The authors argue that children’s deep interests are at the heart of the Reggio approach and that teachers’ attempts to inject their own agendas into the mix are often disruptive, if not futile. Can we authentically support children’s “dialogs with the world” and still seize perceived opportunities for “teachable moments”? If so, what are some helpful hints on how we can inject learning elements unobtrusively? Can we satisfy both the children’s and our agendas simply by thoughtfully adding new elements to the environment and skillfully joining in the children’s play?
We might also want to tackle here the issue that not all children will be interested in the same topic at the same time. What are some pragmatic tips for how to incorporate multiple long-term, small-group, intensive investigations into the flow of the classroom? Can we even have planned whole-group thematic units and lesson plans and stay true to this method?
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When leistening to children and being observent, one can sense a direction of interest. Since we are in charge of their environment we can enrich it to allow them to extend their interest. While doing this areas of development can be addressed without the children sensing it. For example, One day while feeding our sheep, a child said why is their hair so long. The discussino then went to the comparison of the sheep's hair length to their own. When asked how we could relate this to the world they answered we can measure it. Whith what? With rulers, blocks, inch worms (a form of ruler), sticks, with color(refering to a colored graph. What will you need? We need the hair from the cheep? How will we get it? Cut it. Ask them for it. Take them to the barber. No, take them to my mom's hairdresser. Once back in the classroom, a center of exploration was designed by the children with, fleec, string, rulers, blocks paper, crayons, markers, scissors. they drew what the fleece looked like from memory, and we labeled it.
For the next week they set up sheep beauty parlors, created graphs, combed the fleece, cut and measured the fleec. Told their parents they needed hair cuts. Role played farmers, beuticians, manufacturers of scissors, vetenarians. It seemed endless. Covered within this magic was language skills, math, science, princilples of experimentation, social studies, art, social play, conflict resolution, self help skills etc.
We can inject learning elements by observing and reflecting more deeply. Revisiting a previous observation and discussing it with the children lets them know you/they have an interest in the project.
Wanda, that sounds like an wonderful study! What an amazing resource to have sheep as part of your educational environment!
I recently read a piece of advice (I can't remember where, or I would attribute it) that said, "don't ask children a question that you already know the answer to". In other words, rather than saying "Oh, I like your block tower. How many blocks did you use?" or "Wow, your picture is great! Can you point to the blue paint?", ask questions or interject comments that push children to make intellectual leaps. This is respectful of the child, and encourages the child to use their skills, experiences and understanding to construct meaning (or co-construct with you). Of course, one needs to have a good sense of the child's prior knowledge and abilities, as well as the benchmarks that we are trying to asses in order to do this. But it is a way to make truly "teachable moments" that are appropriate to each child.
oops, sorry - I meant "assess"!
I agree we have to observe and reflect as well as revisit our obsercations. It is difficult I have been so ingrained with the method of selecting a topic and addressing a learning goal that the children should learn.Then presenting the topic with the learning agenda firmly in place. I think for me it will take practice to really listen and break some of my old habits and really be aware of the teachable moments that happen.
Thank you Debbie E. I have also heard the great piece of advice and I agree that is a wonderful place for me to start. Thanks for sharing.
I think one way we can follow the children’s interests, without it being in a large group lesson, is by way of interests centers set up in the classroom. If you notice a couple of children that have an interest in a certain subject area, I think different activities could be added to the science area, writing/drawing area, dramatic play, etc. that would support their curiosity with that topic. Books, photos, experiments and more can teach the children many new concepts/facts that they are eager to learn about. It is also important for the teachers to carefully observe and interact with the children during their free play time so they can see what the children are interested in and then build upon those interests by way of interest center activities and lessons.
In my classroom we have both small and large group activities that take place each day. Therefore, if only a few children have an interest in a certain topic, another way I can address just those children’s interests is in the small group lesson.
I have been teaching preschool since 1990 and I have always worked in classrooms that used a center based approach. The difference between how I taught then and how I teach now is that in the past, my interest centers were filled with activities, puzzles, books, etc. that I felt would interest the children. I didn't actually listen to or observe what the children wanted to pursue. It is amazing how enthusiastic children become when you provide activities that are exciting and "real" for them. I think teacher planned themes should be a thing of the past because often they die out in one or two weeks because the teachers run out of ideas or the children become bored. When you find a topic that they are interested in and continue to observe and see where they take it, it becomes much easier to plan. You just keep changing and adding to the interest centers as the needs arise. As we take this approach in our classroom, I've noticed that children who wouldn't leave the block area are starting to move about a little more freely, exploring and learning as they go. As far as children having different interests, I don't think that there is anything wrong with having a couple of topics at the same time. As Jane mentioned previously, this could be done easily when children are broken up into smaller groups. I work with two other teachers, where this is possible. I realize not all classrooms work in teams, however. Any thoughts?
