I (Susan) attended a lecture entitled “At The Cinema: Drawing as a Research Tool”. This subject was very interesting to me since the 2009-2010 intention at Beverley Hills Church Preschool was “Why do we draw?”
The presenter explained that a group of teachers wanted to focus on the language of drawing. He said, “Children just draw, they just do. We don’t have to ask them. What can we discover and confirm about children and their drawing?” The presenter then described how these questions influenced the experiences of the children.
In the 4-5 year old class at one school, they have a block of time for drop-off in the morning. So, some children come earlier than others. While they wait for the whole class to be present, they have time to explore the classroom.
One day, a group of 4 children gathered at the drawing table. This was a spontaneous group, not a planned group. The teacher happened to be near enough to the table to document the children’s discussions but was not directly involved at their table. She overheard Alex say, “I went to the cinema the other day.”
At the end of the day, the teachers discussed the work done in the classroom. One teacher had drawings that the children had done. The other teacher had the conversation and the teachers connected the pieces together.
The presenter showed us photos of the drawings. There were up-side-down figures with their feet touching a flat rectangle. Alex was not satisfied with his work and said, “I wanted to do children at the cinema but…it looks like they’re attached to the roof.” This study goes on and many different techniques are used among the 4 children to show the idea of going to the cinema but nobody seems happy with their results.
The teachers decide to consult previous drawings to see if the subject of drawing the cinema had come up before. It had. The teachers see that this is a great opportunity for a class project. The teachers took what they had found and brought it to the whole group. They showed the works of the children in the spontaneous morning group. The whole class observed the drawings and made comments. They also used their bodies to imitate what they saw in the drawings. Then the teachers asked, “Would you like to try to draw children watching a film at the cinema?”
The supplies were carefully selected. The children started trying. They spoke as they drew and their comments were captured by the teachers. They were experimenting with perspective. There was some struggle with placement of the screen in relation to the way the people in the drawings were facing. One child said, “We need to think about it a little bit. It isn’t easy at all to make a drawing of the cinema.”
There was a trip planned to the theater. This was a wonderful opportunity to see the rows of chairs with children in them. This changed some drawings. The placement of heads and feet were considered more carefully. The experience of going to the theater provided another perspective for the children.
The teachers wondered why the children had drawn faces and then scratched through them. More research was done to discover that the scratching over of a face represented the backs of head because from the back of the theater you don’t see the face, only hair.
Hearing about this project made me more deeply regard drawing as a method for me to understand the children’s thoughts and ideas. There are communications within drawings if we only listen.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
A Visit to ReMida
In typing up this reflection on my visit to ReMida, I realized that 4 pages was probably too long for the blog. I want to share with you that the experiences Kelley and I have had the opportunity to participate in are packed with rich philosophy and content. I think that the best thing that I can do is offer a slice of my experience but I will have to hold some material for future sharing. In this particular entry, I also want to share that there is a lot of philosophy/theory involved but I will be telling you about the events.
I had the opportunity to go to a facility called ReMida. The center collects, exhibits, and offers alternative and reclaimed materials, obtained from unsold stock and rejects or discard materials from industrial and handicraft production, with the aim to reinvent their use and meaning. This facility is a project run through the Municipality of Reggio Emilia. It is a resource for teachers, parents and artists.
The name of the workshop I attended was "Material books: Intrinsic Possibilities in Materials Fashioned into Books" by Alba Ferrari and Luisa Cigni. We had a tour of the facility. You can see the pictures. They also had many aesthetically beautiful ways to display their recaptured materials. The instructors provided examples of their work, and one parent workshop involved storytelling. The provocation involved working in small groups to tell a story from a fabric color swatch book with no words. The story the parents told was so interesting and creative that I simply enjoyed hearing the story.
Alba and Luisa provided my study group with the challenge of creating an “unreadable book” like the one used in this parent group. We were encouraged to use any materials we found in ReMida. There were two rules. First, the book should be unusual, without words, curious, attractive and no more than 8 pages. Second, it should fall into one of the following categories: mono-chrome (one color), olfactory (smell), square, bi-chrome (two colors), sound, rectangular, black/white or round. In walking around to look at the various materials, I listened to another participant named Elizabeth who was viewing the materials. She was talking to herself as she looked. And, if you know me, you know that I was also doing the same thing. In listening, I realized that we were saying the same things. I suggested that we might want to work together and Elizabeth agreed. We fashioned a square book that is meant to be read with the sense of touch and without the sense of vision. We proved a blind fold that read, “Touch. No Look.”
