"Co-Investigation"
Co-Creating Knowledge with Students
How is "knowledge" positioned in the classroom?
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"The students - no longer docile listeners - are now critical co-investigators in dialogue with the teacher." - Paulo Freire |
Paulo Freire
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Power hierarchies must be disrupted in the classroom to empower students.
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On a particularly snowy day, my cooperating teacher and I noticed that students' eyes were glued to the windows. Rather than requiring them to focus on the math problem of the day, we changed our plans to do an art activity. As a teacher, I remain flexible and responsive to my students in a variety of ways.
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Student-created definitions are usually more helpful than the definitions that I provide. I often learn from students how to teach an concept in the future, based on their student-friendly language use.
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Student Research Projects and Presentations
The project does not end with the presentation of the poster. Throughout the unit on nonfiction text structures, I used students' posters to highlight my teaching points. They became our "mentor texts," and every student was able to feel like an expert.
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Students worked in teams to create informational posters of an animal. This was an introduction to our study of nonfiction texts, and students used many nonfictional text features in their presentation. More importantly, they felt a powerful sense of ownership over their opportunity to teach the class their new learning. |
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I gave each table group of third graders a word problem that they had to solve together and create a chart to teach the problem to the class. Students were beyond excited to share their learning.
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Literature Circles
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I led a literature group based on the book How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O'Connor. Throughout our reading, students debated whether moral absolutes exist. They recorded their responses in their journals. I also kept a journal and shared my responses with students as the literature group progressed.
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I led the first few discussions, but after a lesson on developing productive discussion questions, students each had a turn to discuss the novel. Some of their discussion questions included: Is Georgina different after knowing Mookie? And, What is the one most important thing you will remember about this book? All literature group members - myself included! - responded to these student-generated questions.
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Hosting a Publishing Party!
One of the most rewarding experiences of my student teaching year was the publishing party that I organized for the third grade class. Before the big day, I shared some tips with students about reading aloud to an audience. I also shared with students that I get nervous when I speak in front of a lot of people, but that I use these tips to help me. By sharing this with students, I think they were able to be more confident and sure of themselves - their nervousness did not stop them from sharing their work and sharing it well! Once all of the celebrations were complete, I asked students to reflect on their experiences as a published author.
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Engaging in the Same Work as Students
If I expect students to work and reflect in a reading response journal, I should engage in that same work alongside them. I completed a literacy journal in which I responded to the same readings that students were expected to do, and I gained an invaluable perspective. I gave students a list of possible sentence starters for their responses, because I noticed that it was occasionally challenging to respond to a text without any guiding questions. I was also able to share my journal with students, and some students offered to comment in my journal - just like I add comments in their journals! |
Letter-Writing
I keep all of the letters that students write to me, and I always write back to them. These letters teach me so much about students' experiences with me, and I always welcome their advice and feedback.
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Interviews
I took many interviews during the first few days of school to learn about my students' interests and strengths.
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