The two classes did a terrific job of respectfully leading the flag salute this morning. :)
The children are trying to reach 100% in Jiji, so many were very focused during our extra Jiji lab time this morning as individual reading assessments were being completed.
Did you hear about your child sitting in the butterfly tent? Many children chose to enjoy the butterflies and were delighted when one would land on their fingers. Since the butterflies have now outlived the average reported butterfly life span, we can infer that we took good care of them in our repurposed habitat. There were six left, and they finally agreed to set them free. :)
Throughout the year, we've been using Junior Great Books for socratic dialogue (fancy word for adult book talk style incorporating depth and complexity). The problem was that the Junior Great Books stories are all narrative literature. It allows for many connections and higher level thinking skills, but not the rich and deep discussions possible through nonfiction. Unfortunately, those resources are not available at our school. Over spring break, I invested in 8 sets of nonfiction books as an experiment in taking the shared discussion of Junior Great Books to the next level and directly tie it to STEM. In the last few weeks, your child has been in a guided reading group that used one of the books (child's choice). We learned how to take notes (life skill), how to study them, and incorporating the icons of depth and complexity to monitor our comprehension. They loved it! That was step 1.
On Thursday, it seemed like they might be ready to prepare for the big application of the experiment. We tried our first "analytical conversation" (adult book talk, socratic seminar, intellectual conversation, etc.) with what held very high interest for everyone - our chapter book series of Franny K. Stein - mad scientist. The goals included:
- learning to wait to speak until there is a pause
- not speaking over each other
- not repeating anything that has been said
- adding to the conversation, higher level comments
- how to rephrase what someone says (exact sentence starters)
- how to clarify what someone says
- how to connect ideas in a meaningful way
- how to join a conversation without raising your hand (tricky!!!)
It worked beautifully! I wish it had been videotaped! They really applied all of the depth and complexity concepts (icons), respected each other, and applied the goals. (Our joining a conversation goal will be a long term goal for our many friends who have ideas that pop into their heads. ;) )
On Friday, I REALLY wished I had someone to videotape what we did. The experiment was a success beyond what was imagined. We took guided reading to the next level, then extended it to a group analytical conversation with the goals stated above to reach synthesis. Yes, they did it! They figured out what all of the different guided reading books had in common!!! And . . . they connected that synthesis to our learning focus in science to get the big idea of why it was all specifically designed for them the past month. I think I was bouncing in my seat with excitement! They knew they were doing something truly amazing! You could see the high level of engagement, enthusiasm, and phenomenal connections across the disciplines, books of different topics, and at the highest levels of analysis then synthesis. AMAZING!!!
Proof of evidence: They discovered, through their unanswered questions and truly intellectual discussions, that factories were used for different reasons in each book. They discovered that each book was a cycle which they then linked to the life cycles of the butterflies. No, they were not about animals at all! There were four guided reading books on these topics: cars, sugar, chocolate, and honey. They were books focused on the process of production. They discovered through their conversation that refineries serve different purposes and why things are made in bulk. Best of all, they discovered the big idea that they all were a cycle like the life cycle. This led to a discussion of the production cycle of goods and services. It also led to a discussion of man-made vs. natural cycles. It was truly remarkable!!! Where was the videographer when I needed him??? :)
They loved it so much that they have chosen one of four of the remaining titles to: read to learn, discuss, take notes, study, then join a collaborative analytical discussion to dig deeper into the meaning of the books and their application to bigger ideas of life around us. Next time, someone gets to videotape. Tyler has been our videographer (by request) for all Beetle Olympics videos, so perhaps he'll volunteer to videotape our conversation as well. :)
Enjoy your long weekend.
Next week:
Wednesday - Special Person's Day 11-12:30
On Thursday, it seemed like they might be ready to prepare for the big application of the experiment. We tried our first "analytical conversation" (adult book talk, socratic seminar, intellectual conversation, etc.) with what held very high interest for everyone - our chapter book series of Franny K. Stein - mad scientist. The goals included:
- learning to wait to speak until there is a pause
- not speaking over each other
- not repeating anything that has been said
- adding to the conversation, higher level comments
- how to rephrase what someone says (exact sentence starters)
- how to clarify what someone says
- how to connect ideas in a meaningful way
- how to join a conversation without raising your hand (tricky!!!)
It worked beautifully! I wish it had been videotaped! They really applied all of the depth and complexity concepts (icons), respected each other, and applied the goals. (Our joining a conversation goal will be a long term goal for our many friends who have ideas that pop into their heads. ;) )
On Friday, I REALLY wished I had someone to videotape what we did. The experiment was a success beyond what was imagined. We took guided reading to the next level, then extended it to a group analytical conversation with the goals stated above to reach synthesis. Yes, they did it! They figured out what all of the different guided reading books had in common!!! And . . . they connected that synthesis to our learning focus in science to get the big idea of why it was all specifically designed for them the past month. I think I was bouncing in my seat with excitement! They knew they were doing something truly amazing! You could see the high level of engagement, enthusiasm, and phenomenal connections across the disciplines, books of different topics, and at the highest levels of analysis then synthesis. AMAZING!!!
Proof of evidence: They discovered, through their unanswered questions and truly intellectual discussions, that factories were used for different reasons in each book. They discovered that each book was a cycle which they then linked to the life cycles of the butterflies. No, they were not about animals at all! There were four guided reading books on these topics: cars, sugar, chocolate, and honey. They were books focused on the process of production. They discovered through their conversation that refineries serve different purposes and why things are made in bulk. Best of all, they discovered the big idea that they all were a cycle like the life cycle. This led to a discussion of the production cycle of goods and services. It also led to a discussion of man-made vs. natural cycles. It was truly remarkable!!! Where was the videographer when I needed him??? :)
They loved it so much that they have chosen one of four of the remaining titles to: read to learn, discuss, take notes, study, then join a collaborative analytical discussion to dig deeper into the meaning of the books and their application to bigger ideas of life around us. Next time, someone gets to videotape. Tyler has been our videographer (by request) for all Beetle Olympics videos, so perhaps he'll volunteer to videotape our conversation as well. :)
Enjoy your long weekend.
Next week:
Wednesday - Special Person's Day 11-12:30
