The Rookery

This is Water - Exploring Culture Along the Silk Road

A letter to Charlemagne sharing newly learned information

One of the things I most love about teaching fourth and fifth graders is that they are just becoming aware of a world beyond themselves.  They are just able to conceive that someone may have a different experience that is equally real and valid to their own.  I remember (with a lot of embarrassment) the moment my fifth grade, suburban Ohio self realized (with some embarrassment) that even though I had to translate a spanish word into english in order to understand it, not everyone did.  My second grade self had thought that all of these words I was learning in an after school program were like a code, my third grade self realized that it was a language that people spoke but didn't interrogate what that meant.  It wasn't until fifth grade that it dawned on me that people who speak spanish fluently don't think in english (unless they also speak english fluently) and that their interior monologue was not like my own.  Woah.

It was the hope of sparking those moments of "woah" that led me to our Silk Road theme.  I often think about David Foster Wallace's essay/speech "This is Water" which is about many things but whose title refers to a parable of two fish who don't realize that they live in water.  Wallace urges us to examine "the value of the totally obvious."  But what is the "obvious?" For the fish - it is water.  But what is the water of a Heron at Prairie Creek Community School in Northfield, Minnesota?  The most "obvious, important realities" according to Wallace are the most difficult to see and talk about.  Travel is a powerful way to challenge the obvious - but school budgets being what they are, a global tour did not seem feasible.  Thus, the Silk Road.

The conceit is that we are a caravan journeying along the Silk Road for Charlemagne.  He has charged us with finding out the secret of silk production -- he is tired of paying such high prices for the luxurious fabric.  Before we began, we had to learn about our water as Europeans in 800 CE.  Charlemagne is Christian so as members of his court, we are Christian (we did a very brief dip into the fact that the Christian church at the time one a single church whose leader was the pope in Rome).  We use roman numerals and Latin is the language of the church and government.  Most people can't read or write.  We use a lot of technologies like Roman roads and aqueducts that were created hundreds of years ago. We stocked up on goods in a roman market and headed east - asking everyone along the way where they had gotten the silk they were selling in the market (so far, the answer has always been the next trading center to the east.).

Our first two stops - Constantinople and Antioch - were easy to get to.  We took boats on the Mediterranean and arrived after a several days trip.  Not surprisingly, the cities we encountered were not too different from Rome.  There were some new foods and there was more Greek than Latin but the ease of travel around the Mediterranean Sea meant that goods, languages, and ideas had all been easy to transfer.

As we headed east toward Merv, however, we encountered many challenges -- weather, bandits, steep mountains. To simulate travel, we researched the

Trying some cucumbers (with our Silk Road map in the background)

geography and the speed a caravan could move through certain terrain.  We rolled dice to determine the weather, hunting and safety from bandits for each day we were on the trail.  By the time we arrived in Merv, we were exhausted and grumpy. 

We reflected on how long in real time it would have taken us and the fact that almost no one traveled more than a few miles away from one's home for one's entire life.  Travel just took too long.  This is why relay trade was the only kind of trade transaction during this time.  Goods were passed from middleman to middleman along complex routes.  Travelers like Ibn Battuta, Marco Polo, and Fa-Hsien were so exceptional they became legends.

In Merv, the language, letters, and religion were different.  There were only ten symbols for all the numbers.  They had frozen ice in the middle of blazing summers and underground canals that delivered cool water from the mountains.  Each caravan had an expert who would explore the city focussing on one area: language, trade goods, food and craft, music and entertainment, religion and medicine, and technologies.  Caravans would re-convene and each member would teach the others what they had learned about this new place.

As we've traveled back through time and space, students have begun to examine some of their own conceptions of what is "obvious."  What would have been "obvious" to someone living in Antioch or Merv?  What is "normal" in one place (like the concept of zero in Kashgar) is treated with deep suspicion in Rome and vice versa.  Of course, when their character experiences these "woah" moments in our role play, many students begin to make the connection to their own life.  What things are they growing up with that might be completely different from some other kid -- maybe a kid half way around the world, maybe the kid sitting next to them.

My hope is that the sense of discovery and adventure we feel as we travel along the Silk Road will engender a similar sense of wonder as the Herons learn about each other and their world.

 

Caravans planning

Engraving "ivory" (soap stone) in Kashgar

Caravans sharing information

Felting in Merv

Pomegranates from Merv

Antioch is famous for its cucumbers.

Caravans planning

Noodles in Kashgar

Caravans sharing information

 

 

What's Going on In There? (The Makings of a Culminating Event)

Culminating events are a longstanding tradition at Prairie Creek.  Over the years, we've transformed the gym into a rain forest, built a scale model of the Great Wall of China and built a 25 foot tall mushroom (in a steady 30 mph wind).  Culminating events are a lot of fun.  They are a lot of work.  But what are the deeper reasons we do the work?

