Notice and Wonder
Nils Peterson
its 4th
year as an Expeditionary Learning school. I was impressed by the
ability of
children in the Kindergarten class to cooperate and to reflect on
their
performance.
The scene: The children were seated in a circle that included us adult
visitors. They did a greeting around the circle, greeting the neighbor
on
each side of them by name.
Before starting the next activity, the teacher asked the children to
talk
about ideas of success. She noted that there might be other kinds of
success
besides doing the activity. Students offered: good listening or good
directions, improvement in the activity, cooperation (working
together). [I
later noticed that these might be dimensions in a rubric for assessing
the
activity.]
The teacher introduced the task called "four-man pushup." The task
involves
four children lying on the floor in a square, where each child hooks
their
feet over the mid-back of one student and has another's feet over
their
back.
The first round was a demonstration by one team, with a chance to
observe by
the others.
The challenge was for the students to communicate to one another about
what
was required to get into this arrangement, who should lay down first,
who
put their feet up to fit the next child in, etc. Then when they were
ready,
they counted 1-2-3 and pushed up with their hands, raising all four
bodies.
Following the activity, the teacher directed one child to get a marker
and
another a piece of paper and for the team to make notes on their
performance. They each wrote an observation about the activity. All
this
happened quickly and smoothly, clearly this activity was practiced.
All the while the other children watched the performance and the
teacher
provide a little meta-analysis (noting the turn-taking during the
reflections, or how one student offered to scribe for another who
spoke her
observation.
Divided into teams of four, the whole class did the activity, in an
organized and cooperative manner.
What was also impressive was that the teams could quickly be formed,
and
that each team found its own leadership, did the activity, and moved
on to
reflected on what they did, making sure each make a written
contribution.
Back in the big circle the teacher asked the children to reflect on
their
reflections and look for "Big Ideas" that could help them in this
activity
and in other activities. The students came up with: "Worked together"
and
"On topic."