Appendix A.

Examples of the teacher interview questions.

The purpose of this interview is to understand how teachers at ICS approach and improve their teaching, so that we

can identify important factors conducive of innovative teaching.

1a. How do you see the role of yourself as a teacher relative to a researcher?

1b. How would you answer the same question before you adopted knowledge-building practice?

2a. What are the three most important qualities you would like to develop in your students?

2b. What are the major things you do to develop these qualities?

3a. What are the most important efforts you make to enable your class to operate as a community? 3b. How would you describe this community? 4. What have been your three most important improvements in your teaching in the past years? Please elaborate when and how these improvements happened. 5.a From what sources did you first learn about the approach of Knowledge Building Talk (KB Talk)? 5b. In what ways have you improved KB talks in your classroom? 6.a What are the major challenging issues you encounter in your classroom 6b. How do you respond?

Appendix B-1

Chloe – Interview Experience of Chloe: 5+years Knowledge building experience. Column 1 contain the segment number (denoted as the line number for reference) in the transcript, column 2 shows who was speaking (R is the researcher, T is the teacher) and column 3 contain the text. The texts referred to in chapter 4 are highlighted in yellow (Section 4.2.1).

L1 R How do you see your role as a teacher as to a researcher? T I think the big difference for me prior to myself, prioritizing myself as a teacher

as suppose to a researcher is that the children always come from, so the immediate needs of the children in my class, the more global needs of what I want for the children of my class, that is always of my very first concern, where else is I am acting in the role of researcher, then I am trying to find information of the children in a more global way as suppose to the individual I am dealing with ... child development and in a big way, I think that is the big difference.

L2 R Follow up question - how would you answer the same question before you

adopted the KB, any difference?

L3 T I think that I wouldn't answer it so differently because I wouldn't have

understood what the role of the teacher researcher is like as much, and I think as a teacher I have always been somebody who has been very flexible, I don't teach the same thing every year, I never try to think that work very well, I am going to do the same thing again, I am always looking for ways to improve my practice, I think what. The kb process brought to me was making that more explicit and embedding it in an environment that is so embraced. And the work and the thing I do in class I used to be on my work, I was an individual looking at question and it really was more about just being the individual in my class, the way it is different now is that I am much more connected to the community that is thinking about the same question, even though I am in the same building, I am still more connected to the community thinking about the same question and it is so much more obvious, that the question that I am asking about the individual children in my class are broader questions that affect teaching generally. I think that is probe the change in my thinking, it has connected me I a broader way to other teachers.

L4 R What are the three most important characteristics you want to develop in your

children?

L5 T In the children in my class. I think the most important one is independence in

their thinking, I want the children to make independent purposeful choices about how they spend their time in class, so when they presented with the question, or a bunch of material, or an open time frame, that they can be thinking about in a very purposeful way about how they are going to pursue it, whether it is playing in the yard, or in a math class or thinking about big question, or the sound unit that we are doing, I want them to be knowing that they can act independently, they don’t need a teacher to guide them a whole way and telling them what is right or wrong.

SC~R

L6 T The second one, for me, really understanding how important respect is in a

classroom, that every voice deserved to be heard, their own voice deserved to be SI~R

heard, that is not what is about the teacher said, about what they want, we need to hear what everybody said, if you can really build the foundation of respect, it means if you are seating on a carpet with 5 yr. old or 12 yr. old, it means you can have a real conversation, you don't always have the same voices in charge, and it means you are listening to ideas in a very open way, so people are more likely to share their ideas with you, that is where their happiness is, where their sadness is, it is about respect

L7 T The third one, is the excitement, the enthusiasm, in ICS, I hope they burst into

my class everyday, wanting to be there because they know that they are going to have opportunity to choose what they want to do, to choose who they want to be with, and a teacher s making those decision for them, that we are going to be giving them the right kind of work, it is going to be interesting, challenging, not too hard, it is going to be interesting for them, so they can feel successful, so they can feel that, they can feel successful and they can feel enthusiasm in everything they do.

L8 T And intellect enthusiasm L9 R What are the major thing you do to develop these characteristic L10 T The first one, I try to model, a lot of my expectation for the children, so when

we sit on a carpet, we don’t sit on a chair, if children are on the floor, then I am on the floor, so I think that is important, for me to be at their level, I try in the conversation to, I am there and I might be guiding it, I might be facilitating it, but I am not running it, I am not the person who is saying, you are right and you are wrong. I am hoping that I am showing what kinds of comments, what kind of questions have value for the whole group. But that everybody deserves to be heard, so modeling it I think is so important. I try my best to really get at why the children are asking certain question, why are they behaving in a certain way, I think that is showing respect for them, that they are people who are complex, who have a lot more going on then what you happen to see in the exterior. So taking your time to find out what is inside is so important, I am very lucky that I get to come to school everyday loving what I do, and I get very excited about being with the children and I think that my enthusiasm can stay very rich, because not only my soul constantly amazed at what the young children can do at their age, and that because I don't do the same thing every year it always new to me as well, I don’t know where it is going to go, I really am letting the children lead, where our science discovery unit leads, it is really led by them, that is constantly thrilling for me, and hopefully that communicates itself to the children as well, I think that is a big part to it.

SC~R, SI~R. C/S~R CS&C~R

L11 T I have one more thing I want to say for the last one, I just want to jump at it

first. I give them time, and I think that it is one thing that is school and teacher, we don't do enough of, we don't give children enough time to follow through with what they are doing, so I try to give them time in a day and I try to give them time across a unit, so we don't spend two weeks on something, so we let it go as long as it makes sense, which may be (8:30) you never know, I didn't used to do that when I am a early year teacher, but now I am much more comfortable just letting them run along as long as they think it is valuable,

CS&C~R

L12 I What are the most important effort you made to enable your class to operate as

a community

L 13 R We talk a lot, we bring problem of understanding or social issue to the group, so C/S~R;

that we are not just talking about, we are understanding them, when we have a problem, not matter what kind of problem it is, you can solve something piece by piece as it just come up, with the few kids who are interested, or you can bring it to the community and then you can see that you are not just solving that small problem that just came up, you are trying to solve for all problem, for all conflicts, and so the children discover that there is a way of following through on problem, any kind of problem, there are people you can go to, there are vocabulary, strategy that you can use, and that they can be such a big part of problem solving, and then again, just respecting their interest, makes them feel so much a part of what hey are. I also try to make it clear to the children, you don't have to be friend with every body, it is important to say not everybody here is your friend, they are not going to believe you if you force something to them, you lost their trust. But I said every body here is a member of the community, so you don't have to love them, but you do have to treat them with respect and with kindness. That means you have to treat them with respect and kindness, you have to treat their ideas with respect and kindness, they work with respect and kindness, we do talk about it a lot, I try to be very consistent in the way I model that and respond to how I see it happening in class. Whether in a positive or something negative that is happening, I draw people's attention,

SI~R

L14 R How would you describe this community L15 T My community in my class or this school community

L16 R I think at your class level L17 T Well, I think that every year is a process, when they come in five years of age,

they really come to learn what it means to be the larger part of the group, for many of them it is the first time they see themselves as part of a larger group, they realize they are making an impression on their people. It is not just their world and they are part of it. A lot of work has to be done to help children figure out what their role is in that. I think at this point, we actually have a lovely community, you go into my class, you are going to see children commenting on other people work in a beautiful way, you are going to see children being inspired by what the other children do, not saying that they want to join them because it is fun, but using those ideas and translating them, I think hopefully you will hear an adult voice isn't the only thing you will hear, there are many conversation, what you will see is children who are very easy with each other and very easy and comfortable with the adult because they know the adults are there to support them and help them, to give them information when they needed, but the adults aren't there dictating what they are doing, I think that is how I will describe my community.

CS&C~R, SC~R

L 18 R What have been your three most important improvements in your teaching in

the past years, please elaborate when and how this improvement happened?

L 19 T I think a watershed moment for me, as a teacher, happened in my first year of

senior kindergarten. It wasn't my first one but it was a very important, it was the very first day of school, and I have told the story, unfortunately, before, but I thought it would be interesting to do a study on tree, and whenever I think about a broader topic that we might have been looking at. I think about how I can impact there interest in class, I try to think where they would go, every year, they bring leaves to class, every year in the fall, they bring it in, I figure they would be thinking of the leave and the color and maybe get to the sap, I have not gone beyond that, I was going to wait for the kids. The very first day, the

C/S~R

kids knew about trees and as they told me about trees, somebody said, branches, the root went in, twig went it, nest went in, and then a child said, lungs. And I just stopped and it was an important moment for me, because it make it explicit that about trees have lungs. I don't think I would have said that. But in such a clear way, it puts me in an interesting position, so I said, where would I put the lungs, and she said I don't know, but they have to breathe, don't they, they are alive. So for the next month, we looked at how tree breathes and that caught the interest of the class. I know nothing about it, it connected me very strongly to some people that involve KF, somebody in OISE who heard about it through the KB work that we did on Thursday, connected me ultimately to a professor, I cant remember, in Pennsylvania, or something, and connected me back, but it was absolutely fascinating. And it was so excited because I was really starting from stretch, I did have any idea how trees breath, it was so exciting, it was the first year, it was the first year that I came up during the Christmas vocation, it was three month passed when we were studying trees, and I felt that we had to stop studying tree, and in January we have to start something new, and we fought against that, at least we did start looking at new things, but I let the threads of the tree continue through, and it is amazing to know that you don't have to have these arbitrary barrier, you can do so many things, you can do literacy and drama, and deep thinking, and specific experiment, and every kind of learning that you are able to do, you can actually do one topic, because if it is a good topic, like tree, it is so rich and there is so many direction you can go, it linked them to the human body, because they were thinking about breathing, the they started to think about, finally about saps, and saps in terms of being blood, it was fascinating, and for me, that was a huge moment for me, as a teacher, to realize just how much you can blast open the possibility of depth and time.

L20 T It was a great year. Do you want more example L21 T Some other example. As a teacher, I think that a number of yr. ago, when I was

in the JK, I connected with Ronny when he was in the grade 4, and we were doing something about water and they were doing light and sound, I think this is how it works, so it all can fit together in terms of wave, and some of my kids were asking question about it. But rather then my leading the children somewhere, I talked to Ronny about it and ask him if his children in Gr 4, could be the children working with JK, so they had to think about how they would take the information they knew and explained it to four year olds, and they came down a couple of times to show us experiment, to talk to us about their understanding of it, that was for me a very important part of being a teacher, because I could see how important it is for Gr 4 students, the way it consolidated their understanding, it was so fabulous, and the way they were able to capture the interest and communicate their ideas to small children, was something that many of the adults find tricky, so that I think was a big moment for me. And first big change for me as a teacher, I feel like I am changing all the time, so it is hard to pick particular things, I think I think having being forced to articulate, what it means to be a teacher in the classroom, we are not always the authority in terms of, not always, the intellectual authority, maybe that is it. Yet you still have to pull the pieces together, you still have to be the one to make thing safe for everybody, physically, socially, intellectually, so juggling that in a way that feel right for me as a teacher, and feel right for the children, I think that has been a big change for me as well, because more and more I see, that I can hold all the pieces together, I can be that teacher who can manage things who can keep things safe, who can let kids know what really is ok, and be more flexible with what is appropriate and what is not appropriate and be more flexible with letting the children make decision for the group.