The possibilities are endless when you give new life to discarded materials.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
“Numbers Never Stop” –Annalisa; age 5,6
Kelley attended a break-out session today about math contexts in preschools. Children are naturally attracted to the relationships between objects, which is really the basis of math. For example, you may have noticed young children putting objects in a line and enhancing these sequences by adding more materials or creating variations. Children also rely on gestures and their body to become aware of space, i.e. - placing both feet inside a floor tile or extending their arms as they pass through a hallway. It is important for us to observe children carefully, pay attention to how they express themselves mathematically, hypothesize about their mathematical exploration, and provide an environment to continue experiences.
The Hundred Languages of Children from Reggio
Today’s focus was on the hundred languages of children. Here are some thoughts on this fundamental theory here:
• Children know the world around them largely through non-verbal languages; their way of knowing is multi-sensory and multidisciplinary by nature.
• The capacity for children’s expression through many languages is often unrecognized and/or underestimated.
• From their careful observations of children, the educators in Reggio Emilia maintain that the aesthetics IS the way of knowing and the arts offer poly-sensory ways to explore and make sense of the world.
An example described children building trees out of clay. To make the trunk balance and stand upright, children make connections to the properties of real trees and what is necessary for trees to sustain life. When the teacher watches to see what the children do to make the tree stand up, different forms for different solutions to this problem are noted. The learning becomes visible.
When we consider the multiple ways children show their understanding, we focus on making connections and not separating knowledge.
A challenge for teachers of very young children is to understand their thinking when they have so few words with which to tell us. Children give us messages with their bodies. The body IS the mind. We should watch children closely to gain insight into their thinking.
This is all still highly theoretical and will be the source of good discussion as we unpack with you upon our return. We can’t believe this is only day two of our time here—the amount of information we have taken in makes it feel like two weeks! Phew!
• Children know the world around them largely through non-verbal languages; their way of knowing is multi-sensory and multidisciplinary by nature.
• The capacity for children’s expression through many languages is often unrecognized and/or underestimated.
• From their careful observations of children, the educators in Reggio Emilia maintain that the aesthetics IS the way of knowing and the arts offer poly-sensory ways to explore and make sense of the world.
An example described children building trees out of clay. To make the trunk balance and stand upright, children make connections to the properties of real trees and what is necessary for trees to sustain life. When the teacher watches to see what the children do to make the tree stand up, different forms for different solutions to this problem are noted. The learning becomes visible.
When we consider the multiple ways children show their understanding, we focus on making connections and not separating knowledge.
A challenge for teachers of very young children is to understand their thinking when they have so few words with which to tell us. Children give us messages with their bodies. The body IS the mind. We should watch children closely to gain insight into their thinking.
This is all still highly theoretical and will be the source of good discussion as we unpack with you upon our return. We can’t believe this is only day two of our time here—the amount of information we have taken in makes it feel like two weeks! Phew!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
We Hit the Ground Running!
Today was a full day with morning lectures about the cultural project that is the Loris Malaguzzi International Center, which is located in a former cheese warehouse. Carla Rinaldi spoke about the need for educators to have an international perspective, recognizing that the best pedagogy comes from the outside and that it is important to keep looking outward in a mode of “permanent research”. If you don’t research, you become stagnant and stuck in the status quo.
We also heard from the principal architect in charge of the building and renovation of the International Center as well as the graphic designer who led a team to create the logo for the center. Much of their presentations were unrelated to teaching, but their involvement highlighted how important it is for experts in these fields to understand the pedagogy of the schools.
The preschool and primary school attached to the International Center was designed by teams of pedagogistas, atelieristas, architects, and designers who took many things into consideration in its planning. We were not able to take pictures inside the school, but we have a few examples of the kinds of soft furniture designed for the schools. Here is what struck us about this unbelievable space:
• Huge open spaces, high ceilings, sky lights, large open windows, transparent walls and openings.
• The classrooms are situated around a large piazza that was large and open. In the piazza there was dress up, many places to pause/sit/explore, and resources for parents.
• There are spaces designed for small groups of children to do different activities.
• Every classroom had a mini-studio.
• There were 6 additional studios dedicated to light (huge screen), body/senses, movement & music, sound, painting (8’ X 4’ paper on the floor), and nature (stones, leaves, branches, projector and 3’ x 9’ light table).
• Each classroom was two levels, providing an opportunity for children to change their point of view. Second floor had sleeping cots and room for project work.
