https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracy-jones-47a2a295/ If we know anything about 5-year old students, there are a few choice topics that they really love talking about. For the kindergartners I taught a year ago, discussions about candy, popcorn, snow, and ninjas topped the list. Tapping into their interests and experiences is a must for teachers if we want to meet the goal of engaging our students in learning.
At this stage of my 30-year plus teaching career, I can honestly say that I have experienced the rise and fall of new teaching approaches, differing emphases of the base curriculum, and what is considered most important for students to learn. Such swings may be considered a sign of confusion or lack of focus in education, but stagnation might be an equal foe. What choices are there for professionals in the business of educating our nation's youth? Some teachers roll with the changes, while others determine how to modify what they do simply to keep the work of teaching fresh for themselves and their students.
My approach is to stay grounded in kids. What makes them think and laugh? What challenges and motivates them? What engages them and keeps them looking ahead to the next lesson? There are some general answers to these questions; yet we know that children are individuals with their own unique characteristics, habits, interests, and dreams. So, the greater question becomes how to involve each student in what is virtually their own learning, regardless of the educational trends. As a literacy specialist of elementary learners striving to learn to read and write proficiently, I know the short- and long-term 'costs' of disengagement.
When I first learned about the Maker Movement, my brain begins to fire like crazy! Of course, I was processing what I was hearing through the lens of helping my students remain actively engaged while gaining literacy skills. I characterize incorporating making and literacy as a match made in heaven and have provided professional development sessions with such passion supporting my efforts. I was convinced that somehow connecting the hands-on making of objects, typically done only in art in recent years, with the reading of books would be a win-win scenario for my young, sometimes struggling learners. And that instinct was right!
During my first year of having students use recycled and other found materials to create something related to a book they had read, I felt very nervous about not having children read and write for every minute they were with me, their literacy specialist. I mean no one told me I could do this, and I had not heard of such practices. Taking the full school calendar into account, making occurred very infrequently. But it was noteworthy observing the enthusiasm as the second graders made spiders after reading a leveled informational leveled text about the topic. And when the kindergartners who were learning about the z-sound as they made a text-inspired shoe box zoo outfitted with a zip line, kept asking if they were going to work on their projects the next day, I knew a spark had been lit. In my mind, the books had 'come alive' because their hands were creating something directly related to the texts they had read. This is only part of the story, however. My observations of students during the processes of and resulting from making have revealed an underlying, absolute power in making.
First, the individual student's designs and overall creativity have been great to watch; students come up with the most interesting ideas for completing their projects. As the facilitator, I don't believe in cookie-cutter products, which allows for greater innovation. Amazingly, I have seen the children I worry about the most flourish while making; it's as if they go into another zone of operation - one in which they are the masters of the outcomes. They are rethinking their initial plans, retrying with different materials, and some of the students seem to innately figure out a plan in their head, and execute it very naturally. Yes, a few students seem to find it difficult to work out their ideas and the problems inherent in using only the materials currently available to create something that they have never made before. While making, the majority of my students, however, are speaking more, using specific vocabulary, making text and world connections about what they and their peers are doing and saying, assisting one another, and feeling successful.
Because, I am a literacy specialist and still feel the crunch of time and curriculum just like every other teacher, I have not really been able to take advantage of many other potential benefits of making with my students. Skills and habits such as risk-taking, analyzing, resourcefulness, tenacity, taking initiative or self-efficacy can be fostered during the making process. Development in these types of executive functional components holds great potential for today's students. Any part of an academic curriculum can be enhanced through making, and a teacher can also use making to encourage vital life-functioning skills that are inherent in such an activity.
Providing opportunities for making has brought a new dimension to literacy learning for my students and I. Reading comprehension is practiced with this approach because students must attend to the details and messages in texts to respond to the making challenge. Using making activities to improve writing skills is something I am looking forward to trying soon. As elementary teachers, we must remember that engagement markedly increases the learning results we want for our students.
Resources:
Calderon, V, Yu, Daniela. Eight Things You Need to Know about Students Gallup Education. Gallup.com. https://www.gallup.com/education/231752/things-need-know-students.aspx.
Morin, Brit. (2013). What is the Maker Movement and Why Should You Care? Huffington Post. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-is-the-maker-movemen_b_3201977?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFMOik1yPQzJzuot85OuwUtLU8BqiaOOrf6svqsiSjKXRNtw_7FDS7IsR6bB6oaZ29SXEiFmucr9WKNw1DjMgzqhZzmOWylnsNSNqCuEkrKy1qSjrEkudbj0W0Fx4BRvck23-ooRIsKBD_1bfF2N-fGmozEHpmZF77UlMK3BD90A.
