Using provocations to promote children leading their own learning – Part 3

WHAT?

With my ideas around making the task more meaningful, I was wanting the children to have more purpose as I feel this maybe what they are looking for. So the opportunity came up that one of the teachers in the team was going to be married and she was making preparations for her wedding. Rather than going in cold, I decided that the chidren needed more ‘thinking’ time before entering the Makerspace. To make this work, before lunch I told my class that Whaea Kate was going to be married soon and she was getting excited about all things wedding.

During lunch eating before going into the Makerspace, the children were a captive audience,  created a list of all things to do with weddings. The children gave me a whole range from flowers to dress and even included ushers for the wedding chapel. Once the list was created, I informed the children that today’s task (provocation) was to make something for Whaea Kate and for her wedding. The children seemed very keen to get to the Makerspace as soon as possible.

This time there seemed to be a higher level of engagement and a couple of ‘lost’ students from last time could actually understand why we were in the Makerspace, it also helped that the Maths extension class was also running at this time so the other ‘lost’ souls were taken care of. There was more crafting this time and the children made drinking cups, vases for flowers, flowers out of pipe cleaners and straws as well as a miniature chapel complete with pews and an aisle.

This time for the pack up, our time had been cut short because every second week the team has assembly so there was more of a hurry to get the Makerspace packed. There was some improvement this time as the children hadn’t used all the areas like before and there only the crafting areas that really needed sorting and all the off cuts and remanants to be put in the bin, although the glitter was a bit of a problem.

SO WHAT?

Again I checked in with the children as they worked with each other, asked questions, promoted thinking and was pleasantly surprised at the engagement as a whole. My class list was filled in and as of yet not too many patterns regarding the children’s preference for equipment or areas so far.

There seemed to be more ‘buy-in’ this time with the directed task (provocation), The children enjoyed creating something for someone else and having a variety of ideas beforehand made the alloted time more productive. My data also says that those less engaged last time were more engaged and the less able struggled when given a ‘task’.

As part of this Teacher Action Inquiry that all the team is part-taking in, we have created a reflection sheet and there seems to a pattern in our thinking as well.

Positives	Minus/Interesting	Things to Discuss
·       Huge engagement from all students ·       Great sharing of equipment (hot glue gun; boxes; wooden blocks) ·       Year 3’s took on an obvious leadership role with the Year 4’s taking their cues from them ·       Students respecting equipment and only taking enough for themselves ·       Huge amount of collaboration - very few “loners” working by themselves ·       Student’s already coming up with ideas for future weeks. ·       Some students keen to post creations to Seesaw (and did so during the session) - need to encourage others.	·       The Year 3’s were more creative and into it straight away while the Year 4’s took longer to get started ·       Tidy up took a long time and students needed to be specifically told what to do! ·       Need WAY more boxes ·       Unpack provocation before heading to the space to maximise our time ·       Many wet creations that needed to be stored to continue with next week ·       Need a Chromecast!	Resources which are able to be taken home vs those to be used and put back? Standards of tidy for the Room Roster for sorting new resources?
Students need a little direction Student engagement is high Problem-solving is happening organically Fostering teamwork between students	-Tidy up is still something we are working on  -some students still not sure what they can and can’t use  -	-prompt cards?
·       Year 3’s flying and very obviously at home! ·       Lots of engagement, esp from those who typically struggle with traditional class tasks. ·       Great collaboration and teamwork during activities. ·       Great buzz from the kids/parents after we’d been for our visit.	·       Didn’t have long enough due to a mistake with the timetable. Def need to make sure we use our full time-slotted hour. ·       Lack of chromecast a pain!	·  Order/organisation/general tidiness standards? ·  Wood - for building and re-using, or creating stuff to take home (with sellotape etc)? ·  Boxes, same as ^. ·
Students are highly engaged It is interesting to see who chooses to work independently and the diversity of social interactions Feedback from parents is good…. They see it as a bridge from full play based learned into greater structure	On 2nd visit we took the i-pads but many didn’t want to take the time to stop what they were doing and take a pic for seesaw How do we manage the “consumables”  when a child glues together many boxes and wants to take them home? Not all are helping with the tidy up	-do we communicate with parents to accumulate recyclable materials at home and send them in periodically? -need a regular supply of paper for painting -how do we balance a provocation with a child’s urge when the provocation doesn’t interest them?
Students engaged but only some imaginative. Some worked alongside others, others in pairs and many of my students tended to stick with their friendship group doing what they did.	Tidying up is difficult Resources look like they will run out quickly	Do we need one day a week when we go and add all the new stuff put in.
Kids engaged and excited  Sharing Taking turns Taking ownership and problem solving Creating things Contributing ideas Making new friends  helping	Long queue for hot glue guns card  boards on the floor wasn’t a good look as kids were walking on it to find stuff Need more resources Blocks Lego	Tidying up expectations What  to take home and what to dismantle and leave
Good ‘buy-in on the most part Children enjoyed space and time went past quickly Have had parents saying that the children were super happy about the space and the first time they have talked about school and their learning without prompting Year 3s more ‘productive with their ‘play’ Low academic achievers having great success - more hands on	Year 4s lost More ‘academic’ children struggled to persevere and be productive. Needed more fine motor objects Cardboard went quickly Didn't take iPads for children to upload creations onto Seesaw Need to remember roll to record who gravitated to which areas. Children struggled to pack up and not to ‘continue’ with new discoveries	Wet areas for drying/ hang up space and pegs Need for scrap paper/ paper to use Blocks - plan to get lego, blocks
Kids excited to be in there Good being able to tell them to sort it out themselves as “I’m not helping in here”	Kids were “slap dash” in order to create something. No real planning for their items or effort to continue with it next week Some stuff still to be sorted / put away left on the floor and kids put away with the construction stuff No space to put my kids stuff (if they had wanted to take it home) “Line jumping” and arguments at the hot glue station	Area cards will help

NOW WHAT?

 As  part of the ‘buy-in’ for the children and family and whanau, I have been posting to Seesaw what they children have been doing not so much the learning, i.e. the collaboration, problem-solving and the communication. I need to give the children more owership of this, I will try to get the iPad monitors to bring the iPads so we can use them in the Makerspace.

The team are thinking of ideas to promote thinking in the way of provocations as well. Although one of the team is struggling with the purpose and the “WHY”. It seems that we all have problems with the end of session clear up as well, maybe we need to put out thinking caps on and work collaboratively and solve this problem. I did like the idea one teacher had to make it a competition – boys verses girls. I might just try that.

“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” - Henry Ford