SC~R

L22 R Is from what sources did you first learn about the approach of KB talk L23 T Oh, it was all in here, it was all in this building; it was all knowing that some of

the teachers were involved in it. RR, right from the beginning, B.C, R.M, came on afterward. I was away, at some point, I was with very young children, and then I was with, I have my children earlier on as well. So things have been taking me out of the building, or I thought oh, I have very young kids I am not worried for that. One year I decided to sit in one of the meeting on KF discussion happening every week, that's when I started to hear about it more, I have heard about it in some of our meeting, but it seemed to be so disconnected, only when I started to sit in some of the meeting on a regular basis, that I heard about the more formalized KB process, and what I realized was, that it was really in keeping the way I already taught, we already gather in a group to discuss our interest and problem, and putting it into a stronger context, for their intellectual development, cognitive development and social development.

L24 R In what way have you improved your kb talk in your classroom? L25 T I loathed to say I improved it at all, for me, I feel that every year I am starting

from stretch, with such young children, they have certainly, they have1 or 2 yr. at ICS already, so they are coming with an appreciation, that somebody is going to listen to them, but for me, the struggle is always to be, yes, for you to be listened, but for you to listen to someone else, so it is always a little bit of a stretch, breaking down the hierarchy so that we don’t hear the same three or four voices dominating the conversation, so that anybody contributing the idea has some deeper value that everybody is going to hear it and act upon it, without me being the trigger for that, the beginning of the year, every year I feel like I am the trigger, so I might be getting better at it, but I don’t have the sense that I am getting better at it, I think I understand the context better, I understand the process better, but it, again its just always feel a little bit of starting from stretch, and at the end of the year, it is just, not by the end of the year, but by January, to have the pleasure of sitting on the carpet because I am so removed from so much of what is happening. At the beginning of the year you can hear my voice connecting a discussion after every child has spoken, even just to say. Point to the next person, and by January, the children voice, they are waiting for one voices to finish, they want to say what they are saying might have changed while they have waited, but now they are responding to what they are going to say, based on what they just heard, so it comes later in the year, and then I just try to catch that and go with it. I don’t know if I am getting better.

L26 R Is what are the major challenging issue you encounter in a classroom recently L27 T This year, I am finding that I have social issues, that I am not encountered I this

age group, I have a few children, specifically a few girls, not so much the boys, but more of the girls were sophisticated in some of the way they use their positions socially to manipulate other children and to make other children feel good or bad about themselves, and so that has been a big focus for me, in terms of the work I am doing in the community, again breaking down this hierarchy because the students in the beginning were regularly being hurt , they came in with a culture where certain voices has absolute authority over the other children. If one of them says something, the other children, even if they were very upset, would accept it. So I am not going to give you don't any example but it was very troubling, so I really work hard to make sure that when we are having any kind of discussion about some kind of social conflict, we are not used to dealing with so many deliberate and unkindness as I have this year. It

really has got over the worst of it I think. But that of course translate so much, if you were willing to be unkind to somebody, unkind to them about their feeling then why wouldn't you be unkind about heir ideas or anything else. So that has really been a focus to me, and making sure that when we are in a group, children who are used to being follower, used to accepting the authority of few other children, know that I value their voice as much as I value what these child has to say. Maybe at that point, I value it more, because it is new, it is new for them to speak up, and it is new for the group to hear them. So I am working so hard trying to get those voices heard, and even dampening a little of the other voices, and that create its own difficulty because for the children who are used to be talked of, they feel threatening, I need them to feel safe and successful, but I need them to feel safe and successful without affecting other children.

L28 R I guess you already responded to the following question, which is how do you

respond to the challenge and issue.

L29 T I think that is the main one of course, I make sure I speak, if I really have a

child that I have concern, then I speak to the parents about it, I let Ellen know about it, I talk to any of the specialty teacher that will be involve with them, I talked to my peers about it, those who have taught the child before, or whom I think might have particular insight of it. Because of the child they are teaching or their experience, of course if it translate more specifically to the work that we are doing, the idea building, the inquiry, the map, whatever, then I would definitely be taking to the other teachers in the building to ask for their advice.

Appendix B-2 Nancy (Case study 2 in Appendix B-2) – Interview

Experience of Nancy: < 10 years teaching experience; 2-5years Knowledge building experience. Column 1 contain the segment number (denoted as the line number for reference) in the transcript, column 2 shows who was speaking (R is the researcher) and column 3 contain the text. The texts referred to in chapter 4 are highlighted in yellow (Section 4.2.1).

L1 How do you see the role of yourself relative to a researcher?

L2 What I realize is I feel as a teacher there is a lot of different role – being the subject of research, sometime I am being the eye of the classroom to develop research. Being a teacher is also a co-designer – we work with people to design and determine what kind of research would work well. As a teacher, bringing valuable question to the research. I think as practice, we should always have a mind of a researcher, even if there is no research in formal way, as a teacher growing with the teacher, asking ourselves question, testing things out, what kid observe and the feedback that can help with our practice.

L3 Before adopting KB practice

L4 It was one of the most exciting moment for me, for my MA class, we

went to visit Bev classroom and Ronny and Belle telling us about KB – I was very excited about this kind of thinking, about education about thinking.

L5 R What are three most important qualities you would like to develop in your

students

L6 T Part of coming to ICS – I felt that adults are kind to children, there is a

kind of respect among people who work here and that piece of kindness and respect is something we value here, for their ideas and for themselves as a person. That piece of respect is what we have been working on with the children and we hope to model that to them.

L7 T Curiosity is part of why I think I love KB so much. It is this feeling that

we can be part of what spark the children or where their curiosity is now that is for me a way to understand children thinking. The wonder and of the world that is so full of beauty, that sense of wonder and being amaze of something, of new thing, felling that satisfaction, the world expanded, that start with our natural instinct of thing.

L8 T Wisdom for children, to be in a community, we need to have our priority

sorted out. Ho to make choices for the people around us.

L9 R What are the things you do to develop these quality L10 T We talk a lot, as a class, as adult, we reflect on things, my own wonder,

my own reflection, we work through conflict together, if they are having trouble with each other, I want to be with them, my own wisdom is called upon, how to be with them to be kinder, more comfortable, in ways that

SI~R

can allow us all to be exploring that curiosity, a lot from talking to support the social conflict, also allowing them certain freedom so that they can encounter those difficulties. Letting them run into the difficulties so they can have those feel and conflict.

L11 R What are the things you do to allow your class to work as a community L12 T I think first I asked question, I ask a lot of question, that is I am trying t

find out a lot bout the children, about heir feeling, their conflict, their family I know better how to support them. For the community is my own knowledge about them. Both by modeling and finding out about each other, also when I know the children well, it helps me to support them as individual; I expect them to work and to listen to each other. We put quite a lot of thought on, how we group the children in different ways. We think about if it is more helpful for them to work on their own or as a group. Many things we feel we have to talk as a community, as a whole class, because of that sense of community, without anyone not being involved.

S/C~R

L13 T I think as teacher, in my classroom, with student teacher, we talked more

about collective learning more then individual learning. We want to know the children as individual so well that we know how to support them. In my talk, as a teacher of the classroom, I talk to them a lot more about how we are all learning, rather then, are you getting ahead? Are you getting ahead? And part of it is in that no marking, about not being competitive, in that how it is helping all our learning.

L14 R How would you describe this community? L15 T A school community is a group that shares opinion, questions, and

responsibilities for finding that new thing, share the responsibility of making it s safe school. Everyone in the group has that responsibility to bring their critical thinking. Share the opportunity to have fun and they can express themselves, I want every child to feel save to share. They share their responsibility for people to share and for people to be happy at school and where they can feel comfortable learning.

L16 R What have been three of your three most important improvement in your

past teaching. How and when these things happened.

L17 T There are so many little things; it is hard to see it happened. I think my

expectation has been refined. When teaching gr 2 the second yr. I know more of what I expect and what my classroom looks like. I think that it just come as experience that you become clear about what you expect and where you feel you children can go. It sort of feeling there is system that helps me now. Come with experience knowing better how you organize time and how the classroom can work well. The other piece, with time, with KB, I feel this year I have a better sense of the arc of the year and how the learning. Like last year when I really first time doing KB with 7 yr. old, but having the year, I know that in September, I have so many more months to come, I know what is realistic, when that energy flow of the learning is about, more of a grasp of what the year looks like (15:27)

CS&C~R

L18 R Some kind of expertise of growth

L19 T From what sources did you first learn about the approach of KB talk L20 T In my MA – Belle and Ronny give about KB – I don’t know how much

they did KB talk. I did my intern with her – with children doing he kind of KB talk – I feel what I do in my KB talk – also talking to Patty McDonald – she did in Gr 2, she has such great clarity, she tells me about the way she did that, and what she expects.

L21 T Pat, she was my teacher in summer at Clandestine – through teacher

college Columbia.

L22 R In what way have you improved KB talk in your classroom? L23 T This is interesting for me; I feel that the group of children is so diff this

year, it is hard to know if the diff is the children or I. I feel that the KB talk is so much more purposeful this year, mostly I just think it is the children who seem to be many deep thinkers, and they love to share their theory. On the other hand if there is a little piece that I am contributing, I think I am helping the class to focus on better questions so when the kids question come up, I think it is better then before, when I judge if this could lead to a good KB talk. I think maybe I am doing a little better. I think the children were amazing.

L24 T I feel that I only have 2 yrs. to compare to. I was in nursery before. The

only formal BK talk has been last year and this year. The two group of children where so different in the way they speak to each other for me to tell.

L25 R What are the major challenges in classroom recently? L26 T In my classroom as a whole? Or with respect to KB. L27 T I am thinking about KB – it is ‘time’, we were kinda getting momentum,

and then we have Halloween, my COI. Finding time, not just when you are exhausted yesterday, I spent a few hours on COI. That felt so good. Normally I find it difficult to find a good time to contribute, other then technology. Once my COI got erased, and another time I wanted to get on outside school. That is probably what teacher is feeling. I need to find better way to do that. I feel that there is a lot of support her.

