Chapter VII - Learning About Ourselves

8/12/2019 Chapter VII - Learning About Ourselves

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Chapter VII

Learning about Ourselves

As students developed the skills for attending to one another, we pursued the second goal of our

project. To build a community around peer support, we believed that students needed to have a strong

grasp of their own strengths and growth areas. While any community member could potentially assist

with any task, we wanted students to understand each others strengths and make strategic decisions

about who to ask for help. If a student needed help reading a book, for instance, she could approach a

helper who felt strong in reading. At the same time, we did not want to suggest that strengths and

growth areas are somehow innate, fixed, and limited. On the contrary, we wanted to promote a growth

mindset, instilling the belief that people improve over time as a result of hard work. We also wanted to

make sure that students identities were not defined by a single strength or growth area; the truth is

that individuals have many of both. Beyond personal strengths and growth areas, we hoped that

students would recognize the communitys collective diversity and its value to a culture driven by peer

support. As I reflected on what I wanted students to take away from this stage of the project, I

developed five enduring understandings. In my original plan, I had committed to lead creative activities

for exploring strengths and weaknesses. With a clearer vision of student learning, I designed activitiesfor imparting each of these understandings.

Table 10: Enduring Understandings and Activities for

Learning about Strengths, Growth Areas, and Diversity

Enduring Understandings Activities

1. Everyone has strengths. Sharing Time; One of My Strengths Game2. People arent born with their strengths;

they learn how to get better at things.Sharing Time; One of My Strengths Writing

3. Its better to have a class with lots ofdifferent strengths, so that there are

experts in all sorts of things.

Making a Die Role-Playing Game

4. Everyone has growth areas. One of my Growth Areas Game5. If people work hard in their growth areas,

theyll improve.One of My Growth Areas Writing

Strengths

Sharing Time: Presenting Our Strengths

To get to know each others strengths, we asked students to demonstrate or tell us about one of theirstrengths during our daily sharing time. To communicate that every person in our community has

strengths, we set aside a sharing time for each student on our monthly calendar. To invest students in

this activity, we gave them the option of bringing in a school-appropriate item that would help them to

describe their strength. For instance, I wrote in a letter home to students parents, if your child

would like to talk about how good theyve become at drawing, he or she could bring in a picture that

was drawn at home. Regardless of whether they brought in an item, students were expected to share

one of their strengths with the class.


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Referring to a collage of photos,

Jackie tells the class about her

strength in dancing. The title on

the collage reads, Dancingis my

life.

I was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of strengths presented during

sharing time. On the first day, Apple the class how to sew while Stephan

discussed his favorite book and love for reading. On the next day, Jackie

demonstrated her strength in hip-hop dance by busting some moves,

followed by Percy, who brought in his baseball glove and told the class

how hed improved as a player. This sharing time evolved into two

sections. Since students were not forthcoming with information, we

would start with some prompting questions, e.g. What would you like to

tell us about your strength? How did you get better at it? As you

tried to get better, what was hard for you? After covering the basics,

wed open the floor for questions and comments, and the presenter

would call on two or three students. Student questions covered a wide

range of topics, including whether anyone had helped the presenters

develop their strength and whether they enjoyed it.

As I reflected on our strengths sharing time, I made two observations about the power of modeling.

Several days in a row, I asked presenters at what age they began practicing their strength and how old

they were now. Then, I would turn to the class and ask them to calculate the number of years that their

classmate had been working on this strength. One morning, when I did proceed with these questions,

students took on this line of inquiry. One student would ask, How old were you when you started? and

then another would follow up, How old are you now? Then, attentive students would work out the

difference and hold up that many fingers. While I appreciated that these students were tuned in, I

wondered whether these questions reflected genuine engagement. I worried that these questions had

become a habit, distracting the students from asking more meaningful questions.

Community Moments:

Helping Beyond the Classroom

As usual, the sidewalk by the school gate was bustling with activity during dismissal. In amongst the

moving bodies, my eyes were drawn to a group of students who were completely still. After sharing

her strength in sewing that morning, Apple was giving another demonstration to a captive

audience. Her peers huddled around her. Can you teach us? one of them asked.

Transfer, the application of learned skills in new contexts, is one of educations main aims. It tells

teachers that something is sticking in the minds of students. In this case, something about teaching

and learning had stuck from the mornings sharing session. Perhaps these ideas were catching on?


