"(...) children learn something much more difficult than reading without instruction - namely, to speak and understand their native language. I do not think they would or could learn it if they were instructed. I think reading instruction is the enemy of reading." --John Holt Reading and writing, like walking and talking, are skills that are learned and not taught. Emerging literacy, understanding that written symbols can convey meaning, using these symbols to represent one's own thoughts and to decipher the ideas of others, follows a predictable sequence. Adults can support this process, we can document it, but we cannot control it... We can only be in charge of our own learning! Ideally, an adult in a classroom is someone who is interested in learning how learning happens. Being human is a life-long research project. Educational theorist John Holt makes a compelling argument against ‘teaching’ reading and writing. Compulsory literacy education, before a child is ready, can be humiliating and can actually slow learning (much like high pressure toilet training). I personally had this experience in school. I have always been a voracious reader. My experience in school actually led me to hide this fact from my teachers! Instead, we can create opportunities for children to play around with text (the evolutionary function of play is learning!!!) for their enjoyment and for our own. We can create a text-rich environment for children to navigate. We can model reading and writing every day, because it is fun and because it is useful, by making lists, by writing poetry (if one is into poetry!), by engaging in creative writing and reading for our own pleasure. We can write down, exactly, the words of the children. We can read their ideas back to them, again, because we find their thoughts fascinating! The takeaway is this:
****************** A few years ago a former student approached me with a request. "Joe", they said, "I need you to buy me two penguins on the internet." I suspected that penguins were not available for purchase online, but rather than shutting down the child's idea, I decided to see where it led. Together we did an internet search. We discovered that penguin are a protected species. They are not available to purchase in the united states. However, we did find a penguin skull for sale, for $140. "Forget the penguins", the kid said, "I just need you to buy me that." Again, I made a choice to continue our dialogue. "Well, I don't have the money to buy a penguin skull... How will we raise it?" The child thought for a moment, then settled on an unlikely solution. "Let's start a restaurant that sells penguin food. We'll call it The Rookery.Then penguins will come to us to be our customers." This began a months long exploration. During the spring and summer we researched penguin habitat and diet. We collected materials and constructed a 'restaurant' from wood, sand, cobb and yard debris. As temperatures rose we fashioned loom-walls for shade, from yard waste and sticks we gathered at Kenton Park. The Rookery was a constantly evolving, multi-use, multi-age, outdoor sensory environment that we constantly constructed and deconstructed. We finally took it completely apart when we moved into our current location. This morning I attempted to start a similar, long term project in our backyard. I proposed that we use plastic pipes to transfer water from the house into our (currently decommissioned) sandbox. This project will require planning and experimentation on the parts of the children, as well as cooperation and conflict resolution. I will share with the children photographs of The Rookery. Hopefully this will inspire them! .
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Today, we began Morning Meeting conversation by asking the question: "How do we know when something is alive?"
The children created a set of lists, of living and not living things. Interestingly, the question of 'stories' came up. Are Stories Alive? I have been reflecting on this all week. Two years ago, members of our Life Hunter club came up with a basic set of criteria for judging if something is alive:
This set of criteria were generated through many, long and short conversations with children, over many months. I made the choice to carry this knowledge, transmitted through the culture of Life Hunting, into new groups of children rather than going through the long process of rebuilding it from scratch. This is roughly analogous to peer review and the scientific process. The new question, “Are Stories Alive?", confounds me a bit. Metaphorically speaking 'stories' fit neatly into all four of these categories. Are Stories Alive? I created a game to learn more. Joe- "This is a new game. It's called Alive or Not? This is an eating game, a listening game, a voting game and a talking game... I'm gonna ask you what you think about some things... If you think they are alive, take two bites of snack. If you think they are not alive, take one bite. Show me with your fingers what you chose, and I will ask you some questions to find out why!" A TREE: 6 children voted alive 3 children voted not alive Joe- "Why do you think that trees are alive?" Sp- " 'cause they grow." A STOP SIGN: 5 children voted alive 3 children voted not alive M- "No, because they don't move." Joe- "But, broccoli doesn't move. Is a broccoli plant alive?" M- "No, no it's not." A KITTY: 8 voted alive 0 voted not alive H- "Yes, because dey move an' dey say meow." A CAR- 5 voted alive 3 voted not alive B- "Yes, a'cause they move when they have gas." Simone- "Hey, kinda like we move when we have gas... when we're not hungry." Joe- "Yeah, that's why we're eating snack together, now... We are putting fuel in our space time ships, our bodies! I like to imagine my body is a space time ship... I use it to move through space and time!" A CLOUD- 5 voted alive 3 voted not alive Ae- "No, 'cause they can't talk." A WORM- 5 voted alive 2 voted not alive H- "Dey are alive 'cause dey move an' dey see. Dey hide from birds. A'cause birds eat worms." HUMANS- 10 voted alive 0 voted not alive A STORY- 2 voted alive 5 voted not alive C- "No, because they don't move." Joe- "But they can change, right? Can stories grow?" T- "Yeah, they do change." H- "Yes, 'cause dey come from your body. Stories are alive 'cause dey come from your mind." A- "Uh huh... 'cause I really don't... I really can't think about that one..." At APCS it our our goal to support the children as they develop autonomy. We help them to stretch their capacities, to articulate their questions and ideas, to identify complicated emotions and to accurately and productively express them. We foster their emerging impulse control, their abilities to anticipate and to regulate their physical bodies, to advocate for their rights and the rights of others. These things are the basic building blocks of democracy: self-government, for the people and by the people.
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