I agree with Jane that we can add so many things to interests areas we have in place. Writing materials should be plentiful in each area as well as a number of books on the topic. As we observe and reflect on the children's activities and writing, we can supply materials that cater to their interests in a new way. Obtaining new and exciting materials to add to centers can be a challenge, but asking parents, business members in the community, friends, colleagues, etc. can be a great source. Freecycle is another resource for searching as well. Parents who are not able to volunteer in the classroom are usually willing to help locate items for their child's program.
Children’s Agendas vs. Teachers’ Agendas ??
Teachable Moments absolutely can be interjected! As the other commenters have stated. When the children were drawing pics of the pipes study and other explorations they were always asked what it was or to explain their drawing at which point the teacher wrote his words down on the side next to his drawing. Here there is a prime opportunity to introduce letters make words and words are a way to express yourself, and a book is full of words that can teach you more about your interests. Words are also another way to communicate . Maybe introducing letter recognition here, and even some phonetics, and or depending the age maybe an interest in nurturing a love for reading to learn more about their interest.. Children, and/or anyone for that matter learn better when the topics are relevant and/or of interest to them. I think with the right kind of creativity the childs interest and a learning agenda ( not ours) can be met—no not always simply, definitely skillfully, wont be play to us-will take some work—listening and observing and revisiting. As far as whole group thematic plans I suppose with the introduction of books to help one explore their interest, as a group agenda one could elaborate on each child doing a project of some kind to share their interest with others! ??? Again a lot of creativity, observing, listening going on for sure.
As for the notion that not all children will be interested in the same topic at the same time I think that as time goes on and there are more activities being centered around a particular interest more children tend to become involved. With a wide variety of activities there seems to be something that will spark the interest of each child. For example, the dinosaur study started with a discussion with four boys. As the teachers pursued their interests other children started joining in - picking out books, drawing figures, and making dinosaurs out of clay. The trip to the museum intensified all the children's interests in dinosaurs. By the end of the study all the children learned in depth about dinosaurs - not just the original four boys.
You're right, Lynda. Adding more activities around a particular topic does spark the interest of the other children, particularly if the teachers and the children who intially show the interest are excited and enthusiastic. It's all in how it's planned. The center based approach helps with being able to provide a variety of activities around the topic. Small group discussion can also attract the interest of the other children in the class. When we introduced a fish to our classroom, many children were very excited about this, but when I asked my small group about they would specifically would like to learn about fish, they started talking about fish tanks, pet fish, and the care of fish. If I hadn't listened to them, I may have started a discussion around the ocean and missed an opportunity to zero in on their interests.
My classroom is next to Joanne Hogan's classroom and often I find my children become interested in what her classroom is talking about. Our classrooms are only separated by a loft and so both classrooms can walk over and visit each other for certain times of day. If they see items out in the other classroom that interest them, then they want to go over and visit. So often this sparks the next topic of interest for my children. Also, Joanne's children often become interested in what my classroom is doing too. Therefore, we find each other often focusing on the same topics of study.
I am really trying to learn new ways on how to teach children things that as a director/teacher I feel are important..and still stay true to the Reggio way. I feel that as children decide where their interest's lie during discussion either with teachers, parents or their friends then it is there that we as teachers need to seize the moment and become creative. We must find ways to tie in the child's interest into the necessary things that children need to learn about to suceed in school (public schools). I know it is hard to do but it is possible. I just am not sure it can mean staying 100% true to the Reggio way. In my school there is a larger class and with this comes many interests. Not all the children are intersted in the same thing at the same time. It is hard to do a month long exploration on a topic if not all children are interested. I also feel parents can really be a problem when it comes to children learning. They want to see children learning about all the things they think are important, yet children can find these things boring. I feel truely being a Reggio school in todays day and age would be almost imposible, yet incorporating Reggio ways and ideas into the everyday curriculum and paying attention to where the childrens interest lie can definitly be accomplished.
