Benchmark Project Part 2
Part A -Creating a Center
Founding Father Benjamin Franklin once said, “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I
remember. Involve me and I learn.” This quote explains the best way that many people and
my case study chooses to learn at home and in the classroom. I chose to put my play station
in the block area because of observations I have made of James’s love of building both at
home and at school. In the many home visits that I have made to James house he has shown
interest in building with pipes and would put pipes together with his dad. James and his dad
would build the pipes about 5 feet high and lean them against the wall and poor water
through them, to see how the water could go through the pipes. This was in one of my first
home visits to James house back in October when I first noticed James’s love of building at
home. Also when I have visited James’s house James has shown us train tracks that he has
built either with his dad or all by himself that take up the entire floor of his room. These
observations show James interests in building and also reveal it as one of James’s funds of
knowledge.
At school I have observed James constantly in the block and train center. When
James is at the train center he often builds tracks and uses blocks to aid him in building the
tracks in more complex ways. Through observing my case study child in these activities
both at home and at school I have noticed that they contribute to his social, emotional,
physical, cognitive, and oral language development. For example when James works in
block center with his friends he collaborates in small groups to decide what to build and
how to do it. Often James is the leader in deciding what to build and these types of activities
advance social skills and oral language. James also uses his cognitive ability to solve
problems about how to make his towers stable, and how to persist if they fall down and to
rebuild them differently the next time. James is working on his physical abilities because he
is moving around blocks and gripping them in his hands. These activities focus on fine
motor control for James but he also does get up and move around to get other blocks and
stand up to build tall towers so he does have some gross motor development in these
activities as well. The only area of developmental that I did not see when James was playing
at blocks or trains was written language. Creating an opportunity for written expression in
a center that James enjoys was my goal for this assignment.
I chose to put my play center in the block area because of my case studies
documented participation of building at home and at school. I introduced the items for my
play center in circle time. I introduced the materials to the students by first showing them
the new books I was going to put in the block area. The books were Amazing Buildings, The
seven wonders of Architecture, Palaces, and Building on Nature. I asked the students who
were involved in making buildings. I showed the students the covers of the books so they
had visual when they were thinking about the question. The students eventually came up
with Architect and construction workers. I asked them who designed the buildings and after
a short discussion the students came up with architect. We talked about how the architect
designs a building by first drawing out a plan, before the building could be built. I then
showed the students clipboards with paper, where they could draw out plans for their
structures in block center. After circle time I placed the books, and clipboards in the block
area so students could begin using my play center.
To create my play center I placed it in our already created block center, so the main
material in the center was blocks. My goal was to add a new element to the block center that
had an option for written literacy. This center would require architecture books, pencils,
paper, and clip boards. The way that I set up the center was that I set up architecture books
on both of the block shelves and clipboards on the back block shelf so that the students had
writing space. This center was a good set up to raise a lot of questions about what the
students were building, how they liked to plan, what they built, and if planning helped them
think about what they were going to build.
Below is the layout of the center. The clipboards were set on top of a green block
shelf. There were also multiple architecture books for the students to look through and get
ideas. There were stands to hold the books open so the students could to keep books open
to a certain page. While the picture only shows one half of the block are the diagram shows
the entire layout. The photograph does show the overall setup of where the clipboards
were, the architecture books and students drawing out their plans.
Part B. Evaluating the Center
I took a video and other anecdotal notes in my notebook. The way that I took
anecdotal notes in my notebook was I wrote each child’s name that came to the center
down, and tried to capture the students’ process of working at the play center. On the first
day of the block center on April 15th four students went to the center James (my case study
child), Jane, Addie, and Matilda. Addie and Matilda immediately picked a picture from a
book that they liked, started selecting blocks they needed to build it and began building.
