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.