Our journey...

When the line project began nine months ago, little did we know how far this journey was going to take us. We find ourselves pausing now, only because the school year has come to an end. It truly seems as if our "line" project reaches to infinity, or as Jak once said, "Lines can go all the way to the moon!"

This project may never have come into existence if we hadn't stopped to reflect on two key observations of what would appear as ordinary moments in the classroom. One of those moments centered on the work from a small group of children with pipe cleaners coupled by another moment of Nicki's maze game.

 The two seemed to be unconnected, but in thinking about both moments, we realized the children were working with lines. Lines seemed like a natural beginning to our year together. Looking at and exploring lines felt manageable to "do" with a new group of three's, something uncomplicated for both the child and the teachers. What a perfect probe to begin group work and perhaps a small "mini project." If we were lucky, this probe would extend into a month-long "project."

To begin our (teacher) thinking about why we should look at lines, we quickly saw how lines were connected to writing, math, science and drawing, all the key domains and disciplines for learning. These domains or disciplines did indeed seem immersed in the concept of lines.

To begin our work with lines, a hypothesis was formulated to help guide the teachers' observations, as well as in framing the environment both in the classroom and atelier. We wondered if by intentionally framing the introduction of lines to the children, this would influence or strengthen their early literacy "skills" with writing, math, and drawing. Would slowing down the children's pace and providing some key provocations for a "brief" concentrated "time" impact future learning in some way?

We asked ourselves:
How would pausing and looking at lines strengthen the children's work now and in the future?
How will our mini-project in lines impact learning?
What is the connection between lines explorations and children's writing and drawing abilities?
How would the children respond to the various invitations of provocations that we were about to toss?

In retrospect, our questions were too simple. Little did we realize that these thoughts merely scratched the surface!

As the children's work progressed, we found that we were on the threshold of learning through the children's work not only about the concept of lines as a foundation for any given discipline,  but moreover, we were about to enter into the complex thought processes of children's language as embedded and developed through multi-media.

As the line project began to unfold, it began to epitomize the co-construction of knowledge between the teachers (classroom and the studio teacher) and children. We began to see a shared reference for learning and collaboration that transpired between the classroom and the Atelier.


The Processes of Language through the Media

Throughout the project, the children experienced multiple layers of languages- writing, drawing, symbolic objects, mediums (clay, wire, paper etc) gestures, movement, etc. Each experience in the broadest sense was strengthening the child's pathway to literacy. Each experience in the immediate sense was giving a new meaning to "lines" as a tool for thinking and representing their ideas.

We observed each child cycling through each language as they began to construct their own knowledge and understanding of lines, their graphic representations using lines became building blocks for understanding.  Using a variety of media caused the children to construct and deconstruct  how the line representations had meaning not only for themselves out also for others. This desire to communicate their ideas made them more aware of how to make representations "readable" to others.

Throughout the project we found the children moving between the decoding (analyzing, interpreting) and encoding (converting information into a visual form) of the various media -- drawing, movement, wire, music, etc. One of the processes or stages that supported or scaffold decoding and encoding was what we had called "to sensitizing the minds eye."
We encouraged the children to observe lines in their world at home, in school, and all points along the way children noticed lines everywhere. As the children progressed through the project, their sensitization to lines was becoming more acute and vivid to them.

Their "visual" and "mental" sensitization of lines became obvious at various phases of our project. For instance, it became apparent during the line game where the children had to draw the subtle placement of a reed/straw in creating and recreating various line composition. This simple game required the child to be visually sensitive to the nuances of change. As the project progressed, this moved into the drawing of their bodies using the essence of lines again. Their eyes began to see the various nuances of their body pose and the poses of their friends.   

We scaffolded their sensitization to lines, moving from seeing lines with their eyes to expressing lines with their hands (drawing)to seeing the various nuances of line in their own body lines and poses. Each layer added to the complexity of knowledge and  the "language" held in each of the media.


Learning how to Learn

Every child experienced all the various media.. This provided us a view in seeing more of each child's thinking and in finding each child's strength. We began to observe a universal process in each child's use of the media.

What we observed was as each media was tossed to the children: straw/reeds, movement, music, drawing, wire, etc.  The children would begin with a goal. They were thinking about their ideas. They began to express their ideas either verbally or through their work within the medium or from a plan or drawing. We observed as they moved towards their goal or idea using various strategies on how to make their ideas or goals visible and re-visitable. Revisiting caused the child to rethink. They began editing their ideas by either refining, abandoning, or building from their thinking. Over and over we observed this cycle unfold through the various mediums. The children were learning how to cycle through this process-- an underlying process for present and future learning!
 
The process deserves our careful attention and understanding.

In January the children shared a "line" by drawing it. For example, they may have created a squiggle line or mountain line. Each child shared a line and some even more!
 
When they began to use the medium of movement, the children were shown the lines they had drawn in January. How would they make that line with their body?  Their goal, for example, was  to make the mountain line. Their strategy became, "I need to move myself into this mental image (translating the drawing into what it looks like "drawn" through their body) in order to look like a mountain line." They then interpreted this by moving their bodies into position (strategies to reach goal), then the line was captured by the camera. After they made the line using their body, the children revisited the line/pose by looking into the camera's LCD screen. They were asked if this is how a mountain line looks.  The children considered the image in the camera and what they they had drawn, then decided to accept it or not. If the child expressed it wasn't right, the child would rethink the mountain line and how he needed to move differently in order to become a mountain line (reflection, revisit & edit), abandon or continue or start the process/cycle again.
 