Reason #1 - Review

We have learned a lot about space over the past five weeks.  The first step we take to get ready for a culminating event is to list as much as we can about what we learned.  Things are sometimes slow as we start to build our web but then the students begin to leap frog from one another's contributions.  Soon the board is filled to the brim with content.  Information is much more likely to be stored in long term memory if students have to access it repeatedly.  Reviewing what we have learned is just the start.

Reason #2 - Synthesis

After we've reviewed everything we learned, students choose an area to teach others about.  Inevitably, as they work to "find the words" to explain things, they develop a much deeper understanding of the content.  I'll often watch them use their hands to show a process or relationship and then, with encouragement, they begin to express that understanding in language.  This is much higher order thinking than recalling information.  What is important?  What do people need to know first?  How do you explain the parts so that someone can understand the whole?

The orbital motion group had done an experiment to feel orbital forces but, when they went to present, they realized they couldn't really explain what was going on.  They worked on how to explain gravity and in the process of working on how to explain gravity they realized they had to explain mass.  Along the way, they took a side trip to learn about early gravity experiments by dropping objects of different weights from a table.  This information might not get shared with every visitor to their booth, but it enhances their understanding and their ability to teach others.

Reason #3 - Research

Almost always students identify new things they need to know when they are working on teaching others.  They have new questions or they realize that they are fuzzy on something and want to know more.  Probably a third of the new learning in a theme is done when we are getting ready to culminate a theme.  One of the most valuable things students can learn at Prairie Creek is how to ask questions and how to find answers.  Getting ready for a culminating event gives them an authentic reason to hone these skills. 

The Life Cycle of a Star group realized that they didn't know what a neutron star was.  To learn more about it, they went back and reviewed what an atom was.  They remembered that an atom was mostly space so it made sense that if a neutron star had atoms that had collapsed in on themselves a neutron star would be very, very dense (imagine compressing 1.5 times the mass of our solar system into a star 6 miles across.). They were also excited to learn about the positive charge of a proton combining with the negative charge of an electron to form a neutron.    

Reason #4 - Presenting

Not all culminations involve talking to the public, but many do.  Once students think they are "ready," I ask them to practice with me.  I walk up to them, smile and say, "Hi!" in an encouraging way.  They often stare at me, unsure of what to do next.  We then practice how to engage with someone, how to begin sharing information.  We practice speaking clearly and making eye contact. We work on anticipating questions and formulating answers ahead of time. Some students are more comfortable working from a script at first...others are ready to share information more organically.  

For our space culmination, the students also wrote about a planet as though they were a tour guide.  Early in the theme, they did research and taught each other about the planets through this tour.  Then they revised their scripts so that they would work as a whole.  Students have been practicing how to speak loudly, slowly and clearly.  We've also talked about how to hold one's body when on stage and how to play up funny lines (hopefully this work won't be in vain!)

Reason #5 - An Authentic Reason to Learn

Teaching others is, in my opinion, one of the most authentic reasons to learn something.  At Prairie Creek, we don't use tests or grades as a motivator to get students to engage with material.  Instead, the opportunity and responsibility to teach others drives much of our work.  Teaching gives us the opportunity to go above and beyond - to add sparkle and do extra things to make our teaching even better.  The compliments and wows we get from our audience are evidence that our work is meaningful.

Reason #6 - A Community of Learners

Culminating events often spark learning in the other classes. Students learn about something and decide to do a personal project on it.  Learning from culminating events is woven into themes in other classrooms when children remember information and connect it to the new things they are learning. 

But even when the learning is not tied directly back into other classrooms, culminating events confirm that at Prairie Creek we learn and we are curious.  Younger students see older students who are committed to teaching them (and, soon, they will have the chance to teach the older students). Everyone is asking questions.  Everyone is interested.  We are learners.

Family members expand this community of learners.  Your curiosity and wonder models life-long learning for students.  We don't learn because we have to; we learn because we want to.  When you learn from your child (and, hopefully, all the other kids, too) you are telling them that they are interesting and that their ideas have value.  They know things that you don't (yet).  What a gift you give them when you learn from them.

So...that's why we've turned our classroom upside down this past week.  That's why I was at Menards getting a laser pointer for the planetarium and at Cub getting Tang (yes, they still make Tang!). That's why we have been frantically taping and coloring and constructing.  We are excited to share what we've learned but there's a lot more than that going on beneath the surface.

