Theory in Practice: Breaking Bread

This month's growth is marked by efforts in our community. Very fitting considering the upcoming Thanksgiving holidays which have a lot to do with coming together as a group. In history, the survival of Early colonies depended on good collaboration, and today, we collaborate by sharing a community meal and showing gratitude for each other. This month I worked hard to decenter myself as the holder of power and the knower of knowledge, and to support the students in relying more on each other and their work as a team. I know that to get students thinking critically, I have to get them thinking together, because “In classrooms that promote thinking, students and teachers co-construct meaning in large groups, small groups, and conferences; through discussions, book groups, and partner work. Everyone gets a chance to weigh in with meaning” (Harvey and Goudvis, 2007, p.35).

One of the ways this has been challenging, however, is that not all students care to "weigh in" in the manner I imagine when I read this picture-perfect quote. Many of my circling thoughts from my reflections this month focus on the quieter members in our group engagements and feature questions like, "how do I know if those kids are even getting anything out of this?" I was so excited to read aloud the book Stranded at Plimoth Plantation, but the discussion that followed was disappointingly dead. We were working to fill out a class anchor chart on text clues and inferences, and each time I stopped to pose a brilliantly phrased and probing question, I was met with a few answers and more glassy eyes crickets. Did they not feel responsible for thinking because another student would surely pick up the slack? Did they not find it interesting? Did they not understand what to do? Frank Smith argues that “The right to ignore anything that doesn’t make sense is a crucial element of any child’s learning—and the first right children are likely to lose when they get to the controlled learning environment of school” (Smith, 1998, p.19), but I struggle to know where to draw the line with this. I mean, if you ignore TOO many things that don't make sense, you will never get a chance to understand them, right? What about productive struggle? Clearly, something was lacking in the way I was presenting this activity or in the outcomes I was expecting. It wasn't until I had a heart to heart with one of my mentors, Dr. Fisher, that she reminded me of what I already know: not all kids are going to exhibit understanding in the same way. This has been drilled in us over and over again from the beginning of this grad program, but for some reason, I just needed to hear it from her in relation to this real in my community for it to click. Of course I want to see their understanding taking place in a verbal exchange because that's how MY brain is wired. The obvious problem with this expectation, though, is that it does not honor the myriad of other ways different types of learners may prefer to engage with their understanding. Verbosity does not come naturally to everyone. After this talk with Dr. F (and how fitting that I would make a revelation like this via talking), I've made it a point moving forward to provide other opportunities for kids to engage in these whole group settings beyond verbal response. I hope to open the floor to more students by letting them respond through drawing and using their bodies, and yes, talking, because “Critical thinking and dialog go hand in hand” (Cowhey, 2006, p.90).

Related to these reflections is another theme swirling in my mind, and it's what to do with this clear divide amongst the verbal and not-so-verbal personalities/learning preferences of my students. I would say about half of them are as jazzed up about talking as I am, eager to discuss their way to understanding and share their thinking with the group. But while these 5 are busy with this, the other 5 are like little lost ships at sea, floating further and further away, needing constant anchoring and reeling in to stay present, which naturally drags at the flow of the rest of the conversation. A clear solution, which I have seen results with this month, is doing things like this in smaller groups. But that requires doing everything twice, which obviously means things take twice as long, and by the end of the year, I have only been available to each group half as much and have only covered half as much ground as I could have by the end of the year. But then again, is there any point in moving full steam ahead as a whole group if half of the kids are going to get left behind? What good is that? Is that serving those kids drifting off in the life raft? It's become clear to me that I need to guide this group in finding each member's strengths and teaching them to support the community in the best way they can. But that requires each individual student to see his or herself as part of a larger community. And seeing as some of us aren't quite there yet, that's where I am starting.

One new thing I tried this month to beef up the sense of community and collaboration going on in our room is to divide the students into two teams, an "Americas" (New World) team and a "Europe, Asia, and Africa" (Old World) team to create a multi-disciplinary info-wall project on these regions prior to the Great Exchange of the 1490s. I gave them each a packet with the assignment laid out and a rubric, and let them know they would be completing this project as a team and that at the end, they would be grading each other on their collaboration skills. I hoped this would decentralize me as the judger and grader, and refocus them on their work with their peers. There were some growing pains the first few days as the kids found their feet in this new style of workshop, but by Friday, my heart was bursting with pride to see them independently getting out their materials and checking in with their teammates on their progress, and figuring out what they needed in order to get to the next step. Not to pat myself on the back too much, but I really think this project and its execution indicate tremendous growth for me in my goals of organization and being explicit with expectations for the students. Hopefully, I provided the right balance of being available for guidance and redirecting them back to their group when appropriate. This busy week of teamwork culminated with a soup making project, using ingredients found only in their region prior to the Great Exchange. They absolutely loved it, and every single one of them came away having accomplished a first-time in something. I overheard one of my sweet cheeky boys remark that we hadn't had to do any learning all day, and when I suggested otherwise he responded "that wasn't learning, that was FUN!" Interestingly, the success of this collaboration experience would not have been possible without my own collaboration with my mom who came in to help on soup day, and my co-teacher who jumped right in to support us. This project revealed SO much valuable information to me, which I now know how to collect as useful data about where each kid is with their collaboration skills, as well as which kids work well together, which kids took on leadership roles, and which kids still need a little more support in this area.

