Inquiry in Practice III: Full Circle
The following paragraph in italics was taken from a post titled “Embrace the Process” that I wrote in March before my 10 week practicum experience.
Where I am going:
During my practicum I will be presenting the students with as many “story, then study” lessons as I can. To cover science in my grade 4/5/6 Montessori classroom, I will be teaching microbiology, cells and microscopes, marine animals and environmental adaptations and plants. For each of these units, the first lesson or first few lessons will be framed by a story. Through this top-down framework, using read-alouds, drama, sequencing and independant stories, I hope to “hook” the students into further study.
To further my research and inquiry, I will be reflecting on this method of teaching. As storytelling does not come naturally for me, this is challenging and requires much effort. I will be monitoring and observing the students’ responses to the use of the Great Stories as well as other relevant stories and their willingness to listen and participate. I do believe that the Montessori Great Stories and stories in general are a valuable way to frame science and biological studies. This is a great opportunity for me as a beginning teacher to learn and attempt to integrate stories and study.
I’m happy to say, I did just that.. And more. The students responded so well to the incorporation of story, drama and movement that we embedded it in all of our science, poetry and culture study. The willingness of the students participation made this risky teaching method possible. I would often debrief with the students after every drama, story or group activity to engage about what worked, or hadn’t worked to see how we could improve. Students would often comment on the challenges of working with others in groups, but also about how great it was to get up and move and act out concepts or stories! One student was so explicit when he said, “can we please do this again? This is exactly how we learn!” This comment came after our drama sequencing of the Montessori Great Stories at the beginning of our biological studies.
During my community field experience at the UBC Orchard Garden, I learned about transmediation. Transmediation is the process of translating a work into a different medium. All the components of a transmediated work are interlinked with each other to form the whole network. I had been doing this during my practicum without knowing the theory and pedagogy behind transmediation. We were using drama and movement because it was fun and the students seemed to be retaining complex scientific concepts.
Moving forward in my teaching career I will most definitely be exploring the use of drama, movement and transmediation in my classroom.