How can the classroom teacher use technology to more deeply explore children’s thinking? Encourage their reflection? Support the practice of thinking about their thinking (metacognition)? And how can technology be used so it is authentic and unique? These are questions we wrestle with as we use technology with young children.
Currently PK-K 11 students are exploring the concept of cities. Children worked in groups to create a negotiated representation of a city or a facet of a city.
Currently PK-K 11 students are exploring the concept of cities. Children worked in groups to create a negotiated representation of a city or a facet of a city.
Using a photograph of their finished construction, children reflected on what they had created together, while the teacher recorded their stories. They were encouraged to think about their thinking in the retelling of the experience.
We then generated a list of commonalities based on these group constructions and began the phase of combining the elements into a paper city.
Children referred to their photographed construction when drawing. They also used the iPad to support the translation from mental model to a concrete representation recognizable by all.
Once all city landmarks were represented we took the drawings to the copy center. With the help of the copier we could reproduce our elements as well as size them according to the scale that was necessary.
These were some questions we asked our students...
●Should a butterfly be half the size of a building?
●Are bicycles as large as cars?
●How can we make our cruise ship be scaled to fit the designated city space in the classroom?
●Should a butterfly be half the size of a building?
●Are bicycles as large as cars?
●How can we make our cruise ship be scaled to fit the designated city space in the classroom?
Our handy photocopier allowed us to tackle spatial relations and manipulate our drawings so that there was proportion and scale.