differences and the similarities.

What We Noticed
The class got together and thought about the line plot. Since we were in a math unit about data and surveys, our class got together and shared their ideas with each other. We noticed our class is the latest class from the trailers normally and the fifth graders are the earliest. If you see X`s in a row on the line plot that probably means they come in at the same time. We noticed the fourth grade has the earliest student (sometimes). Outliers (which are in 1^st 3^rd 4^th and 5^th grade,) probably go to early care.

 

What We Might Do Next
We might start taking data when people leave school.  We also might take data about what time people in middle school get to school and leave school.  Or maybe even study what time the preschoolers come in. This project is important to us because in our future we will need to know about data.  Data can also be very important information.

Written by Cameron, Ellie and Aliza

Children's Blog: When Good Readers Slow Down

Everyone should read slower and faster when they need to.
In this drawing, the person on top is running through fire so he is reading faster.
Another guy is running from ice so he is reading slower.

 

The Story

             

In reading we were working on slowing down to become better readers. During reading, we would mark places we noticed ourselves slowing down.

One day in circle Andrea said “OK today you guys read and marked spots where you slowed down. Now you will share with the class.”Kali,” Andrea said. Kali said that she slowed down when she noticed a new character. “Aliza,” Andrea called. Aliza thought that she had slowed down to soak in the emotion. “Ellie” Ellie said that she slowed down when she was confused etc. That’s how the list was made.

These are the types of situations in which we would slow down.

Kids in the third grade drew pictures to represent some things
 that are important to do while reading.

                                                                       

 

Advice For Reading

·         You should slow down to soak in emotion.

·         You could slow down when you are confused.

·         You could consider slowing down when there is a lot of info.

·         You could always slow down when there is a clue.

·         You should always slow down at a hard word.

·         You should slow down when there is a good part.

·         You should slow down when they give you a new character.

·         You want re-read if you don’t understand. If re-reading doesn’t help keep reading and maybe you’ll understand.

The third grade class made this list.

 

Blog Authors: Kirby, Joe and Kali      

Data Matters

I really love our math curriculum. We use Investigations. However, being a teacher-researcher leaves me constantly looking for how something good might be great. In the past our data analysis units have been good, but not great. It repeatedly was the unit I was least satisfied with as a teacher. This year I've taken on the challenge of helping data to matter to third graders. I want them to generalize the information. I want them to think about the big ideas behind the information.

 

The curriculum has the children survey other classes. They LOVE it. However, it usually has them ask questions like, "How many teeth have you lost?" It is interesting to the children but doesn't hold their interest long term. It became more of a fun fact rather than a useful set of information.

 

In my efforts to make data matter, I asked the children to develop a survey question to ask that would help them make an informed decision about something. Many turned to our recess economy, others focused on our class community sculpture and some on music circle.

 

What is your favorite song in music circle?

 

Do you prefer handmade things or natural resources?

 

For our community sculpture, do you think we should use more man-made materials, natural materials or both?

 

Do you value paper money or natural resources?

 

 

 As the children present their work to the class, the conversations have been much more lively than in the past. These topics are things in which the children are invested. The information will impact their lives. We asked each group questions like

 

What question did you ask?

 

Why did you ask that question?

 

What decisions will you make based on your results?

 



"Based on our survey I think we should focus more on natural resources because that is what more people like."

"I don't think you should ignore the results of handmade things. It is less than natural materials but it is still a lot of people."

"Maybe you should have a variety of products. Some could be handmade and some could be natural."

"There are already a lot of people focused on natural resources so you might actually stick with the handmade to get the business of all of those people who aren't being taken by the natural resource companies that already exist."



"If we were going to make a music circle that the Kindergarten would really enjoy, we would make sure to include "Make New Friends" and "This Land is Your Land."

"And if we wanted to make a music circle that first grade liked, we would need to make sure we sang "The Shark Song".

"If we wanted everyone to have a good time, we should probably include the top song from each grade. That way every grade would have something they liked."



 

 

So far I am pleased with the difference. We've moved past the technical aspects of titles, keys, categories and labels (all still important, just not the star of the show) and are putting our energies into representing our research in a way that makes it matter. It drives us to look are more subtle aspects of the information and go far beyond which was the least popular and which was the most popular. I think it was crucial that the information be something that would guide a decision in the children's lives. Decisions are nuanced--not always black and white.

Advice for Readers

Before we embark on a genre study or delve into thinking about character development in a story, we are spending our time getting to know ourselves as readers. We are trying to bring more meta cognition to our reading.

 

Can I tell when a book is easy, just right or too hard for me? How do I know?

 

As a teacher, I am wondering what role images can play in helping children understand advice for good readers. We recently discussed Lucy Calkins advice for reading "Faster, Longer, Stronger." Will creating images for each point of advice bring more understanding? Will the time it takes to translate the advice into images allow for more processing? Will the images stick with the children longer than the words alone?

