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The Power Of Children's Work: Looking In
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.)
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.
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.
In revisiting the video, M recognized and pointed out to Ms. Jordan the broken piece. We clearly see that M was repairing the broken piece using the glue. It was as if he was using the glue as a patch to repair the crack.. We also discover when we look at the entire clip that we first shared with you that M used this same deliberate strategy at one other moment in his work. See if you can discover when this was.
(Hint: it occurred down the side around the circles.)
Let's look at another learning knot.
After M moved past the broken piece, he revealed another interesting moment in his thinking process. It came when he was working on one of the corners of his house. At first glance, one may think that M was randomly placing the clay pieces on the foundation. However, upon closer observation, we find that he was visually estimating and sizing each gap and what was required to fill in the space. He at first placed the next clay piece at the end of the "row," which enabled him to turn the corner. He realized that in doing this, a gap appeared. Click on the blue words below.
Once again we see M's skillful thinking process, as he worked through this provocation. In his abandoning and shifting of the placement of the clay block, he clearly showed to us that he was thinking about each placement and piece.
Let us look at one last learning knot.
Again we find the corner to be a moment of provocation for M. Click on the blue words above. In viewing this segment of his work, notice the two moments when he placed the clay pieces into the "holes" and abandoned their use. Here he shifted into a higher thinking mode as he saw that he wasn't able to achieve his goal. It is interesting that instead of bending the longer piece to fit, he abandoned that solution and went back to his pile of clay pieces, looking at them to determine which might fit. He could have easily bent his piece to help make it fit, yet he didn't.
Why?
Although he knew that these were clay blocks that he was working with and could bend, he seemed to stick with his general knowledge about wooden blocks -- that they are strong and don't bend. We determined this by watching him abandon the bending of a block just prior to this moment, when he attempted to fill in a large hole with a piece that was too large for it. You can see that the clay block buckled when he slipped it in place. Seeing it buckle, he removed the piece..
A NEW DISCOVERY
During the revisiting process of the video, M discovered something new about his work. Listen to this moment as he made the discovery. Click on the blue words below.
In the first video clip that you viewed, there was one key question posed to M at a point when he had lots of pieces left on the table. M said that he was done. The question helped to confirm for the teachers that M's thinking process was intentional.
REFLECTIONS:
In slowing down and looking closely at M's work, we begin to value the house that M built. We are able to see the thoughtful placement of each piece.
M's thinking about his work seemed to shift and deepen through the revisiting. Will this cause him to work differently with the clay the next time? Will he become more attentive to how he places each piece?
In each of these revisiting experiences, we saw a new view of the children and their thinking processes. Through revisiting in multiple ways -- video first, the actual clay piece next, and finally the clay piece with the video -- we discovered that each revisit revealed another layer of the children's thinking. We clearly found that the most powerful moments came when the children revisited with the actual clay piece in front of them. We were in awe of those moments.
Teachers' Note: Throughout this revisiting. while we were making meaning of M's work, we could have easily looked for the math, language, and motor skills that M exhibited. We could have even taken this a step further and looked at the learning standards that applied. However, in doing so we would have stopped ourselves from seeing the richness of the experience. We would have missed M's thinking, and more importantly, we would have missed the opportunity of sharing the children's thinking and letting you see the value of making their thinking revisitable.
Let us know your thoughts! We will share a few more of these moments with each of you soon.
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