At our center we have a pre-k program. This consists of three teachers (I am one of them), two classrooms and 26 children on our roster. Our classrooms have an ajoining door and the children area not only allowed to choose which area to play in a free play but they can also choose which classroom to play in. Both of our classrooms always have something different going on but both pertain to the same general theme. Also, one classroom has a block area and the other has dramatic play. We try really hard to listen to the childrens interests and to provide activities around their interests. We are just now learning to revisit activities and such. We are very excited to begin to do this.
Since the children's interests are the “heart” of the book, I was surprised that only a
couple pages in Chapter 2 were devoted to it. I realize that the child interests should come first
in theory, but there may be programs that have to conform to other sets of rules and
regulations. Why can't there be a happy medium where the curriculum topics are generated
by both teachers and children?
I like how the book expanded on the topic of interests from
“surface” ideas versus “deeper lying” ones. It made me think about the High Scope Approach
that we have done in previous years. While we were observing the children during the Plan-Do
Review routines, it was a more focused way to follow and document the children in your
small group. When it came time to write reports it was easier because the information about
each child and their interests were already documented.
I'm sure there will be times when children are not interested in the same topic. That
is where our flexibilty and creativity as a teacher comes into play. Isn't it our job to find
something about a particular topic that will spark a child's interest? I agree with others who
think it is feasible to have multiple topics at a time, for example, through different interest
areas in the classroom.
More on agendas:
HMMM, As I re-read some of the related materials in the book to this topic and also the blogs I wonder if it were not possible to find an Agenda to melt into so to speak the Reggio Principles---YIKES-----Did I say that!
For instance we know there are developmental stages children attain, kind of like the (DAP) developmentall age appropriate skills and agendas and what if we were to introduce ideas—teachings but expand on them bringing out each childs individual creativity, but same learning/teachings. I am not sure I have expressed this clearly—But look at page 23 under “CHILD-SPECIFIC versus Universal shared Interests.” Certainly there are common denominators that excite childrens interest levels at different ages/ or seasons etc. Like the way the children were feeling –emotionally about their friends leaving the school to go to kindergarten-study, On that same page (23) I must comment that it is very important to recognize the ” Degree of Consciousness of an Interest” I am not sure that is easy to do always!
I discovered that when we have a great discussion we are able to generate a lot of new ideas and areas to do further research. We have a multi-age group (2.4 years to 5.8) of around 10 children. We often make a "What We Know" web while we are discussing a topic. Sometimes the children really get enthusiastic and we as teachers have to continue. Other times we make a web and then nothing happens. Of course most of the contributions come from the older kids. I'm always impressed at how much they know - and so are they when they can see it on the web. After discussing for a while, we make a list of what we would like to know more about. Sometimes the enthusiasm lasts a month. Sometimes only a week. We take whatever they give us and try to get them wondering about something on the list. Enthusiasm is contagious. There are kids with different orientations in my group (Multiple Intellegences). If I wonder out loud about how many insects or trees or whatever, the math oriented kid will immediately be hooked. If I wonder how we can make a song-the music kids gets hooked etc. Asking the right questions and knowing the interests of the kids makes it work, and when kids think or discover the answers for themselves, they are more invested in the project. They remember what they learned from it for a longer time. I think that if we try to do activities that will meet the standards, we miss a lot. I try to engage the kids in projects and let them do activities, and then I try to stretch the standard to fit what the kids do.
Thank you Judith, for your insightful blog... You made it all seem much clearer. You are so right when you say to ask the right questionsk etc...
I like the idea of the "what we know" web. A discussion such as this should draw in more children and based upon the discussion on what we would like to know, teachers can create new interest areas or add to existing ones. Tailoring the materials to include multiple intelligences,and building on the enthusiasm of other children will bring more children to the table so to speak. For those who are not involved, another topic can be identified to run simultaneously. I don't think it is necessary for all the children to be involved in in-depth study for most of the year. If you can capture their interests and get each child involved several times throughout the year, I would feel successful at the Reggio approach.
when i was with the four year old group, one a day a week was on childs day. the day was centered around what they liked. a sort of show and tell day. with something new introduced weekly, most of the children found it interesting and the topic for the rest of that day would then lead to what everyone was going bring in on their day.