What's Going on In There? (The Makings of a Culminating Event)

Culminating events are a longstanding tradition at Prairie Creek.  Over the years, we've transformed the gym into a rain forest, built a scale model of the Great Wall of China and built a 25 foot tall mushroom (in a steady 30 mph wind).  Culminating events are a lot of fun.  They are a lot of work.  But what are the deeper reasons we do the work?

Reason #1 - Review

We have learned a lot about space over the past five weeks.  The first step we take to get ready for a culminating event is to list as much as we can about what we learned.  Things are sometimes slow as we start to build our web but then the students begin to leap frog from one another's contributions.  Soon the board is filled to the brim with content.  Information is much more likely to be stored in long term memory if students have to access it repeatedly.  Reviewing what we have learned is just the start.

Reason #2 - Synthesis

After we've reviewed everything we learned, students choose an area to teach others about.  Inevitably, as they work to "find the words" to explain things, they develop a much deeper understanding of the content.  I'll often watch them use their hands to show a process or relationship and then, with encouragement, they begin to express that understanding in language.  This is much higher order thinking than recalling information.  What is important?  What do people need to know first?  How do you explain the parts so that someone can understand the whole?

The orbital motion group had done an experiment to feel orbital forces but, when they went to present, they realized they couldn't really explain what was going on.  They worked on how to explain gravity and in the process of working on how to explain gravity they realized they had to explain mass.  Along the way, they took a side trip to learn about early gravity experiments by dropping objects of different weights from a table.  This information might not get shared with every visitor to their booth, but it enhances their understanding and their ability to teach others.

Reason #3 - Research

Almost always students identify new things they need to know when they are working on teaching others.  They have new questions or they realize that they are fuzzy on something and want to know more.  Probably a third of the new learning in a theme is done when we are getting ready to culminate a theme.  One of the most valuable things students can learn at Prairie Creek is how to ask questions and how to find answers.  Getting ready for a culminating event gives them an authentic reason to hone these skills. 

The Life Cycle of a Star group realized that they didn't know what a neutron star was.  To learn more about it, they went back and reviewed what an atom was.  They remembered that an atom was mostly space so it made sense that if a neutron star had atoms that had collapsed in on themselves a neutron star would be very, very dense (imagine compressing 1.5 times the mass of our solar system into a star 6 miles across.). They were also excited to learn about the positive charge of a proton combining with the negative charge of an electron to form a neutron.    

Reason #4 - Presenting

Not all culminations involve talking to the public, but many do.  Once students think they are "ready," I ask them to practice with me.  I walk up to them, smile and say, "Hi!" in an encouraging way.  They often stare at me, unsure of what to do next.  We then practice how to engage with someone, how to begin sharing information.  We practice speaking clearly and making eye contact. We work on anticipating questions and formulating answers ahead of time. Some students are more comfortable working from a script at first...others are ready to share information more organically.  

For our space culmination, the students also wrote about a planet as though they were a tour guide.  Early in the theme, they did research and taught each other about the planets through this tour.  Then they revised their scripts so that they would work as a whole.  Students have been practicing how to speak loudly, slowly and clearly.  We've also talked about how to hold one's body when on stage and how to play up funny lines (hopefully this work won't be in vain!)

Reason #5 - An Authentic Reason to Learn

Teaching others is, in my opinion, one of the most authentic reasons to learn something.  At Prairie Creek, we don't use tests or grades as a motivator to get students to engage with material.  Instead, the opportunity and responsibility to teach others drives much of our work.  Teaching gives us the opportunity to go above and beyond - to add sparkle and do extra things to make our teaching even better.  The compliments and wows we get from our audience are evidence that our work is meaningful.

Reason #6 - A Community of Learners

Culminating events often spark learning in the other classes. Students learn about something and decide to do a personal project on it.  Learning from culminating events is woven into themes in other classrooms when children remember information and connect it to the new things they are learning. 

But even when the learning is not tied directly back into other classrooms, culminating events confirm that at Prairie Creek we learn and we are curious.  Younger students see older students who are committed to teaching them (and, soon, they will have the chance to teach the older students). Everyone is asking questions.  Everyone is interested.  We are learners.

Family members expand this community of learners.  Your curiosity and wonder models life-long learning for students.  We don't learn because we have to; we learn because we want to.  When you learn from your child (and, hopefully, all the other kids, too) you are telling them that they are interesting and that their ideas have value.  They know things that you don't (yet).  What a gift you give them when you learn from them.

So...that's why we've turned our classroom upside down this past week.  That's why I was at Menards getting a laser pointer for the planetarium and at Cub getting Tang (yes, they still make Tang!). That's why we have been frantically taping and coloring and constructing.  We are excited to share what we've learned but there's a lot more than that going on beneath the surface.

