what's important

Each session I ask the primates a question in small groups, record their responses, and post them on the bulletin board outside my room in a speech bubble next to their photograph. Visually, it is quite interesting...as are the responses! Primate responses reveal:

- how they are thinking (critical, concrete, higher level)

- what they are thinking about (personal associations they make with the ?)

- how they respond to others' responses (i.e., some repeat answers, some incite giggles or additional comments)

- how verbal linguistic they are (short-n-sweet vs. really looooooong answers!)

Plus it is a great community builder as we share our answers together and with the school community by posting it outside the classroom.

This year the focus of my questions has been on MI:

Session 1: How do you solve problems?

Session 2: What products do you like to create?

Session 3: What problems and products matter to you?

I'm phrasing the questions around Gardner's definition of intelligence (simplified): the ability to solve problems and create products that matter to society. This last question really illustrated how truly important semantics become when trying to assess what a primate knows--or in this case, thinks. No one had a response to this question, which I asked as a whole group since we were so short on time this session(see last post as to why!). In the moment, I realized I better rephrase quickly or I'd lose them, so I restated the question as: What things are important to you? This yielded beautifully revealing responses, posted below. If a primate doesn't connect easily to a question, they can easily get lost in A.) trying to figure out what you mean or B.) trying to figure out what you want them to say. The specific words we use are critical to drawing out THEIR thinking, and not what they think you want to hear...or what's right or wrong.

This in itself is a distinguishing characteristic of MI teaching from traditional teaching: The traditional teacher knows what s/he wants to hear-- there is a pre-determined "right" answer. Sometimes there is....although shouldn't there ALWAYS be room for different perspectives, alternate interpretations, outside the box thinking? The MI teacher spends time developing the question--making sure the semantics will inspire thoughtful answers that truly reflect what the primates think. Maybe there are no wrong answers, just different interpretations? Is that so bad in a world made up of unique individuals coming from diverse backgrounds? Doesn't that provide more learning opportunities for all as horizons are broadened?

The responses:

*please note I record responses as spoken by primates--grammatical errors and all.

"I think nature is important because if we didn't have nature we wouldn't have some types of food, and we need water and we need food.

"I think nature is important too. Building is important because we wouldn't have houses."

"Animals and children. I think water and plants are important because they help the environment and without water we would be suffering and everything would be dried."

"Art."

"Plants are important."

"I think science is important."

"I think friends and family are important. Trees because trees give us oxygen and without oxygen we won't be here."

"Important to me is my baby brother."

"Nature."

"I know this is weird, but playing with Q and Z everyday after school."

"I think math is important."

"I think earth is important because we actually wouldn't be able to be in a comfortable school if there was no earth!"

"I think that pets and family are important. I think parents are important."

"I think music is important because I really like to sing."

"I think recycling is important."

"I think friends are important."

"I think houses are important because if we didn't have houses when the rain keeps falling you would get really wet and sick and you might dies. I think water and food are important because if we didn't have them, we could get really sick and you could die."

"I think that a school is important because then we wouldn't study wheels and we wouldn't have cars."

"Love--it's because my dad says it's the most important thing in the world."

"I think the sea is important because without the sea those animals in the sea wouldn't be alive because they need water to breathe. And I think air is important because air helps us breathe and because without air we wouldn't be able to breathe."

Me: "Finding out what is important to my students is important to me."