Module 8-Synthesizing

The NEW Way of Thinking Creatively

Jolene Roseth, CEP 818

“Creative people have always combined many ways of feeling and knowing simultaneously…equivalents melding sensual and intellectual concerns.”-Root-Bernstein (p. 309)

What is creativity as it relates to my class and my life?  That was the question I asked myself before reading about the seven cognitive categories for restructuring the way we teach and learn in education.  To be a creative person it is essential that people use a variety of strategies, tools, feelings, and knowledge to create and understand new knowledge.   Using the seven tools for creative thinking described in Root-Bernstein’s book Sparks of Genius: The 13 Thinking Tools of the World’s Most Creative People, one can expand and build on their ability to see and learn things not previously known.   Creativity is one of the most important tools for a child to develop in their educational years.  Having the ability to take a project and make it theirs, leads students to deeper thinking and a greater enjoyment of the school setting.  It builds confidence and skills at a deeper level than simply following directions by rote.

One must learn how to think outside the box using their pre-existing ideas and experiences to create something Novel, Effective, and Whole (NEW).  Creativity is unique, valuable, and aesthetically pleasing.  Using the acronym NEW, Mishra and Henriksen propose that novel ideas are new and surprising, and did not previously exist in that form.  A novel idea may hold no importance if it is not effective.  A creative solution is effective if the results hold value and are relevant.  Lastly, Mishra and Koehler (2008) add that creative solutions and products need more than the ideas being novel and effective.  They need to also hold a strong aesthetic presence and be considered whole.  These three terms:  Novel, Effective, and Whole must be combined and work together to define creativity. 

Great inventors have used their creativity to create authentically new ideas that did not previously exist.  For children, being creative is using ideas already presented and using them in new ways.  The concept of “twisting the knobs” to slightly alter an existing piece of work or creative piece is what many children, and adults alike, do to be creative. Henriksen & Mishra stated,  “…Creativity, though it may feel mysterious, is not magic, and is not out of reach of our understanding.” (p. 15).  In order to develop children’s creative thinking processes, teachers need to provide activities for children that will engage and enrich the ideas and knowledge they currently have.  To be creative it requires a wide range of opportunities and disciplines such as art, music, poetry, and theater to garner the wide variety of strengths and interests children have and use these to help develop creative thinkers.  

One activity that I would like to introduce to my classroom and first grade team is the concept of Reader’s Theater.   Reader’s Theater is a strategy used by educators to help students with fluency, by providing opportunities for repeated readings.  I have never used this idea and find the concept fascinating and feel it would be an exciting addition to my classroom.  It requires children to practice their reading skills, but also to foster their creativity by letting their personalities and unique skills come through.  I would take this a step further, and use this activity to create a modified play. “Engagement is a critical piece of building reading and comprehension skills and plays an important part in reading motivation as well.”  (Reading Rockets Website, http://bit.ly/1ysZWqL)  It would then allow for creative design of costumes, props, and music.  So much of today’s reading instruction is pouring information into their brains and hoping they learn it.  It’s sitting for long periods of time listening with little engagement or enjoyment for what is being taught.  How can I develop life long learners, when they are not enjoying the process?  It will be important to teach the basic phonological awareness skills, along with phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.  Many of these skills can be learned through hands-on and active opportunities by allowing students to be involved in putting on a play.

Root-Bernstein laid out seven cognitive tools for becoming creative learners.  They include perceiving, patterning, abstracting, embodied thinking, modeling, and playing.  Each of these tools helps us to think about creativity differently and adapt our thinking and teaching to help others (and ourselves) become creative people.  By using these strategies to help create an activity that is both for learning and enjoyment, the Reader’s Theater concept will hopefully be a success.

The first cognitive tool we will look at is “perceiving”.  In Sparks of Genius, Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein state, “Initially, all knowledge about the world is acquired through observing, paying attention to what is seen, heard, touched, smelled, tasted, or felt within the body.” (Root-Bernstein, pg. 25)  What better way to observe good reading habits than to have children watch fluent readers reading?  To watch, observe, or perceive what it looks like to be a good reader, with accuracy and a smooth cadence, can give confidence to many children.  For children with less confidence, seeing others act out a scene, or even for those with few line who are still able to wear a costume, can give the reluctant reader hope that they will be able to do the same thing.