(Originally published 2/10)
The balance of the agendas in the Reggio approach relies on the respect of the children’s interests along with the responsibility of the teacher to keep the subject matter worthy of exploration. The topic needs to be capable of generating diverse ideas and representations from the children. We as teachers must refocus and become learners with the children but we must also guide and support the direction of study. Topics need to remain concrete, hands-on and based on real experiences. Teachable moments will always be what early education is all about and with skillful listening and observing it can only enrich the Reggio philosophy. With a bit of creativity much of what is generated in the Reggio type exploration can even be aligned to meet the state standards.
Even though there are curriculums, and frameworks that classrooms are expected to follow there needs to be a balance between the Reggio approach and the state frameworks. The best teachable moments are the one's that the children create themself. No matter what topic is taught a skillful teacher needs to go off the beaten path and let the children explore and intergrate their personnel experiences within the classroom. Even though a teacher may create a theme for their classroom, skillful teaching and learning comes from listening and observing the children's interest. Besides a child's own personnel experience, teachers create moments throughout the year that peaks new interests among children. I agree with Andrea about tailoring the curriculum to multiple intelligences and building upon the enthusiasm of children, and what exploration they will bring to each other.
One of the features of the Reggio approach that is particularly appealing to me is that it focuses more on the process of learning – the expression of curiosity, the observations, the investigations, the research, the reflections of both the children and adults, the sharing of perspectives that can give new insights, the exploration through a variety of media – than on any set body of content. It is this process that involves children in deep and meaningful intellectual pursuits, offers ideas through which to connect to others, and that helps children learn about how to learn. It doesn’t seem to me that the Reggio approach is necessarily in conflict with mandated skills development that may be part of a given teacher’s agenda. Skill development follows a purpose, and the purpose may very well become clearer to individual children when they experience first hand the value of that skill. Reading, writing, expressing oneself clearly, following a scientific method, all serve specific forms of communication. If there is content worth knowing about (because it is both interesting and meaningful to the learner) then there is all the more reason to develop some of the skills to help learn more about it.
There is an emotional component that comes into play as well. When children see adults seriously join their interests, they are more likely to see themselves as capable learners. When we let them know that they are engaging with the world as an investigator, artist, scientist, author, etc. these interests are validated and the children are more likely to see their work and ideas as important, worth sharing, and worth pursuing.
In regard to investigations that involve only a small group of children, I actually think that it is quite freeing to accept that each investigation doesn’t necessarily have to include everyone. In the past, I’ve always looked for ways that most if not all the children could connect with a given investigation. Typically, I found that if I offered the appropriate stimulation in a variety of media that would work. But there are always some children who move on from the topic or experience more quickly than others.
If the on-going investigation is one story pursued within the classroom among interested children, then other room areas hold opportunities for other stories, other interests, and potentially other kinds of engagement with the environment.
Agendas again??
I liked what you had to say Katrina! The values of skill! Exactly what I was driving at. That through the childs experiences and exploring he or she will develop a thirst so to speak and become more involved in his or her own learning! I mean is not that why one would continue their own education in a certain field, Because there is an interest which is really needed to be engaged in the learning process in order for it to stick! Makes the learning so much more interesting and entertaining instead of the ho-hum leanring techniques many of us knew,
I had never completed a web with the class. I decided to try it. I rec'd a lot of crazy ideas but also a lot of sensible ideas. Then I used one of their ideas for the web and used that as the center and we began the new web. This went far and wide and the class enjoyed seeing the web grow.(and their ideas) When I hung it on the wall the class wanted it to take up the whole wall so they kept on thinking of new ideas. Fantastic. We let the children go and play if they were not interested in webbing, however that made all the other children (who were interested) want to go play instead. So it is a work in progress. :)
i agree with deb. we were observing a group of children and overheard them talking about trucks they seemed really interested in them so we decided to do a curriculum on trucks but only five wanted to do it i had the other children go play when the five saw that they no longer wanted to do it theyd rather go play. so should i have had the other children go play or....???????
Teachers’ agendas in today’s child care world is one that is expected to have the child fully ready for the curriculum of kindergarten. Introducing the Reggio principles and the chilen’s agendas has more impact in a child care with mixed age groups at the younger ages. The Reggio method is best used directly with the two and three year old children to inspire the communication, creative thought and expression to create a positive self image to help handle the teacher’s agenda that will need to be the primary learning in the next couple of years before school. When a child has an idea or topic to discuss we can engage them in representations such as conversation and drawings. Once the communication from the child has begun the introduction of the teachers agenda may start with questions about colors, numbers, letters and sounds.
