Pedagogical Narration By Arianna Geunae Kang Date December

Pedagogical Narration By Arianna (Geunae) Kang Date: December 15, 2016 Instructor: Alejandra Sanchez Partner: Seungsun Sunny Lee Practicum ECED 2382 F 16

What is a Pedagogical Narration? A Pedagogical Narration (PN) begins with observation of children’s play by using video tape, pictures and notes (Fraser, 2012). These observations can be put into various forms such as books, a Power. Point, poster board, and a video. With this process, we are able to identify the children’s interests and make their learning visible by evaluating their conversations, behaviors, and actions during their play and activities. This also allows educators to reflect on activities presented to the children and their response, as well as share them with the families.

What is the Early Learning Framework? This Early Learning Framework (ELF) document was thoughtfully created with the intent to support early childhood educators and other early year professionals in providing quality learning and care for children (BC Ministry of Education, 2008).

Ramp Explorations Based on my observations, lots of children showed interests in cars. Children like to roll the cars on a traffic play rug and they often played car racing games. Moreover, most of the children were excited about speed of cars and they competed with each other on whose car is the fastest. At that moment, I was curious to know Why children are fascinated about the concept, 'fast’. Therefore, I decided to provide the ramp experiment to children to let them test and explore what makes cars go faster by giving various angles and frictions of the ramps.

Other Questions -Why are children fascinated with the concept of ‘speed'? -Why do children like cars? - Are boys more excited about cars than girls? -Will children recognize the speed of cars first than cars’ colors and sizes?

Assumptions - Children may like the wheels or feelings of rolling cars. - Children can be fascinated with the speed of cars because they can make (control) the toy cars to go faster with their hands. - Children like speedy things because the movement of an object by itself is interesting. - Fast speedy things are more stimulating for children to watch and play with. - Boys may show more interests in cars because of stereotypical social media. - Children may look at the colors of cars first before the function of the toy cars such as the speed.

Theoretical concepts Ø Movement Theory Ø The Reggio Emilia Approach - Children are researchers

Movement Theory in Early Childhood Education (ECE) Gehris, Gooze, and Whitaker (2015, p. 125) who researched on how movement influences children’s learning, highlight that “young children have an innate need to move and this idea reflects how children learn best, which is by moving and having hands-on contact with their environment”. Furthermore, they argue that unstructured movement experiences help children build social skills and children’s self-confidence by being successful at movement skills (Gehris, Gooze, & Whitaker, 2015). In relation to this movement theory, I found that children showed a high level of involvement and interaction with each other during the open-ended ramp activities. Children shared cars and took turns while rolling their cars and different objects. Also, I heard lots of “I did it” and “I rolled this” language from children with pride. I felt the self-confidence that children developed when they achieved to find which one rolled the fastest, and rolled down the ramp. As Gehris, Gooze, and Whitaker (2015) state, I recognized that children learn best and fast when they have a chance to use their whole bodies while experimenting ramps with cars freely.

The Reggio Emilia Approach. Children are researchers Reggio Emilia’s the image of the child is one in which children are “competent, capable, and able to build their own theories” (Dietze & Kashin, 2016, p. 99). As Reggio Emilia believes, children often use various materials and objects to discover what they wonder about, question, feel, and build their own ideas, making their learning visible through many languages such as words, body movements, and facial expressions. Observing children while they were engaging in ramp explorations and their play, I could learn that children are capable of achieving their own purposes independently. Moreover, many children actively discovered and tried out different ways to test their theories using ramps and cars as researchers.

Exploration with Different Ramps <Science and Fine Motor Activity>

Rationale/Connecting to the Early Learning Framework The exploration with different ramps is a science (physics) activity that introduces ramps, angles, and friction to children through a fun play. By providing different kinds of angles and frictions of ramps such as towel, rubber, crunched aluminum foil and flat aluminum foil, children can test, feel, predict, and experiment what makes cars go faster. Through this activity, children can actively explore, and try out possible ways to identify about speed of cars(ELF, 2008). This activity will improve children’s creative thinking skills and problem solving skills by letting them figure out how different angles and friction of a ramp can affect speed of cars. Children are also encouraged to think critically by getting opportunities to hypothesize, and examine their own theories.

Lots of children enjoyed experimenting with cars. They rolled down cars on different kinds of ramps and compared. Evan: “It’s bumpy” (while trying his car on the ramp with strap) Gabriel: “Yeah, I don’t like it” Darren: “I like this one more” (pointing at the shiny-smooth ramp) After trying out crunched foil ramp using the table, Evan found a new spot to test his car again. It seemed like he was trying out different angles. Soon, he approached to Gabriel and Darren to see how they are rolling their cars on the smooth foil ramp.

Gabriel, Darren, and Evan rolled cars together and also took turns since the ramp was narrow. By putting two different kinds of ramps together (smooth and crunched), children compared and found out which ramp work the best to roll the cars.

When Evan left, Gabriel and Darren tried out different sizes of cars while changing angles of the ramps. Gabriel: “I think my car will go faster cause it’s small!” Darren: “I will try big one” They also changed angles and made it flat to see how cars roll differently. Gabriel: “Watch this! Let’s do game to see which one is faster. ” when Gabriel threw the car, they both giggled. Gabriel: “I won!” Darren: “Let’s do it again. ” It was amazing to see how children predicted and made a hypothesis about speed of cars. Throughout the activity, I observed that majority of children are fascinated with the speed of cars because they can make (control) the toy cars to go faster with their hands.