The second cognitive tool to foster creativity in my classroom is looking at patterns.  With the Reader’s Theater program, students would be able to use this concept when looking for and deciding on scripts to read. Creating patterns allows us to make sense of otherwise complex ideas, actions, and thoughts.  Patterns bring order to a world sometimes filled with chaos.   Having a story with repeating lines builds confidence in students.  The structure of Readers’ Theater also builds on the sequence and order students read their parts.  For instance in the script The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, http://bit.ly/1G7cB8E the story lists seven narrators that read.  They start with readers 1-7 then repeat two more times with the same order.  The children would automatically be able to identify the pattern of who reads when.  Patterns are reassuring when there is order to them. 

Modeling is another cognitive tool Root-Bernstein explains in their book.  This concept intertwines with these other forms of creativity, abstraction and embodied thinking.  They state, “Models can be formulated only after a real system or situation has been intensively observed, simplified by abstracting critical features, rescaled for human manipulation, and embodied physically or expressed in some verbal, mathematical, or artistic form.” (p. 230) These concepts of modeling, abstraction and embodied thinking would help foster my student’s creativity.  These cognitive tools will work well together when working to create a classroom scene that represents our story.  If we were to read and perform the story The Hungry Caterpillar, one can imagine a small tiny caterpillar that is eating an apple.  For a play we often have to use items that represent the characters or props.  The students would have to use their imagination for how to depict the caterpillar.  They would use this form of abstraction to bring the characters and scene to life.  Would they think of a costume, design a pattern on paper to represent its body, or bring in a stuffed caterpillar? Or would they have bushes or trees, and if so how would they decide which materials would represent the tree? They would have to scale their models to fit the scene.  Since this is a small play they would need to “act” out parts of the story. Using our bodies to physically interact by touching and feeling builds a stronger connection between our physical self and the knowledge to be learned or gained.  Perfect example of “embodied thinking”.   

Playing is what most children enjoy the most.  Any opportunity to learn through play becomes an opportunity for children to use their creativity.  Creating the opportunity through a Reader’s Theater activity, allows students the ability to play and learn at the same time.  The symbolic play of make-believe helps children act out what the characters, think, do, and feel.  They get to dress like the character, think like the character, and act like the character.  In Root-Bernstein’s book, the authors state, “Playing is therefore more than just exercising other tools for thinking; it is a tool in and of itself.” (p. 249) Play is a great motivator!  It fosters, creativity, interests, and pure enjoyment for learning.

The synthetic approach to creativity is bringing all of these ideas together.  We must combine our thoughts, feelings, memories, and knowledge to transform our thinking. (Root-Bernstein, p. 296)  Creating a structure for my classroom by introducing the Reader’s Theater idea, cultivates a thorough and synthetic opportunity for creative learning.  Education has shifted back and forth over the years regarding what is being taught and how it’s being taught.  Our current education is a strictly scripted curriculum through specified reading programs and specific math curriculum that teachers are being told to “teach this way”.  There are fewer opportunities for teachers to be creative and this leads to fewer opportunities for students to express their creative abilities.  “We need not change what we teach.  A synthetic education requires only that we change how we teach…” (Root-Bernstein, p. 317)  Bringing together all curricular areas, such as art, music, and other core classes, we can create a classroom that creates diverse learners.

I have learned this semester that all students have the capabilities to be creative learners.  Learning how to teach students in a way that allows them to utilize the seven cognitive tools for creative learners will create life long learners. Students will be able to use their knowledge and their imagination to produce innovative and original ideas. “Education is meant to open many doors, leading to many rooms.” (Root-Bernstein, p. 325)  As these doors open, so do the doors that lead to unlimited potential in children. 

Book/Journal References: 

Henriksen, D., Mishra, P. & the Deep-Play Research Group (2014).  Twisting knobs and connecting      things:  Rethinking Technology & Creativity in the 21^st Century. Tech Trends (58), p. 15-19.

Mishra, P., Henriksen, D. & the Deep-Play Research Group (2013).  A New Approach to Defining and     Measuring Creativity:  Rethinking Technology & Creativity in the 21^st Century.  Tech Trends (57) 5, p. 5-13.

Root-Bernstein, R. & M. (1999).  Sparks of Genius: The 13 Thinking Tools of the

           World’s Most Creative People. Houghton Mifflin Company:  Boston & New York

Other References:

Interview of Kelly Strouse, former Kindergarten teacher in East Lansing, on “What is Creativity?”

