Learning Lessons

The classroom I am observing this summer consists of children who are aged 3 up to 9 years old. As I completed my observations each day, I wondered how the children knew exactly what to do when they came in each day. I was invited by the classroom teacher/assistant to watch as she shared a lesson with a younger child. This child appeared to be about three and a half years old, and had started to do some work on a practical life skill but had not formally been introduced to the lesson. The assistant noticed that and asked the child if they would like to have a lesson so that they would know how to complete the work. 

The work was in mixed media and the conversation for the lesson went like this: 

T: This is the mixed media lesson and I see that you already have your paper. show me which material you would like to use first. 

The child chose the pom-poms.

T:  This is how you glue a pom-pom. 

The teacher proceeded to show the child how to brush glue on the bottom of the pom-pom and stick it to the paper. The teacher then repeated the same modeling using paper straws that had been cut up into half inch lengths, small triangles of origami paper, construction paper that had been cut into the shapes of flowers. She showed the child how to brush glue on to the back of each kind of material and one way that the materials could be placed onto the larger sheet of construction paper, but not all of the ways the child could do that. She was careful to leave ideas for the child and let her have the choice in that. 

The teacher then proceeded to show the child how to clean up after the lesson so that she would know how to do that when she was finished. 

The teacher started with the words “Now let me show you how to clean up”, and she showed the child how to put the lid on the glue jar and reminded her that she already knew how to wash out the brush from other work that she had completed before that. The child left the table and went to stand in line to wash the brush and returned to create more collage work on her own. I stayed with the child and observed her adding a few more pieces to her art before she cleaned everything up and put her work in the standing rack to dry for the day. 

Over the next few weeks, I observed this child receiving lessons on increasingly more difficult practical life work revolving around gluing. Many of the materials in this particular work tray were one dimensional and the child progressed to gluing on more complicated three-dimensional objects as the weeks went on.

I was able to also observe a work that was a step down from the previous work of gluing with a child who was closer to 3 years old. The teacher also observed this child painting the entire 5x7 sheet of construction paper with glue which clued her into the fact that this child had not yet had a lesson on gluing work. The tray consisted of six compartments and the six compartments contained scraps out of magazines cut into triangles and they happened to all be about gardening, some die-cut flowers, a jar of glue, a brush, and there were some additional long rectangular scraps of paper that appeared to be about 5 inches long by half an inch wide in an assortment of colors. The child walked to the shelf where the practical life work is kept and selected a 5x7 piece of red construction paper from the top shelf. The teacher began the lesson by showing the child how to hold the brush and how to dip the brush in the jar of glue. The teacher invited the child to open the jar of glue as practice for her and as a review of the practical life work she had done previously that practiced the skill of opening various containers. The child was shown quickly how to glue on a larger scrap of paper, the magazine scraps, and the teacher was also careful to show the child how to gently brush glue just on the back of the collage paper and not the construction paper that would be the base for her art. The teacher began with the larger pieces and worked her way down to showing the child how to glue on the smaller pieces. Quite often the child was eager to try the work out for themself, as they kept reaching for the brush in the teacher's hand trying to complete the work on their own. 

In this case, this particular child needed much less teaching of the lesson so the teacher giving the lesson observed this as well and backed off on her giving of directions so that the child could begin to show what she knew about gluing work. The child sat and happily glued on many more small shapes. At first she was applying glue to the back of the shape, and after a while she started dabbing or painting glue onto the paper and stuck the shape on. 

I did notice that her gluing work was much more precise when she was gluing directly on the back of the shape instead of on the paper. This lesson was definitely a precursor to the mixed media lesson above which involves more three-dimensional materials. When this child was done with this work, she already knew how to rinse out the brush in the sink, to an extent, and returned it to the tray. The teacher then gave her a very quick lesson on resetting the tray for the next child and showed her how to return the tray to the practical life workshelf and where to place her collage to dry.

