it's a love story...

In educational circles, we talk a good talk about “higher level thinking skills.” But we’re not very good at assessing them. Maybe because we still think the goal of assessment is for kids to show us that they know what we taught them. What would it look like if what we really wanted from assessment was to find out what kids know in a more global way? What they understand, infer, and feel about things? What connections they make to other things they know? What they value?

What if it was my job, as a teacher, to get inside the little minds entrusted to me and figure out how they think about things?
___________________________________________________________

I teach grade one in a Catholic school, so of course the story of the Christian Nativity is a major focus in December. I read the kids dozens of different versions of it from a range of beautiful picture books, and from the Bible. Sometimes the story is told from different points of view (eg. that of one or more of the animals in the stable). Sometimes it is told in song. Sometimes it’s not a book, but a movie or a play. Sometimes it is taught and learned through puppets, nativity figures, and rituals.

At the end of it all, what do the kids understand about the Christmas story?

I asked them to draw a picture of the Jesus Christmas story (no Santa Clauses or reindeer), on the front of a Christmas card. I decided to assess their understanding simply by counting the number of characters, settings, and details in their pictures: five or more equalling full marks. It’s not the most comprehensive way of testing, but it is a quick measure of the complexity of their understanding. And it's open-ended.

More importantly than helping me quantify my student’s learning, it was a task that let me see this very old story through young and contemporary eyes. It allowed me to see how each child imagined the story, which is a measure of their reading/listening comprehension, but also of their insight.

From dictionary.com.

Here is some of what I saw. (Please read the captions.)

Two adults, one baby, one manger, one stable, one star
(and a moon!) = full marks.
Drawing ability doesn't need to be a factor in
demonstrating or assessing learning.

There was a long road, a big hotel, and a little stable.

Mary had a baby in a barn. She was not having fun!

Some people saw a big star.
They were amazed and scared.

They wore towels on their heads.
(Different place. Different time. Different fashions.)

The sun was out even though there were stars in the sky.
(Because there is always a sun in the top corner of a picture.)

People in the Bible have circles over their heads.

The Christmas story is a love story!

Note: This approach to assessment could be used with fables and fairy tales too ~ any story of which there are multiple renditions in multiple media. 

SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave

rattle and hum....

Scientists have confirmed what coffee drinkers have always known: coffee stimulates. And it's not just the caffeine and it's not just the sugar. It's the rattle and the hum.

In June of 2013, Anahad O'Connor wrote in The New York Times:

"In a series of experiments that looked at the effects of noise on creative thinking, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign had participants brainstorm ideas for new products while they were exposed to varying levels of background noise. Their results, published in The Journal of Consumer Research, found that a level of ambient noise typical of a bustling coffee shop or a television playing in a living room, about 70 decibels, enhanced performance compared with the relative quiet of 50 decibels."

However, while background noise is good for creative work, quiet is better for detail work, the same study concluded.

Now I am absolutely NOT going to give the six-year-olds I teach caffeine and sugar. But it's interesting to know that there is value in the rattle and the hum of a busy classroom; that creativity is at home in the inefficiency and unpredictability of a little bit of clatter-bang.

___________________________________________________

Recently I came across another study that looked at circadian rhythms and problem solving. It concluded that challenges which required insightfulness and creativity were best solved when subjects were not at their intellectual peak; when they were tired and distractible. Why? Because the kind of clear-headed focus that filters out non-essential information is diminished. The willingness to entertain what might at other times seem like irrelevant ideas is expanded. The mind is opened to a wider range of possibilities.

So, it would seem that both noise and fatigue are good for creativity.

___________________________________________________


In other words -- scientists have confirmed what teachers have always known. That focussed work is best done early in the day and in a quiet environment. That play/centres/provocations are great for later in the day. That art is a great thing to teach on Friday afternoons.