L28 In terms of the kids, I don’t think it is a good issue. I need to talk to them

about what is a good note. At this age, sometime their learning, I need tot talk to them about what good notes are. At this stage they are learning about research, after that I realize they were putting things right from the book onto the database that were straight from the book

L29 The other thing, which I think is also a natural part of KB, focusing, like

the questions are just so many, I think we have that balance between the incredible expansiveness of the database and following the kids and for us to go deeper into certain question. I am still trying to figure out what are the deeper things we could do, rather then stay on the surface of other question.

CS&C~R

Appendix B-3 Bruce – Interview

Experience of Bruce: <2years Knowledge building experience. Column 1 contain the segment number (denoted as the line number for reference) in the transcript, column 2 shows who was speaking (R is the researcher) and column 3 contain the text. The texts referred to in chapter 4 are highlighted in yellow (Section 4.2.1).

L1 R How do you see the role of yourself as a teacher relation to a researcher L2 T Here, the teacher, we do, I mean we are reflective, as a researcher would be,

any research, any reflection; any thinking is narrowly focused on teaching. It is to improve practice for the next day. I think as teacher, we don’t feel the need to come up with research and question and things like that that can extend beyond my classroom. We are interested with, what will improve the practice, if a teacher fined something general in other classes, that is great but that is what a researcher might have to look at. Seek out what is generalizable beyond one classroom.

L3 R So you see yourself as a researcher but only in your class and your practice. L4 T I hesitate to call it research, it is reflection, there is a grey area – research,

reflection, assessment, all operating at a low grain way, I try to rad, I do PD, I look carefully at the students, I look at the action research, but your are right, the research is for my class and my practice.

L5 R How would you answer the same question before adapting Knowledge

Building

L6 T I might be in the process of adopting, just recently. Before that, I don’t think I

would use the word research at all, in terms of what I would do; I think the KB practice emphasized the teacher as a learner at the same time. I am looking into much more improving my practice, not so as a learner or a researcher, I would have thought about improving it in different ways.

L7 R What are three qualities you want tot develop in other children.

L8 T One that I would like to, In a phys. Ed. content, one thing I have been working on and doing a lot, the KB is really an important part of, I like to, by the time students leave, I like them to have a sense of being a critical analyst of their movement skill, they can really know how to watch someone preforming a skill or a sports and apply to what they are doing. A critical analysis of movement, and what goes along with it, they see their movement and skill are improvable. I am quoting from the KB principles, but that is the application into phys. ed, is that children don’t always understand that they can learn how to throw a ball better or they could learn to catch a ball, but I really want them to have that sense, that you can improve. That probably 2 and 2 at the same time. Then the third major part of that job, what it means to live an active and healthy life? Also learning the concept and idea of fitness and healthy living.

L9 R Wellness?

L10 T A nice umbrella term to it.

L11 R And what are the major things you do to develop these qualities? L12 T The first one, really being critical about their movement and realizing that

they can improve, that is when I try to implement more KB-type technique. It is hard for me to talk about KB – I call it KB light, I don’t have the time with the student to have that deep conversation, also the type of content and subject I deal with, doesn’t lend to the certain things like archiving of ideas, in ways it is not KB, we don’t write things down in gym, but I have tried to approach project and sports kind of from the vintage point of KB to have them understand that there is sort of a community understanding, a wealth of things that our group know what to do if each can contribute something that all can learn. I tried not to be the authority, not because I am an authority but Phy Ed lends itself as a top down thing. That is definitely that for the first one.

L13 T And in terms of healthy lifestyle and wellness: really we I try to do is to

approach in 2 angles, I try to give them experience in exercise and fitness, so that they have that direct experience of what t is like to be exercising, what it is to be healthy, in more concrete way, they learn about diff component of healthy lifestyle. They also experience it Here is fitness about strength and we also do exercise in all those things, it is always an experience.

L14 R What are the most important effort for your class to work as a community L15 T Yes, you are often dealing with situation that can be competitive, to be honest,

the older students often time, some degree of competition can be motivating to them, they like to play games with each other, and that could be good for their skill development, that level of challenge, I think I do a lot of work on how competition and how to handle competition and how competition can exist as a community. I model, demonstrate and discuss at great length, especially the younger grades, what do you do when you win a game, what do you do when you lose a game. We talk about that a lot. I talk about my expectation a lot, nothing we do should be taken too seriously and people should not feel hurt and the other thing I try to do is emphasize why are we doing what we are doing, e.g. soccer, we are doing it to improve our skill, we are not doing it so we can see who is the better soccer player.

SC~C

L16 R How would you describe this community L17 T I am lucky because I am not the one building the community in the class, it s

really the classroom teacher who can build the community. They probably can describe it better. But at the same time, I would say that if there is some hallmark for all the classes here, the word inquiry popped into my mind, their community that is almost formed around inquiry, anytime I would ask a question and also their community is where contribution to discussion is expected and value and encouraged. All of them, most students are not shy to contribute, when they have idea, they contribute them.

L18 R What have been your three most important improvements in your teaching? L19 T I would say that the first, this is only second year teaching, the first is the few

month into my first year, I achieve the smallest number of confidence, I sort of get over the basic, these things became easier, I though I knew the kids,

knew my role, so just coming to some level of competence, that was a big change. The second was the collaboration with Richard last year on the long jump project. My first real experience with meaningful collaboration between disciplines, and teachers. That was the first time when I really make the link with another discipline, another teacher and the KB approach of achieving the goal of getting the students to critically look at their motion, that change my mind just about anything. The third, just about a month ago, I don’t know why I decided to try it, I thought I would try to adopt a more KB approach, not integration, I tried to do that in a Gr 5/6 classes in a basketball unit, part of it, they are used to that in the community, part of it is that it worked. It felt right to me about the way of teaching, the way of doing thing, I think I would be doing more of that with many classes. I think there is a culture here where it is ok to take certain risk with your teachers, and those kind of things, taking risk or trying to do something different and innovative is value and not seen, not look down on, even if it is not really working out, I think most people here are forth coming, they have all done things that have not worked out, they understand that there is a lot of casting apart and see what will work and what wont, there is value in the process, and everyone see it and not an environment, no an environment that you have to hide it if it didn’t go right.

L20 R From what sources did you first learn about KB talk? L21 T I think where I first learn would be in my first year at MA program, we heard

a little bit about that through our courses where the lab school teacher would come and speak to us, I also di a bit of work as a work study student but I can be really honest to say that I didn’t like it, I didn’t get it, I did understand it, I think the classroom I was in, the classroom wasn’t doing it as robustly as they should be, they are at the early stage, I didn’t see the diff between KB and KF I certainly didn’t understand it, where are we massing up with these computer when they can be done other wise. I didn’t get it until the KB meeting on Thursday and I really from listening too other experienced teacher, that is when ire ally understand and why it can work. There is one moment where I fell like I really got it; it was when carol was telling the story, reading a transcript of Kb talk in her SK class. About astronomy, sun and the moon, she was describing the light bulb, illustrating the sun, the day and night came from. She was reading through it, appropriate, myth, God etc.…then one child got up and walking around the sun, and rotating as she said it, she figure out the day and night come from at age of 5 but when carol read it, she has the same respond to the other theory, she just said, oh, that is a great theory would someone has other theory, I would have said, yes, you got it. Lets everyone try to understand it now what I realized when Chloe read the story, it is the whole other approach, when you run the KBC as she was describing it, if you pull out the kids and tell them they got the right answer, you are not going to get the kids to come u with theory and they might be ignored if you don’t tell them. I never see it that side. When I presented, back to that moment, it is a big mental shift, you have to really think about your teaching a different way, it is very counter intuitive, it doesn’t seemed right, the one that is true and the one your should let it sort of pass, but that doesn’t seem to be the right thing to do. That is a very productive moment.

SC~C ! SC~R

L22 R In what way have you improved your KB talk? L23 T The thing I just started doing, in the basket ball unit, something like that,

where we, something like a KB talk, have the children at the end of the class, seating in a circle, have a basketball and demonstrate what they do. They would stand up, do a little dribbling, and go away from defender. They are a bit trained in the KB talk and the child will put up the hand and another one would demonstrate, recently they have started to do a little building on, some child say, oh, you can do it better like this. We have started it and it seemed valuable for the kids to do it like that.

L24 R Q – sounds like it relate to community building L25 T In the classroom, a lot of kids are interested in talking what they know, but

some in phys ed, they are still not too willing to do that, a lot of work, a lot more community building to get them comfortable to do it. But that being said, the teacher did a lot of work in class.

L26 R What are the major challenge and issue encountered recently? L27 T For me, the major issue is the lack of time, I mean space is a bit of problem

too, and I think the time is a big problem because in a way that I would like to teach, I would like to teacher aiming at a greater depth of understanding, a greater depth of skill and understanding, that is hard to accomplish, if you wait a week, it is hard to start a thing that you started last week, so I mean that is one challenge, I think another thing, another challenge is that the children responded so well to an approach where they can work more freely without the authority, the challenge is to find a way to do it, to remove my authority. The coaches, they are set to do everything, that is hard to negotiate

Appendix B-4 Dorothy – Interview

Experience of Dorothy: <2 years Knowledge building experience. Column 1 contain the segment number (denoted as the line number for reference) in the transcript, column 2 shows who was speaking (R is the researcher) and column 3 contain the text. The texts referred to in chapter 4 are highlighted in yellow (Section 4.2.1).

L1 I How do you see the role of yourself as a teacher relative to a researcher L2 R I think in terms of myself as a teacher, my role would be sort of as a facilitator with

the students. Having the students come up with those questions and me to helping them to answer to their question, how to think critically on their question, how to look back and see, if their answer is satisfactory and what they still need to know. Maybe as a researcher, it is more removed, in terms of observing the students, tried to engage them with the students. As a teacher I am more engaged with the students.

L3 I Do you also see yourself playing the researcher role L4 R I think always as a teacher, you are always in your head thinking about what you can

do in order to improve, and how the students can get into another level of thinking, and so yes the teachers are researcher in that sense, them asking their own question of their students, do my students understand this concept, how can they move forward, what misconception do they have, and then through observation and engagement with the students, thinking, ok, have the students now master this, what can I do differently next time, tomorrow, immediately to improve their learning. So a teacher always has question of themselves, how the students are moving forward, hoe they can change their style of teaching and how they can reach the students to change their misconception or classroom practice or whatever it maybe that they identified.

SC~C

L5 I When did you adopt KB practice, before or after? L6 R Hmm, when did I adopt KB practices? I would have to say in a formal sort of sense it

would have to be this year because I just came into the school this year and I really over the summer going to the IKIT conference, got an idea of how KF is being used in class, what my role would be with it, and really an introduction to, what would be the power of program was, and how students could use it. And this year I am looking at how students used it in the past, their knowledge, or their comfort factor with it. Because I wasn't so comfortable with it, and so I really got a chance just this year to start exploring using KB talk in order to improve the idea in a more formal way, in the past, I say, I always sort of looked to students to see if they can improve what they know, coming from a more constructivists philosophy rather then top-down, coming from the students. So I have always done that, because I believe the learning isn’t as meaningful if it doesn't come from the students, and they don’t build those practices if they don’t make the connection with each other, but this year with KF and KB, with those term I would say last couple of month at ICS.

