For awhile now I have been lurking around Teach Like a Pirate. Recently, I stumbled upon #LearnLAP (Learn Like a Pirate) twitter chat. I participated despite any knowledge of the book or understanding of Teach/Learn Like a Pirate other than the hype created by many teachers in my PLN. I LOVED the conversation, Paul being an actual classroom teacher, and the fact that I had things to share even though I did not read the book. The chat inspired me to purchase the book so I could further my understanding of a student-led classroom. This summer that has been my focus for the upcoming year, create a classroom environment that is more student led. This involved two components: my classroom set-up and management of this. I teach first grade, this is going to be a challenge. I hate when people say they are only first graders, they can't do that! I have an optimistic (maybe crazy) view that first graders can do anything! While I know that there will be A LOT of scaffolding, reteaching, and differentiation I am determined to create a student-led classroom this year. I have read tons of blog posts, read Learn Like a Pirate, discussed different view points on Twitter, and discussed my utopia ideas with my principal. I feel passionate about this adventure, with a little bit of hesitation....
Yesterday I had the opportunity to apply my learning and I am so glad I did because it raised a whole lot of questions! I was babysitting three 12 year olds. One of the 12 year olds, Hailey, has been taking a cooking class for the past three days and wanted to make S'more Brownies with her friends. This is awesome! She wanted to recreate what she learned in "school" and teach her friends. She had the recipe and prior experience in making the brownies, a perfect recipe for me to sit back and watch. So that is what I did, watched, guided, and cautioned as they may have made some questionable choices.
Here are some of my observations:
* Hannah did not have the leadership skills to guide the group but used guess and check strategies to see if each step looked like it did when she first made the brownies. When it didn't look the same she said "oh well" and moved on with the process.
* The leader, Anabelle, made decisions, read the directions, asked questions aloud, but was constantly looking at me for affirmation/direction. At times I just smiled, and I think this made her feel uncomfortable but worked through it. Sometimes I offered advice but the constant look for affirmation led me to believe that they have not experienced a student-led classroom, very passive learners.
*Their math skills were impeccable, they constantly had to add fractions and use substitute measuring tools. (Kudos to their math teachers!)
* Hailey's original cooking teacher provided a lot of directions, steps, scaffolding, which hindered Hailey's ability to lead this process as she did not own it from the beginning. She also stated that the chocolate was pre-meltd by the teacher and ingredients pre-measured. Not so sure what the students actually did in the class....
* The third girl, Payton, took a back seat and watched for a majority of the time. I offered her a job and she accepted graciously, but was not asked by the other girls to participate.
* Time was not a factor for them, they enjoyed the process but did not keep moving through the steps, waited for someone to tell them the next steps, or to move on. This was the hardest part for me. Watching though knowing the oven is preheated, the chocolate needed to be taken off the oven before it burnt. TOUGH!
* They wanted to lick the egg and sugar mixture. I'm glad I was there to advise them not to, RAW EGGS, seriously ladies...
* An argument broke out over who would get to lick the batter beaters (there were only 2 and 3 of them). The excitement inside me roared as they had to figure out a solution! In the end, Hailey chose "Be Kind". Then it turned out that they shared it. Two spokes/two spokes. (Once again Anabelle was looking to me for help.)
Overall success ratings: 4 out of 5. While the brownies turned out edible...we realized we only used 5oz of chocolate which led to a discrepancy in the butter to chocolate ratio. (The recipe called for 10 oz of chocolate-5 oz of two different types.) An accidental spill of vanilla extract into the bowl did not change the consistency or taste all that much, but the knowledge of it made it hilarious. They worked together, did not need my constant reminders to continue working, and good reflection discussion on how it went overall after tasting their masterpiece.
Questions:
How do I build leadership capacity in first graders that are mostly like Hailey or Payton?
So much of this success relied on background knowledge and experiences, one comment was "I saw my mom do this." Do first graders have enough background knowledge/experience to successfully complete a task and can I break it down enough to provide them the background knowledge without losing the student led piece?
Thankfully, my eyes were continually watching just these three girls and was able to avoid them eating raw eggs or burning themselves on the stove. How can I avoid potentially dangerous/off task behaviors with 22 first graders? (We won't be near hot surfaces or eating raw eggs but more so the off task heading in the wrong direction behaviors.)
What simulations will best suit first graders?
Yesterday I had the opportunity to apply my learning and I am so glad I did because it raised a whole lot of questions! I was babysitting three 12 year olds. One of the 12 year olds, Hailey, has been taking a cooking class for the past three days and wanted to make S'more Brownies with her friends. This is awesome! She wanted to recreate what she learned in "school" and teach her friends. She had the recipe and prior experience in making the brownies, a perfect recipe for me to sit back and watch. So that is what I did, watched, guided, and cautioned as they may have made some questionable choices.
Here are some of my observations:
* Hannah did not have the leadership skills to guide the group but used guess and check strategies to see if each step looked like it did when she first made the brownies. When it didn't look the same she said "oh well" and moved on with the process.
* The leader, Anabelle, made decisions, read the directions, asked questions aloud, but was constantly looking at me for affirmation/direction. At times I just smiled, and I think this made her feel uncomfortable but worked through it. Sometimes I offered advice but the constant look for affirmation led me to believe that they have not experienced a student-led classroom, very passive learners.
*Their math skills were impeccable, they constantly had to add fractions and use substitute measuring tools. (Kudos to their math teachers!)
* Hailey's original cooking teacher provided a lot of directions, steps, scaffolding, which hindered Hailey's ability to lead this process as she did not own it from the beginning. She also stated that the chocolate was pre-meltd by the teacher and ingredients pre-measured. Not so sure what the students actually did in the class....
* The third girl, Payton, took a back seat and watched for a majority of the time. I offered her a job and she accepted graciously, but was not asked by the other girls to participate.
* Time was not a factor for them, they enjoyed the process but did not keep moving through the steps, waited for someone to tell them the next steps, or to move on. This was the hardest part for me. Watching though knowing the oven is preheated, the chocolate needed to be taken off the oven before it burnt. TOUGH!
* They wanted to lick the egg and sugar mixture. I'm glad I was there to advise them not to, RAW EGGS, seriously ladies...
* An argument broke out over who would get to lick the batter beaters (there were only 2 and 3 of them). The excitement inside me roared as they had to figure out a solution! In the end, Hailey chose "Be Kind". Then it turned out that they shared it. Two spokes/two spokes. (Once again Anabelle was looking to me for help.)
Overall success ratings: 4 out of 5. While the brownies turned out edible...we realized we only used 5oz of chocolate which led to a discrepancy in the butter to chocolate ratio. (The recipe called for 10 oz of chocolate-5 oz of two different types.) An accidental spill of vanilla extract into the bowl did not change the consistency or taste all that much, but the knowledge of it made it hilarious. They worked together, did not need my constant reminders to continue working, and good reflection discussion on how it went overall after tasting their masterpiece.
Questions:
How do I build leadership capacity in first graders that are mostly like Hailey or Payton?
So much of this success relied on background knowledge and experiences, one comment was "I saw my mom do this." Do first graders have enough background knowledge/experience to successfully complete a task and can I break it down enough to provide them the background knowledge without losing the student led piece?
Thankfully, my eyes were continually watching just these three girls and was able to avoid them eating raw eggs or burning themselves on the stove. How can I avoid potentially dangerous/off task behaviors with 22 first graders? (We won't be near hot surfaces or eating raw eggs but more so the off task heading in the wrong direction behaviors.)
What simulations will best suit first graders?