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Community Moments: Making Space for Quieter Voices

Dan is one of the shyest students Ive ever known. While he often appears tuned in to classroom conversation,

he rarely chooses to speak. When he does, his voice is barely louder than a whisper. Encouraging Dan to share

his ideas confidently and regularly is a continuing challenge for me my teaching partner. Whenever he raiseshis hand, we jump at the chance to hear his thinking.

On his sharing day, Dan quickly stood up without any prompting. The class fell silent, leaning in to hear Dans

quiet voice. I am good at building things, he told the class. What kind of things do you build? I asked.

Silence. As Dan located his thoughts and then summoned the courage to say them, the class waited patiently.

They knew that this was not easy for Dan. In between prolonged periods of silence, he uttered that he made

houses, boats, and trains out of wood and cardboard. He looked proud. When it came to give Dan a silent

cheer, every student raised their hands in celebration.

At the end of the day, Dans mother approached my teaching partner at the school gate. Did he share

today? she inquired. Uh-huh, said my teaching partner. Oh good, she said. He was so excited. Howwonderful, I thought, that Dan had been excited and not petrified about sharing his strength. How helpful that

we had allotted him a specific time in our schedule to do so. Usually, sharing time is open to all and

dominated the class more extroverted students. If we hadnt organized this sharing time, we might have

never learned about Dans strength, an experience that pushed him towards his growing edge.

There was another pattern, however, that I found more encouraging. After every student had told the

class about one of their strengths and we returned to regular sharing time, many presenters continued

to talk about their strengths. Jackie spoke to the class about her strength, and Peter demonstrated the

kung fu moves that had earned him medals at a recent tournament. Modeled on our strengths sharing

time, these unscheduled presentations suggested that our conversations had made a significant impact.Without teacher guidance, students saw value in letting others know how they had grown and the areas

in which they could help others. In the first instance, it seemed that students were simply copying the

teachers thinking; in the second, students were using the structure of strengths sharing time to engage

in new conversations around their personal development.

The Strengths Game: Recognizing Multiple Strengths

While sharing time allowed students to explain one of their strengths in depth, we also wanted

to communicate that each person has multiple strengths. To achieve this goal, we played a

game where students could share another one of their strengths. In One of my Strengths,

students would take turns miming an activity that they believed they can do well. Then, theirclassmates would try to guess the activity. Oftentimes, players mimed physically active hobbies

not traditionally associated with school, such as gymnastics and golf. I appreciated this new

direction, since we wanted to communicate that strengths are not limited to academic

disciplines.


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Building Growth Mindsets: Strengths are Learned, not Fixed

My teaching partner and I were keen to communicate that strengths are acquired skills, not innate, fixed

characteristics. Although we would not explicitly measure students beliefs around malleable

intelligence, we realized that a culture of peer supportin fact, any meaningful educational culture - is

underpinned by a growth mindset. In her book Mindset: the new psychology of success, Carol Dweck(2007) defines this point of view:

The growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate

through your efforts. Although people are different in every which wayin their initial talents

and aptitudes, interests, or temperamentseveryone can change and grow through application

and experience (p. 7).

To create a community around peer support, students would first need to believe that their strengths

were the result of a learning process powered by effort. Following on, we wanted to foster the belief

that students could improve in their growth areas through effort, part of which could involve reaching

out to others for support. Ultimately, if students did not believe they could grow, then why would they

ask for help? As we sought to explore students strengths and growth areas, we also dedicated ourselves

to promoting a group mindset.

Writing about Strengths: Reflecting on Our Learning

To impart this second enduring understanding, we designed a guided writing assignment. Students

identified one of their strengths and then, guided by sentence starters, wrote about what they had

learned that helped them improve. Like many of the activities in this project, this one invited students to

exercise metacognitive thinking. The assignment asked them not only to describe a strength but to

analyze the learning process. To give students a clear vision of their writing piece, I created a model that

displayed my own learning in basketball. As Rob Berger (2003) explains inAn ethic of excellence,modelsare a powerful tool for teaching: I want my students to carry around pictures in their heads of quality

work, he writes.(p. 83). After analyzing my model, students energetically set to work on their own

writing piece. With few exceptions, most students were able to identify specific learning moments and

then synthesize them into a final statement about their strength.