The Many Ways We Math

A recent exploration of factors

There is a lot out there about literacy and the importance of a literature rich classroom and home.  There is not nearly the same amount of cultural focus on numeracy - and yet number underlies every aspect of our lives -- even as I type my computer has translated my keystrokes into hexadecimal numbers that correspond to pixels on an xy axis. (Woah!)

 

We do math every day in the Herons. We do math in a lot of different ways.  We often do math that the Herons don't realize is math.  I hope that students are able to use number to explore and understand their world.  I hope that they like to play with number.  But I also hope that they develop mathematical habits of mind so that they see math as a process of observing, making conjectures, testing and re-thinking.  Communication is key.  "Failure" is important because it is only through testing a conjecture that we can make it stronger. 

One of the challenges of teaching math is that, in order to discover patterns, make conjectures and talk about math, students need a certain amount of facility with computation and vocabulary.  It's not enough to just explore.  Students need to solidify those explorations and be able to use that knowledge efficiently to push their learning ceiling higher.

To help facilitate that process, our math program has many parts.  I realized that we sometimes don't talk explicitly about the purpose of each element and wanted to take the opportunity to do that:

Exploration Math (often called "Illustrative Math") - This is when we work with children to use numbers, algebra, data, graphing and geometry to make se

A record of our class conversation about the factor exploration.

nse of the world.  We focus on a math concept such as fractions for 2-3 weeks.  The Illustrative Math curriculum guides our work and we supplement it with problems and teaching strategies from many other sources including Marilyn Burns, YouCubed, Nrich, Math Recovery and Think Math.  During Exploration Math time, we use games, open ended problems, and other math experiences to build students' understanding of a mathematical concept.  We do a lot of work that emphasizes talking and writing about math to solidify our own understanding of concepts and master a shared math vocabulary.   Once the concept is solidified, we often introduce algorithms so that students can use their understanding effectively when solving more complex problems.

Foundation Math - This is an almost daily practice session when students are gaining ease with computation.  We focus on understanding algorithms and using them accurately to get answers to computational problems.  While calculators are an invaluable tool, we also want students to be able to solve problems accurately and easily using paper and pencil.  In addition, working problems regularly helps information "stick," solidifying students' memory of a skill.

Fluency Math - It is really important that students know some things in math automatically (Here is a document that explains the "why").  By fourth and fifth grade, we are focussing on multiplication fluency.  We use a variety of tools to track our ability to recall math facts automatically.  Initially, students work on multiplication facts in this order:0s, 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s, 11s, 9s, squares, and then the "last 10 facts" which have not been memorized in the preceding sets:  3x4, 3x6, 3x7, 3x8, 4x6, 4x7, 4x8, 6x7, 6x8, 7x8.  Students then "flip" their multiplication knowledge to master division and finally, common percent/fraction/decimal equivalencies (e.g. 1/5=20%)

Number Talks - We often write a problem on the board and have students solve it mentally then share their pathway to a solution.  This encourages math communication and flexible thinking. It also shores up number sense.

Math Problem of the Week - a multi-step problem in which students are asked not just to give an answer but to explain how they arrived at their answer.  The focus is on explaining the process of solving and it develops students' ability to communicate about math succinctly and clearly.

"Recreational Math" - A lot of elementary math focuses on computation but that is only a small fraction of the world of math.  We take the time to introduce students to some of the biggest questions in math in a way they can understand.  The Game of Sprouts is an example of this kind of math.  Students love exploring these new ideas and, even though some of the math used in explaining will not be taught to them for years, it's valuable for them to be excited by these big math ideas.  (Click on the link to find out just how big an idea our little math challenge was.)

Serendipitous Math - Part of my job as a teacher is to look for ways to pull math into our daily classroom life.  Math conversations can pop up in meeting.  Impromptu class surveys help us crunch data efficiently.  A current event might give us a chance to noodle on the numbers involved (just how much snow does it take to make a giant snow shark?)  Math is everywhere and it helps us understand things.

Whew.  It's a lot of math and, when we do it right, it's exciting and engaging and real.  I very rarely have a student ask, "When are we going to use this?" because they are using it right now.

I will write more soon about the ways families can support numeracy at home.  But I wanted to get the conversation started.

Becoming a Big Bird

The Herons at work during guided recess.

When students travel upstairs and become fourth graders in Prairie Creek, we call them "Big Birds." Their role in the school changes significantly and they are held to very high expectations -- especially when we are with younger classes.  These first six weeks we are very directly teaching what it means to be a big kid at Prairie Creek.  For the most part, the rules around games (gentle tagging, call yourself out) and the woods (stay 10 feet from the creek) were learned long ago.  But now they are the keepers of the Prairie Creek way -- they are the ones who show the younger students what it means to include and care for each other.

