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Creating a Culture of Critique

School: Edward Devotion School, Brookline, MA

5. Ladybugs

Some weeks later, we had some live ladybugs captive in our classroom as part of a study on insects. We had opportunities to observe the insects over a span of days, and we had a whole group discussion about what we were noticing about them. Children worked in small groups to observe, discuss and draw the ladybugs. During this time, teachers recorded children's discoveries about the ladybugs. We continued to observe the ladybugs closely, including during their release into a nearby garden.

Once the drawings were posted on a bulletin board, we met in small groups to look at them. We still had a few dead ladybugs and magnifiers to use for reference. First, the group looked at all the drawings posted on the wall and then turned their attention to their own, individual drawings. Children were invited to make observations about their own work; other group members then suggested possibilities for improving the drawings. These comments often referenced their own work or that of other children. I suspect that this conversation would have been very risky had we not already built important experiences of and vocabulary for looking at each other's work.

One group's conversation follows:

Ms. Tonachel: Let's look at one picture at a time. The artist will talk first and then other people can say what they think. Is there anything you'd like to change about your drawing to make it look even more like a real ladybug?

Amir: I want to put some red in the place where the dots are and then put a black line in the middle.

Allison: Make the legs straight.

Amir: I made it that way because I noticed the legs have a lot of joints and the antennas.

Winston: Make the dots more darker.

Amir: I saw one of them had lighter dots.


Allison: [I would change] nothing.

Amir: A black line in the middle.

Alison K.: Maybe you could color the head black because look at these the head is black.

Allison: Okay.

Evelyn: Maybe you should add some antennas so it would look more like a real ladybug because the real ladybugs had them.

Allison: Okay.


Winston: I got all the details.

Alison K.: These [real ones] look really round and yours looks skinny, so maybe change it to round.

Allison: Maybe color the tips clear.

Winston: I can't color it clear.

Allison: Maybe keep it a little bit white.

Winston: Maybe the antennas should go straight up.


Evelyn: I thought I should put some white over it to try to make new ones because they look kind of lopsided.

Allison: I think you should do the same thing.

Amir: On the antennas I think you shouldn't put any dots.

Winston: I think you should put a little wing.

Evelyn: I didn't want to, like you didn't want to.


Alison K.: I could change it to erase these antennas because I can't really see them. The reason why one is all black is because it's the bottom, the backside.

Amir: You should connect those two legs.

Alison K.: I don't want to take that advice because I couldn't really see them.