James and Jane picked a picture that they wanted to replicate in block form, and then
went to draw out their plan. The picture that they chose to replicate was a picture of the Taj
Mahal. James said to Jane, “See Jane you have to draw it.” Jane also drew her own version of
the plan and said, “Miss Anna, will you help us draw it, I mean build it?” I agreed but mostly
just asked questions and didn’t contribute much to the overall building process. James and
Jane then wanted to decide what to call the building they were going to build. They decided
to call it The Church because it looked like a church. Josie wrote The Church on her paper,
with help on how to spell the word church. James did not write the words but he added
more details to his drawings. Before they started building Jane said, “If you do anything bad
you can just erase it,” and James responded by saying, “but I didn’t do anything bad right
Miss Anna?” I nodded and then they were ready to start building. Also by this time Addie
and Matilda had finished their building and moved to another center.
James and Jane then began building. They were putting curved arched shaped pieces
on the top, because as Jane pointed out, “The top was curved.” They then balanced cylinder
pieces on top of the arched shaped pieces. James said, “We need it bigger, right Jane?” and
Jane responded by saying she would go get some more blocks.
Jane then built a fence around the entire structure. James also added more pieces.
Then someone accidentally knocked over the structure and they had to start over. James
and Jane started rebuilding their structure without any delay or visible signs of frustration.
They started rebuilding it the exact same way as last time with the arched shaped pieces on
top and cylinders on top of those, and they put a large piece in front of their building to be
the door. Then James added a window to the outside of the building by leaving a space in
where he w as stacking the blocks and he said, “Look I made a window.” James said he made
a window because he saw a window in the picture of the building in the book. After James
had made the window it was time to clean up and James and Jane cleaned up together.
Students interacted in the play center in many different ways, for example Wendell
was very eager to go play in the block area, with the new materials. Wendell looked at the
center differently he thought if you were the architect and drew your plan you could not
also be the construction workers and build your building. Wendell got Hanson and Javan to
build his building for him and be his construction team. Wendell drew out the design for his
building and then gave it to Hanson and Javan to build. Hanson and Javan quickly started
building and soon after, Wendell came over to me and said, “Miss Anna they are not building
my picture right!” I asked Wendell why they were not doing it right, and he said that they
were not following his plan, and I advised him to go talk to Hanson and Javan about this.
When he went to talk to them they felt like they were creating an accurate representation of
his plan, but Wendell felt like they were only creating one side of his imagined four-sided
building. Wendell tried to get them to create more sides, but Javan and Hanson said that this
is what they thought the building looked like. While Wendell did not get his way I advised
him to
talk more
about
what he
wanted his design to look like with Javan and Hanson and even demonstrate with the blocks
what he thought it should look like. Wendell refused and still thought that his picture
should be enough for his construction workers to create an accurate representation of his
design.
Part C. Reflection
Overall I think that the center was very successful for a number of reasons, but if I
did it again in the future there are a few things that I would do differently. The reasons that
my center were successful because many students wanted to participate in the center, it
created other classroom activities, and it achieved its goal of creating more opportunities
for written literacy in the classroom. I think I could have improved on being a stage
manager and in taking anecdotal notes.
The main role that I took on in my play center was a participant. I chose to take on
the participant role because students often invited me into their play, and so I chose to take
this as an opportunity to ask open ended questions about their process of planning and
creating. I had to be close to the block area to hear students conversations, and observe how
they interacted, even if I did not start the class close to the block area students would still
ask me to come play at the center with them. I think that this was a good role because the
students wanted me to participate and I could have an active role rather than just sitting by
the block center and videoing the students and writing things down, which tends to distract
my students from their play. When I was observing James and Jane play at my architecture
block center I was participating by helping them find pieces that they needed and asking
them questions. I asked them questions about how they were going to turn their design into
blocks, if their building had a name, and more. I participated differently in the second
example I originally was not participating I was observing and then I walked away to help
another student but Wendell came and got me and made me a mediator participant to help
the construction worker and architect negotiate differences in opinion.
In both of these and through out the week I participated in some way, but I also had
to do other jobs to make the center successful. One of the things that I had to do was be a
stage manager and make sure that the center was ready to go. This means I had to make
sure that the books, clipboards, paper, and pencils were out. This is something I think I
could do a better job of in the future. While everything was set out, when the first group
went to play at the center animals were also in the block area. While this did not distract
some students it did distract others from the new architecture theme of the block center.