During guided recess, we focus on how to connect to younger children. We even have a "Bird Watchers Guide" that's like a field guide to the kids they'll find at recess. Our older students learn to get down to eye level and be gentle in their voices.  They learn how to play tag gently enough to be safe with smaller children. They learn how to reach out to shy kids or kids who have been left out.  They learn how to constructively guide bossy kids and how to manage arguments about missing goldens in the woods (it's always the squirrels who took it).

They learn many kids' names and learn the importance of using those names so that kids feel seen and known in our school.  They also learn the power of their kindness.  By the very fact that they are a "big kid" they can bestow "coolness" on a child who might be left out of a game.  They can make that child feel like the center of the universe just by paying attention and being kind.  Conversely, a harsh word is amplified far more than they might realize so they must manage their impulsivity and think twice before saying something unkind.

Big birds are expected to care for younger students throughout the school day.  If they see a younger child in the hall, they say "Hi" with a smile.  If someone is fooling around in the bathroom, the older students are expected to remind them of the correct behavior and guide them back to their classroom.  If we are at All School Gathering and a younger child is having trouble listening, their Big Bird buddy reminds them gently with our silent signal.  For some kids, it wasn't so long ago they were the ones receiving the gentle reminder!  It's a big step to be the one doing the guiding.

Big Birds have additional leadership opportunities at Prairie Creek.  They often organize a student council and lead school-wide activities, service and celebrations.  Last year, the Big Birds founded an environmental club and with the help of Ryan and some St. Olaf students they build a hoop house. That group will continue their work this year.

The transformation these first weeks is astonishing.  The hesitant almost third graders who walk through the door on the first day become fully fledged Herons (sorry for the bird pun).  They are ready to lead and they are also ready to have more freedoms - the other benefit of taking on more responsibility.  It is truly an exciting time.

The Herons led a gentle game of "Mirror, Mirror"

Connecting one on one build the community

Serendipity and Learning

It is very difficult to write or speak succinctly about progressive education but, when I'm asked to, I talk about authenticity.  Teaching progressively means that the students feel that what they are learning is real and means something.  There are many ways to create authentic moments in the classroom, but one of the most joyful is serendipitous learning.

Serendipity is defined by Oxford as "the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way."  Serendipitous learning is learning that happens seemingly by chance (more on that "seemingly" in paragraph 7).  We discover and explore something together as a class.  The unexpected has happened and we feel a need to figure it out.  An example from this week:

As we settled in to read aloud in the meeting area on the first day, a drop of something fell on a student as she came into the meeting area.  "Something dripped on me!"  Suddenly all eyes went up.  "That tube has lots of drips on it!"  "Is it leaking?"  "Is it water?!?" I asked the students to share what they noticed.  The drops were in a line at the bottom of the tube.  The tube had an air vent in it so where was the water coming from?  I asked them if the tube was going to be hot or cold - almost everyone thought hot.  We sent the tallest Heron up on a chair to test, "Cold!" She reported.

Hmmmm. The windows were open (even with the air conditioning on, I like to encourage fresh air circulation) and it was a warm humid day.  I asked the student to hypothesize where the drips were coming from if it wasn't leaking out of the tube. "The air?"  What do you mean? "Like rain comes out of the air." There was a lot of excited chatter as the Herons considered this.  Several students volunteered how the air has water in gas form in it -- I drew up a diagram on the board to illustrate what they were talking about.  "So how does the water get from gas form to drips?"  Eventually we got to thinking about temperature - it's very cold high in the sky where clouds form and the tube was cold to the touch.  I shared that warm air can hold a lot more water than cold air in gas form and the Herons has an epiphany.  The tube was cooling off the air and the water was coming out of it. "CONDENSATION!" one student yelled.  Another followed with evaporation.  We drew the water cycle on the board.  "We have our own mini weather system in the Herons."  So cool.  Now on to the read aloud.

What is this?!

One of the reasons we began forest school was because of the way it engenders serendipitous learning.  We never know what we are going to find outside.  Just this Wednesday, we discovered three different kinds of bumps on the underside of oak leaves.  What were they?  iNaturalist said they were galls.  I gave a quick mini-lesson on what galls were (fifth graders were already on the lookout for goldenrod galls and the tasty grubs they hold).  These galls were too small for us to find a grub.  What could be in there?  Students build a bar graph out of the leaves they were finding separated into the three different kinds - there were a lot more white fuzzies.  Then we saw a small solitary wasp on one of the leaves.  Was it laying eggs? How could we tell?  (It flew up too high to observe, sadly.)

