Practicum # 1 Children’s Conversations

ECE S661
 Using Marie Clay’s “By Different Path’s Common Outcomes,” I framed my collection
around conversation formats for learning. All of my conversations demonstrate instructional
conversations and most are between teacher and student. However, I included a few peer to peer
conversations because I thought that they were still instructional, just from a source other than a
teacher.

One – to – One

-3rd grade girls while quizzing each other on multiplication times tables:

Girl 1 “Dude man, what is the answer.”

Girl 2 “Stop calling me dude man”

Girl 1 “What’s the answer?”

Girl 2 “I am a girl not a dude.”

Girl 1 “9 x 3 just say it?”

Girl 2 “just don’t call me dude.”

Both girls laughing “dude, dude, dude, dude, hahhah”

Girl 1 “Okay, seriously, you can just flip it and count by 3’s instead of 9’s. It’s way easier.”

Girl 2 counting on her fingers “Three, six, nine, twelve, fifteen, eighteen, twenty one, twenty four,
TWENTY SEVEN!”

The girls, while joking, did accomplish something remarkable. Girl #1 was able to show her
friend a useful multiplication trick in such an effortless manner. There was no stress involved.
This is a perfect example of “zone of proximity” (Slavin) theory at its best. The teacher did not
interject, even when things seemed a bit silly. The girls were able to learn from one another,
while making what can be a stressful, anxiety filled topic (math), actually be fun and light.
-Preschooler to teacher

“I have many dogs”

Teacher “you do have a lot of play dough dogs”

“one, two, four, five, three, four, five”

Teacher “that’s very good, you have seven play dough dogs”

The teacher talking with the preschooler avoided shaming or relating that the boy counted
incorrectly. Instead she focused on what the student already knew. She encouraged his counting
ability by repeating what he was thinking in his head, but stated incorrectly. She vocalized the
correct sequence of numbers while still praising his courage to count aloud. This type of
opportunity to take chances and make mistakes is perfect breeding ground for creativity and
learning. Well done!

Clarifying Something that is Unclear

-Student to first grade teacher

“What does more mean?”

Teacher- “You mean to tell me that you don’t know what more means?”

“Uhm….no?”

Teacher in a condescending voice “I can’t believe that, more means that if you have two piles
and one has a larger amount in it, it has more.”

In this first conversation we see an alarming example of how the adventurous learning
environment is squashed. The student is shamed for asking a question. The teacher did not take
the time to gain a deeper understanding of what was at the heart of the posed question. There was
no conversational negotiation involved. This was top down, discouragement. The student in this
learning environment is likely to stop trying to figure out concepts for fear of shame and failure.

-Teacher to group of students

“Does this character’s face look sad?”

Student #1 “More like disappointed”

“Disappointed? What makes you say that?”

Student #2 “Uhm, his eyebrows are huge!”

This conversation shows that the students might need more work on facial recognition and
linking body language to feelings. However on the other hand, if the teacher had dug a little
deeper and investigated why the student thought that huge eyebrows are a sign of disappointment
she might have found that the student meant that the way they were shaped rather than size
registered as disappointment. Perhaps the student meant to say that the way they were pointed
low as well as how large the illustrator drew the eyebrows, both made him look disappointed to
the student. I feel like many teachers make the mistake of moving on too quickly while checking
for understanding in order to accommodate more coverage.

-Student to P.E. teacher

“How many times do I jump?”

Teacher “To the net and back.”

“That’s like miles!”

Teacher “how many miles can you jump then?”

“All the way to the net and back!”

The P.E. teacher does a wonderful job clarifying the task she put before the student, while
encouraging her to participate. Rather than simply dismissing the student’s exaggeration as a
way to complain about the distance, she met the student at his imagination and prompted him to
jump with enthusiasm. This was a very wise conversational negotiation.

Checking Comprehension

-Teacher to 4th grade student

“What do you think Mr. King want people to understand”

Student “That he was a peaceful man”

“What does a peaceful look like to you?”

Student “Somebody who wants people to figure things out without violence?”

The teacher allowed this conversation to unfold by taking the time to check for a deeper
understanding. This conversation format avoids generalizations and lofty ideas. It encourages the
student to ponder more directly of what “peaceful” negotiations look like. Without asking for
deeper clarification, she would not have known if the student simply thought that peaceful meant
“relaxed” or “unwilling to cause conflict.” By probing for clarification, she was able to ascertain
that the student did understand a dynamic of Martin Luther King’s mission.

-Math teacher to kinder

“If we add a red crayon to the pile of four yellow crayons, how many crayons will we have?”

Student “four yellow crayons and a red crayon”

“Yes, so how many all together?”

Student “four yellow crayons and a red crayon”

This conversation clearly shows that while the student comprehends colors, the concept of
adding different categories is still emerging. Through this conversation the teacher is able to
assess the content knowledge of the student and may be able to create child specific strategies to
facilitate the transfer of knowledge.
Staying Open to Surprises

Third Grader to Another Third Grader at recess

“I don’t know if the size of your head means you are smart”

“If you have a big head, are you smarter?”

“My mom has a small head, she is pretty smart.”

“If you put your two fists together, that is the size of your left and right lobes”

Girl puts her hands together-”Wow, my brain is BIG. Maybe that’s why math is so easy.”

I love this conversation and wanted it to be included because it shows that the girls were able to
recall science related knowledge to one another. It also demonstrates their ability to apply
scientific theory and inquiry with one another. The end has an “ah ha” moment, when one of the
girls correlates that her math abilities are related to the size of her brain. Although this is not in a
any way true, it still shows that she is willing to consider possibilities. If a science teacher was a
part of this conversation, they may have been able to scaffold deeper inquiry and a test of her
hypothesis about the correlation to brain size and intelligence. If a social studies teacher was
involved, perhaps relate it to the trans-Atlantic slave trade where head circumferences of
enslaved men women and children were used as a measure of a person’s worth. Either way, the
interest is truly present.

These conversations give a picture of learning opportunities a teacher can take advantage of. If
the inquiry is already present in the learner, the content could have the benefit of being delivered
to the learner in a relate-able fashion.

Cited:

Clay, M. M. (2014). By Different Paths to Common Outcomes. New Zealand: Global Education
Systems

Johnston, P. H. (2012). Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives. Albany, NY:
Stenhouse Publishers

Slavin, R. E. (2015). Educational Psychology (11th Edition). Johns Hopkins University. Upper
Saddle River, N. J.: Pearson

Perrone, V. (1991). A letter to teachers Reflections on schooling and the art of teaching. San
Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.