Every child was at a different place in this cycle using each medium. The child's work in movement may be at different place in wire. In movement, the child may have been in a messing-about-with-ideas stage.  However, in wire, the child may already have an idea and is work and move and edit her thoughts and strategies. All of this is part of the learning process.

As every child experienced all the languages of each medium, each found her own "voice," his own language that spoke to him.




 

Weaving a Project Together:
           Our Celebration of In Dialogue with Lines

With the end approaching and their work showing no signs of slowing down, we wondered how we could we bring all their work together in a meaningful and yet functional way. In one of our dialogues with our mentor Dr. Forman, he had tossed to us that we may want to consider having the children tell a story using their lines/poses.

After much thought we decided to toss to the children a new provocation to see if they would accept the challenge in moving their work in a new direction that would weave together all their learning and work within this project. We had observed each child and noted each child's strengths within this project. We wanted to make this part a "culminating" provocation.

After much reflection we were ready to toss to the children a new possibility.

At our morning meeting, we shared with the children that we had been observing their work in the studio with lines. We observed how they were creating some interesting and dramatic new lines! We wondered if they would be interested in creating a dance from their new lines, \sharing that with Mr. Paul and our HS friends, and then perhaps we could share the dance with their families. This sparked their interest.

We suggested that they go into the art house and revisit their work with Mr. Paul as he and his students taught us a dance with lines motif.  It was as if the children had stepped back in time and into that moment in our work with lines and with Mr. Paul. After seeing how well they did, we began setting the stage for the work that we needed to do before we could teach the dance to Mr. Paul's group.

The teachers brainstormed each child's interests and strengths throughout the project. Small groups were created.


The groups consisted of the Choreographers, who would create the lines/poses, the Designers, who would create a schematic map of each pose, the Musicians who would select the music supporting the lines/poses, the Storytellers who would create a story for the motif, and the Background group who would design a Chihuly wire/tube sculpture as an image be used during the dance.

After the revisit of the motif, the choreographers began their work.
 
We took individual shots of each line/pose in the motif/dance.  Each of the choreographers created three lines/poses that they liked. After all of them did a passthrough of the 3 lines each, we had them go back and think about which one of their own 3 lines was their favorite. They could recall from memory or look at the images of each of the 3 lines through the LCD screen. After they made their individual selection, other choreographers tried it out and then gave their approval as well.

Once they had edited down to the final six lines/poses selected, the choreographers "practiced" going from line to line to see if their line/poses could be done and how they felt doing them. A few days later all the poses were placed on clipboards so that they could be manipulated by the choreographers in arranging the poses and trying them out to see if they felt all their friends could do these poses.

Next the designers (N & B)  began their work of creating schematic maps of each pose using a program called Jing. This program supported them in finding the lines and angles of the body that would support the readability of the poses to their classmates and the high school dance students.  (Images below)
 
Paul made a trip down from the high school to meet with the choreographers about their lines/poses that they had created. He and the children worked with the motif and did several different versions using their lines/poses.  As their work with Paul unfolded, he felt that a dance technique known as "chance"(Merce Cunningham) would be perfect for their work.

The music group (M & B) along with some of the choreographers and story writers visited Mrs. Koshi and selected the music that they felt symbolized the movement of the line/pose.
 
The Backdrop crew went to work creating the Chihuly piece for our back drop (Z I, L and B).

Story writing group came together and after an extensive discussion, created a story that supported or captured the pose/line within the story. (This will be revealed on May 26th)
 
The children returned to the dance studio one last time and taught their dance to the HS dance students! Together the oldest and the youngest MPI owls danced the motif!

Throughout the process of our in celebration with our "In Dialogue with Lines," we constantly sent the celebration back to the children as much as we could, emphasizing the process, not the product.

On May 26th the children and teachers will unveil together the tapestry that holds all the wonder, thinking, and awe woven in this project.

Looking back:

What an incredible project this became! As we wind down, the teachers looked back at the journey through the eyes of the learning. Using the technique of back mapping, (looking at children's learning using a set of standards or dispositions) we can begin to see the learning that this project facilitated. The following dispositions of learning were built upon within this project by all the children.

Our goal for each child is--

to be enthusiastic
to be resilient
to has a sense of wonder
to feel secure
to demonstrate confidence
to ask questions
to listen actively
to be curious about the new materials and new experiences
to demonstrates persistent
to be is optimistic
to value self
to express wants and needs
to take the initiative
to be self-reliant
to demonstrate self-regulation
to be responsible for own needs
to problem solve
to actively explore
to take risks
to challenge self
to learn how to learn
to revisit what has been learned using different mediums/materials
to ask questions
to wonder
to explore
to develop theories
to be involved
to be open-minded
to be able to listen
to work with others in a group to take turns
to be able to share
to be able to decenter
to develop positive problem-solving skills
to negotiate differences
to show empathy
to appreciate others opinions and ideas
to be able to collaborate
to develop a positive attachment/relationship with adults
to be able to use their imagination
to be able to think outside the box
to be able to engage in materials
to make their own thinking visible

To Read the Children's Story click here

Click For Original Version of the Line Project Overview