Using provocations to promote children leading their own learning – Part 4

WHAT?

The next two sessions in the Makerspace were dictated by the team created provocation to make a tower. The children were given the chance to discuss what made a tower and we used the internet to search some images of towers. Again we made a list, using adjectives to describe a tower, to motivate them before we went into the Makerspace.

For the first session, the children gravitated towards the craft items again, making towers on boats, using yoghurt containers and some cardboard and paint. There seemed to be a huge interest in the paint for this challenge. In the second session I challenged the children to make a balancing tower, no glue or fixings to build a tower to touch the roof of the classroom. The children relied on a construction approach and there was a high usage of cardboard boxes and stacking of wood to attain height.

Both sessions had good levels of engagement, the first session more quiet and a higher concentration level. The room had a good buzz, children using hot glue guns, tape and string to attach items to one another. The second session, a higher level of noise as towers tumbled to the ground and more collaboration to solve the problem.

For both sessions the children used iPads to record their project and uploaded the image up to Seesaw for families and whanau to see what we were up to in the Makerspace. I received feedback from one of the Year 4s parent –“ Just wanted to say how much ---- is enjoying the Makerspace and streams so far, she doesn't normally say much about school without me dragging it out of her but she has spontaneously told me lots about both of these this last week or so!”

SO WHAT?

My plan was to collect data on who was working with whom so I could maybe disrupt their plans next time. There were pockets of children who seemed to always to work with the same people each time. At first I was struggling to ‘see’ the provocation in making a tower, and again the Year 3s vivid imagination came to life. For the second session, some of the children saw this as a challenge which gave them more motivation to achieve their goal.

My wonderings around the purpose of the Makerspace is becoming more clearer and I understand it is more about the teaching of key competencies and life-long learning skills to create more flexible and resilient learners. As I write the children PEPs I can see how this will work for my students.

NOW WHAT?

I am still struggling with the provocations and how to keep it meaningful and purposeful for the learning and how to incorporate our universal theme of systems into the Makerspace time. The children are engaged, they could share what they made with whanua and families successfully, not so much their leaning. Is this because I am stil unclear? Maybe I need to find some research in order to get my head around this.

I need to ask those teachers in our school who are fully immersed in play-based learning to find out what they know, find some reading and reflect on where to next.

“Stand aside for a while and leave room for learning, observe carefully what children do, and then, if you have understood well, perhaps teaching will be different from before.” – Loris Malaguzzi