Learning is messy! I don't necessarily mean a physical mess although it
can be that. I mean that everything your child learns is connected to
every other thing that he or she learns. Learning really can't be
completely compartmentalized into math, reading, writing, etc. It is
easy to see how reading and writing are related and how learning
something about writing can improve your reading and vice versa. Other
contents seem to separate more easily but are actually all connected,
too. That is one of the basic tenets of Expeditionary Learning - we
embrace the fact that learning is messy and all tangled up and not
neatly segmented into discrete areas. Below are a just a couple of
examples of messy learning in first grade.
We recently created graphs using name cards during a word work lesson. We created a graph by the number of letters in our names and then we created a graph based on the number of syllables in our name.
How is this messy? Well, while we were thinking about letters within
words and length of names, we were also learning to physically create a way to organize information to understand it better. When we
created the graph of syllables in our names we began to think deeply
about why this graph looked different from the previous graph. We
thought a lot about how names might have lots of letters but not as many
syllables. We wondered what a name with 10 syllables would sound like.
We related this to our morning drum circles and thought about the beats
in each name and how you would drum them. In first grade we casually
introduce new learning mixed in with other/older learning and after a
while we begin to notice that we know about a lot of things like:
graphs, letters, words, syllables, music, naming conventions and more.
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| Number of Letters in Our Names (Note: Kate decided to use Katherine rather than Kate for this activity.) |
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| Number of Syllables in Our Names (Note: Kate decided to use Katherine rather than Kate for this activity.) |
We are also slipping in more graph/chart making while practicing making
tally marks. We have created two charts using tally marks - one about
pets we own and one about our favorite season. While creating these
charts, we are practicing making tally marks, counting by 5s, counting
by 5s and switching to counting by 1s, organizing data in a way that
makes it easier to understand, preparing to count the value of a
collection of nickels and pennies and preparing to tell time on an
analog (with hands) clock in 5 minute and 1 minute increments. What
looks like a simple way to practice making and counting tally marks
actually has many more purposes. Yes, learning is messy but learning
this way of learning works so well.