For the next groups I put the animals away so the other students could focus on the new
materials that were in the block center and play with the animals in a different area of the
room if they still wanted to play with them.
Another thing that I would have improved was the way that I took notes. I was
focusing on the written literacy element of my center, so this could be seen through work
samples, and pictures. I wanted to focus on if the students were using the center for written
literacy. I observed that many of them were, but I have no record of which students used the
new written element of the block center, and who did not because I did not keep track of it.
The reason I wanted to keep track of this is because some students use the writing center,
but others do not so I was trying to create another option for written literacy in my
classroom. The way I took my notes was I wrote the names of the students that came to the
block center, and their process. For example if they looked at the books, drew their plan,
and then built or if they just looked at the books and started building. I think a more
effective way would be to have a class roster of all of the students, and then check off every
student that went to the center, and then put a star if they created a plan (or used the
written materials in some way) while at the block center. This check off list would have
given me a better idea of the effectiveness of the center, and who was using and interested
in it. I was able to collect a lot of other data through video and work samples so that is why I
think that a checklist would be an effective way to take notes for this center because it
would have helped me gather data that I could not gather just from work samples or video.
While making sure the center was fully prepared and changing how I took my notes
were some of the things I would have improved I think that the center had many strengths.
The main strength of the center was that the students were extremely interested in it. The
center was out for a little over a week and their was always two to four people back in the
center making plans and writing things about their plans and then turning it into blocks.
The students had such an interests in architecture and construction that after I saw this the
first day I added more lessons to the week about architecture, than I had originally planned
because the students were so interested. One of the lessons I added was meant to teach the
students about, structural stability in buildings and reinforce the different jobs there are
when building a building like architect, construction worker, and engineers.
For the activity the students got to build their own structures with Marshmallows
and toothpicks. This reinforced the jobs because they had
to think about and plan out their design (on paper or in
their head) before they started. Then building it was
being the construction worker, and then figuring out how
to keep their structure from falling was the engineer. The
students loved this activity and almost every student in
every group chose to participate in it. I think that this was
a great activity and it reinforced what the students were learning in the play center and we
only did it because the students were so interested in the play center.
Another thing that I think was successful in the center was that, it was a pretty
simple design it just had books, clipboards, paper, and pencils but it allowed students to
interact with the materials in a variety of ways. The students that went to the block center
were not required to draw a plan, but most students chose to because it was something new
that they could do and they liked the idea of being an “architect.” This is also an idea that
was reinforced from my field notes that students can have very different interactions with
the materials but still have a meaningful experience at the center. James and Jane worked
together to be the architect and draw out their plans and then they also created their
structure from their plans. Wendell, Javan, and Hanson took on more defined roles in the
center and Wendell was the architect and drew a plan and Javan and Hanson were his
construction workers and were in charge of making his plan in blocks.
Finally this center was designed with my case study, James in mind, and so I found
the center successful because James not only decided to go and interact in the center many
times but he decided to go and draw a plan and occasionally even write word or names of
people that ended up in his plans. This was the goal of the center for James to get him to
work more on written literacy and he was able to do this in a fun way through his play.
I got my center Idea from reading the book Literacy Through Play by Gretchen
Owocki. This book gives examples of play centers that can promote literacy, and talks about
how children can learn literacy through play if they have a literacy items available to them
in their play. This is what I tried to do in my center by having paper and pencils available for
students to draw plans for their designs and making it a choice and not a mandate.
I think that overall my literacy center was very successful because the students were
very interested in the center, in the idea of architects, it was open ended, and my case study
child participated in a meaningful way. The main thing that I would have changed about my
center was making sure that on the first day their was no other materials like the animals to
distract the students from my play center. Overall I learned a lot about creating an inquiry
based center, and would do it again in the future depending on the students that I had in my
class at the time.
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