Peter came up to me and asked if he can roll his plastic carrot. When I nodded, he made a hypothesis that “it will roll down”. When it rolled down, he said with confidence, “See! It rolled!” Then, he moved to the crunched foil ramp and tried again. After trying out both ramps, he said, “This shiny one works better cause it’s flat and rolls down!” Overall, I was very impressed to see all children’s creative thinking skills.

Reflection Many children enjoyed rolling cars on different kinds of ramps. Children also felt the different textures of ramps and tested the ramps with cars. To my surprise, they quickly recognized the differences of different kinds of ramps by comparing the speed of cars. They talked about different textures by saying, “This one is bumpy but this one is smooth and flat. ” Then, they chose the most flat ramp to explore more. During the activity, most of them said, “I like this one more because the cars go faster. ” Some children played a race game with each other and excitedly changed the angles of the flat ramp to make their cars go faster. Overall, I recognized that fast speedy cars stimulate children’s interests. I also was stunned by their amazing thinking skills and problem solving skills. It was good to see how the children lively engaged in the activity with lots of movements.

Further Exploration with One Ramp and Other Objects <Science and Fine Motor Activity>

Rationale/Connecting to the Early Learning Framework Based on few children’s interests in rolling other objects such as a toy carrot in the previous ramp activity, I decided to continue the ramp exploration with new objects such as dinosaurs, Lego piece, marbles, cars, train, wooden rectangle block, plastic Easter egg, and plastic lid. This science activity encourages children to experiment one cardboard ramp with different objects. Through this fun experiment, children can expand their understanding of which objects can or cannot go down on the flat ramp. Also, by using a ramp recording sheet which allows children to draw the objects that rolled and did not roll down the ramp, children can actively explore, think and reason why it happened (ELF, 2008). Moreover, children can promote cognitive thinking skills and problem solving skills by identifying and trying out possible solutions to problems (ELF, 2008).

When I put out the ramp recording sheet on the table, few children came to the table curiously. When they found a ramp with different objects, they showed more interests. Kingston: “ I will try to roll this one” (grabbing rectangle foam block) Darren: “What about this one? ” (giving him a train) They seemed to enjoying rolling cars, and other objects. When I asked them to draw on the chart what they found, they drew things they wanted to draw. Victoria: “I will draw my family!” Darren and Kingston drew some lines and colored it. It looked like they have no interests in drawing objects they tested.

When Victoria rolled plastic eggs on the flat ramp, Nova and Angie came and asked what she was doing. Kingston: “I am rolling a dinosaur!” When Nova and Angie saw different kinds of objects to roll, they were excited to roll them. Nova tried blocks, lego, and plastic lid and smiled. It seemed like she was enjoying to see those objects sliding down. Angie: “This egg rolls! Wheee~!” Nova: “This one slides. ” After trying out different objects, Nova and Angie pointed out which objects slide or rolled down.

When I moved the ramp and other objects to a larger space to let more children to play with, Jeremy came and tried all of the different objects. Jeremy: “It will roll down but this one will slide!” He put the lid side ways and rolled it down and exclaimed that he rolled the lid. Jeremy: “Look! Like this! I did it!” He also changed the angle and identified the angle by saying, “this is steep”. Then, he began to roll a car with steep angle. Jeremy: “It’s faster this way! And it falls down!”

Soon, other children came with different objects such as a helmet and different cars. While they were trying what they brought, they were so trilled that they shouted, “Super fast” as they rolled it down. Children also kept changing the angles to make their objects go faster. It was a bit challenging for me to keep children calm down because they were jumping and shouting with excitement. Yet, I was very happy to observe children being active researchers and playing together with large movements.

Reflection Most of children (both boys and girls) showed interests and they were all excited to try out other objects. Many children also predicted which items will roll or slide down the ramp. However, many children were not interested in drawing on the ramp experiment recording chart. It seemed like they prefer more large movements than small when those two activities are together. Overall, moving the ramp activity to a bigger space was a great idea due to lack of interest in filling out recording chart. It was good to see children playing and testing freely with various objects and solving problems when flat circular lid did not roll. Children became more active and independent explorers as they made their items go faster by changing angles of the ramp. It was excellent problem solving and critical thinking skills!

Final Reflection/Conclusion The children were all really engaged in both ramp explorations activities that I presented. It was exciting to observe how children solved problems, made hypothesises, and created their own games to play during the activities. Even though children did not show much interests in ramp experiment recording sheet, I learned that big movements catch children’s attentions more. As Gehris, Gooze, and Whitaker (2015) state, I acknowledged that children learn best and fast when there are large movements. The large movement activities are also crucial because it can promote children’s self-confidence and social skills. It was an enlightening experience for me to see how large movement activities encourage children to be curious and lead them to explore materials and ideas further. In conclusion, I found it interesting to discover why children are fascinated about the concept, ‘speed’. Perhaps children are fascinated with the speed of cars because they can make (control) the toy cars to go faster with their hands and it requires large movements. I learned so many things from Shine Sign childcare center, and children. I will truly miss all of them.

Thank you to the teachers, children and families who participated and gave me this an enjoyable and learning experience. I will always remember this valuable experience. ~Arianna Kang~

References British Columbia Ministry of Education (2008). The BC early learning framework. Victoria, B. C. : Ministry of Education. Dietze, B. &Kashin, D. (2016). Empowering Pedagogy for Early Childhood Education. Don Mills. ON: Pearson. Gehris, J. S. , Gooze, R. A. , & Whitaker, R. C. (2015). Teachers' perceptions about children's movement and learning in early childhood education programmes. Child: Care, Health & Development, 41(1), 122 -131. doi: 10. 1111/cch. 12136