Another group called us over the the magnolia tree.  It has strange globby growths at the ends of the branches.  Were these galls?  One of them seemed to be splitting open and had a bright red thing popping out.  A seed? We dissected it to learn more.  Students remembered that the flowers were at the ends of the branches and that flowers often turn into fruits...this seemed to be a very strange seed.  "Can we plant it?"

Ironically, serendipitous learning doesn't actually just "happen" even though it feels that way to the class.  As a teacher, I am constantly watching for the opportunity to bring something unexpected forward.  I try to create an environment in which we are noticing things all the time and I'm ready to ask the questions that bring us from noticing to understanding.  The class, too, has to learn to go with the unexpected.  Sometimes we're even conspiratorial about it, "I know we're supposed to be doing this but this other thing is amazing.  Let's go that way for a while and then get back to our "supposed to."  (A secret? A surprising number of our serendipitous journeys actually are standards based (one has to really know the standards to teach progressively because you are always watching for the best moment to bring something forward.))

I, too, have to be learning along side the class to make the learning truly authentic.  I'm modeling curiosity and, importantly, an openness to not knowing (yet).  In a very short time, curiosity becomes the capital of the classroom - that's who we are. The more practice we get as a class finding the fascinating, the easier it is to discover things to be interested in.  Serendipity is what has kept me in the classroom all of these years - I never know for sure exactly what the day will hold and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Declaration for Independence

Friday was gross.  It was cold, it was wet.  It definitely wasn't the 70 degree day we had enjoyed on Thursday.  But Friday was our field trip - the first in two years. I was excited but I was worried the Herons might not be.

But each and every one came through the door with a smile.  They were psyched and they were ready.  Every kid was wearing layers.  Every kid had water proof shoes and pants and coats.  Every kid had a hood that would keep their head dry.  I read off the attendance with a flourish, asking the students to respond to their name with "Ready!"  They improvised a variety of responses, all in the affirmative.  We had 100% of the class...and there was much rejoicing.

They sang all the way to Miesville and when we disembarked they were eager to set out on our adventure.  We were going to look for geocaches way off the beaten path in the park.  I handed them my phone which was set to navigate to the first cache and we were off - straight up a very, very steep hill that was very, very slippery and full of ancient downed trees. (A huge shout out to Kyle David who was an awesome chaperone and charged up the hill along with the Herons).  Along the climb, the students found wonder after wonder - mushrooms, moss, hollow birch bark.

It was still pelting rain but no one really seemed to notice.  We hiked on in search of the cache and then triumphant cries rang out.  They'd found it!  But by the time I caught up to them, they were still puzzling out how to get to the cache.  It was about 12 feet up.  Kyle was tall...but not that tall.  One child started to shimmy up the very slippery tree. I cautioned that there must be another way but he and the other Herons assured me there wasn't...and they urged him along, chanting his name.  He got to the cache and dropped its contents down.  We signed the log and traded trinkets, took our celebratory picture and then set the coordinates of the next chache (we found four in all!)

I've been thinking a lot lately about the importance of autonomy and independence. The New York Times had an opinion piece about the Japanese show "Old Enough (I hope the link will work but it might not...).  The show is about very young children who are sent on errands and filmed as they try to complete the errand.  Three year olds cross city streets and navigate a grocery store.  Five year olds head to a fish market and get food to make lunch.  The article explored childhood in America and at what age children should be gaining certain aspects of independence.  During our professional development this past week, we read a piece about how adults can pass along fear and insecurity to their students when they are unnecessarily protective.  The article looked specifically at students who were involved in outdoor activities in bad weather and how they looked to adults to know how to react to the situation.

So these things were on my mind as I watched the Herons on our rainy, cold field trip.  The first thing I noted was that these kids knew how to be in the outdoors.  They were dressed for it.  They were comfortable walking through the muck and ducking through the undrebrush.  Seven years ago, when I started taking kids outdoors every Wednesday I made a commitment to head out for the whole morning no matter the weather.  There were definitely uncomfortable days, but students quickly learned that they were responsible for their own gear.  They took that responsibility seriously and soon there were fewer kids unprepared.  We built up our collection of extras in case someone forgot something and, students supported each other, often having friendly competitions for who had the most layers.  So on Friday, the Herons didn't bat an eye.  They were ready.

The next thing I noticed was that I had trouble keeping up with them.  This was in part because I am 49 years old but it was also because they were not looking to me to tell them what to do. They consulted with each other but they didn't defer solely to me. This is a primary goal in the progressive classroom.  The teacher has a special position but it is not a position of absolute authority.  Students learn to how to consider situations and make decisions. They pause and seek guidance when they are not sure (such as when a geocahce is 12 feet above the forest floor) but the students have agency.  They decide what happens. They work together to solve problems instead of waiting for an adult to save them. (This is a theme in the Old Enough episodes that I have watched.)