As children reach the four and five year old group the process should start to be reversed with the teacher’s agenda leading into the Reggio principles helping the children elaborate on their more structured work beyond what they might have just written or communicated to us.
I found it interesting to read about Deb and xteen86's experiences with first attempts at Reggio. I'm not in a positon where I have the opportunity to try out these ideas but I can see it will take revisiting through observation and documentation. Perhaps holding a class discussion or smaller group discussion in keeping with the time limits you would expect for circle time and revisiting ideas later or another day would work. With the truck idea, encouraging the interest by expanding the children's options with books on trucks, a variety of recycled materials for the children to design their own truck, finding photos and information on unusual trucks, etc. may help keep the children's interest. Working with the core group of children who were initially interested by drawing their attention to the new materials and letting the other children go about their business might work. Good luck!
I like Andrea's response to xteen86's frustration with interest that seemed to be there but then went nowhere. There are several reasons this might happen:
1. Sometimes we miscalculate exactly what the original expression of interest really was - the book has a lot to say on the topic of how hard this can be!
2. Sometimes we haven't done enough "priming of the pump" for the latent interest to turn into purposeful and focussed activity.
3. And sometimes we have mistaken idle interest (e.g., "Yeah, that's cool!) with deep interest - in that case, they're more interested in being entertained than digging in and exploring.
Recently I've been adding more structured writing/drawing time after our topic of interest has been introduced and found that if I sit with the children and just talk, ask open ended questions about their drawings, and provide a book or photograph related to the topic of interest, I get amazing results. There are always children who say that they can't draw or write, and I'll start talking to them in terms of shapes that they are familiar with, and this really helps them to visulize what they want to draw. From there,I may make an obervation, or ask an open-ended question about their drawing, and this helps them to focus and make purposeful representations.
As it says on page 55
-Scaffold children's observations by asking questions and providing tools.
-Organize children into small groups so that they can share knowledge, and stimulate one another's observations and representations.
-Ask children to comment on their representations and ask them questions to stimulate them to include additional perspectives.
-Post chidren's representations to facilitate revisiting.
-And use their representations to extend their inquiry to the whole class.
It does work.
I also work with Deb and xteen86. We did infuse books into the areas about trucks and we used boxes and other collage materials for the children to make their own. I think we may have gone astray is that we thought that the interest was there and it was not, as Greg has suggested.
Bill you could not have said it any better regarding starting this with the younger age groups,but I am not sure Reggio would agree with the reversal part of it as it would be nice if school systems could embrace and continue the principles, as the children mature there creativity could really expand.
Greg, I liked hearing that confirmation on #3 about mistaken interest into anything more than entertainment, While reading this book , a lot of times I really felt there seemed to be a ton of guess work in figuring out a true interest or not—the book detailed many success’s as I suppose it needed to explain the principles but not as many failures or dead end avenues. I guess that’s the frustration and/or feeling of are we doing this right comes in//argh!!
I loved Katrina’s comment about how the reflections of the children and adults and their sharing of perspectives can give new insights. I experience this everyday with my little group. In our investigation of dinosaurs, I realized that they really were interested in dinosaur poop. As an adult, I feel that I’ve mastered poop (at least as much as I want to), but as young children who have just recently learned how to control their bowel movements (mostly), they have a very different perspective than mine. When they first mentioned dinosaur poop, I ignored it, but then one of them mentioned it again so I wrote it on the web. In reflecting back on our discussion, I realized that they really were interested in this, and when I mentioned it they all got really excited, so we will now look for information. Who knows where it will lead – perhaps to an investigation of the human digestion process. I had a tentative agenda that included the rainforest as a possible branch to follow the dinosaur project. I guess as the curriculum emerges we will see where their interests take us. I have enough materials to go anywhere with them. It’s an exciting journey for me.
Sorry - I thought I had already posted this comment. I looked for it and it wasn't there; I hope it's not a repeat post.
In response to Greg's comment, I think there is another factor in fanning the sparks of interest, and that is the genuine enthusiasm of someone older and/or more capable, who is genuinely interested in the investigation and is learning along-side the children. I know that there are some topics that I would not be interested in and that would probably unintentionally put a bit of a damper on the children’s enthusiasm to investigate. I believe the adult learner (teacher) needs to be at least as interested as the children, maybe even a bit more sometimes.
