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By Emily Langan My kindergarten students have often misused or abused our classroom tools. I’ve had years during which I’ve constantly struggled to find a way to fix this problem, with little success. Glue stick caps got lost in the middle of the lesson; colored pencils were used like regular pencils; glitter wound up in many places it wasn’t supposed to; broken crayons were commonplace. I needed to find a new way to help my students responsibly explore, use, and care for the learning tools in our classroom.
Guided Discovery to the rescue
I began to use Guided Discovery, a Responsive Classroom approach to materials, on the first day of school last year by guiding students to discover as many uses as they could for crayons. I continued to introduce other classroom tools, such as colored pencils and glue sticks, using this process.
I began by creating a planning sheet that I could refer to as I was actually using this special kind of modeling. Having the sheet helped me remember the order, think of questions to ask, and make important points as I guided students through the process.
I was impressed with the many different but appropriate ways my kindergartners used each tool when they explored the material. When we used crayons and pencils, for example, they came up with a variety of shading techniques, approaches to line creation, and application intensities.
When introducing a new material, the Guided Discovery process involves: - naming the material
- collecting ideas about its use
- exploration
- sharing what was learned or observed about the material
- cleanup
Quick acceptance
As they explored each tool, I observed my students closely, checking to make sure that each was using his/her tool appropriately. During the Guided Discovery of glue sticks, for example, I noticed that several of them were checking to make sure that their neighbors’ glue sticks had the correct amount of glue extended out of the cylindrical container. Better yet, when we used glue sticks later in the afternoon, many continued to check each other’s technique when it came time to expose the correct amount of glue. They also checked for the “clicking” sound made when placing the cap back on the glue stick after use. It was music to my ears, something any teacher would delight in hearing and seeing. This level of careful use would not have happened had I not used the Guided Discovery approach.
By October, we had done Guided Discoveries for many learning tools, and I wanted to see how well we were keeping up our proper use, care, storage, etc. The big question was, were the Guided Discoveries we experienced weeks ago still having an impact on students’ use? What I discovered was that we had used up 1/3 fewer glue sticks than we had at the same time last year, even though the amount of use we had gotten out of the sticks was identical! For me, this was wonderful to know, and was all the proof I needed to come to the conclusion that Guided Discovery process was well worth the time it took.
A little remodeling
However, I also noticed we were still leaving the caps off some of the glue sticks after using them, so we reviewed the “care” portion of the Guided Discovery by remodeling how to put the caps back on and discussing why we should try our best to take good care of the materials. After this review, things seemed better; one afternoon, I saw a child going around to each table to make sure all the caps were on the glue sticks.
I also noticed three children at another table sorting all the colored pencils and putting them in their correct places. This year marks the first time in my teaching career when I haven’t had to lecture on the difference between colored pencils and regular pencils. They really knew the difference because they discovered it themselves. Three months after our initial Guided Discovery they still were on the right path!
Using new language
An additional, unexpected benefit of using this process of introducing new materials is that students quickly begin to pick up the language of discovery, the language of “noticing.” For example, during a gallery walk of the art we created during a guided discovery of glitter, I observed that students were casually and comfortably saying things like, “I notice that you sprinkled your glitter right on top of the glue.” It was a thrill to hear them using this language as a natural part of their learning. Reflective language had become a part of who they were; they were using it as an everyday part of their language, without my prompting.
In work samples generated by my students, I noticed that more students were using more color, shading techniques, detailed use of lines, accents, and more interesting shapes when they used colored pencils than I had ever seen before in my years of teaching. After learning about the Guided Discovery process, my teaching colleagues and I rewrote lessons we had done the same way for years, adding Guided Discoveries.
Emily Langan teaches kindergartners at the Kindergarten Center in Chaska MN.
This article first appeared in Origins: A Newsletter for Educators, Fall 2008
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