So far I am noticing that when I reference the advice I can point the children back to the images. It instantly reorients them to our previous thinking with minimal amounts of discussion.

We've been focusing our attention on the image of fire and ice. It reminds us that in order to be a really good reader there are times when you speed up to read more quickly and times when we slow down and read more slowly. A good reader does both. Working to notice when we slow down is a form of self-monitoring.

When did you slow down during your reading today?
How did that make you a better reader?

The image of a towel soaking up water is a powerful instruction for how our hearts and minds need to  soak happiness, sadness, joy or suspense out of words. The thinking of a child brings more understanding to me as a learner, too.

Appreciation

We started a tradition today. Each Friday we will begin our day with sharing an "appreciation" for one of our class members. We are trying to think beyond our immediate friendships to people we might not usually get a chance to compliment. We are looking for acts during the week that help our class to be a better community. My intention for this tradition is to help us notice the kind things that happen in class. I also think that it is a time that we see our ideas and values in action in the small acts of each day.

"I appreciate you because you gave me lost of good feedback on my ideas."

"He always helps clean up."

"He apologized after he the soccer ball he kicked hit me in the face."

"You are great at listening at circle. You raise your and and listen quietly when others are talking."

"I appreciate that he apologized to the whole class after his silly day on Wednesday."

"I like how he always makes peace and doesn't want to fight."

"I appreciate that he always gives people comments and that helps other people give other people comments and it makes our class a better place to be."

"She contributes helpful ideas to our class."

"You help our community stay on topic."

"You do a great job at paying attention and for that I say thank you!"

Who am I?

Who are you?
You are a small piece of the community, but a very important piece.
What strengths do you bring?
What talents will you contribute?

"Why do your eyes look like that?"
"Because I am quiet but I am always watching."
 

"My mask has a cloud dragon putting out fire with rain.
It is from the Japanese ledgend.
 It means I am a peace maker."

"Girls can be tough."

Assumptions

We started thinking about fractions recently. The children were dividing brownies evenly between two people. The situation was serving mostly as a way for us to access our prior knowledge about fractions before we forged ahead with new ideas. The children had lots of ideas.



Several children started to think in divergent ways by cutting the brownie into four equal pieces, giving two pieces to each individual. Hmmm, interesting.

Then I headed around the room to look at the work of other students. That's when it all started. I was shocked when I saw a drawing by one child. She had decided to share her brownie between two people by cutting her brownie into 8 unequal pieces, some large some small.  Yikes!!! 

Just then, I started to feel overwhelmed as my mind compiled a list of all of the foundational things we would need to revisit before moving on. I decided to get started right then and there. I began to question her about her brownie in order to help her confront the misconceptions I saw in her work.  



"Well, I decided that if each person got the same amount, it wouldn't matter if the pieces were the exact same size. I would just have to make sure that each person got the same number of big pieces and the same number of small pieces so that in the end both people got the same amount of brownie."



My mental jaw dropped! I had assumed. In fact, I had assumed quite a few things and now I was feeling a little bit sheepish. As it turns out, this child knew quite a bit about fractions. Actually, she even knew enough about fractions that she began to think playfully about the task.

Luckily this episode happened in a matter of seconds, completely within my own mind.  But it has given me a chance to reflect. How many assumptions like mine do we make on a daily basis? Many kinds of traditional forms of assessment and testing are full of these kinds of assumptions. If it doesn't look like the few things we think fit, then it must signify a complete and total lack of understanding. And yet, could it be possible that a child choosing a "wrong" choice on a multiple choice test may have a very valid and logical reason for their thinking?

This experience reminded me of the power of a question. All I had needed to do was ask.

Dilemma

 

So, I have a dilemma. 

Right when we were getting ready to switch our attention from our science investigation of energy to our history investigation of immigration, the children decided that they wanted to build a windmill that could light a light bulb. What a great intention! It would really put so much of their knowledge of energy into practical application.

The thing is, it is turning out to be more complicated than I thought it would be. It is more complicated than I thought it was going to be even when I thought it might be kind of complicated. I'm starting to realize that, in order for it to really work, we would need to use gears to change the rate of speed of the shaft and to adjust for the blah blah blah blah. OK, so I still don't really know what it will take, but I know it is more than we can accomplish in 5 weeks. 

I've been talking to others and trying to process how to deal with the fact that we will not accomplish what we set out to do. And we are still trying to hand over more time to think about immigration. I'm developing some ideas about the whole situation, but honestly I am curious about what you have to say about it. 

What do you think?

How should we face this reality?

Beginning to think...

I almost didn't start a blog because it was so hard to think of a name. And then when I did think of names they were already taken. I found this title in the thesaurus under the word ponder. This is where I plan to put on my thinking cap or to share when my students have put on theirs. You can join me if you'd like.