T~C

L7 R What are the three most important qualities you like to develop in your students? L8 T One of them definitely is, their sense of agency, them having be confident in

themselves and know that they can find something out, and they can produce result, and they can think about their own questions rather then the teacher as the source of all knowledge, so their sense of agency for them to be able to research and find out question that they have, would be one. Critical thinking I think is another one.

Having them, having the students be able to look at the question, or look at the webpage or look at sort of information and be able to critically think about it, where is this coming from, what does it mean, even in their own writing, critically thinking about what they are producing and what they are reading from other sources, and whether it measures up to that sense of what they are looking for, and bias and that sort of things. I guess that it go across all science and math and in all areas, especially in math too, the critical thinking of how do I solve this problem, looking back and saying, have I answered the question or if there is something more I want to find out, this sort of looking at other people work, with a critical sense and being reflective.

L9 T And third quality I guess would be in general sense, across the board, maybe skill

development of, constantly having the students be able to improve their knowledge based and improve their skill base, in all areas, and being able to, let say in a certain area, looking at the sense of agency of them doing that, and also me helping them improve what they know in certain area, content related, and making sure that they are in a continuum, to go to sort of that next level. I guess embedded in all those things would be being able to be reflective and ask good question, would be embedded in all those area.

L10 R What are the major things you do to help them develop these qualities? L11 T Making sure the classroom is open enough so the students felt comfortable that their

opinion are valued, that other students value their opinion, and they feel comfortable to express their ideas, and that their ideas whatever they maybe are valuable and important and can be build on by others or themselves, so keeping that openness of community of learners, where each person value for the ideas they have, they can bring to the group. Being able to facilitate I group work so students can collaborate and work together so they don’t think that teacher or themselves are the sole basis for knowledge and they can get knowledge from one or two places.

L12 T I think always as a teacher, you are always in your head thinking about what you can

do in order to improve, and how the students can get into another level of thinking, and them asking their own question of their students, do my students understand this concept, how can they move forward, what misconception do they have, and then through observation and engagement with the students, thinking, ok, have the students now master this, what can I do differently next time, tomorrow, immediately to improve their learning. So a teacher always has question of themselves, how the students are moving forward, hoe they can change their style of teaching and how they can reach the students to change their misconception or classroom practice or whatever it maybe that they identified.

C/S~R C/S~C

L13 T In terms of skill development, of question, making sure I can get material from lots of

places, and having the students be able to look at something with a critical eye, I guess would be more then doing active, just at the beginning of the day, just get them thinking in that sense, it could be a word puzzle or math problem, where they work through it in order to develop that, you know, base of beginning and end of what they need to-do to improve their ideas and improve their skill.

C/S~R

L14 I And so, question 3 what are the most important effort you made to enable your class

to operate as a community

L15 R I did a little bit, making sure they feel comfortable in a group, and working

collaboratively is a big thing in my classroom. If they work with diff people and they see that they can come up with diff ideas, the class would come up as a community rather then an isolated set of learners, you know with their individual set goal, trying

to get there by themselves, trying to get other people idea, and so working with each other trying to get people's idea, making sure that their questions are valued, and the answer is not coming from me, and so students wouldn’t necessarily, like we did a math activity this morning, they have to justify the type of graph they used based on the survey question, so they each have to defend as a group, which group is best to represent data. So in the end, students say, so what is the right answer, I didn’t tell them, I said, we each look at pro and cons of each one, and the each ask question of the other group to clarify their thinking, so that build that community, knowing that they have the answer and it is not me that have every answer, they can work as a team to improve that answer, so they choose a certain graph and some of them move to a different group and after hearing from everyone else, they said, this is sort of the better answer for me, I am going to improve my thinking this way, they have to defend why they make that switch,

L16 R I -how would you describe this community L17 T In my class? They are very confident students, they really have a sense of what they

want to know, what they do know, and so they are very comfortable asking question especially in science where there they are used to using KB and come up with theory, the whole language on that is really developed in gr 5/6 students, being able to say this is what I think, ad not I have a question now what is the answer tot he question. But to say here is the question, here is what I think ad if that is true or not. Being a learner, they have a good sense of it, they know their answer is valued, and they come up with those ideas, and some other classroom and students are quite reluctant and hesitant at times, and why is what I think important, here they really do think it is valuable and important.

L18 R What have been your three most important improvements in your teaching in the past

year please elaborate how and when this improvement happened?

L19 T I have been teaching for 6 years, so I think the progression that has happened over

those times has been sort of an incremental one. One of the thing I think I have been really doing or improving is, looking at that constructivist approach to teaching and not thinking about myself as sort of this 'the key person' in the room that has all the answer, and I have improved over time, in making sure to rely on students and having those students not relying on my as much. And so I think that been important improvement I made, in trying to decentralize the class, from teacher vs. students, into that whole community of everyone as a learner and I am helping them to get to wherever place they like to go. And relying that sense of agency and getting to their ability in order to answer their own question.

L20 T Another I guess would be, looking at, in terms of, planning, looking at some big ideas, or overall expectations for certain unit of study, let say, of what I like the students would like to, or what I like students to come up with, what sort of knowledge and what sort of skill, and it not being so specific, as. You know, 15 different things, but looking at three or two big ideas, so I guess looking into, that relate a little bit into that deep understanding of, rather then superficially covering 15 or 16 different expectations, look again here are the three big ideas that I really want them to understand conceptually, and have them look into and evaluate their ideas around, rather then just superficially, being able to answer some skill based answer, some superficial content question, looking more into conceptually what they understand, and what misconception they have and trying to address those.

L21 R Let see, the other thing I guess is being able to tie those expectation with those big

ideas, into the assessment of what the students do know. Because I find one of the

challenges has been, as you go away with less individualized task and to go into more collaborative building ideas together, it becomes much harder, to see what each individual students knows, and trying to find some sort of assessment, task or formal task, or maybe presentation or whatever maybe, some sort of tool, to ask myself how do I know what sort of transition they made from the beginning of this unit of study to the end, where they have gone, and their own ability to answer question, and skills that they want them to have, or concept they want them to gain, and so being able to tie that assessment more into daily practice of looking at formative way of, along the way looking at what student know and don't know. Helping them get to their highest achievement, and knowing what each students at the beginning and the end of the unit, and knowing how their progression has been big, because that has been difficult for me along the way to look at, ok now we have finished this unit of study, student is interested to learn about something else, what have they actually taken away from this, and so looking at different tools to try to find that out for each student.

L22 R From what sources did you first learn about the approach of KB talk L23 T I guess initially, last year I have not heard of it at all, and (excuse me, I have a bit of

cold), initially it would be the summer institute, you mean last year, this past summer, because I got hired last year and so this year Ellen encouraged us to go, so we could have someone said what is happening to this school about knowledge building, it was quite overwhelming this summer, it was not here (hand gesture low) but here (higher hand gesture). It was interesting for me to see where research was going and what researchers had found out, and developing the language around KB, and then talking with teachers from other schools, and a few other researchers that I met at the conference, and observing the rose avenue students, and to see how it would look like, gave me a more basic sense of what it look like actual practice. Then I would like to look at what it is like to do it in practice with my students. And so learning about KB really on a more practical level, I guess for me happen talking to the other teachers who have been in ICs, and the other researcher who have worked more with ICS, and observing the other teacher with their students, around KB talk, and so on.

L24 R And I guess the time spent is quite short, in what way have you improve KB talk in

your classroom

L25 T Yes, I guess it is a short time span from when I, I really started n October, I guess,

with knowledge building, in a more formal sense, because I was getting use to the ICS environment, the students, in the first month, creating that community and so on, for setting the right climate for the beginning of school year, in the class. But I would say, I guess being able to observe those teachers doing those talk, and during the KB meeting every Thursday, getting a sense of what other teachers were doing in their room and what sort of question they were asking, I think now I have more of a sense of how to structure the talk, and so students can benefit form it, the type of questions to ask, for myself to sit out, let the students develop the ideas, it is a skill of when to add my own opinion, and you are very cognizant of the fact that they look at you as having the answer ,so once you do step in, sometime it deflates the student talk that is happening, so being able to develop that over the last month or so has helped I think, with the students coming up with those ideas and building on to each other ideas.

L26 R - - What are the major challenging issue you encountered in your classroom recently

ad how do you respond?

L27 T Is it in general sense or in KB? L28 R I - in general, I your classroom

L29 T I guess the issue in the classroom that I am dealing with, for the last couple of month,

will be trying to develop students' written communication skill, because I find students in ICS oral and verbal communication is so strong, they spend so much time talking about their ideas and debating their idea, justifying what they think and so on, and sometime when they come down to putting those ideas down, either on computer or writing them down, and expanding on their ideas, that is a bit more difficult, for students, when it comes to in term of math they are quite competent defending their ideas and discussing their ideas. But sometime they get down to having it being more on paper and pencil, the them communicating to me, not orally of what they know. I found that is something I really want to develop over here, having more competencies in their written communication. Because their strength is in that oral communication.

L30 R How do you respond L31 T One of the things I am doing is using a lot of graphic organizer, in their writing, to

help them formalize their idea, in their head, in a logical sense, on their paper. Could be graphic web, some sort of cause and effort, or other sort of mapping that they can do on paper and online as well. They can do on diff program to map out their ideas, so they have a sense of step-by-step processes of where they are going and where they are from. And just trying to start from that large, oral task, let say, math having them discuss and taking it to the next level, as a group, to put their idea on a paper, to preserve and share their idea, and looking at different way of sharing information, would be when they try to respond to that.

L32 R Do you want to add more of challenging issue L33 T I guess the other way to improve that is having them to look at it more

metacognitively of what they think and why they think something, through written journal. Of how they come to the ideas, or why they think this is important, and having them just write this idea down, just a journal where they read and respond to, their ideas and respond

L34 R So written communication is the major challenging issue L35 T That is something I try to get them to develop more, because it will become much

more of a factor for the 6s as they move on as well, just for them to be understood in a written way, because they are so articulate orally, so looking at not just their strength and where their weaknesses are and how they can develop those place.

L36 R Before coming to ICS, did you teach in a public school? L37 T I taught in a public school, grade 6 and grade 8, in the east end of Toronto, the school

is quite a mixed school, I say about 50 or 60 % Asian, where the students were first generation Canadian, and so it was the parents, most of them didn’t speak English well, so much of their English language were really coming from school, because at home English is their second language. So we have other ESL and other issue to deal with. Where else here, English is their first language, pretty dominantly across the board, so there is more other issue to deal with, other then language, developmental.