After I watched the teacher give two lessons to children, I was invited to have a child give me a lesson. I was fascinated by this and was just in awe of how eloquently the children were able to give directions, being 5 and 6 years old. They were all very well spoken, used some of the language that the adults had given them during their lesson of that work, and walked me through step by step what I would need to do in order to complete this work myself. One of the lessons that I received was how to make raspberry muffins. 

A child who was 6 years old was my teacher and he invited me to sit at a table with him and he showed me the recipe and explained each of the ingredients to me. He began by showing me how to add all of the wet ingredients to the child sized mixing bowl. First he smashed a banana with a potato masher and showed me several times that the banana was not yet the right consistency. He told me that the banana needed to be liquidy before adding in the other ingredients. 

He then added in the oil and I noticed that he was having some confusion between tablespoons and teaspoons, so I asked him what he noticed about the measurement in the recipe and the measuring spoon he had in his hand and if he could explain to me how he knew to measure the right amount. I remembered in all of my readings about Montessori, that the child is never corrected, it is more about the child figuring out an error on their own than the adult pointing it out to them, so I wanted to stay true to that for this child I was receiving the lesson from. He reviewed what he was going to do with the oil in the dropper bottle and part way through his sentence explaining that to me, he realized he did not have the right measuring spoon in his hand and switched to the tablespoon that he needed. 

After he added the oil he added flaxseed to the mixing bowl and mixed that around before moving on to adding the dry ingredients. He added in flour and on his tray there was only a 1/2 cup measure instead of the 3/4 cup measure that he needed. He did not seem to think that was a problem, and I asked him to again show me the measurements but he said that it was fine as long as he put three scoops of flour into the muffin mix. After that, we also added in baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and some rolled oats. He was careful to tell me that these were rolled oats and not oatmeal oats. He did not seem to be bothered again by the exact measurement of salt, instead he said just a pinch is good. He kept looking at the difference between the teaspoon and the tablespoon that were on his tray as a model. He then carefully mixed everything together with the spatula, telling me that his old teacher mixed it with the spatula and not the wooden spoon and that he wanted to do it that way. He mooshed the muffin mix around the mixing bowl until he was not able to see the flower anymore. He knew that it needed to be fully incorporated before moving on. Then, he used a mini ice cream scooper to scoop almost equal amounts of batter into each of the mini-muffin tin cups. As he was teaching me this lesson another child asked how to do this lesson as well and so he was explaining the work to me, but also guiding a child who was doing the lesson on her own across from him at the same time. It was very interesting to think about all of the brain function that was going into not only interacting with me as an adult who was learning the lesson, but also a peer his own age. The way he interacted with both of us was almost identical however I was not actually doing the lesson but the child across from him was. There were several times when he would just do the work for her instead of telling or showing her. He would step around to the other side of the table and just complete the next part for her. 

Once both batters were done and scooped into the mini muffin tins, each child used a small spoon to add some raspberry jam to the top of the muffin mixture. She, the child working across from him, was not able to find her smaller spoon so she was able to use her half teaspoon measure to scoop her jam out of the jar, which I thought was a great way of showing that she had problem solving skills. They both took their trays and carried them to the counter in the adult size kitchen. and then they put the recipe on the counter with the mini muffin tins so the adult could preheat the oven for them.

It was so interesting to me to be able to shadow a teacher as she was giving lessons to the younger children and then have a lesson taught to me by one of the older children. I was fascinated by how the children carried over, almost word by word, the directions that the teacher had given them when they received the lesson in that work and how they used those words when teaching peers or other adults the same work. It was also amazing to me how well the children made attempts to clean up after each of their works were complete. I know that is part of the lesson that the children are taught, but to watch it unfold in front of my eyes was just incredibly amazing. It made me rethink how I want to teach my own students how to finish out the lesson by including the step of cleaning up. I usually do show children how to clean up, but the way that each item had a specific place on the tray, is something that I need to think more about.