Website:  Reading Rockets, http://bit.ly/1ysZWqL

Website:  Dr. Young’s Reading Room, http://bit.ly/1G7cB8E

Elevator Pitch:

I've created a Glog to share my ideas about using creativity to guide reading and promote creativity.  Here is my link:  http://joroseth.edu.glogster.com/cep-818-creativity/

Twitter:
You can find my tweet by searching #CEP818.  My name is @Joroseth

Module 7-Playing

How Do I Love Thee-Play

The Activity:

          Playing is one of the most important skills for learning.  Unstructured and unguided play allows for children to interact and explore objects for purposes other than they may be intended for.  In Root-Bernstein’s book, the authors equate play as “…a tool in and of itself.” (p. 249)

          An activity that I would use to introduce rhyming words would include a variety of tools and activities.  The task would be to identify in a variety of nursery rhymes, words that rhyme and words that do not rhyme.  To incorporate technology, I would set students up during a center time with iPads with a specific rhyming application and headphones.   The student’s job would be to wear headphones and listen to the songs.  When they hear a pair of rhyming words they should clap.  When no rhymes are heard they shake their heads “no.”  When the rhyme is over, the students then draw pictures for the rhyming pair (i.e. wall and fall).  For an added activity, the kids could draw other pairs of rhymes they heard, or listen to multiple nursery rhymes and complete the activity.  There are several other extension activities that could be done with this.  The students could use sentence strips and rebuild the nursery rhyme by putting them in the correct order, act out the nursery rhyme, or use a splitter to have multiple children listening to the same nursery rhyme and then do a turn and share to identify rhymes both students heard. 

The Reflection:

Nursery rhymes have been around for hundreds of years. They are a part of most children's early childhood memories.  Much of the time these rhymes are simply read to children.  There is little opportunity to interact or explore through play when read during story time.  Though in many classrooms including Preschools, Kindergarten, and even First grade classrooms these rhymes can be used to foster play by providing a variety of games and activities.  Through unstructured playing with letter cards (taken from words in the nursery rhyme), little toy characters for re-enactment purposes or used to create their own stories or rhymes, felt boards, and technology applications on iPads or other tablets, children can use play to explore the concept, but most importantly to have fun with the materials. 

          
          I love what Root-Bernstein states on page 248 regarding play,  “…play has no direct or directing purpose outside of itself.  Play is simply for the fun of it, for the enjoyment of doing and making without responsibility.  There is no success or failure in play…however, to say that play has no inherent goal does not mean that it’s results cannot afterward be put to good purposes beyond motivating enjoyment.”  To play at home or school, children are capable of interacting with toys and materials regardless of their direct purpose.  Children can manipulate toys to fit their style and choices for creativity. 
           

The Creative "I" Project-Part 3

The Creative "I" Project:  Architecture of Space

          The space I chose is less for creativity and more for helping me to engage on the task at hand.  It allows me a quiet and what I see as a tranquil secluded place even though it exists within my family room.  It is the space I choose to go and work on lesson plans, readings, and graduate work assignments.  My dog, Louie, often enjoys sitting with me looking out the window or snoozing.  During the spring semester, I frequently will sit with a hot cup of tea, as my husband keeps the fire going in the fireplace next to me.  Ahhh…it’s quiet, it’s comfortable, I feel loved by my dog and husband, and for some odd reason I am able to tune out my children as they play around me sending Nerf bullets zipping by.  In moments of deep thought, I look out the window as I think and contemplate the issues presented to me by my professors, and form my ideas while preparing my responses to assignments.  I enjoy the light that the little corner offers, both natural and from reading lights and track lights above me.  It is the chair my husband indulged me with when I began my Master’s program.  It is the chair that I pictured myself sitting in for long periods of time, reading and working on my projects.  It has been “that” chair and “that” space which has helped me both physically, mentally, and emotionally work towards my Master's.

Summary:

          As a teacher, I typically set up my classroom before the year begins with everything in its place.  The classroom library is in the back of room away from the Smartboard, the tables are up front to optimize the view of the board.  The book boxes are close so they can get their folders without wasted time and the calendar area has all it’s parts set up nicely.  Each and everything has its place.  After reading the article, “Rethinking Technology & Creativity in the 21^st Century: A Room of Their Own” I have come to realize that this workspace at school I’ve created is a top-down model.   

