4 Teachers + 80 minutes = Powerful Learning

Even though I am not in school right now, I want to think back to an in-school moment from Tuesday, March 10, 2020. I promised Francine Schwartz on Twitter that I'd share the details of this lesson. A promise is a promise, so here's my reflection.

Thought of you today @denlowllc because @BKimTeacher & I co-taught a critical-thinking-question-based lesson with our student teachers and (if I do say so myself), it went so well! @TDSBLibrary (more details later)

— Diana Maliszewski (@MzMollyTL) March 11, 2020

As regular blog readers know, I had a student-teacher with me for February and March. I was not the only teacher in my school with hosting duties. Brenda Kim, our Grade 4-5 teacher, was one of four other staff members who accepted the additional role of associate teacher. Brenda's student-teacher was SM; one interesting fact about SM is that she attended Agnes Macphail P.S. when she was a youngster.

Due to our work-to-rule stipulations, we were no longer permitted to meet for board-led professional learning, such as PLCs. Our PLC time was during the instructional day, so the solution was to have teachers who usually covered classes go in to support regular instruction, so no one received any extra prep time during this period. Brenda approached me about the possibility of using our converted-PLC time together to practice our work with using critical thinking questions. Brenda and I had attended a workshop together in November 2019 and we were keen to practice these simple-but-challenging tweaks to our programming. After all, we had a special opportunity: how often does a class have four teachers available simultaneously? We could involve both of our teacher-candidates and SC (my teacher-candidate) could get a glimpse at how teacher-librarians collaborate with other teachers for planning, teaching, and assessing. We also wanted to use all four educators in useful ways - it was critical that everyone felt that they could play a significant part in the learning. We decided that each teacher would be responsible for a single group and would use documentation in the form of extensive anecdotal notes and photographs to capture the learning during the entire process.

The four of us chatted about what the potential focus could be and Brenda recommended we use this to help wrap up the class novel study of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. We decided to be big risk-takers and incorporate some of my recent learning about loose parts into the final task. The two big critical thinking questions we designed and used were:

(Morning) How effective is the book at honouring Sadako’s memory/story?

(Afternoon) How might we design, using loose parts, an authentic memorial to peace?

Brenda and SM worked very hard prior to our four-teacher extravaganza to ensure the students had lots of background information and understanding. Ms. Kim found a great non-fiction article that offered the point of view of Sadako's brother. The brother expressed concerns about how accurate his sister's story was portrayed and how Sadako's image was morphed into a easily-consumed narrative. Brenda even rewrote the article so that it would be more accessible to some of her students. Brenda and SM used the strategy we had been taught about locating 15 significant words or phrases in the article that helped communicate the main idea. The two of them really initiated the thinking about the Children's Peace Memorial in Japan.

The plan for our double-period block of time was
1) to unpack the word "authentic" [about 5 minutes]
2) to review the group challenge (and highlight the "look-fors") [about 10 minutes]
3) to provide plenty of time for the students to build a memorial with loose parts [about 45 minutes]
4) to admire and examine the memorials each group created [about 10 minutes]

I have to confess, I spent about 3 hours planning for my tiny 5 minute segment! I think it's because I missed teaching so much. I wrestled with how to make the term "authentic" easily understood. It just so happened that I had already planned to bake some chocolate chip cookies for my family that week. I decided to create an activity that formed the groups that the students would be working in for that large chunk of time and generated interest in both the word and the idea. Students received puzzle pieces that they had to try and complete. These puzzle pieces, colour coded into four groups, all spelled the same word: AUTHENTIC. Ms. Kim scribed while the students offered their understanding of the word. I snuck in a Canadian Black History reference - the "real McCoy" while we established that authentic meant things like "genuine" "real" and "true to what it's all about".

How did the cookies play a role? Well, each group had a plate with 5 different cookies and the small groups had to discuss which cookie was the most authentic chocolate chip cookie. That led to some great, in-depth discussion about what "the essence" of "true chocolate chip cookie-hood" was all about.

We didn't have time to discuss what each group thought, but praise goes to SC, my student-teacher because she made time the next day during our community circle time to pick up on this conversation, and it was fascinating! For instance, this is a partial transcript of what my group members said during their enthusiastic chat:

I = #4 [is the most authentic] ... made earlier, like the olden days, so it's more common
A = I think #4 [is the most authentic] because making a perfect circle is hard, it's challenging
Ra = Yes, #4 because #5 looks like a cookie that you would buy at a store, #4 looks like it was made at home
S = #4 because of the colour. Because #4 was baked more, and more tastier. When you open a store bought cookie ... #5 is not baked as long
Ru = #4 because #5 is what you buy in a store. In the olden days, they improve their work. ... #4 looks more original and better improved
M = #4 [is most authentic] because the shape and size are different. #5 is a circle but #4 is like an oval or a heart and looks crunchier and darker

(By the way, both #4 and #5 were home-baked cookies, both with pre-mixed cookie dough from the same company. #1 was dismissed right away because it was a plastic, pretend cookie and inedible. #2 was a red velvet cookie with white chocolate chips and most students rejected its authenticity because of the colour. #3 "was an Oreo" and the brand disqualified it according to most students.)

#4 came from the top, #5 from the bottom

I was completely blown away by how the students took to the task. I have four pages of scribbled notes as well as many, many photos and videos of their process. Now that I've had the experience of hearing Michael Mohamed talk about pedagogical documentation (and reading more AND talking to my dear, wise friend Denise Colby), I may take my original idea of writing a thank you letter to each of my group members (because I was so impressed with their perseverance and creativity) and extend it into a ped-doc exchange with the students.

This was the loose parts set-up for each group

This is a glimpse of what SC's group was doing.

This was SM's group in action, with her recording.

What I loved about staying with my small group for the entire time (like I shared in the debrief that Brenda, SC, SM and I had afterwards) was that I was able to see how their ideas shifted and changed based on discoveries and input from others. My group claimed that they fought; they really didn't - they just took a while to figure out a common vision. If I had just bounced in and out of their build time, I would have missed the incredible interaction where I, M & A discussed the history of the peace sign and if there were any other icons or images that preceded it. I would not have been witness to when Ru & Ra discovered that the paper changed colour when it was scratched. I might have mistakenly believed that M was causing trouble when he was sorting out his background knowledge and tinkering with concepts individually. I would have neglected to notice how the struggled and solved their no-scissors and no-pencil dilemmas. They were amazing.

Ru & Ra discover the scratch technique

Experimenting with jewels

Regrouping together

M said "I'm not making an entrance, I'm making a statue"

These were the final products, but the process was the really impressive part. The group I had the honour of shadowing eventually created a wreath with a peace sign centre. What we hope to do is to have the students annotate the images so they can explain the significance and symbolism in their art work and explain how "authentic" (to the idea of peace) their memorials were.

Big, big thanks go to:

• Brenda Kim for initiating this partnership
• SC and SM for their willingness to try new things
• All 3 teachers for their exceptional note-taking skills and observations
• The Grade 4-5 students of Room 111 for their collaboration, creativity and thoughtfulness
• Francine, Stephanie, Byron, and Andrea for getting us started on amplifying our question-making skills

And in the end, we got to eat the extra cookies. The students were so engaged that it took several calls before they'd stop admiring everyone else's work and line up for their treats and to go home. This was one of those "this is why I teach" moments.