Judith, in my experience, you are correct when you mention the importance of enthusiasm on the part of the adult co-learner in the process...I think that if the teacher is not able to be open to the excitement of discovery - whether discovery of information, connections, skills, - then the learning relationship is still unbalanced...I think that the reggio methods, with their emphasis on the image of the child as strong and capable (rather than young, unformed and lacking in skills and knowledge) work toward fostering a more balanced relationship between students and teachers. As you said, dinosaur poop as a topic is really not something that you are all that interested in - maybe dinosaurs in general are not your cup of tea - but sharing the perspective of the young child and working to uncover what it is about dinosaur poop that's so fascinating...that is the key. I think this relates also to the discussion about trucks (above). Trucks is a very broad topic - maybe the reason that the study of trucks fizzled out was a lack of shared focus? Not knowing what it was about trucks that was of interest to that group of kids? Just today I was having a discussion with a student in my class about how he can distinguish between the different minivans in our parking lot by their tires. I had never realized that there were so many varieties of hubcaps and other tire styles! Who knows where are topic like this could take us?? Which leads to
one of the big issues i have as a teacher trying to incorporate lessons from the Reggio style into my classroom is the tension of balancing MY need to be prepared with the spontaneity of a study that is directed by the children's interests. it can be difficutl to "stay ahead" in terms of finding information and resources to share - we are lucky enough to have a computer in our classroom, which is so valuable in terms of access to written information, photos and even short videos on the spot - but i feel like i resort to that option too often - and the kids need experiences, not googling...and by the time i pull things together, even if it is one or two days later (for instance, arranging for a parent with a dog to visit a group of children interested in pets, or contacting a builder to come and show us their tools, or taking a trip to the supermarket...) their interests have moved on...anyone else experience this? any tips for dealing with it?
Reading Debbie's comment about children distinguishing differences by hubcaps brought back a memory for me. When my daughter was about 3 or 4 (almost 20 years ago!) we were driving by a Dunkin Donuts and I saw a car that looked EXACTLY like by brother-in-law's. When I mentioned to my husband that we should stop and see him my daughter piped up from the back seat, "that's not his car - the tires are different." My husband said she's right. I would never have known the difference. This shows you that a child's perspective is different from an adult's. For one thing, she was the right height to notice the tires!
Oh so true how children view and see the world so much clearer than we do. Sometimes they have a greater understanding of life than we do or even give them credit for. The Reggio approach in a way has a greater benefit to the adult for it makes us stop and take notice of the little things in life which we are too stress to see was ever there. It's through a child's eyes we can learn so much if we allow ourself to let it happen !!
in response to debbie, i can see your frustration.maybe the way for you to go is to just plan a few activities later in the week. take monday and tuesday to talk to the kids on what you have planned for them,you may find them excited and you can then build on their ideas.you can then add activities or take them away. maybe by doing this you can plan in a way that you are comfortable as well as doing what the kids seem interested in.
this fits here better than elsewhere...
I have been thinking about how the teacher’s and parent’s view of the child as capable is so central to the classroom projects pursued in a Reggio-inspired approach. When children are given time and support (including the emotional support that comes from someone taking the time to know each child intimately and individually, and giving the time to find what is truly motivating to each individual) adults are often inspired by the creativity, focus, and perseverance exhibited by the children. When we look at the work that comes out of an investigation that was truly meaningful to the participating children, we often can see work where children took risks for the first time – moving towards representation when children lacked confidence in their ability to draw for example, or joining a team involved in constructions at a more complex level than had be tried before. Children seem to gain confidence as they come to understand that we adults will help them realize their ideas, and that we believe in their capacity to do so.
The other part of this is that it is so important not to rush the process, but to give children as much time as possible to revisit these meaningful topics or experiences, and as much time as possible to fully explore a variety of media that might help them realize their ideas when themes of personal importance come up. If children have fluency with a variety of paints and painting/printing tools, clays, wire, writing tools, storytelling techniques, etc. they will have a better sense of how best to express/represent the ideas, investigations, theories, and feelings that are important to them.