          Now to think about my “study” space at home, I realized I attempted to work in several locations before settling on the “study” corner with my new chair.  Again I approached this with a top-down strategy.  My thoughts were to set up the best learning environment that I imagined.  A table was a necessity with space to set out all my books with strong lighting.  That was my optimal “study” space I envisioned.  So I started my studying at the noisy kitchen table (with good lighting, I must say), then moved to my bedroom where I thought the quiet would help, to the front living room which was uncomfortable, to my cozy chair in the corner.  It was a comfortable chair, in a quiet corner, but still helped me feel connected to my family.  The fireplace next to it allowed for me to place my caffeine (as all students seem to need), a warm feeling of content as I worked through my class assignments, and a view of outside.  After much trial and error, I realized that for me my optimal learning space was that soft comfortable leather chair in the corner, with my computer on my lap, my book next to me, and my dog giving me some love by cozying up to me.  I realized that I needed to adapt and my environment needed to adapt to fit my needs for the “best study spot”.   With this idea in mind it is clear that Christopher Alexander believed that, “…architecture emerges from the lived experiences of people.” (pg. 6)  With this philosophy, my natural instinct to seek out an environment that worked for me, it required different locations within my house, and understanding that moving my chair to the corner would have the greatest impact on my ability to focus and succeed. 

Module 6: Modeling

How Do I Love Thee: Modeling and Dimensional Thinking   

Graphic Representation:  The Five Basic Reading Blocks to Reading:  How Children Learn to Read      

          
         
Written Reflection:

          This week I decided to create a model to help parents understand the process for how children learn to read.  As I recently completed parent/teacher conferences, I took a little time to reflect on the information I shared with them.  Each year I pass out information on The Five Basic Reading Blocks to Reading:  How Children Learn to Read. https://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/PRFbooklet.pdf .   It was simply a yellow piece of paper with information on it for them to read.  It was neither dynamic nor interesting, and I imagined it would be tossed in the garbage or in a pile of papers to be looked at “later.”  My hope for creating this model is to allow for visual learners to see with a concrete model that the building blocks to reading are just that, blocks of skills that start at the bottom, phonemic awareness, and build upward to the ultimate goal, comprehension.  We first need to learn how to read and then use reading for learning.    

          In order to model abstract ideas and concepts, one must create a concrete visual representation by viewing the ideas from multiple dimensions.  Creating a model allows one to control the imagery and the ability to disseminate information to foster one’s knowledge of the topic.  Modeling allows you to use your imagination to abstract ideas into a physical representation with a multidimensional tactile object. I wanted parents to understand that reading skills need to be taught and learned in a specific order to optimize their child’s reading progress.  My model that represents The Five Basic Reading Blocks to Reading begins with the bottom or foundational piece then adds a new skill on top once the previous skill is mastered.   There is order and sequence to learning how to read.  The same is true for building a tower.  When a child uses blocks to build they start by placing one piece on the floor and building upward.  I started by sketching my idea for a model on a piece of paper.  This by itself is a visual representation for the sequence of reading skills, but lacks a concrete physical model. 

          This first reading block is Phonemic Awareness.  Phonemic Awareness is the “ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds-phonemes-in spoken words”. https://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/PRFbooklet.pdf.  The next block we place on top of phonemic awareness, and the next developmental skill to be taught and learned is phonics or alphabetic principle.  With this step, a child will now “learn the relationships between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language”. https://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/PRFbooklet.pdf.  Fluency and accuracy is the next reading block to be added.  The foundational skills have now been learned and children will now know how to segment and blend words, know basic sight words, and begin to read text smoothly and quickly.  At this stage, we focus on vocabulary, our fourth block.  Learning vocabulary can be learned directly and indirectly.  Vocabulary can be explicitly taught and can be learned by listening to adults read to them and engaging in conversations. The last block to be added and the goal for learning to read, is comprehension.  Learning to read is essential, but without being able to comprehend what is being read, one’s ability for future learning will be limited. 

          
          This 3 dimensional model for The Five Basic Reading Blocks to Reading brings a physical representation and order for learning to read.  From my experience, parents do not know or understand the different components to reading.  They do not break reading down into smaller parts to help their children at home.   With a visual, the sequence of skills can be easily seen and understood.  Hopefully parents will use this newly presented information to help their struggling reader. 