L38 R But the overall communication skill, as compared to other public school, ICS

students are much more competent

L39 T I would say so, and they are also encouraged to speak out, and in a more traditional

classroom, teacher's role is to speak out ad students is more to accept, and take the

teaches work, that is where the knowledge is coming from, that is a big shift.

Appendix B-5 Clare – Interview

Experience of Clare: >5 years teaching experience; 2-5years Knowledge building experience. Column 1 contain the segment number (denoted as the line number for reference) in the transcript, column 2 shows that was speaking (R is the researcher) and column 3 contain the text. The text referred to in chapter 4 is highlighted in yellow (Section 4.2.1).

L1 R How do you see the role of yourself as a teacher relative to a researcher? L2 T Though I always felt that research informed practice, I did not consider that the two

could occur simultaneously. I imagine my role both as the researcher and the researched. I am constantly examining KB’s effect on me, the teacher, as well as its impact on the students my classroom.

L3 R How would you answer the same question before you adopted knowledge-building

practice?

L4 T I think I would have answered that I had a sort of dual identity. Though I always

wore the “Teacher Hat”, I felt that I had to somehow extricate myself from my practice so that I could don the “Researcher Hat”. This was not always easy. Teaching requires an emotional as well as intellectual investment. I felt that research needed to be more detached and clinical in order for it to be successful.

L5 R What are the three most important qualities you would like to develop in your

students? I want my students to always be curious. I want them to know that their ideas can affect change. At the same time, I want them to be mindful and careful of the impact their actions can have on themselves, each other and the world around them.

L6 T What are the major things you do to develop these qualities? 1. This seems simple: I

ask them what they are curious about and I listen carefully for common themes or questions. Learning is most meaningful when questions are generated from students. 2. Again, this seems simple: I follow up on areas of interest. We explore ideas together and we delight in what we learn. We find ways to implement what we have learned in our lives (for instance, we bring home our pumpkin seedlings so that we can plant them in our yards or community gardens). 3. We talk about consequences: “For every action, there is a reaction.” This has implications for the way we go about discovering and exploring our ideas (we intend to do no harm). This also has implications for social justice in the classroom in that we are careful about how we respond to the ideas of others.

L7 T I am very explicit about the children’s membership in and responsibility for the

classroom community. I discuss with these very young learners the notion that they can make “good learning, sharing and caring choices”. We talk frequently as a group about ways that we can help each other. We often discuss such difficult issues as how we can manage time, resources and attention when they are in limited supply. We spend a lot of time talking about concepts of “fairness” and that “fair” does not mean that everyone gets the same treatment. It means that we try to give each member what he or she need (and that may look very different depending on the individual.)

L8 R How would you describe this community?

L9 T It is a dynamic community that is energetic and eager to share ideas. However, this community is not without its tensions. Sometimes, individual members find it difficult to make sound choices. Sometimes, even in a group this young, there can be strife when jockeying for positions of power and popularity. The work that I have done to promote classroom community enables us to discuss issues as they come up (either individually or as a group) because we have a common language around expectations for our behavior.

L10 T I learned about KB from colleagues who were the first to bring it to ICS. Later, I

learned about how KB talks could be implemented at a “tutorial” that was presented at a Summer Institute.

L11 R In what ways have you improved KB talks in your classroom? L12 T I have reconsidered my role in KB talks. When I started KB talks, I appointed myself

the person with the “big ideas”- I introduced the focus of discussion and I had the overarching goals.

L13 T It is always a challenge when confronted with what to do when there is a student

who already has the “right” information and is, therefore, considered the authority by the group. KB can quickly come to a halt when that happens.

L14 R How do you respond? L15 T I am careful about what the “big question” might be for KB so that there will be

ample opportunity for a variety of ideas. I also try to plan for ways to draw the conversation away from absolutes and towards more hypothetical or theoretical discourse.I have also adopted many of the innovations of my colleagues by adapting them to suit my classroom. For instance, I changed the scaffolds in last year’s KF view to reflect the abilities of my students after one of my colleagues suggested that he had done this for his class.

CS&C~R T~R

Appendix B-6 Karen – Interview

Experience of Karen: 2-5years Knowledge building experience. Column 1 contain the segment number (denoted as the line number for reference) in the transcript, column 2 shows that was speaking (R is the researcher) and column 3 contain the text. The text referred to in chapter 4 is highlighted in yellow (Section 4.2.1).

L1 L1 How do you see the role of yourself as a teacher relative to that of a researcher L2 L2 I think almost every teacher is a researcher, if they are interested in doing

things better, and interested in knowing how children are learning, because every time you plan a lesson or you present a lesson or you include the children in lesson, you are always watching and paying attention, and you have new information about the child, to see how much they are learning, and what their next thoughts are, and how they can apply it, so it always seems to be a process of research to me.

L3 L3 And when I started as a Phy Ed teacher, and so I have never done it before, so

every time I taught something it is always something new, and I would try one approach in something, and the next class I will try something completely different to see how it worked. It always felt like I am doing research in how to be a better teacher. So it was kind of research on how children learn and research on how to teach. So I felt like I was always doing it, and now I am in the library, I feel that it is related, because researcher has to read a lot to know what is happening outside their space, and then place what they are doing and look at their context and how will it work, and what would work for me, so I think it is important. I guess I would look at what other library and what other librarians is doing. Other teacher in any field, to look at what they are doing, and then to think about it, not apply that but to think about how I am going to approach my space, with that background knowledge, which researcher have to have background knowledge or else you would just research into whatever. So I think that they are really closely tied and I am trying to think if a teacher could be a teacher without being a researcher, I think they can be but I don't think they will be a very effective teacher. If you weren't imaging how you teach and if you weren't reflecting how you are teaching, I don't think you would be so much a researcher as you are a teacher. I think we don't have that kind of teacher, and I think everyone is aware and mindful about his or her teaching.

L4 L4 I - how long have you been here, L5 L5 This is my fourth year, in total and also in ICS, so I never taught anywhere

else. Only at ICS. But I had practicum experiences, 6 weeks each in 4 different public schools. I used to do tour guiding for public school and take them to Ottawa; I have experience with public school but not being a teacher.

L6 L6 - - So the second part of the question, how would you answer this before you

adopt knowledge building approach

L7 L7 I think before using the KB approach, which I used it in a way that I know that

is how the culture of our school works, that is how our student work, and how our student work best. Maybe that is not how all of student work best, I am not sure (laugh). But I know that is how it work, so when I started teaching Phy

Ed, I didn’t understand as much about KB, and student were really frustrated in gym class, because they didn't have a chance to talk about what they are going to be doing, how they are going to be doing, and it was my job to tell them the rules and tell them how they are going to do it. Especially in Phy Ed when you want the kids to be active, you don't want too much discussion. So that was the beginning, then I realized they like to talk about it, so what rules, how do you think it work best. Even just the decision, it wasn't totally KB but it was at least a bit closer, they did response better to that. It was really tricky to find out how much time would be right to spend talking in phy ed class, and how much time they need to be moving. It is neat to see how ben has dealt with that struggle and also with my library program, it was one of the thing about KB that we do more now is that I follow what the children are interested in and intrigued in, and that has been working a lot better. When I first started gr 5 and 6s, I kind of have an idea of what they should be doing and idea of what they should be learning, and they weren’t as on board as they are now when I follow with what they want, and I also realize now that it is development, they are very critical in gr5/6, it is better to turn on to the being critical with the literature then with my teaching. I think that is how KB comes into my practice. And in the library with all the classes, we do a lot of discussion around our understanding of things, because when you reading a story there are so many things that kids might not understand, so they really have to bring their own knowledge, it is almost like a mini KB talk, where they discuss what does this means and so on. So the way it change is especially in terms of my phy ed teaching, which is like first year. Because I thought I have to bring in the whole thing and decide what happened. Then eventually I know we have to be in it together, it is more fun

L8 L8 I - it is interesting to, in terms of the role of teacher in library, guess the

students to have stacks of book, to be the authority, how do you approach, (not bringing in the authority), how to be come up with their own idea, as they face all other ideas in books?

L9 L9 Right, I guess it is about looking at books with different ideas, and their own

ideas would appear, they are expected to be critical thinker and they think that it is their role, is being a critical thinker of knowledge, and that is...it worked pretty easily. It is not too difficult to do. With the gr5/6 I found that they really like looking at younger children book. Like the stuff they would read when they are 5 or 6, and revisiting those, and they are reading and say 'oh look at this’, 'this is such a silly book, being critical about it, but this year I start to turn into 'why did the adult wrote it?’ the time at which they wrote it', because if it is written in the 1900, then it would be different from the story coming from now. And so I guess that's how they get so introduced to

L10 L10 I - what are the three most important quality you like to develop in student L11 L11 In the library, in my role, I think I would want them to understand themselves

as learner, and to think how they learn best. Because, or to get start working on that, because they are going into all kind of teachers, assignments, and subject, who knows what they are going to be interested in, but if they know how they learn best, they are going to have that tool to apply to anything that they get to. Hmmm.I want them to have critical thinking skill, I think it is important in all the classes, when I teach them about internet and researching from somewhere, it is about people's ideas and deciding which part of those you are going to agree with or whether you are going to share with the rest of the class from those ideas. So there is going to be those filtering place. So part

of my job as a librarian is to make sure they can look at something, someone's idea, they can decide if it is the authoritative source, I think critical thinking, knowing themselves as a learner, and the third one, for me, is the confident to look at books and to enjoy books, and to go into a space where they need to find new information and be able to grasp it, different places, and so like they can know they can apply the skill anywhere, any library, any computer, or anywhere they are, to get the information, because a lot of time for researcher, you are just researching, you are always kind of reading and understanding the world. So to have the confident to do it, I think most of the ICS kids do. Then even the reading of fiction, I love reading for reading sake as well, not jus for researching sake. So I think that is my job as a librarian.

L12 L12 I -I guess you already touch the second part, like how to drive or facilitate

those qualities.