One personal example of how this happens occurred with my daughter before she was three and before she was representational in her drawings. At the time she was passionately involved in story ballets - their music, stories, and choreography. In every available moment she immersed herself in one ballet after another, until she knew the classic story ballets intimately. She danced them, used their themes in dramatic play, listened to their music, and, because she was an early reader, read simple versions of their stories. One day she was talking about Aurora and Desire (Sleeping Beauty) and decided she would draw the moment when Desire kissed Aurora to wake her. She drew the two figures – Aurora on her bed, and Desire coming over - with great accuracy – anyone who sees them knows what they represent. This was her one and only piece of representational drawing for about a year.
With every project undertaken with young 3 and 4 year old children, there has been someone whose interests in the theme pulls them forward to a new level in their capacity to use materials to express/realize their ideas. It is incredibly exciting to be witness to these processes!
i agree with katrina about if children have all the tools they will have a better sence of expressing themselves and delve into whats important to them. i loved all the materials the chicago school had. even the kiln for burning clay and how easy it was to develope pictures and so much!!!!!! money is a huge issue at my school we run out of supplies fast and very slow in replenishing because of the lack of money. we have a school camera but pictures dont get developed as quickly as they should
I can relate to Debbie’s concern regarding the potential for children’s interests to change by the time the teacher has had the opportunity to pull together materials/visits/information etc.. I think that using the computer is a great way to provide instant follow-up; however, I do agree that young children need experiences too. I love the idea of a “holding board” that has been discussed in the book and think that it could be very helpful. During a recent graduate course, one of my professors did basically the same thing so that any need for additional conversation, resources, follow-up were not forgotten and it really help validate our ideas, suggestions, questions even as adults. I imagine that this would be a very powerful tool for children-even just the notion that someone is writing down their ideas and placing it in a space that everyone can see and be reminded is empowering and valuable.
Additionally, often times the children’s obvious interests have changed; however a deeper interest may actually be the one that can be nurtured and supported-like the ideas of the interest in dogs could be the outward interest but perhaps the underlying interest is more broad like pets-Allowing the children a day or two to continue expressing their ideas may actually help the teacher to prepare for the underlying interest.
The vignette that was shared in the book of the conversation between the teacher and the child, Carmen while exploring shells, was particularly interesting to me. Often times these types of dialogues appear to be following the children’s ideas but in fact can be very teacher-directed. I can think of numerous conversations between myself and a child that has had similar undertones. A similar situation occurred just this week between me and a child at the play dough table- we were using play dough with small animal figures and the conversation turned to a discussion between about cats-who has one, how many do you have, what are their names etc.. When I think back on that conversation, I realize that I was leading it, while still on the same topic and following his initial lead. I was thinking that by asking questions about cats I was extending and encouraging his language when I should have done more listening and realized that he was not interested in telling me about his cats’ names but talking about the fact that the cat belonged to his grandmother and really the need for taking care of the cat for the grandmother was what he was interested in talking about. A good reminder that not only do we need to listen but we also need to try and “hear” what children are telling us.
Thank you, Michelle; I too think the "holding board" is a very useful tool for a project under development, particularly for one that is lying "fallow" for a while as kids are mulling things over and teachers are figuring out what facets of a topic are really interesting to the students.
One of my colleagues used to keep a large "question book" ( just some chart paper stapled in a tagboard cover) very prominently displayed in the classroom and as students generated questions (not just at group time, but also during conversations, on the playground, at snack, etc), she would note them in the question book - I think that was very powerful on a few levels. First, it indicated that the child's questions were valuable. Second, it indicated that she did not hold all the answers. Third, it provided a good record for the teacher of what types of topics were of interest to individual children (and allowed her to see patterns of interest among different children). Sometimes, the questions were answered directly. Sometimes they were answered by investigation. And sometimes they weren't answered at all but that was OK!
The agendas of children are an important consideration in learning at any time. The relationship and trust between the children and the teacher becomes a base for further learning. Children of course tend to learn and retain information with topics that they enjoy and thus become important to them. The Reggio principles should be a component of a teacher’s agenda where a child‘s dialogue, creativity and subsequent positive self image can be fostered. I do believe that this can be accomplished by taking walks in the nature environment, and or continuous change of the visible learning tools (seasonal, holiday, letters, words) in the class room. These “teacher agendas” help create the “children’s agendas” with wonderment and excitement. The children can often take the topics and personalize their own experiences which can be time consuming, however the teacher may be able to set up the communication time frame with a common interest such as siblings, parents, or their homes and yards ahead of time, related to the topic.
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