The Creative "I" Project-Part 2

The Creative "I":  Developing and Bringing It All Together

The Creative “I” Project—Variations on a Theme

            I will be the first to admit to anyone, that being “creative” is a significant challenge for me.  I see things in “black and white”, “right and wrong”, and the gray area is not a place I enjoy visiting.  In my opinion, this has hindered my ability to be “creative”.  It was refreshing to read this article and understand that my life experiences, my knowledge, and my interests are the tools to which I can foster my own creativity.  I felt relieved to read, “…it can be learned and developed with practice.” (Henriksen & Mishra, p. 16)  Understanding that creative ideas are seldom “new” in the sense that they are not original ideas, but rather ideas altered or developed from previous works in order to create something new.  The concept of “twisting the knobs” to slightly alter an existing piece of work or creative piece, resonated with me.  My previous projects were ideas I have seen before, but I personally “twisted the knob” in order to change them to fit my needs and my own take on creativity. 

          So, instead of choosing a song that is “my favorite” I chose a song that has been sung in my class.  I thought this fitting since my topic is Phonological Awareness. Singing familiar songs or reading poems has been proven to increase children’s fluency and help recognize the rhymes and rhythms of words. Children have sung the popular children’s song I’ve Been Working on the Railroad for many years.  In our current reading program, Reading Street, this song along with many other popular songs have been reinvented and written with different words to fit the theme for that weeks’ reading lesson.

Original Song and Lyrics:

I’ve Been Working on the Railroad

I've been working on the railroad

All the live-long day.

I've been working on the railroad

Just to pass the time away.

Can't you hear the whistle blowing,

Rise up so early in the morn;

Can't you hear the captain shouting,

"Dinah, blow your horn!"

Dinah, won't you blow,

Dinah, won't you blow,

Dinah, won't you blow your horn?

Dinah, won't you blow,

Dinah, won't you blow,

Dinah, won't you blow your horn?

Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah

Someone's in the kitchen I know

Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah

Strummin' on the old banjo!

Singin' fee, fie, fiddly-i-o

Fee, fie, fiddly-i-o-o-o-o

Fee, fie, fiddly-i-o

Strummin' on the old banjo.

Here is one adapted version of I’ve Been Working on the Railroad from Reading Street program:

My New Song and Lyrics:

“I’ve Been Learning to be Creative”

I’ve been learning to be creative,

which is a challenge for me,

I must learn how to thiiiink,

outsiiiide the box,

Using creee-a-tiv-ity

requires using pre-existing ideas

using your experiences

to create something “unique and new”.

Oh, It must be Novel,

It must be Effective,

It must be Whooooooole!

It must be Novel,

It must be Effective,

It must be Whooooooole!

Twisting the knoooobs tooo

create something neeewww

by using your knowledge

and experiences to learn.

Singing Creee-a-tivity

Creeee-a-tiv-i-teee

Creee-a-tivity

Coming up with something N.E.W.!

Click here to hear my “creative” singing version!

Module 5: Embodied Thinking

How Do I Love Thee:  Embodied Thinking

Embodied Thinking Activity:  Learning to read through movement

Phonological Awareness: Reading Words through different Modalities

The children in my class use a kinesthetic approach to learning how to read.  They use embodied thinking to interact with textured letters, Elkonin boxes, and bodily movement in order to connect movement with learning.  

Sandpaper letter tracing and blending CVC words.

 Using finger to guide reading.

Using Elkonin boxes to move chips for each phoneme.  


Embodied Thinking:  Written Reflection

          Embodied thinking is using our bodies, both physically (kinesthetically) and emotionally (empathizing) to learn.  Using our bodies to physically interact by touching and feeling builds a stronger connection between our physical self and the knowledge to be learned or gained.  Root-Bernstein state, “…individually or together, sensations of muscle movement, body feeling, and touch act as a powerful tool for imaginative thinking.” (p. 164) Learning through creative touch or movement can be used in the classroom for many subjects.  For young learners, the need to move is essential due to their developmental needs.  For this reason, learning sounds of letters or beginning reading skills through kinesthetic activities or approaches is very beneficial. 

          There are several kinesthetic activities I employ in my classroom to help students identify letters, sounds, and words.  “All people need explicit practice in moving their bodies, manipulating instruments or tools, and gaining awareness of their kinesthetic and proprioceptive responses.” (Root & Bernstein, p. 178)  Once students understand how to use their bodies and have the time to explore and practice, the learning begins.  It was difficult to focus on one topic, but in the end I felt that learning to read words by identifying letters and their corresponding sounds, along with learning to blend sounds to create words was an area that is crucial to phonological awareness.  Using the embodied thinking of bodily movement, I identified activities that would allow for movement that would reinforce the skill.

