Some days are conducive to learning, today being one of them.
As the school admin and PYP Coordinator, I seldom get the time to teach students directly. This year I have decided to get back into the classrooms more often. I went to the year 6 classroom this morning to run a mini inquiry on leadership. The Student Representative Council elections are due soon and often the popular kids get the votes, regardless of how the popularity is earned, while some others don't even try because they don't see themselves as leaders. My intention was for children to see that each one had the capacity and the capability for leadership regardless whether they chose to apply for and win the School Captain's positions or not.
I tried for the first time the Split Screen strategy that I first heard about in the recent Kath Murdoch workshop I attended.
I introduced the split screen concept to the students with 'what we are inquiring into' (content) and 'how are we learning' (process). I had the two areas (content and process) written on a big chart divided into two. It was amazing to see how quickly the students got the concept of the split screen. As I started talking about the 'how we learn' some of the quick thinkers predicted what it would/could be. The more they shared, the more the understanding expanded through the group. I loved it!
The provocation provided to the students was the open-ended questions - Why do we need leaders? What qualities should a leader have? What are the responsibilities of a leader? Students were asked to divide themselves into three groups. No parameters were given and students were told that none would be given. The first division they did made a huge group of 12, a group of 10 and a third group of 4 students. As they got ready for their instructions, I asked them if they thought that the groups were balanced and fair. It was good to see most of them being so flexible that the groups came undone completely for a while before they all got adjusted into balanced groups. A good deal of negotiation, decision-making took place which was again a valuable tool for reflection later on. That was a moment for me to refer back to the process- learning behaviours in the split screen.
The concepts/questions (reasons/qualities/responsibilities of leaders) were written on three chart papers and the students did a mixed Placemat/ Bus Stop activity. The groups took one area each. They first thought about the concept and wrote their individual views, then they read their peers' ideas and finally discussed it. They rotated to the next area of inquiry and then the third one, where they repeated this. My role at this time was to provide the scaffolding. I read one of the ideas in a group quietly and asked the very quiet student standing next to me, if she understood what her peer had written. She said "Not really. " So I asked her if she should ask that peer to explain. I also talked to a group about asking questions to clarify understanding. My role included behaviour management and to get students to reflect on their learning behaviour with a one on one quick counselling if needed.
At the end of this, the three groups needed to choose two members who would present their final ideas to the rest. Again, no parameters were given and the groups negotiated in different ways about who would present it. One group decided on two students because they were the two who volunteered first; another group decided to play scissors, paper, stone and the third group had a discussion and debate on who would present. This was yet another point of reflection for the split screen.
I did have another layer of scaffolding for this session. Before the Year 6 students embarked on their leadership inquiry this morning, I had asked the Year 4 and 5 classes to share their ideas of what they would like to see in their Year 6 leaders. I shared this information with the Year 6 students after their presentations. The Year 6 students looked a little surprised when I shared this because though most of them were comfortable with the idea of them taking leadership roles, they did not have the idea that their junior peers' could have a perspective as well as a voice on their roles. It was interesting to see their looks!
We reflected as a class using the Split screen again. We looked at the content learned through the inquiry and we looked at the process used. I was impressed by the children's ability to readily discern between the two and use the Split screen really effectively.
The sheets are now displayed in the room. The inquiry is not yet over. Tomorrow, class teachers will run a mini-lesson on Persuasive writing skills and children will then write about why they will be good School Captains and/Vice Captains. This Literacy activity will then be used to develop their communication skills and further presented on stage in front of the Primary school students for elections and voting.
I am really pleased with the outcome today. For me the learning was in terms of applying the Split Screen in the Year 6 context. In retrospect, I left gaps and I should have stopped more often as a class to reflect on the process. My mistake was also the assumption that the children would take time to comprehend the Split Screen. Their readiness threw me off, which was also a matter of pride since they could not have developed this had it not been for their teachers who over years of primary/pre-school helped students develop their skills, attitudes and thus their overall profile as learners.
So with an inflated sense of pride in my school and an improved sense of how to use the Split Screen, I returned back to some mundane paperwork, when a teacher came to show me her well-earned certificate with her very first free-online workshop on Maths after I had sent her the information about the workshop and encouraged her to go for it. Ego got a tad more inflated!
And then I walked out of school to meet an old man who spoke to me for a full five minutes in rapid Malay. I often see this man around and smile and he smiles at me. I had never had a conversation with him before this evening, simply because he didn't speak much English and I spoke no Malay. Today he seemed sad and agitated and kept a rapid-fire conversation up. My first instinct was to smile and go away because I couldn't understand him and felt helpless as well as worried. What if he was asking me for help? What if he was in legal trouble? What if he was angry? What if he felt sad that I couldn't understand or wouldn't help him? After a fleeting thought with these million questions, I decided to stand there and give him a listening ear. So what if I can't understand much. He probably needs to talk. So I did. After a long five minutes, where he sniffled, he talked, I listened and tried to look sympathetic, he seemed calmer. Either he figured out that I couldn't understand him or he managed to off-load his initial sentiments in regards to something sad that had happened. I suspect it was the latter. As I walked away after a final wave to him, I felt satisfied to an extent. The situation, whatever it was, wasn't sorted but at least I could help listen. That is my new lesson for the day. I will not run away because of my own assumptions (unless instincts warn otherwise!).
Finally I got to read about Vandana Shiva of Navdanya. I have always supported Navdanya. With Micky and my passion for the environment, it attracted us with its noble cause of fighting against seed patents. However, I had no idea of this lady being such an eco-warrior! Vandana Shiva in Newyorker
Loads to learn and loads to give. I guess, time needs to be organised more efficiently....
... and that probably is the most provocative thought for the day!
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