On top of the things that really squared with my thinking, there were several other aspects that pointed my thinking in a new direction as well:
"Kid generated word walls give kids more access to meaningful print" (Buhrow & Garcia, 2006, p. 81)
I absolutely loved this when I saw it and I cannot believe that I haven' thought to do this sooner! I truly believe that allowing the students to become more involved in their classroom that they really will begin to take ownership of their learning. I think something like this could work perfectly for all Pre-K teachers because they could get the students to draw pictures of the words that describe the theme for that week and the teacher can simply just label them.
Some Scaffolding Strategies for Inquiry Projects
Drawing first
Lines for words
Scribing
Word wall
Compelling images
Modeling
(Buhrow & Garcia, 2006, p.83)
I think a lot of the strategies that the authors suggest are ones that I was trying before but I had no idea that I was helping to develop my students' inquiry based skills. I definitely would like to implement the use of lines for words because I think that would be extremely beneficial to Pre-K students. I recently tried an unsuccessful lesson using a KWL chart and I believe that my lesson would have went much more smoother had I had compelling images.
"By giving them the opportunity to choose we are giving them the opportunity to think and to explore what is relevant and pertinent to them. This drives their learning, and rarely do we find that kids are distracted or bored when they are working on something that they've chosen." (Buhrow & Garcia, 2006 p. 93)
I recently liked the fact the authors pointed this out because oftentimes children are bombarded with tasks that they do not care about and end up involved in other activities that will spark their interests. I think in a classroom where children are in charge of their own learning then it makes it way more easier for teachers to provide proper scaffolding because they are not as focused on the negative behaviors in the classroom.
In conclusion, of course with all great things there comes a few things that still float around in your head. Although I love everything that Brad and Amy are implementing in their classroom, I can't help but wonder how feasible is this really. It seems like the author's classroom is a set up where the children are very much in charge of what they are learning and how they are creating it. I guess my question now is in a place where standards and formal instruction takes precedence over exploratory learning, how do we balance and find that happy medium? I am excited about trying out a lot of the strategies that Brad and Amy use especially since they can really aid me in fostering the growth of my English Language Learners. I am just going to keep remembering the question of who holds the power in my classroom and continue to stay true to my answer: children.
Responses:
Hey Tilifayea!
ReplyDeleteI love how you embraced the reading, and tried some of the ideas that was discussed in the book. I think I struggled with feelings of inadequacy a bit reading about the approaches that the authors were taking in the book. But after a few times of trying again, I found that the kids pick up the note taking and once they've grasped the language...”I wonder” and noticing how to make observations, and finding interesting facts, they take off with it. I love how you're thinking about getting more photos. The word wall (illustrated, finally) has helped so much. There have been times when the kids have forgotten about it, but it's always there in case they need it for their writing.
I think you're doing a fabulous job, can't wait to follow you into next year!