Forest school offers so many opportunities for students to problem solve in creative ways. Amber and I brought a lot of different ingredients for students to cook with on Friday. We had eggs that we had intended kids to boil if they wanted to (indeed one child worked diligently to create perfectly soft boiled eggs).  But another group wanted to scramble their eggs. "Do we have a pan?" they asked.  "No...but we have aluminium foil." They quickly fashioned a pan out of foil.  They cracked the eggs into their "pan" after coating it with butter.  "Do we have a spatula?"  "No."  The students hunted around and found our metal cups would do the trick of scraping and stirring the eggs.  Soon they added a few Cheezits for the sake of cheezy goodness and they declared the scrambled eggs "the best ever."

Forest school also encourages responsible risk taking.  As a teacher, it's my job to assess situations and set boundaries for safety.  Most of the time, I can do this pretty invisibly.  On Friday, a dip in the 50 degree water was ill advised as the first activity.  However, as the last activity 15 minutes before we got on the warm bus, it was just fine (but still very chilly!). So the creek was the last place we explored.  Predictably, some students stuck to the shore and some started to edge toward the deeper water.  One brave soul sat down in the water and let out a howl.  Another student quickly joined him.  Many of the students didn't go above their boots...a few went all the way under. Each student was able to choose their level of responsible risk and, in the prepared environment, anything they chose was responsible. There were a few kids who hadn't packed dry clothes - they were uncomfortable but still safe - and my guess is that they will remember to pack extras next time.

And that's, I think, why I love Forest School so much.  Students learn to take care of themselves.  They learn that they are capable of problem solving and decision making.  They learn that they can set their own course and tackle their own challenges.  Our trip to Miesville gave us an opportunity to do all of these things - a very fitting culmination to our adventures this year.

 

 

Can You Convince Me?

"Is this right?" Way too often that is the main question students ask in a math class.  So much of traditional elementary math curriculum is focussed on computation - it can seem as though getting THE RIGHT ANSWER is the whole point of mathematics. 

Of course, that's not the point of mathematics. I don't claim to have the right answer for what mathematics is - some of the Herons are engaged in an ongoing debate about whether math is invented or discovered, but that's another blog.  What I do know is that in the best math lessons, the point of the math isn't to come to a single foregone conclusion but rather to push and prod on our understanding of how numbers work, to make and test conjectures about patterns we think we see and to explain the validity of how we are using numbers in a way that can convince others.

Over the years, we have collected and created a large repertoire of lessons and routines that emphasize authentic math explorations and discussions.  Illustrative math, the curriculum we adopted more fully this year, has been the source of many of those explorations.  A typical lesson has only one or two deeper tasks in which students seek to use math meaningfully and then talk to each other about what they are thinking.

This past week, the fourth graders were engaged in just such a task.  They were given three solved problems and told that there were either two truths and a lie or two lies and a truth and their job was to figure out which problems were worked correctly.  Each group tackled a different problem.  They worked to understand what the situation was and then to figure out if the solution presented was correct.  They used diagrams and estimated; some groups solved the problem themselves then compared it to the solution presented.  All three groups decided that their problem was not solved correctly.  All three were lies. (Here are the problems)

"Wait a second, I thought there were supposed to be two truths and a lie!" one Heron exclaimed.  Hmmm...

Each group got up to the board and explained the math they had done to get their answer.  After each one we discussed and agreed that the group was right and that the solution as written was a "lie."  "Maybe they're trying to get us to think!" I said hopefully.  We checked the teacher manual...and made a startling discovery:

 

 

 

 

"They multiplied by 53 instead of 52!"  "They didn't take out the bottom floor that's not 11 feet." "They did the bottom floor twice!"  The students were jumping up and down and...dancing (this is a group that likes to dance!) "They're wrong!!"

I calmed them down (just enough...it's important to ride the wave a little in these kinds of situations) and asked them what we should do.  "Write them a letter!" was the response.  "O.K. when you do it, make sure you explain yourselves really well.  After all, you have to convince them that they are wrong so you have to be very persuasive, show them your solution and explain how it's different from theirs."

Here is the result:

This is the goal of math at Prairie Creek - to empower students to understand their world and to be able to explain their understanding effectively.

"Is this right?"  You tell me.

Can We Talk?

At the end of the week, the fourth and fifth graders will be engaging in a series of three lessons on puberty education.  Some of the kids call it "The Bad 'PE'" (as opposed to "Physical Education" which is the "good PE") and there is much giggling and groaning when it is brought up in class.  However, it's been my experience that the conversations aren't as cringey as they are expecting and, in fact, kids are very curious and have A LOT of questions about the process of growing up.

