Cooperative Learning

Measuring the perimeter of our garden

Designing garden cinderblocks- creating our own raised garden beds

Painting a class mural based on three designs created by the students and inspired by "The Great Wave" by Katsushika Hokusai

As a teacher, I feel that most children learn best socially. Sure, some tasks call for the student to work independently with absolute concentration to every detail, but the experiences children have during their school years while working as a team to achieve a common goal are some of the most meaningful in my eyes. Most children seem to feel the same way as I watch and listen to them in action with a small group. The laughter, dialogue, excitement that is present most of the time is such a joy to watch. The times that are well...not so joyful, often turn out to be wonderful learning experiences and growth opportunities for the whole group. During these times of observation I often feel I am gathering the most information about the children's interests and their abilities. 

Cooperative learning opportunities pop up everywhere throughout the day. The way we enter into projects as a class; jotting down thoughts and ideas, creating a plan, and engaging in dialogue with each other regarding our ideas and learning goals is a model for the children. I believe the time we spend together as a whole group planning for these experience is extremely important because we are creating an example for the way we want children to interact with one another when they are on their own with peers.

I spend a lot of time every single day reflecting on dialogue we have during Morning Meetings and mini lessons throughout the day. I am very critical of myself when it comes to how much I interject and redirect conversation so that we can be most productive. This is a constant process for me, and although I feel I have grown tremendously when it comes to facilitating, I am a work in process. However, when I see children taking turns talking, being respectful and welcoming when others present new ideas, and sharing a huge piece of work among their group in a fair way so that all members of the group feel equally challenged and important, I am filled up to the brim with joy. This is by far the most important skill a child can learn throughout their school years- how to work together with their peers in a respectful way.

"Save the Earth" student led impromptu chant :)

The Writing Process

On Monday, January 24th, the children worked on personal narratives describing a meaningful experience they have had with water. Some chose to write about a time they played in the rain, swimming with family members, or being stuck inside because of bad weather. The children illustrated detailed pictures of this "snapshot" of their life before writing. One of the children stood in front of a mirror to help him compose an accurate drawing of his body. After drawing, they moved through the steps of The Writing Process. Almost all of the children chose to publish their writing after peer editing and revising. They are extremely proud of the hard work they put into their writing, and they had a great time reliving meaningful experiences throughout the process.

The Eyes of a Child

I believe this quote will speak to you even if you are not one of the lucky ones who work with young children.

“Often in our work, and in our lives, we tend to look for confirmation of what we think and what we believe. We identify ours selves with our ideas and our theories. To change our minds, to reconsider our basic theories and beliefs so as to see their limitations, is often perceived as a personal defeat. Often the ensuing crisis is experienced as a loss rather than as the beginning of something new. The fact is that we are too firmly attached to our theories and to our ideas and thus we often close the door to new ways of seeing and understanding. But new ideas spring forth everywhere, particularly if we live among children. The children themselves stand for what is new for us and what is asking for acceptance. We can never predict the way in which the new will appear, but often it has the eyes of a child. We must, therefore, expect the new to appear, help it come forth, follow it, and nurture it.”

 ~Carlina Rinaldi from Louise Boyd Cadwell’s book The Reggio Approach to Early Childhood Education- Bringing Learning to Life

Reggio Emilia Philosophy

I am writing this post because it has been brought to my attention that not all of my friends have background knowledge about Reggio Emilia. I am sorry for not sharing right away.  I certainly don't want anyone to have to go googling to find out. I will share with you what I know, and then you can go from there. I can say that in Reggio Emilia, Italy, they do not usually practice this approach past Kindergarten. However, I can assure you that the core principals are quite valuable for children of all ages. This philosophy paired with Sustainability Education is a great match. To read up on Sustainability Education go to the Cadwell's website www.cadwellcollaborative.com. I am absorbing all of the information at the moment and I am finding it fascinating and exciting. I hope you can find this information interesting.

Reggio Emilia Philosophy

Piazza - Diana School, Reggio Emilia, Italy

These pictures are from Reggio children's "Open Window" series, they were scanned from slides and posted by a fellow blogger

The following overview of the Reggio Emilia Approach was taken from a packet of information available at The Hundred Languages of Children traveling exhibit:

Hailed as an exemplary model of early childhood education (Newsweek, 1991), the Reggio Emilia approach to education is committed to the creation of conditions for learning that will enhance and facilitate children's construction of "his or her own powers of thinking through the synthesis of all the expressive, communicative and cognitive languages" (Edwards and Forman, 1993). The Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education is a city-run and sponsored system designed for all children from birth through six years of age. The Reggio Emilia approach can be viewed as a resource and inspiration to help educators, parents, and children as they work together to further develop their own educational programs. The Reggio Emilia approach is based upon the following principles:

Emergent Curriculum: An emergent curriculum is one that builds upon the interests of children. Topics for study are captured from the talk of children, through community or family events, as well as the known interests of children (puddles, shadow, dinosaurs, etc.). Team planning is an essential component of the emergent curriculum. Teachers work together to formulate hypotheses about the possible directions of a project, the materials needed, and possible parent and/or community support and involvement.

Project Work: Projects, also emergent, are in-depth studies of concepts, ideas, and interests, which arise within the group. Considered as an adventure, projects may last one week or could continue throughout the school year. Throughout a project, teachers help children make decisions about the direction of study, the ways in which the group will research the topic, the representational medium that will demonstrate and showcase the topic and the selection of materials needed to represent the work. Long-term projects or progettazione, enhance lifelong learning.