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Figure 10: One of My Strengths Writing Assignment Samples:

Mr. Paul, Gemma, PJ, and Stephan

PJ

Gemma

Stephan


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In my example, I named a strength (basketball) and identified a specific skill in which I had improved

(dribbling). To discourage vague language, I intentionally set a narrow focus. While many students

followed my lead, many expanded the focus of their final sentence to highlight the significance of their

strength. PJ described how effort and understanding had enabled her to play a song on the flute for her

momma. Inspired by the projects purpose, Stephan traced his growth to the point where he now can

help others get better at basketball. PJs work represents the small group ofstudents that found it more

challenging to communicate the stages in their learning journey. While jumping into the water seems

like a natural first step, it does not seem logical for the ability to swim fast to precede the ability to

swim. On the next writing piece, however, PJ was able to clearly communicate the progress he

envisioned in his growth area. (See Figure 11). At the conclusion of the writing session, I selected several

exemplary models and invited the authors to read them aloud. As we discussed each piece, students

repeated the importance of practice in developing strengths. While I can hardly disagree, I was also

eager to highlight other factors that lead to strengths, such as supportive teachers, resources, and

strategies. This sentiment mirrored students responses during the first round of interviews and

strengthened my resolve to broaden the discussion about how people learn.

An Exercise in Diversity: Same Strengths or Different Strengths?

With our third enduring understanding, we hoped to stretch our students thinking even further. To

communicate the added value of a class with diverse strengths, students would need to conceive of two

different communities and then judge them against one another. My research into six-year olds

cognitive development, particularly Piagets research, and conversations with my teaching colleagues

suggested that this kind of higher-order thinking would be challenging for many of our first graders

(McLeod, 2009). Eager to push new boundaries, however, I was determined to provide an experience

from which students could construct deeper understandings about diversity. While sensitive to the

groups limits, my perspective has always been to experiment and see what we might achieve, rather

than to settle for what is already within our reach.

After a brainstorming session with our colleagues, we designed an activity to impart this enduring

understanding about diversity. In groups, students would be tasked with making a paper die. Each

student would have a designated strength and would only be allowed to do that job. The colored

pencils group member could use pencils to color the die, and the markers group member could use

markers to write a number in each box. The scissors group member could use scissors to cut out

shape, the folding group member could make creases along each edge, andthe tape group member

could use tape to put the die together. After assigning a strength to each student, we would offer two

Community Moments: Asking for Help

Another sign of impact. During afternoon recess, Jonny hurried over to me carrying basketball. Mr.

Paul, he asked, how did you learn to dribble with one hand again? I smiled. He had remembered my

example from the One of My Strengths writing assignment and was keen to learn this skill for

himself. What can you do so far? I asked in return. He showed me that he could dribble with one

hand but was having trouble running at the same time. As he set off in motion, he found himself

turning in circles around the bouncing ball. Okay, I said, lets practice running in a straight line.

After I demonstrated, Jonny spent two minutes running back and forth along a painted line, bouncing

the ball as he went. It was tricky, and the ball didnt always go where he wanted it to, but he was

trying. He wanted to improve and had asked for help.


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The colored pencils group working

together to color their die. After

perfoming their strength, they

could do little more to complete their

die.

opportunities to make the die. First, students would be arranged in groups where everybody shared the

same strength. The five colored pencils group members, for example, would be given a die sheet

and their tool, colored pencils, and then asked to make the die. Although it would be impossible to make

the die with just one strength, we would challenge each team to work together and make as much

progress as possible. After a few minutes, we would reconvene as a class to discuss the limitations of

working in a group where everybody had the same strength. Then, offering students a second

opportunity, we would break into teams where each group member had a different strength. With

strengths in colored pencils, markers, scissors, folding, and tape, each group would now be able to

make the die. When each group had finished, we would reflect as a class about the experience and our

evolving understandings about diverse learning communities.

Overall, this grand experiment went as planned. After reviewing our

understandings so far, we introduced our essential question for the

lesson: Whats more helpful for learning a class with the same

strengths or a class with different strengths? Some students

immediately came out in favor of the second option, and head nods

from others suggested a general tone of agreement. To explore this

idea, I told the class, we would be doing a thinking activity. It wouldnot be like real life, but it would help us think more deeply about the

question. In this activity, I explained, each student could only use

one tool to exercise one strength, even though the truth is that we

all have many strengths. I also informed the class that we would

complete this activity in groups. To prepare for this work together, I

asked the class how helpful group members act with one another. On

the board, I recorded students answers, which highlighted the

importance of listening carefully, working as a team, and using

encouraging words.

Launching into the first stage of the activity, we arranged groups by identical strengths. As I ranthrough the steps for making the die and then presented a pre-made model, I could feel the growing

sense of excitement in the room; our students could not wait to get their hands on the materials and

make something. Some students were immediately frustrated by this situation. They had been excited

to make the die and could see that this was not possible in their current grouping. Knowing that they

would have a second chance in a more appropriate grouping, I simply encouraged them to do as much

as they could. After a couple of minutes, there was a striking teachable moment. A Stephanrom

markers group hesitantly wandered up to me asked, Can we ask someone from the scissors group to

help? Good idea, I replied. Lets talk about that as a class. Shortly afterwards, I called the students

back to the carpet.