There are times I think we might do well to reframe the conversation as one about "growing up."  While we do talk about bodies and changes to bodies during puberty, that's only about 1/3 of the content.  We also talk about brain development and social development.  We talk about the growing importance of peers and strategies on how to handle peer pressure.  We talk about personal safety - both on-line and in person.  We talk about the role of trusted adults and how important it is to have someone you can ask questions of who will give you true information.

The structure of the conversation is a little different than most of our learning - but we hope it's still authentic in that students feel a need for the information.  We encourage students to write questions on index cards.  This enables us to combine questions and also insures that questions that are beyond the scope of what we talk about aren't awkwardly denied answer.  Instead we explain to students that if we don't answer a question they have it is one that is best asked of their trusted adult.  We get hundreds of questions over the course of the lessons. 

This is the perfect time to start (and continue) conversations with your child about growing up.  It can seem like a big leap for some families and, instead of thinking of it as THE TALK, it can help to think of it as many, many small talks.  A great place to start are stories of what you remember from middle school.  We have a list of resources - some are geared toward children, some are designed to help parents engage with their children.  Because every kid develops at a different pace, what we share at school is really just a starting place.  Your child may have questions that are beyond the scope of our school conversation and asking them about those questions in the course of the coming week will help establish being a "goto" person for your child.

One new resource I've added is a podcast about "the liking gap" that was on Hidden Brain.  It's about how our perception of others' feelings toward us is more negative than how they actually feel about us.  The research was done about adults but I think it's even more true of middle schoolers.  Listening to the podcast together might be another great entre into conversation. -mmm

Setting Our Own Course - the Project Process

At Prairie Creek, personal projects are authentic, real research.  We don't set out the topic for the students and tell them what they must find (although it would be infinitely easier to say that everyone had to do a biography and find the birthdate, birth place, and three significant accomplishments of a famous person.)  Instead, we work with students to find good topics.  Do you know enough to ask good questions?  Do you know too much to be curious about a lot of things?  The topics in the Herons are very, very diverse:  The Great Lakes, Lego, the platypus, football and young people's brains, the kraken, The Simpsons, the black death, the history of candy and more.  Finding resources can be a challenge - but that's part of the point.  How do you learn about something new?  Where do you look?  How do you find things? (We have a series of video lessons that can help answers those questions!)

Students ask questions about their topic, pushing for deeper questions that will require synthesis of information.  In kindergarten, the scope of their project was finding 3-4 facts.  Now the expectations are far greater.  Doing a project each year enables children to build sophisticated skills.  Students categorize their questions and begin looking for answers.  Importantly, they don't stop when they find an answer.  They know that, because they will be teaching, they need to know the information that surrounds the answer, too.

We learn how to take notes.  It is, for most, the hardest task. Some students write down everything making it very hard to find one's own voice when writing later.  Some students don't know what is important enough to write down.  Some students write down too little and end up digging back through books finding the piece of information that they think they read.  Many students struggle to write down only what they truly understand and can put in their own words.  We encourage students to read, close the book, and then write down what they think they might want to teach to others (perhaps peeking to get a spelling or a date right.)

 As our pile of note cards grows, we take occasional stock of what we have and what we might still need. Almost every child asks, "Do I have enough notecards?"   "That depends..." I always answer. In a recent mini-lesson, I developed the metaphor of a tree with the students.  Each of their categories was a main branch and the questions, perhaps, smaller branches from each category.  The notecards were leaves.  Which branch had many leaves?  Which branch had only a few?  If the branches were uneven, it was time to look for a resource or a part of a resource that could help you fill out the leaves of that branch.  Sometimes, we think a branch might be a good idea but then we can't find any information or another branch gets a lot stronger.  We can lop off a branch and split another into two different main branches if we need to.  It's important to give children permission to allow the focus of their research to evolve.  It's also important for them to know that there is no one "magic number" for notecards.  Typically a paragraph takes 4-5 pieces of information so you can extrapolate how many facts you need - but some notecards might have three facts.  Others just one (or half of one!)  

And this is one of the reasons I love project time.  As students realize that they are empowered to make the decisions, they begin to take their work very seriously.  This is real.  They will be the expert.  They will be teaching us.

 The 4th grade project exactly mirrors the honors project except that it is "mini".  Instead of an article with 5-10 pages, students write an article with 5-10 paragraphs.  Instead of speaking for twenty minutes, fourth graders speak for five.  The 5th graders serve as mentors for the 4th graders, teaching the skills that they themselves are using.  Teaching is a great way for students to solidify their understanding of what they are supposed to be doing.

In April, it all comes together - the article, the visuals, the oral presentation.  But right now, it's one step at a time - and I'm so glad that every journey is different.