          My pictures identify several kinesthetic activities for learning how to read.  The first physical activity I use for students still learning the names and sounds of their letters is to use sandpaper letters.  This tactile input, of tracing the letters, helps to establish the name/sound for letters. Another approach I taught students was to use Elkonin boxes to build and blend words.  They physically need to move chips into boxes for each sound that they hear.  It provides movement that helps to make their listening for sounds astute. The last activity identifies children using their fingers to point while reading. This has proven to significantly improve their ability to track the text and read the words.  When students do not use their fingers and try to read without the use of their hands or fingers, their ability to read significantly decreases.  This simple movement is crucial for learning to read until fluency and automaticity is learned. 

            The connection of using a kinesthetic approach to learning was one identified by Howard Gardner in the early 1980’s.  Early in my teaching career I learned about Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences he wrote about.   It has been evident to me throughout my years of teaching that children are more engaged with learning and find opportunities for creative learning when kinesthetic methods are involved.  Using your whole body to move around the room, or touching objects for tactile sensations, along with moving your hands or objects directly connects to higher levels of thinking.  I have found it much more difficult to identify opportunities for embodied thinking by using empathy for phonological awareness.  It’s possible that using a reader’s theater approach to reading may help students to empathize with other children that need to stand in front of a large group, or to empathize with the character’s feelings, but I found this to be a stretch for learning how to read. 

Module 3-Patterning

How Do I Love Thee-Patterning

Identifying Patterns:           

                        Patterns can be identifiable in almost all we do in school settings.  We see numerous patterns throughout the classroom, with number lines, number grids, alphabet charts, seat placement, book genres, and word walls to name a few.  Word walls are very common in elementary schools and with lower-elementary teachers. They help provide children with a permanent list of high frequency words used often for writing and reading.  A word wall is typically organized by alphabetical order and words are added as they are introduced.  The pattern consists of letters placed in alphabetical order (A through Z) with words added to the wall gradually as they are taught. This format helps children to see patterns in words, creating and building skills for improved letter-sound relationships and spelling skills.

            Some teachers place all the sight words or high frequency words typically used for their grade level (K-3) up right away at the beginning of the year to save time, but this does not make for practical use.  The students are not familiar with how the word wall can be utilized and typically don’t capitalize on its functionality when it is pre-made.  Even when the teacher introduces it and informs the children that it is there for their use they still do not find it useful or take advantage of it’s immense worth.  Word walls would be most beneficial if made WITH the students in a timely manner.  One drawback with that procedure is that new words essentially could be added everyday as they are taught which could make it difficult for teachers, me included in keeping up. Teachers have a variety of opinions on which words should be included on the word wall.  There are many varying word lists that teachers use to create their word wall.  Dolch words and Fry Word lists are the most common.  With this particular word wall pattern, it is easily recognizable for the adults to see where to find each word (…it is alphabetical you see), but for children that are not able to identify the initial sound for words may be confused.  In addition to that fact, they do not typically know where to find each letter in the sequence of the alphabet making the task tedious.  They have to be able to identify the sound, find the letter on the wall, and then search for the word on this list.

Creating New Patterns:

           

            The word wall described above is one pattern a teacher can use for creating lists of words helpful to students.  After several years of being unhappy with my word wall, I decided to re-pattern my words into another form.   I looked at various styles and ideas from others, like interactive word walls, individual word walls, and special word walls, to name a few.  One in particular I learned about from a previous Master’s class is a “genre” word wall.  Genre word walls included lists of words we might use for specific topics.  So lists that include numbers, months, colors, animals, days of the week, foods, family, school, and clothes were all included.  There was a picture next to each list so the non-readers were able to more easily find the list for the word they might be trying to spell.  According to Root-Bernstein, “Forming patterns is really nothing more than combining two or more structural elements and/or functional operations.” (pg. 115)  This is evident in the new word list being used in my class. By using pictures and topics a new pattern was created that supports the organization of words, allowing for easy accessibility.

Final Thoughts on Patterning:

Creating patterns allows us to make sense of otherwise complex ideas, actions, and thoughts.  Patterns bring order to a world sometimes filled with chaos.  The randomness of objects or words on a word wall can lead to confusion and frustration.  Creating a new pattern for easy identification brings order.  “Pattern forming can also be planned and purposeful” according to Root-Bernstein.  The patterns I typically create are rarely accidental.   I am a planner and by nature I tend to organize, look for, or create patterns to make life easier and more functional for my first grade students and myself.  It can be challenging to take a familiar item or concept and attempt to view it differently, though worthwhile if we can learn from it, either through the process or end result.