L13 L13 I guess I always start with, it will usually just arise from one of the picture

book I have, or a story book, or 2 books of same ideas or two different approaches, or 2 different side to this argument, so usually you go into some kind of modeling, so this is how I organize the thinking, model how you collect information from a book, and write down what is important, and then it would go into their own application and their own decision o what is important. And it is always, the thing I like is to keep track for what the teachers are doing in their class. So like Nancy's class is doing water, so the teaching I do is always around water, or they questions in class, or their KB, I take little group out and do some research on water, and they talk about question they have and help them research them, so it always have to apply, or otherwise I do lesson on dictionary, and it is just a worksheet, but it doesn’t make sense unless it applies. It is the matter of finding that moment that the kids need that lesson, and pulling out the lesson and creating right away. So it is the right time and right subject, so it works. So that would be for the collecting or being able to research and also critical thinking, because especially the beginning they just copy down what the book says, so I say, is that helpful? Is that answering your question? And I close the book and as them what did you read, and see what they can say. I don’t like saying tell me in your own word. Because I used to be confused by that when I was a kid. Like 'but some of those words were technical' so it is hard for me to say that. The other one, the results is on learner, I make sure when I am teaching, to say, you might learn by doing it, so everyone has different way of learning and this is the way that is presented.

C/S~C

L14 L14 I- it is very interesting to hear the connection between students working into

he library and the classroom, the extension of the idea. So I am to sure how the third question apply to your situation, what are the most important effort you made to enable the students in class to op as a community

L15 L15 I guess mostly when they come to the library, it is in groups of 11, they are

already in half group, and it is usually all around me. We have a half circle kind of thing, so we read a story, or we read some information, and then we have a discussion around it, so its really important for them to have respect for each other, all those principles, so the can hear each other, and not out each other down, not put down some body else' ideas down. So I have to remind them of that, because sometime they might do naturally in a KB talk might not carry over to the library, or sometime they do definitely carry over. Like some classes, we say, I like to have a discussion about the book, and they would say, I like to build on and someone said, I do see it carry over sometime, but in

terms of community, that is that they can say what they want to say, and the experience with book is a very personal thing, so whatever response, whatever connection you made from a book to your life, that is ok, and that is right, and that you should share it too. So I guess in that sense, the community would be important because it is some whole group experience when we are in the library, that is not very much, sometime but not very often, they would go in pair or something.

L16 I - so you let them pick books that they like and read individual L17 After I read to them they would choose the book and read them individually. L18 I - I guess you also touch on the second part, how would you describe a

community, what they do, what is the ideal situation, are they working well as a community?

L19 It would be listening to each other, being open to each other ideas, try to stay

on topic, but also honoring they come from different places and have different connection, I think. So that I find it really interesting how the students make connection, especially the younger one, the three or four or five, they might suddenly burst out, you don’t know how it is connected, but when you let them talk, they usually get to how it is connected, maybe when they are in the car this is what they see and the person in the story is in a car, or something like that, it is quite, you wouldn’t know the connection right away, but if you let them keep talk, it usually comes out, so you say, oh it reminded you of that because you are in the car. So I model a little bit too on how it is connected to what them. But we want that too, when the child is talking, is to connect to their experience, because it makes them meaningful.

L20 I - so, the fourth question, so are your three most important improvements in

teaching, I am not sure including your first year or in your library work.

L21 I think, I feel like I am always trying to improve, it is hard to think of which

one, I think there are always stages to your learning first it is important to loo around and see what is going on, that is where I go to conferences, visiting library, going to other school, looking at how their classroom is managed. Just understanding what people are doing. I started doing that, and when you actually do it, also the first year I was running program that was ran before, and see how it goes, it wasn't the first year, it was just the first couple of months, and the improvement comes in when you understanding of that, and the understanding of the other reading, the other courses or the other information that you have, and you can actually bring them together, that your can bring into your own program. That’s probably a big improvement, with ICS too, in the library there hasn't been a curriculum before, and so I have been developing a library curriculum, so that has been pretty big, in terms of seeing what other schools are doing, seeing kids in ICS trying out the subject that I think would make sense for kids of different ages, and seeing how they respond and figuring out the best way to do it. That has been a big improvement, having a goal, to create a curriculum, and having basic outline of a curriculum, and working on, egg, how is this lesson on dictionary is going to work, because kids know how to use a dictionary, when is it appropriate to do it, how do we fit it in, and in terms of mixing technology and the library, so having an understanding of what is the right balance between information and technology, like using computer to do research and teaching skills around that, as well as an appreciation for books, ad researching in books, and then the

third part would be an understanding and appreciation for story so it is kind of three parts and figuring out what is the best balance for the kids and the best way to teach because it is only half an hour a week. And I don’t know how much carry over there would be if I have assignment to be done in a week, so it is about making the best in that half an hour and making it have an impact and figuring out. So that will be, #1 improvement is to bring together what had been seen and what I have read, and bring that together and creating my own thing. #2 would be the curriculum focus, the three different category, I think my third most important improvement is trying to, not so much child base, is to encourage them to be independent in the library, so it has a lot of systemic issue. Right now we have some system, like we have a computer and the kids can sign the books out on their own, they can return it on their own. So I don't have to be there because I am only 60% library, so if I am not there, I want them to still have the access, to do the searching, putting label of the shell, teaching the kids, what shelf and what subject, it is just encouraging them and supporting them to be independent, and not rely on the librarian to be there all the time to help them out. So that is the big thing for the librarian, more concrete, in terms of the space and time, so that has been a big improvement.

L22 I - you mentioned that the curriculum, on gr 5 and 6, L23 No I have been developing for the whole school - so it is just a matter of what

do they really need to know in JK...even if I read them a story, I would say is this a story book, or an information book, you don't have to read it from beginning to end, you can just read the part your need and get information from it. Vs. when you read storybook, it doesn't make sense to read story in the middle. Things like that, so how things are laid out. So that is the starting point, but the starting point for nursery is for them to sit together and listen altogether while one person tell a story because they are interested in sitting on someone laps to listen to a story, they are not used doing together in a group, they all come up to want to be up there with the picture, that is step one, and step 263 is to compare genre of different time, critical thinking and all that.

L24 KB talk? I heard about it in the MA program, we never had a KB talk, we have more KF, we posted things out, ad commented on each other posting, I think when I first started understanding about KB talk, was when I was a intern with Joy, a gr 3 teacher, her first year from the public board. She has not done it before, so it is her talk with Ronny, on who are we going to do it. So that is probably first time I heard, when we sat in a circle and did a KB talk. But the kids were really used to it, they had patty in the previous yr. that is the first time I heard about it. What is really helpful to us is the KB meeting every week, that is where I understand KB talk, basically we have a KB talk, and also people bring in information on their KB talk, when carol bring in her transcript on KB talk, that really helps me to understand what a KB talk is. We have them at our retreat as well; we mostly have it at our retreat when we talked about safety. I cannot remember how hard it is to have a KB talk, to say what you want to say about your idea. So a little bit about, wow we are asking kids to do it, it is hard. And Ronny said that, and I said, ya it is true, it is very hard to do a KB talk, just to be comfortable, to have you idea out there. I think it is really fruitful; we come up with the most information and most meaningful talk.

L25 Particularly in your class, in what way did you improve B talk

L26 What way did I improve it? I think at first, I think the way that the KB talk comes up, if you take all of that in library, is in the middle of, before I thought it always have to be at the end of the book. So at the end of the story, you talked about how you felt about it, what you think about it, what they did like, and what they didn’t like, what idea came up. And I liked to do it in the middle, because the kids would ask the question in the middle, and it has to be addressed right there, and I think it is the best, and it is usually pretty short, like it might be 4 kids say something, then someone would say, are we back in the story now, because it is in the middle of the story. So I think that is when it happened and how it improved, because I thought it'll always has to be at the end of the story and it always have to be my lead, then later I realized in the middle is where it comes up, where it resonate with the kids, where it comes up, I think that is the improvement in the KB talk.

L27 Any other...in the context of the library, I assume it must be, it has to be a big

difference, that the kids we taught in the whole class, how do we see, the adjustment, KB talk

L28 Sometime there is a concrete answer, because I have the source right in my

head, so sometime people will have there discussion in the middle of the story, saying a little bit of, discussing oh is it true or not, what happened when they do this, what happened when the snake do this, and the next page may have the answer of what the snake does, it is a little bit different that way, but they still want to have that talk, even if they know the answer is coming up and I guess that is why it is interesting in the library, because sometime there are those authoritative sources, that is going to be the voice. And sometime kids just don’t agree with it too. They would say 'no no, I saw one and it did this' then you say, oh ok, maybe we should look at up, it is near, to see if there is one that does that. I- question 6, what are the major challenge and issue which you recently concurred.

L29 Some of the challenging issue are, I used to encounter challenges of kids, that

when they come to the library, they would have time to silent read the whole time, or they would have time to read the whole book and silent read, but I thought it would be a waste of my time to be there if that is what they are doing, it is really hard to change their expectation, each year it gets better because I said, in the beginning, I said that sometime we are going to be reading story and that we are going to be together as a class, sometime we are going to do things with technology or about research that is going to help you for all your life interns of your learning. I told them right in the beginning, and the kids are more used to it now, because in the beginning I didn’t teach technology, I didn’t teach the research pieces intensively, but now as they go through the yrs., it has been 3 yrs., that has been nice.

L30 One challenge is always time, it is half group, so there is always a transition,

they are always from somewhere, so sometime my time is only 20 mins rather then half an hour, so that is why I am setting up the independent system, so the signing out doesn’t need to be library time, it could be lunch time or recess. Some kids do come down at other time, some teacher are pretty flexible, if

they have time to read, they can come down. That is why I want that independent system, so I can teach, so I have that full half an hour, not just 20mins.

L31 Another challenge is that the teachers didn’t understand what I was doing, and

because it is a bit tricky, they are also teaching critical thinking skill, they are also teaching technology, they are also teaching research skill, so it is a matter of finding time to talk with them. Ok when are you covering, can I do a lesson on this, so we can work together, on the kids' skill set, and based on the subject that make sense to them, that they are working in class. So that is been another challenge to find time to talk to teachers, to talk about their curriculum and how it can work with mine curriculum. That has been tricky but it is better now because there teachers who understand more of what I do now and what I can do. They would say 'Karen, can you do a lesson on this...

Appendix B-7 Katie – Interview

Experience of Katie: <2 years Knowledge building experience. Column 1 contain the segment number (denoted as the line number for reference) in the transcript, column 2 shows who was speaking (R is the researcher) and column 3 contain the text. The texts referred to in chapter 4 are highlighted in yellow (Section 4.2.1).

L1 R How do you see the role of yourself with the role of researcher L2 T As a teacher, my job is to facilitate, what they need as a learner, what they

need to reach the potential of the learner. It is diff with each child. Whether social, academic, the individual child need curriculum. As a teacher, I am trying to help them facilitate, that and achieve that. As a researcher, I am trying to see that for myself. I am trying to gather info about KBC, what my needs are, and through watching, reading and experimenting whit he children. I view my role as students as I play the role of the teacher.

L3 R When did you know about KB? L4 T I came from US, inquiry based learning program, the road towards KB, I

began to understand the idea about 5 yrs. ago, only through the constructivist approach, I came to ICS and began to understand constructivist and KB. I thought the terms were interchangeable.