Surveying the group, I saw many puzzled faces. Students protested that they couldnt make the die if

they all had the same strengths. Oh! I exclaimed Would you like another chance to make the die with

kids who have different strengths? The class responded with a resounding yes! Breaking into mixed

groups, the student set to work with renewed energy. Now that each group had students with

strengths in colored pencils, markers, scissors, folding, or tape, it was possible to make the die. As we

circulated the room, we did not need to remind many students that they could only perform their

assigned strength. They understood their role, even if they were little antsy waiting for their turn. At

one point, a student rushed over to report that a group member was using tape but that it wasnt his

strength! This incident reflected some of the challenges students experienced working in groups.


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Despite the expectations we had set as a class, there were squabbles over the best way to do things and

unkind words uttered in frustration. Most of our reminders and redirections were focused on

negotiating relationships, rather than the constraints of the activity.

As each group finished the die, we would check in with its members and re-ask the lessons essential

question. Drawing upon they experience, students agreed that it was better to have a group with

diverse strengths so that they could each contribute a part of the work and get the job done. As

students gathered on the carpet for a wrap-up discussion, I hoped they would apply this take-away to

their thinking about the real strengths of their peers. Although we did not have enough time to probe

the depth of everyones thinking, several students mentioned how a class with diverse strengths would

be better positioned for learning new things. A quick check using hand signals revealed unanimous

agreement that a class with different strengths was more helpful for learning. To further investigate the

impact of this activity on student understanding, however, I added a new question to the post-project

interview: Whats more helpful for learning to have a class with different strengths or a class with the

same strengths? How come? In a months time, I was curious to see if our five focus students had held

on to this understanding about diversity, and probe the depth of their thinking.

Growth Areas

To cultivate a culture of peer support, we believed it would be helpful for students to recognize and

share the things they are trying to get better at. By exploring these growth areas, we hoped students

would view themselves as constantly evolving human beings, gain a deeper understanding of their

peers learning goals, and identify areas where they might support one another. Although we dedicated

more time to exploring personal strengths than growth areas, we committed to imparting two enduring

understandings about growth areas.

The Growth Areas Game: What Are Kids Working On?

First, we wanted students to internalize that everyone has many growth areas, in the same way that

everyone has many strengths. In this aim, we turned the One ofMy Strengths game into One of My

Growth Areas. In turn, students would mime an activity that they considered themselves to be working

on. Then, their classmates would try to guess this activity. Overall, students seemed to enjoy playing the

game, and the act of guessing fostered a light-hearted atmosphere. Some students who rarely share

Community Moments: Eureka!

During our second game of One of My Growth Areas, student Q had a Eureka! moment. After

PJ had mimed reading a book, Jonnys hand shot up in the air. Stephan has a strength in reading,

he reminded the class, so maybe he could help PJ in reading. Wow, I thought. Without

prompting, Jonny had grasped how knowledge of our strengths and growth areas might facilitate

peer support. Building on his idea, I saw an opportunity to promote the strengths chart, a visual aid

that would display two personal strengths of each community member. How might we remember

peoples strengths and know who to ask for help? I asked curiously. More hands shot up: We

could use the strengths chart, they replied with enthusiasm! (For more information on the

strengths chart, see the following section.)


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were eager to take part, and I couldnt help but wonder if this structure encouraged students to be

more open about their growth areas.

Writing about Growth Areas: Envisioning New Learning

After identifying their growth areas, we wanted students to view them with a growth mindset. Torestate our rationale, if students did not believe they could grow, then why would they ask for help?

Specifically, we wanted students to believe that if they worked hard in their growth area, they would

improve. To impart this understanding, we adapted our strengths guided writing exercise to reflect on

our growth areas. Instead of tracing the learning moments that led to their strength, students named a

growth area and envisioned how they might improve in this area. Like the strengths writing exercise,

my model focused on developing a specific skill within ones growth area. I hoped that students would

follow my lead, using specific examples to map out progress in their growth area. In this regard, PJ was

more successful compared with his previous writing. He was able to name two skills that he was working

on (dribbling and shooting), and envision himself winning a basketball game in the future. In contrast,

the work samples from Students F and N reflect writing that was less specific. That said, I feel that these

two pieces capture the spirit of the assignment. In Gemmas second picture, she is successful swimming

in a pool, whereas she is nowhere to be seen in the first picture. Although the details in Stephans first

sentence seemed vague, I found his goal to participate in a world champion contest inspiring!

