Documentation Examples > Documentation Exhibition
Once is not enough: What effects can making thinking visible have on student learning?
School: Benjamin Banneker Charter School, Cambridge, MA
2. Surprises
Students reacted widely to having their photographs taken for the bulletin board ? from genuine reluctance (bowed heads) to glee. Except for Francoise, I took only one photograph of each student, unless the shot blurred. Francoise asked to have her ?reluctant? photograph replaced. Other students hinted at wanting their photos replaced.
The first time I chose and posted phrases or sentences from students? written work in the ?quote bubbles?. The next time, I decided to give students the quotes first and have them draw, cut out and post their own ?quote bubbles?.
A number of students wanted to edit their words (and thinking) before putting them on the bulletin board.
How students answered ?What two things did you LIKE about this idea?? surprised me. They appreciated reading each other?s comments and learning more about the thinking of their classmates. I saw them read each other?s comments only once, when I first put the pictures on the bulletin board. Students reported that the comments helped them develop their ideas about density.
Jessica liked the bulletin board idea because ?it doesn't require a test to see our thinking.?
The thoughtfulness of the student ideas on how to improve the bulletin board idea surprised me. They included:
? Have more topics on the bulletin board.
? Have teachers write explanations, too!
? Let the students see the photos before you put them up and have one chance to change the picture.
? Let students write questions, ideas, and more complete explanations (make the print bigger, too).
? Post things the class wants to know like a KWL chart.
? Ask a question for each week and have people answer it in the quote ?bubbles?. [?Ask mind-boggling questions?(to get the brain juices flowing.)?]
? Use evidence from past experiments.