Yes, some of those ideas true and some are false. But, learning becomes more meaningful when children can come to an understanding on their own instead of me lecturing about it.
We experimented, read books, and gained new understandings of those words as time went on. When we completed everything we went back to the old notes like I said we would at the start. It was time to weed out the wrong ideas.
One by one we took a look at each post-it note. As a class we read it, discussed it, and gave our opinions. As a child raised their hand and gave their opinion, they also gave an argument. Why did they think it was false? What was their proof? We came to a conclusion as a class, making sure we were all on board with the decision. This led to a few debates.
Here are some of the thoughts that were discussed. Italicized sentences are the children's words:
In the beginning of this process, I had to spend time talking about the difference between Star Wars and thinking of force as a scientist. This was one of those "force is magic" ideas that the children quickly realized at the end was false. Force is not moving. Force is a push or a pull. A force can happen without you touching (like wind or gravity), but not all the time.
At first there was a debate. Getting older and older means you are moving. You grow and grow and moving is motion. I tried to break it down like a definition. Motion means you get older and older? If another teacher came into the classroom and asked the kids what motion meant, and they said it means getting older and older, would that be right? No!
This post-it we argued it could be both. The class was split. It's true because you need a strong muscle to pull something heavy. It's false because you can push or pull something light. We got to a point and decided that the way this was worded could be false or true. Force happens when you try to move something heavy. But force is not always trying to move something heavy.
The children got really good at arguing their points by these last two ideas. This is another example of knowing what it the post-it was "trying to say," but not being 100% correct. These ideas could be argued. The water is wiggling the fishing line. It's pushing it. That's a force. I went back to the idea of a definition. If the principal came into the classroom and asked what a force was and the students gave the as an answer, would they be right? Would the principal think I was doing a good job teaching? Force is a push or a pull. Not a wiggling fishing line.
We argued (respectfully) over this one for a while. When you play and do stuff with your family, you move. You can try to sit still, but you're still moving. You blink your eyes. Your heart pumps. You can try to be really really still, but you can't. So we established that existing is moving. Moving is motion. Having a family means you will be moving somehow. But if we were a dictionary, what would we say about motion? Motion is movement. Is having fun and a family the definition of motion? I get what they're trying to say, but motion is moving, and that's not right.
This was reflecting. To be able to argue a point as to why something is false or true shows great understanding. To go back and remember how confident we were in these first thoughts shows the children how and what they have learned. The children laughed at thinking about how the first two post-its were so wrong. It was unanimous- false! Misconception! Wrong! Make a big X! But a few weeks ago the class thought it was right.
My role in all of this was to help guide discussion. I did not correct anyone's words. I was there to support thinking as well, because as some of the children verbalized- it was hard to put their thinking into words. It was a child's idea to use a check, and X, or both. Everyone agreed. I was the facilitator and posed questions to the group, but I did not make the final decisions. They certainly are scientists!
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