Figure 11: One of My Growth Areas Writing Assignment Samples:

Mr. Paul, Gemma, PJ, and Stephan

Gemma


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Community Moments: Reminding Children about Themselves

Peter loves science. One day in early spring, he arrived at school carrying a microscope, which he shared

with the class during morning meeting. Moving slowly round the circle, he gave everyone a chance to

look through the eyepiece. You can look at different things close up, he explained proudly. Blood

cells, tissue cells, disease cells, he continued, showcasing his scientific vocabulary. Peters passion for

science extends beyond sharing time. During literacy centers, Students L usually spends his book

browsing time peering through texts about the human body and other scientific subjects. You can

imagine my surprise then when Peter did not note science as his school-based strength. Eager to point

this out, I printed an image of a microscope and asked Peter if he wanted to substitute it with one of his

other strengths on the chart. Yes! he replied enthusiastically! While students should choose their own

strengths, this experience suggests that teachers can help to expand their options. By knowing young

people well, we can remind them of theirmany passions.

Strengths Chart

At the beginning of the project, I informed students that we would be displaying our strengths publicly.

Together, would build a strengths chart, a visual aid to help students identify one anothers strengths

and who they might approach for support. Resembling an oversized roster, the strengths chart would

list everyones name, including the teachers, along with two personal strengths. By giving students the

opportunity to name two personal strengths, we aimed to reinforce the understanding that everyone

has many strengths. By including our own names on the strengths chart, we wished to remind students

that everyone is a part of our classroom community, even teachers! Each strength would be represented

by a clipart image, a strategy designed to accommodate students with limited reading skills and preventthe chart from appearing too wordy. Over the course of a week, students would be given time color the

two black-and-white images, making them as beautiful as possible.

PJStephan


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Student Choice within Parameters

Student choice drove the selection of strengths. Although we had our ideas about students strengths

and growth areas, we believed it was important for students to make their own judgments about their

capabilities. Students first strength was drawn from the guided writing activity, One of My Strengths.

I noticed that many of these strengths, such as gymnastics, swimming, and grappling, would be lessapplicable in a school setting, so I decided to place a parameter on selecting the second strength. After

explaining my rationale to the class, I asked each student to think of a strength they have at school. To

broaden their options, I added that it didnt need to be an academic activity, like reading or writing; it

could be a strength on the playground, such as swinging on the monkey bars, or a social strength, such

as making friends.

Jotting down their idea on a post-it, a couple of students mistakenly named the same strength from the

guided writing activity. In these cases, I conferred with the students, reflecting back on their sharing

time and games, to come up with another school-based strength. For students whose writing piece

focused on an academic activity, this selection process meant they ended up with two school-based

strengths. Although it would have been ideal for students strengths to reflect their experience both

within and beyond school, two school-based strengths were preferable to two strengths beyond the

school grounds. Ultimately, we hoped that students would use the strengths chart to make strategic

decisions about who to ask for help. If a students listed strengths were not relevant during the school

day, such as swimming or baseball, then these students might not be called upon for support.

Introducing the Chart

After several days of coloring, the images of students strengths were ready to be placed on the

strengths chart. As they entered the classroom after lunch, groups of curious students clustered around

the finished product. When we assembled on the carpet, students seemed eager to discuss the chart.

First, I reminded the class of Jonnys idea (see Community Moments: Eureka!), that people who need

help in their growth areas (or any area where they want to learn) can use the chart to find someone whois strong in that area and then ask them for support. Then, to generate excitement around this new tool,

we played a game. I would call out a strength, and then students would try to find all of the students on

the chart who possessed that strength. If you see someone who has a strength in art, I would say,

raise your hand! The students were eager to play, and every student but one raised their hand at

some point to offer an answer.

In retrospect, I wish I had framed the game with a stronger focus on peer support. If you see someone

who could help you with art, raise your hand, I might have said. Perhaps with this thought in mind, I

posed a new question: Who can give us an example of how you might use this chart to help you?

Ulrich, a student with growing confidence, quickly raised his hand: If I wanted to get better at

baseball, he said, I could go to the strengths chart and find someone who has a strength in baseball.Then, I could ask that person for help. I couldnt have said it better myself. Wrapping up the

conversation, I told the class that we would soon be digging deeper into how we learn new things and

how we can help others.


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The strengths chart, a visual aid displaying two

strengths of every community member.

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Chapter VII - Learning About Ourselves