IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Today we learned a new game called “Will It Fit?” in Math Workshop.  The kids had to roll two dice and create a number and make it fit in the puzzle.  This game makes the kids think about number order and distance.  It was a favorite today!

As a staff, we have been studying the work of master teacher Ron Berger. One of the things Ron suggests doing with classrooms is having critique sessions. We have decided to adopt this strategy to help improve our work! Last week, Mr. Henderson and the kids started talking about giving “likes” and “hopes” for friends’ work. We talked about how it always needs to be kind and helpful to the friend being critiqued. The other day, we did observational drawings of some pumpkins and squash. Today, we revisited those drawings and critiqued them anonymously. As a class, we did a quiet gallery walk and admired each person’s work. Then, we chose one work to write a “like” and a “hope” for. We shared our likes and hopes and talked about the importance of being specific so we can help one another. The kids did so well with it. We are excited to continue to delve into the idea of critique and we’re excited to see how this helps our class communities grow even stronger.

We had a wonderful time. Hopefully, these pictures can give you a nice glimpse into our day.

Tags: curious, field trip, garden, project

Today was a special day for studio because all students were able to go to studio together. You may hear your child talking about studio throughout the week…it is always a highlight. On most weeks, students either go to studio on Thursday or Friday. Half of the class goes during math workshop on each day. This is a great opportunity because students are able to get more focused time from Mrs. Grotjan in the studio, and students are able to get extra one on one time with me during math workshop. This week, Mrs. Grotjan and I decided to have all students do studio together on one day. They enjoyed that time together, and also got to enjoy time in our courtyard studying different shapes they saw in the space. Our courtyard has been recently renovated. It was weeded and beautified on our gardening day a couple weeks ago. There was also work done in the courtyard over Fall Break by a service group who wanted to devote some of their time to our school! They students are reaping the benefits of a new place to learn and explore, especially on a day as beautiful as today!

One of our school’s goals and one of my own personal goals for the school year is to have our student create truly beautiful work that they take great pride and care in creating. Beautiful work isn’t just limited to art work. It includes our math problem solving, our stories and books, and any other products we create during our time here at the Lab School.

One belief we have is that, in order to create your best work, you need to do multiple drafts and go through a revision process until you are sure that what you have created is the best it can be.

In order to facilitate those sorts of revision processes, I have been teaching lessons in critique during story workshop this week. We have been talking about sharing our work with our peers so that they can give us helpful feedback and we can improve our books and stories.

Two words that we have been talking about are “specific” and “kind.” Anytime we give a compliment or a suggestion, it needs to be specific and kind. So instead of saying,  I like your pictures, a child might say, “I like the drawing of your pumpkin on your cover because you included accurate details like the stem and some lines.” And instead of saying, your words don’t look good, a child could say, “I’m having a hard time reading your words. You might consider putting bigger spaces in between your words so that they don’t all smush together and your readers can read them better.”

Today, during story workshop, we practiced critiquing each others work by doing a “gallery walk.” During morning choice time, I had students do an observational drawing of a sea shell. Then, during story workshop, I hung these drawings up around the rooms. Students had the opportunity to silently walk around the room, looking at the different drawings and taking notes on the things they liked and the things that could be improved. Then, we selected two of the drawings for a class critique. Students made comments like, “I like the way you drew spikes because the real shell had spikes on it too,” or “I think you could add lines to your drawing because the real shell had curly lines on it.”

It is my hope that this practice will lead to helpful, honest critique of our work through out the year and classroom culture full of pride and care in our beautiful creations!