L5 R Before you adopted KB practice L6 T Before that I don’t know if I could answer the question on my role as a

researcher. I came from excellent education community, I though have interest as a teacher to learn about, but I didn’t see my role as a researcher in my work as a teacher. My mind didn’t think that if I do well in one I should look into other. I wouldn’t qualify my work as a researcher. The idea of myself as a researcher is a new one for me in BK. there is a diff power, diff responsibility that you take as compare to the one who is always taking information, not just gathering information for self, but for a broader community, I feel a great sense of responsibility that word has a lot of weight.

L7 R What are the three most important qualities you would like to develop in

your students?

I am looking to develop responsibility for themselves, for their learning, that

responsibility taking care of themselves and their bodies. And the responsibility of how they can learn, the responsibility of seeking information, seeking knowledge, I don’t think they can understand that unless.

L8

The second, under responsibility – I also put questioning, for me that is part of risibility for quality. That is the second quality I look for, understanding the quality and evaluate what is coming in and decide if this is critical or authentic, is this primary or secondary, what is the quality of the information, what is the hole? Whether it is a thought, a comment or a hole. Quality of effort, information, quality participation, is that a personal quality, the third quality that I like, is a joy for that, finding the magic, to

discover the magic of maybe’ number 9’, the lesson at the end of the day is simply about the magic of the number 9. I want them to find pleasure and mystery in the world. The quality and just appreciating the nuances about them and having fun.

L9 What are the major things you do to reach this?

L10 I fixed conversation, small group instruction, one on one time, students can

choose resources – e.g., book, choice, democracy, decision making, communicating with family, we do a lot in gr 4,through parent involvement and open dialogue and trying to provide authentic experiences for children. Concept learning instead of giving children an opportunity to play, that contribute to the fun and depth of what they are learning.

C/S~C

L11 What are the effort for them to work as a community L12 Community meeting in the morning, focus on learning experience, L13 There are different point in the day when we come together as a community,

I use a program called the responsive classroom, students come in the morning, we have news and announcement, we greet each other, we do a lot of sharing, also involves a lot of interactive language skill, we do that every morning, and on Friday afternoon, we have a community meeting, issues in classroom – problem solving, twice a week we have a formal KB talk. That way the community is being built as children share ideas, and building on each other idea. We began the year engaging talk about what a KB talk, about what the KB was, as a topic of the conversation. It is through that that the children ideas are communicated and deepen though their conversation, also the new students got to know what Kb is about,

SI~R

L14 It is a community built on respect and the school idea about common

kindness, the students feel safe and enjoy playing together, also that has built great sense of trust, the children cannot learn unless it is rich with trust and actually engage learning and putting the theory out. It is a place children feel safe, to put their ideas out, a community that the children play with misconception, they feel comfortable putting that out, even when they are not sure if they are correct. That is the first time in my teaching experience that I have seen that.

SI~R

L15 Three most important improvement in your teaching in the past years L16 Six yrs. ago, math-based project, dysfunctional calculator. I used the

program for a while, I was fascinated with their ability too approach a presented problem with situational challenges where they could use the digit involved in the problem. It opens my eyes to really trust, the children bring a lot of experience about things they don’t know how yet, but they can revisit it. They can talk about the part that they want to say. That trust enables me to let the student’s fumble but rise. For me as teacher, I remembered the significance of trusting their own power as learners, I realize that sometime in presenting a problem and stepping away the children could take hold of it beyond what I can imagine. That lay the foundation when I really began to look at KB connected that with this. It was that children are intelligent, abled people that don’t need to be led.

C/S~C SC~R

Sometimes they need to be guided but they have a direction that they want to go and that can’t be more powerful then the direction that I as a teacher wish to bring them. Another part is the power of misconception; giving them an opportunity of finding out what is wrong, give them an ownership of what they learn. More importantly then that information is that learning process. As a teacher what I could remember from my elementary years, is not the information. It is how I was taught. And now, I like to think that the children wouldn’t even be thinking about how they were taught, they would be thinking about how they can be taught, they learn about they are learn. Realizing that it is not the information is important, it is how it is that. For now, it is how remember how they would learn would be link us but for me, my role is to help them figure out how they learn to learn. That improvement came about 6 yrs. ago; it helps us connect to deeper and later program. For me as a teacher I want them to figure out how to ask question, the deepest form of learn is for them to synthesis into another question, questioning as far as I understand, is the most clear manifestation of learning.

SC~R C/S~C

L17 From what sources did you first learn about the approach of KB talk? L18 From Zahra classes last spring, I began to read a little bit, formally introduce

that term into my teaching. But when I got to spend a week in gr 3, observing the classes that I would have, I attended the IKIT conference this summer that was the first time I understand the KB, the test group, during that week I got to see one example of how it began and how it develop, then I like to pop into Ronny or Zahra room. This is the first time I am in a community where people are not competitively hiding till it is published the celebratory project. Here everyone is informed. So if I do sit in, part of what I feel obligated to do, is to return to them and give feedback as well. I try to get out as much as I can before I am learning as well.

L19 In what way have you improve KB talk in your classroom? (10:16) L20 I began the year introducing topics to the class for conversation. And most

of them were about how we as a community have KB talk. I realize in about three weeks, six sessions, the students were waiting for me to start the topic, this is not how I would like to see the process work with these students. But I realize they were beginning to be dependent on me. So I introduced the KB board – there were diff library pocket – one was problem of understanding, problem of understanding, new idea for study, technology tips they have about the software. I had the students explaining to the new students how the board works. Then I stopped our KB talk until students have posted problem of understanding and new ideas. Finally after missing three of them, one student asked, why are we not doing KB talk anymore. I said I don’t know, I am waiting for your idea and we were engaged in several inquiry at that time. It felt they want me to say ‘go…you have permission’ I felt maybe I should present the topic for the conversation, I think they were necessary but I don’t know if I should call it KB talk, it so quickly change their understanding. Now I believe we are where we are when they ended with Zoe last year. This is a cycle of understanding for me, I came to understand that it take very little to direct them in other

L21 Way, and especially for a group who is so accustomed to the process, they want to be malleable and be able to go in different direction, and take on to

it very quickly. I am glad I realize it quickly and it reminded me how powerful the role for teacher can be in positive and negative ways, to be able to keep reflect and now they are asking question again and having authentic conversation. I will do it next year and just talk about it, and not as a formal Kb talk.

L22 that is a lot of reflection L23 Yes, L24 What are the challenges encountered in your class recently and how do you

response

L25 Some of the behavior is most challenges; children are not being as tolerate

to others idea. Not in formal classroom but outside when the students are raising their hands and another students is whispering the conversation. We are seeing certain students liked that their ideas are being valuable, but there are certain behavior now that affect the safety of children being willing to take risk. To find out and work with the children individually. The behavior that affect the community are import, not the children who call out, they are not detrimental, the danger is the competition that is entering into the competition.

L26 The other one time. Consider the community, the rich curriculum, arts,

languages, and physical experience; in grade 4 schedule, the day is broke into half hour time slot with transition to other thing. Very difficult for them to feel invested and move on. Our days fell like 30 mins time slot. When, now they want to ask question and for me, that is the biggest frustration.

CS&C~C

L27 Right now I am trying tot play with grouping and swap for the second half

of the week, some students are not engaged in other days, in their research and then they switched, I am trying to increase their time focus. I hope to problem solve it. It is a big problem.

Appendix B-8 Ronny – Interview

Ronny 5+years Knowledge building experience Column 1 contain the segment number (denoted as the line number for reference) in the transcript, column 2 shows that was speaking (R is the researcher) and column 3 contain the text. The text referred to in chapter 4 is highlighted in yellow (Section 4.2.1).

L1 What do you see the role of yourself as a teacher in the research L2 I think it go completely together, that, the researcher part inform the teaching and

the teaching informs the researcher part. But I am seeing question 1b and it says would I respond to it the same way if I have not done knowledge building, absolutely not. This is because of KB. I mean I think that there are my teaching, of course, we are informed by the data I was collecting, but it was a systematic approach, it was using knowing that the data was going to, more by chance, but KB completely shapes your thinking...so that that can happen.

L3 You want more L4 I - if you want to elaborate... L5 R - maybe we will come back to it, but when we say teacher researcher, I think it

also has to do with teacher as co-learner, because I don’t present myself as an authoritative figure, necessarily in terms of knowledge, but that is where the researcher comes in, that even your community of researcher in the classroom, so I worked as a researcher at different level, saying researcher with the students trying to understand, and as a researcher as teacher trying to understand how students learn best. And knowledge informs both of them.

L6 So the second question, what are the most three important quality in students L7 R - one I would love to develop, well, I don’t know I think all children are born

curious, I don’t know if I want to develop curiosity, but I don’t want to eliminate the curiosity that the children have, I feel that often education does that, that we have a curriculum that doesn’t necessary match the curiosity of the students, so almost that we teach students to stop being curious. And so, I want them to continue to as the questions and then automatically to offer their ideas, of their theories, of their questions, so I think that is one. The other thing is a quality, a feeling maybe of empowerment, that they are able to contribute knowledge that they have something worth saying, not everything we say is going to be accurate but it is worth saying anyway, and so that is why we talk about offering your theories, making and creating an environment where students feel that telling each other what you think and then when you realized what you thought was incorrect, to said, 'oh isn’t that interesting, I thought that way but now I think in new way, and so along with that, with this empowerment, comes the understanding that the theories are proven theories that are presented in a textbook or a lesson are theories that simply have the best research to support them, but there are other existing theories or theories that have not been presented that might improve the idea and that the students themselves can be the people who contribute that knowledge. I never as a students in elementary school, in high school, not even in university did I ever believe that I was empowered or that I have the capability to add knowledge, and only when I discover about graduate work that you felt somebody contribute, imagine the child feel in the beginning, they can add by connecting things in a interesting way, they

might be adding a new perspective, a new theory, that would be the second one. Another quality, maybe it is, it is tied to, it sort of an active role as suppose to passive, with that comes the idea of the important of discourse, the importance of asking question, but seeking information, as oppose to children thinking that things have to come to that. You know from the teachers, from the book, their job, life is about them going out ad finding what they need and bringing it together and testing it out. As I am saying this, there are other things I am thinking, like, (murmuring: active and passive), the idea that another quality...(murmuring: I was going to say...) about this confident...I think that is it, I think we can come back

L8 What are the major things you do to develop this quality? L9 R - for each of them I try and create an environment where students are not passive

but actively pursuing their answer and theories, of developing their theories, that they belong to community, where every single person has to...a collective understanding, I really strongly believe in the importance of developing a collective understanding, that children will have their independent areas of specialty, their own understanding, that we have a responsibility to contribute to the community and that the community advances, not just individual, and I think what else do I do, I am careful in the role I play in the classroom, I tried to be an authentic, colearner, with them. That is not always easy, I know the information, sometime I don't, so they don’t see it as simply a game, for example, carol in one of our KB talk, she was talking about how children were offering theories, and it was 'oh that is a good theory', and 'that is a good theory', and the child gave the right theory, and she went 'oh, that is an interesting theory', and she went on to the next person, she didn’t go 'ya! Yes, finally someone got it!' and the other children has their hands up, put their hands down. No, we are very careful to create an environment where children feel free to offer their theories and test out their theories, and it becomes an act of process, it is about things in our environment, is that good?