• The rear of the classroom was terraced with 12” risers. Creates smaller work spaces and endless possibilities for play.
• A paved courtyard with small stones.
• A dining area with a variety of table heights and chair/mat options.
• Bathrooms with 4 sinks of varying sizes and with different spigots to allow for water play.
• Tape measurers and lines representing the children’s heights in the bathroom with pictures of the children taped beside. In older classrooms a number recorded, too.
• Preschool classes had 24-26 children and two teachers. We have no idea how many studio teachers there were.
• Classroom walls were white with one accent wall of color. The rest of the center was light yellow, blue, green and orange.
• Very few blocks! Only 2 medium sized tubs and 1 tub of cardboard rolls for building. Perhaps to push children to look for alternatives?
• A light table embedded in a floor mat to enable children to crawl up to and/or lay down to explore or draw.
• At least three spaces for children’s belongings: mailboxes, cubby space, and portfolio collection boxes. Maybe lockers also—we didn’t open them, though.
• Did not see outdoor play space. Did have an amphitheater.
We also heard from the principal architect in charge of the building and renovation of the International Center as well as the graphic designer who led a team to create the logo for the center. Much of their presentations were unrelated to teaching, but their involvement highlighted how important it is for experts in these fields to understand the pedagogy of the schools.
The preschool and primary school attached to the International Center was designed by teams of pedagogistas, atelieristas, architects, and designers who took many things into consideration in its planning. We were not able to take pictures inside the school, but we have a few examples of the kinds of soft furniture designed for the schools. Here is what struck us about this unbelievable space:
• Huge open spaces, high ceilings, sky lights, large open windows, transparent walls and openings.
• The classrooms are situated around a large piazza that was large and open. In the piazza there was dress up, many places to pause/sit/explore, and resources for parents.
• There are spaces designed for small groups of children to do different activities.
• Every classroom had a mini-studio.
• There were 6 additional studios dedicated to light (huge screen), body/senses, movement & music, sound, painting (8’ X 4’ paper on the floor), and nature (stones, leaves, branches, projector and 3’ x 9’ light table).
• Each classroom was two levels, providing an opportunity for children to change their point of view. Second floor had sleeping cots and room for project work.
• The rear of the classroom was terraced with 12” risers. Creates smaller work spaces and endless possibilities for play.
• A paved courtyard with small stones.
• A dining area with a variety of table heights and chair/mat options.
• Bathrooms with 4 sinks of varying sizes and with different spigots to allow for water play.
• Tape measurers and lines representing the children’s heights in the bathroom with pictures of the children taped beside. In older classrooms a number recorded, too.
• Preschool classes had 24-26 children and two teachers. We have no idea how many studio teachers there were.
• Classroom walls were white with one accent wall of color. The rest of the center was light yellow, blue, green and orange.
• Very few blocks! Only 2 medium sized tubs and 1 tub of cardboard rolls for building. Perhaps to push children to look for alternatives?
• A light table embedded in a floor mat to enable children to crawl up to and/or lay down to explore or draw.
• At least three spaces for children’s belongings: mailboxes, cubby space, and portfolio collection boxes. Maybe lockers also—we didn’t open them, though.
• Did not see outdoor play space. Did have an amphitheater.
Happy 4th of July!
On Sunday, the 4th of July, we ventured to the Loris Malaguzzi International Centre to register and hear welcome remarks from Amelia Gambetti of Reggio Children. We boarded buses to the Tricolore Hall, where the Italian flag was born, to hear the mayor of Reggio Emilia welcome us. He was quite candid about the challenges of the town—a growing immigrant population, dwindling tax base, to name a few—but was proud to report that of children aged 0-3, 40% attend preschool in Reggio Emilia (compared to 10% nationwide). Our evening with Reggio Children concluded with a reception in the Piazza San Prospero—the Italians supplied the Americans with Independence Day accessories—and a walking tour of the city with Amelia’s husband, Sergio.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
We Made It to Reggio Emilia!
After 2 planes, 2 trains and 2 taxis, we finally made it to Reggio Emilia after 17 hours of travel! We are having some technical difficulties, as we have to wait until Monday to register with the Municipality to obtain internet access in our hotel. Luckily we have met a fellow workshop attendee from India who offered her laptop and hotel internet connection.
When we explored our hotel's breakfast room, Susan peeked out the window into the piazza below and spotted THE stone lions outside of a church. We read about the lions that captivated the children and have been the inspiration of projects here. We knew we had arrived in Reggio!
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