Today I began the PATHWAYS experience by asking the children to find a partner that they had not worked with before. My thinking was that maybe different minds together might help them to share ideas with each other that they each might not have considered. I also thought that it would be interesting to see how different personalities worked together. Since this was not the children’s idea, it was met with resistence. So I paired them up myself. After observing them for a bit, I saw that my meddling did not turn out to be proactive. Three of the six couples were working separately, meaning they were working next to each other, but not as a team. Two of the others were arguing most of the time that they worked together. One of the couples worked together peacefully. Suffice to say that this was a learning experience for ME. Constructivist teachers allow children to make as many of the choices in their learning as possible. The children had previously been doing fine choosing their own teammates and working together. I realize from this experience that my attempt to impose my will on the children in a system that did not need changing, was counterproductive. I suppose that the children learned a thing or two during the experience, but the focus was not on working together or the building process. I will not interfere in this way again.
Despite this issue, the children did manage to build pathways today. I am asking many of the same questions that I have been asking: How can you make your path turn? Can you make your marble move without moving it along with your finger? How can you make it go farther without touching it? Some are still building flat pathways with no incline. That is driving me crazy! It is hard NOT to tell them what to try, but I am holding my tongue in that regard. I am trying to think of different questions and strategies to apply that will encourage them to construct more knowledge. I will be patient. I will go to the REGENTS website where they successfully use physical knowledge activities and share their questioning techniques. Hopefully, by the next time my class engages in the PATHWAYS physical knowledge activity, I will have some new questions or strategies for encouraging construction of knowledge in my students.
INTRO TO RAMPS AND PATHWAYS 