Redey, Vipul. (2014, February 14). Every Childhood Deserves a Maker Space. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n7aBQDubLU.
At this stage of my 30-year plus teaching career, I can honestly say that I have experienced the rise and fall of new teaching approaches, differing emphases of the base curriculum, and what is considered most important for students to learn. Such swings may be considered a sign of confusion or lack of focus in education, but stagnation might be an equal foe. What choices are there for professionals in the business of educating our nation's youth? Some teachers roll with the changes, while others determine how to modify what they do simply to keep the work of teaching fresh for themselves and their students.
My approach is to stay grounded in kids. What makes them think and laugh? What challenges and motivates them? What engages them and keeps them looking ahead to the next lesson? There are some general answers to these questions; yet we know that children are individuals with their own unique characteristics, habits, interests, and dreams. So, the greater question becomes how to involve each student in what is virtually their own learning, regardless of the educational trends. As a literacy specialist of elementary learners striving to learn to read and write proficiently, I know the short- and long-term 'costs' of disengagement.
When I first learned about the Maker Movement, my brain begins to fire like crazy! Of course, I was processing what I was hearing through the lens of helping my students remain actively engaged while gaining literacy skills. I characterize incorporating making and literacy as a match made in heaven and have provided professional development sessions with such passion supporting my efforts. I was convinced that somehow connecting the hands-on making of objects, typically done only in art in recent years, with the reading of books would be a win-win scenario for my young, sometimes struggling learners. And that instinct was right!
During my first year of having students use recycled and other found materials to create something related to a book they had read, I felt very nervous about not having children read and write for every minute they were with me, their literacy specialist. I mean no one told me I could do this, and I had not heard of such practices. Taking the full school calendar into account, making occurred very infrequently. But it was noteworthy observing the enthusiasm as the second graders made spiders after reading a leveled informational leveled text about the topic. And when the kindergartners who were learning about the z-sound as they made a text-inspired shoe box zoo outfitted with a zip line, kept asking if they were going to work on their projects the next day, I knew a spark had been lit. In my mind, the books had 'come alive' because their hands were creating something directly related to the texts they had read. This is only part of the story, however. My observations of students during the processes of and resulting from making have revealed an underlying, absolute power in making.
First, the individual student's designs and overall creativity have been great to watch; students come up with the most interesting ideas for completing their projects. As the facilitator, I don't believe in cookie-cutter products, which allows for greater innovation. Amazingly, I have seen the children I worry about the most flourish while making; it's as if they go into another zone of operation - one in which they are the masters of the outcomes. They are rethinking their initial plans, retrying with different materials, and some of the students seem to innately figure out a plan in their head, and execute it very naturally. Yes, a few students seem to find it difficult to work out their ideas and the problems inherent in using only the materials currently available to create something that they have never made before. While making, the majority of my students, however, are speaking more, using specific vocabulary, making text and world connections about what they and their peers are doing and saying, assisting one another, and feeling successful.
Because, I am a literacy specialist and still feel the crunch of time and curriculum just like every other teacher, I have not really been able to take advantage of many other potential benefits of making with my students. Skills and habits such as risk-taking, analyzing, resourcefulness, tenacity, taking initiative or self-efficacy can be fostered during the making process. Development in these types of executive functional components holds great potential for today's students. Any part of an academic curriculum can be enhanced through making, and a teacher can also use making to encourage vital life-functioning skills that are inherent in such an activity.
Providing opportunities for making has brought a new dimension to literacy learning for my students and I. Reading comprehension is practiced with this approach because students must attend to the details and messages in texts to respond to the making challenge. Using making activities to improve writing skills is something I am looking forward to trying soon. As elementary teachers, we must remember that engagement markedly increases the learning results we want for our students.
Resources:
Calderon, V, Yu, Daniela. Eight Things You Need to Know about Students Gallup Education. Gallup.com. https://www.gallup.com/education/231752/things-need-know-students.aspx.
Morin, Brit. (2013). What is the Maker Movement and Why Should You Care? Huffington Post. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-is-the-maker-movemen_b_3201977?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFMOik1yPQzJzuot85OuwUtLU8BqiaOOrf6svqsiSjKXRNtw_7FDS7IsR6bB6oaZ29SXEiFmucr9WKNw1DjMgzqhZzmOWylnsNSNqCuEkrKy1qSjrEkudbj0W0Fx4BRvck23-ooRIsKBD_1bfF2N-fGmozEHpmZF77UlMK3BD90A.
Redey, Vipul. (2014, February 14). Every Childhood Deserves a Maker Space. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n7aBQDubLU.