Representational Development: Consistent with Howard Gardner's notion of schooling for multiple intelligences, the Reggio Emilia approach calls for the integration of the graphic arts as tools for cognitive, linguistic, and social development. Presentation of concepts and hypotheses in multiple forms of representation -- print, art, construction, drama, music, puppetry, and shadow play -- are viewed as essential to children's understanding of experience. Children have 100 languages, multiple symbolic languages.

Collaboration: Collaborative group work, both large and small, is considered valuable and necessary to advance cognitive development. Children are encouraged to dialogue, critique, compare, negotiate, hypothesize, and problem solve through group work. Within the Reggio Emilia approach multiple perspectives promote both a sense of group membership and the uniqueness of self. There high emphasis on the collaboration among home-school-community to support the learning of the child.

Teachers as Researchers: The teacher's role within the Reggio Emilia approach is complex. Working as co-teachers, the role of the teacher is first and foremost to be that of a learner alongside the children. The teacher is a teacher-researcher, a resource and guide as she/he lends expertise to children (Edwards, 1993). Within such a teacher-researcher role, educators carefully listen, observe, and document children's work and the growth of community in their classroom and are to provoke, co-construct, and stimulate thinking, and children's collaboration with peers. Teachers are committed to reflection about their own teaching and learning.

Documentation: Similar to the portfolio approach, documentation of children's work in progress is viewed as an important tool in the learning process for children, teachers, and parents. Pictures of children engaged in experiences, their words as they discuss what they are doing, feeling and thinking, and the children's interpretation of experience through the visual media are displayed as a graphic presentation of the dynamics of learning. Documentation is used as assessment and advocacy.

Environment: Within the Reggio Emilia schools, great attention is given to the look and feel of the classroom. Environment is considered the "third teacher." Teachers carefully organize space for small and large group projects and small intimate spaces for one, two or three children. Documentation of children's work, plants, and collections that children have made from former outings are displayed both at the children's and adult eye level. Common space available to all children in the school includes dramatic play areas and worktables for children from different classrooms to come together.

Features of The Reggio Emilia Approach

Teacher Role:
to co-explore the learning experience with the children
to provoke ideas, problem solving, and conflict
to take ideas from the children and return them for further exploration
to organize the classroom and materials to be aesthetically pleasing
to organize materials to help children make thoughtful decisions about the media
to document children's progress: visual, videotape, tape recording, portfolios
to help children see the connections in learning and experiences
to help children express their knowledge through representational work
to form a "collective" among other teachers and parents
to have a dialogue about the projects with parents and other teachers
to foster the connection between home, school and community

Projects:can emerge from children's ideas and/or interests
can be provoked by teachers
can be introduced by teachers knowing what is of interest to children: shadows, puddles, tall buildings, construction sites, nature, etc.
should be long enough to develop over time, to discuss new ideas, to negotiate over, to induce conflicts, to revisit, to see progress, to see movement of ideas
should be concrete, personal from real experiences, important to children, should be "large" enough for diversity of ideas and rich in interpretive/representational expression

Media:explore first: what is this material, what does it do, before what can I do with the material
should have variation in color, texture, pattern: help children "see" the colors, tones, hues; help children "feel" the texture, the similarities and differences
should be presented in an artistic manner--it too should be aesthetically pleasing to look at--it should invite you to touch, admire, inspire
should be revisited throughout many projects to help children see the possibilities

SPACE! Our Beautiful, Bright, Open, Lovely Space...

Reflection on Documentation and Curriculum Mapping with The Cadwell Collaborative

Today is the first rainy, gloomy Saturday I have experienced here in Florida in a few weeks. It has been beautiful here, and I have been enjoying the sunshine and active lifestyle. However, having a cold and being stuck inside has given me the opportunity to begin the blog I have been wanting to start since I began my progressive education journey. I know it will be nice to have a record of my reflections, and I hope to bounce ideas off of like minded educators through blogging.

This week was FULL of reflecting, reading, and thinking. My colleagues and I had the incredible opportunity to meet and have meaningful dialogue with two individuals who dedicate their life to teaching others about their interpretation of the Reggio Emilia Approach and  Sustainability Education, Ashley and Louise Cadwell. They find the beauty in overlapping the two approaches and acknowledging that both approaches seek to empower our children while guiding them in developing 21st century skills. Here is a link to their website. It is definitely a must if you are interested in this type of work. http://cadwellcollaborative.com/

After meeting with the Cadwells, I was inspired and I felt unbelievably refreshed! I took the time to rethink my documentation walls and curriculum map. It became very clear that the web of ideas, questions, academic skills, and 21st century skills that could and should be explored in a project titled "What is Water?" were being overlooked on my part. In fact after looking back on conversations and questions my children had been asking during Morning Meetings, I found the children were practically begging me to go deeper. For whatever reason I had become caught up in moving foward with the New Year, and my listening skills had gone a bit haywire over the holidays (you know we all do it around those certain family members..JUST KIDDING MOM!). Anyway, I took a step back and started restructuring my documentation wall to give myself and more importantly the children a clear idea of the specific questions we were devling into next. Before the PD we thought our walls were beautiful like a gallery space should be, but they were lacking clarity and direction. Ashley mentioned we should think of creating posters, big ones, for the main ideas and themes. In fact, we should be thinking like graphic designers, creating clean lines that apeal to all eyes. The quotations should be in bold and BIG, as well as the questions. They should be seen from across the room.

So, the next day I got to work and I loved every minute. I took down some of the beautiful work we had been collecting gallery style on the walls, and I placed them in a folder to be created into a professional looking book both the children and parents could enjoy daily. I made our question big, and created just a few sub questions to redirect our focus. I feel great about our progress and I am looking forward to exploring with the children!