"Lets Give it the Once-Over": Cursory Contemplation and Cogitation

Let's face it timing is everything. In a classroom especially, down-time may bring mayhem. But pushing students every second with out a moment to breathe can cause drag and defeat. Students need to be challenged and empowered but they also need a few minutes to just be kids. To tinker, play even just talk to their peers. This transition time between ending a lesson and the bell can be purposeful and authentic but also fun. Cursory contemplation I call it. Quick reflection and spontaneous recall and synthesis. These little snip its of time in my class are not meant to be deep and thought provoking, merely a time to make connections. They should be simple, concise and entertaining. Like a meme. Relevant and silly but also sometimes, albeit rarely when it comes to meme's, educational.

One strategy I use is What if....this type of questioning stimulates fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration. They get to discuss with their table groups, or the whole class on occasion, questions like; What if cars could fly? What if all the rain forests were gone? What if no one went to school? They love to debate these types of questions and rather then having them put on head-phones or their nose in a book it brings students into a collaborative group. I also ask the question: Then what happened? I write a sentence on the board. A tornado was spotted entering the vicinity of  small town in Oklahoma, then what happened? A parking lot was built outside of a growing community. It lied empty, unused, for many years because the town stopped growing and construction stopped. What happened next to the parking lot? This activity is often verbal only. It makes connections between concepts. I often have them write their responses in their journals. This is a great way to make sure everyone makes a contribution. As a class we choose what we think are the most accurate answers to the scenarios. Then sometimes we go even further....then what happened next?

Role Play, skits, or mini-plays are very common in my classroom during these moments of changeover. I use them to highlight a concept by using personification. I was also a Language Arts teacher for 7 years so writing is very much a part of my science classroom. I have students take on the role of a cell, organ, catastrophic event, various animals, even eco-regions and they discuss their characteristics and interactions with the environment around them. Then often I have two different "characters" debate their importance and impact. At the beginning of the year students were organic compounds and they debated which one had the most important role in the human body- only to find out none of them did. It was a great revelation for them to see that not all debates have a winner. Anytime students can get up and interact with their peers is a good thing. Staying stationary for too long spawns stagnancy and staleness and I never want my class to be either. The more control and choice I put in their hands, the more they lead the more they are empowered to take-risks and fail. Then they see the world in a different light and their role as more of a tinkerer and creator and less as a follower.

Finally, all of these strategies require creativity. Creativity requires the use of both content knowledge and conceptual connections. A linking of information, connections between disciplines. Nurturing our students creative potential does not stand in opposition to teaching the standards in fact it aligns nicely with assessments and checking for growth and understanding. It is a complimentary tool that highlights a students effective thinking and encourages achievement because it puts students in the drivers seat. They love to be able to think for themselves, teach themselves, collaborate, and many of them love to show-off their skills and entertain their peers. So why not let them. If there are progressing learners who are shy and fearful of the attention, I let them write the script and a partner act it out. As long as everyone contributes in some way I am happy. These are not grades for me but an empowerment tool to allow students to discover their strengths and shine as the leaders I want them to be.