On the heels of this celebration, is this pressing feeling of not having enough of me to go around, which I spoke about in my last Theory in Practice post. This frustration has only been heightened by being pulled every other week to be the "bouncer" in band and chorus for the entire morning, taking me out of the classroom and putting me into a purely behavior management role during this prime instructional time. I know that this is just part of being a team player in a school setting like mine, but it hasn't helped that the band and chorus consist primarily of middle schoolers, whom I am not accustomed to working with. I wrote several times about my climbing blood pressure as I observed these students' poor attitudes. The music teacher says "Please stand up everyone," and the tweens heave deep long-suffering sighs and reluctantly slouch to their feet. The music teacher says "please put the candy away," and the munching student glares indignantly back, roles her eyes, and thrusts the candy away in a huge show of inconvenience. The incessant chit-chat between songs slows the whole class down, and they JUST. DON'T. LISTEN. (Not to brag, but my few kids here are the exception). Observing these behaviors makes steam shoot out of my ears like a cartoon character with poor anger management, and for a futile while I was jumping down their throats at every single instance of teenagery-ness, casting around meaningful glares and trying to shame them into compliance. You will not be surprised to learn this was not too effective. Collaboration again being the theme here, I discussed my frustrations with their teacher in a "how do you deal?" moment, and she helped me see the situation differently. The bottom line is teenagers are supposed to behave in these maddening ways. It's actually 100% developmentally appropriate to feel challenged by them at every turn and for them to feel angsty and drained by the demands of the adult world. Becky Bailey advises, “Let go of your expectation that children can give up what they want in order to follow your wishes and still be happy about it. Stop trying to control children’s feelings in hopes this will control their behavior. Children have a right to all of their feelings" (Bailey, 2000, 191). With this in mind, I'm not so scared to face bouncer duty next time around.

Attitudes are something I worry a lot about, with certain of my students in particular. One child has been so incredibly anxious that he has spent entire days spiraling out about whether his mom would remember to pick him up. This is the same child who is constantly pushing buttons and the limits of our class expectations, and I want to be sensitive to the stress he is under emotionally while also remaining consistent and clear with our boundaries at school. After all, “Your style of setting limits teaches children how to set and hold boundaries in their future relationships” (Bailey, 2000, p.99), and these skills will also serve him in learning to manage and regulate his anxious thoughts. He told me a few weeks ago on our way in from the playground that learning is boring and he hates it. It crushes me that he feels this way! This comment sounded a lot like another one of our friends who has the mindset that everything is adults versus kids and all adults want to do is make kids work work work all the time and never catch a break. I'm trying so hard to help him overcome this rigid mindset where he is a passive object with unwanted expectations being inflicted upon him by outside forces. He speaks to us and to peers in a very rude and short way, and like with the first child, I want to let him know there are limits, but I want to do it without making him feel punished and powerless to the will of the adult. I'd love to sit down with him and talk about his responsibilities with the understanding that “There may be another way of looking at discipline. It can be what we do with kids rather than what we do to them” (Fay and Funk, 1995, p.66). I think both of these kids feel stuck on the idea that their education is happening to them and not with them, and while I know that they don't really hate learning, the fact that this is how they associate with it troubles me deeply for their futures. I believe there is a connection between their feelings and the observations I made about their lack of involvement in group collaboration and signs that they see themselves as part of a community.

Perhaps I am leaving this blog post with more questions than answers, but I will say that despite the challenges that continue to give me pause, I still see evidence of progress all over. A stronger community is slowly but surely taking form, and while we all still have a long road ahead of us, I’m pleased to celebrate our strides, and to break bread with these incredible companions as we pause and take stock along the way. I can’t say it better than Frank Smith, who writes, “The classic kind of learning is…growth. It is growth of the mind analogous in every way to the growth of the body” (Smith, 1998, p.12). If that’s the case, then we have learned so much already!