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L10 HY - we are not quite to say yes and no. L11 R - in some point, we say yes and we say no, sometimes I do that too. Hmm, but I

think it is, sometime it is also about being, many different role a teacher play, sometime if everybody is convince about something, I might say something that is not directly related to it, but I might say something like, 'one of the children thinks, well wait a minute, well this doesn’t make sense any more, and then I lead, just sort of to stir the pot.

L12 So Q3, I think you already touch on this question, what are the most important effort

you made in enabling your class...(8:30)

L13 R - I am very conscious of my role, I think I talked about that, hmm. I am also

conscious of how I receive information, I become more conscious of you know, also my position in linking the students, for example, the data that you discovered, that the first year, everything was coming from me, very powerful impact, when I place, you know, in that circle with all the other children, then that for me is the greatest success, coz I know that students are going to leave this small community that we set up and go into different community, and they can recreate this too. People will take on different leadership roles, but that everyone is .I mean we need to know if everybody is contributing then we can move at a certain pace, but if people are withholding information, then we, then part of kb is compromise, because we don't have everyone commitment into it. So I am very careful about my role, and also, I think I also.hmm.I tried to do things that I don’t know the answer to, so that it becomes an authentic experience, KB experience for me as well. I can say to the

students I am not exactly sure, you know, this could be so helpful you find that out ad let us know. Then I might going out and say that I go out and look for something and I can contribute to the new information.

L14 So how do you describe this community? L15 R: well - I think that the community is made up of very different individual, with

different interest and different skill, what is interesting about KB, is that there is an entry for everyone, and students can be a part of, students not can be, but are a part of KB process, in whatever way that make most sense for them, and so for example, right now we are looking at how can we design a physical, improve our physical activity, throughout so we can improve benefits, we have students who are making charts, we have students who are researching, so this place where the students are interested in, but they also see what are the component, we need somebody to do the writing, we need somebody to do the research, and somebody to design, and so on...and so that students become more and more familiar with the different aspect, that they are willing to actually try things that, maybe they wont be so comfortable in the beginning. Yes. And I may just go back to the question, I am trying to connect...I think also the community has to feel that, that we, the community needs to have a shared goal, and that doesn’t start at the beginning, we might come to that later on, the community realize that there is a equality even though we are all different, and that there is a responsibility that we present and everyone presented, so that the teacher no longer sort of become the police officer, so that you have done this. But the children would say, you have research two days but you have not put it on the database yet, we need to know what you have done. You have to give us back, in some information, and so that completely changes the nature of the community, it is very responsible and work as a unit, where they are leading up themselves

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L16 So, three important improvements in your teaching in the past years please

elaborate, when and how they happened. I know you have a lot of improvement...

L17 R - I did have a lot of improvement, one of the improvements is, the first three year,

was how I address creating community, I knew we needed to appeal to the students to have more interest in it, I also, in order for me as a teacher and my comfort level at that time, I needed to know what everybody was doing, it looked like a knowledge building community, but it is really 6 separate communities, they couldn’t be anywhere, so I realize that it was a failure so the children were really learning from two or three children, not from this community. So that taught me, I needed to be careful about the language I used, and the way I structured the classroom. And so we know that that in yr. 2, they are still working in groups, and read each other database, and yr. 3, not group, that was a huge learning experience, the other thing is also, maybe it is part of it, it is the control, as a teacher, when you are early in your career, and you want, the principal to walk into the classroom, you want to be able to say, every body is writing this right now. That’s safe, kb is not like that, and so in order to feel I know what everyone is doing, I knew everybody is doing, I spend a lot of time, saying 'what are you going to be doing?’ 'What are you going to be doing?’ ok, go and come back, I mean you did, I still do a little bit of that, but it took a lot of time to do that and it was still very structured, there wasn’t that fluidity, I try to really have faith in what the children do. You know, sometime, the students are not going to use that half hour, as productively as they used, the half hour yesterday, when we were studying astronomy, you know, that is alright, you know researchers, we do that too, we were great in on one day and we kept focused. But it became much more fluid, so that if a student thought they were reading an

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article about something and then a new question appear and then they can go and do something else, as a teacher I have to learn and say, I am not sure what that mean, I can go and find out what the answer is, the children might work outside, in the hallway, and that is fine, because when we come back, you realize the students are usually on takes, and that they are able to go deeply because we have given them an opportunity to do that. And another thing I have changes is that well, I don't feel, I used to be worried about curriculum, about covering curriculum, that we need to you know make sure we ticked off everything, and when I started here, I realized ok, we actually go beyond it. I am still a little worried, I would look at the expectation, one of the article we were interviewed, I remember telling the reported, I was afraid we didn't do sound, we have only done light, but the children said, 'well we know what we need to do', so now I truly believe that it is not the curriculum, the curriculum is not that important anymore, it is about the process and how deeply the children go. And as a result, anything can be a curriculum; it could be something that comes from a younger grade, or a higher grade, as long as it is an area that we can go deeply. I know children who said, when we talked about preparing one unit to another, one unit was more successful, children themselves would say, light is one unit, because it is a tree with many branches to explore, but sound is the young tree and there is only so much you can do with sound, but they were able to say that there are some area that capture their interest and were richer for them to the knowledge building. So that is one area to factor in.

L18 R- I think they happened just a part too, these changes happened gradually over the

year, with you now, the help of Rick [teacher researcher], I would identify kb principals, that I really wanted to understand a bit better, so they give collective understanding, the idea of rise above, these are the things that I would really focus on, but it was the data that I was receiving, the information data and the information I received from you, that helps me realize, you know, I said I am doing something but I wasn't really doing that., and that I think all the teachers like that, we know the phrase, we know the principles, we know the famous line, but it is with experience that we realize either we are doing it or we are not doing it. In the end it is difficult to distinguish because I can say to you, ' I think I am doing knowledge building' and five years from now we will come back and say I don't know what I was talking about then, this feels like kb. So there is constant improvement, just like all ideas are improvable, the process of kb is improvable.

L19 So the next question is about specific example, from what sources did you first hear

about KB talk

L20 R - what sources, I think it was, I am one of the older, the people who has been here

a little bit longer, I would have learned it from Rick, an explanation he gave, but I wouldn’t have seen him do it, but I may have seen Bev in her class doing KB talk. But that year, my first year, I was starting new with KB, Patty- grade one, and Mary, had all started, and each of us would hear the same thing, we would hear what the principle was, the discourse, and then we would go to the classroom and we would do it differently, and then we would come back and talk about it, and it was interesting we would hear what was different, it was different because the children were developmental, the developmental trajectory, and so, short answer is, I heard it from RR, but each of us invented what KB talk were, then what was great was RR would come into the room, and said 'oh Ronny could you tell everybody about this thing you did', we realized what is unique about it, and then one of the SI two years ago, I was going to do...remember, up in the lab, we were doing KB, my idea, Zahra idea and Karen's idea were very different ideas, there were a lot of room for people to test out their theories and improve their ideas.

L21 So second part, so what was the improvement of KB talk L22 R - when I first started, KB talk were on the schedule, they were every Tuesday at

10 o'clock, I realized that was not working because sometimes, we would have that time and we have nothing to talk about. And then I develop a, we have pocket on the wall, and if you had something you want to talk about, you would write it on a piece of paper and put it into the pocket that says knowledge advance, PU- I think its problem of understanding, technical concern. And then I would pull them out and then in random order, read one or pass it to the person. That was a bit better but it was still it was a bit prescriptive, what happened now, as I teach more years in grade 4 and finally in gr 5 and 6s. I don’t necessary plan a KB talk, it becomes much more spontaneous. KB talk always sued to be sitting in a circle, it is not the case anymore, it could be in a classroom, somebody in a chair, somebody in a classroom, as long as it is following, and I use, I think the one thing that I do keep, is the metaphor of the ball of clay, the pursuit of the metaphor of the ball of clay, we have to follow, as part of that discussion, also that my role, I think I am not a very quiet person I KB talk, I would say to, the students can understand that I play two roles, when I am raising my hand to be chose, I am a co-learner, when I interrupt, which I do, I am a teacher who say, can you explain a little bit more, because the people in this side didn’t hear what you said. I would ' oh I spoke again it is terrible, but now, I think, we are still modeling for children, so sometime we had meeting with adult, can you say that again because no one do it. But into a classroom, teacher do that, and ever student do that, I think that is the evolution of KB talk, much more organic, less structured, spontaneous, and they also can vary. We are not trying to fill up 30 mins, if it takes 10 mins, its fine, if it takes 40 mins, it is fine too.

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L23 How do you know KB talk is going well or not? L24 Well I think, how do I know if it is going well? Well you know it is going well, one

is their engagement, are the students really thinking, that doesn't mean, 100% participation, because some students need time to think before they say something, but if you have people who are, if people are building on to what the other person are saying, if we are able to summarize what happened, if students take on the theorization part, but if it is been run by the students then I think it is successful, where they are saying 'no, I need to hear what you are saying,' or ' I disagree, you know lets bring these two theories together', I think those are signs of successes, I don't think success means we have a new, a knowledge advance all the time, sometime we don't, but that we end up with, the desire to go deeper, or more questions, which is also this other bit on deeper understanding. I think that is what makes it successful. Like some of more successful ones that come into my mind, when we were doing ancient civilization a few years ago, students were very upset about research that they have come across, there was a lot of involvement, I think that, I could even leave the room and they can continue, we have many examples, when the students are so focused that it doesn’t matter if the teacher is there or not.

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L25 So question 6, what are the major challenge and issues in classroom L26 R - that is a good question, I can be honest too. , My theory is, my gr 5 students, I

know that the gr5 students do not like knowledge forum, now, that made me really reflect, because they are coming from gr4 classroom and gr 3 two years ago, I too, in my early years, used maybe KF too much, for things that were unnecessary, you

know, knowledge telling instead of knowledge telling (can you give me an example). Ok. If the children say 'ok, I have a question about infrared vs. ultra violet, which is the one has the wave length greater then the other', ok out that in the KF, but that can be easily answered, you don’t have to put it in. So if every time a child come to me and said, 'Ronny, what is 2+3,' and I said 'go get a calculator', or go write that, not even calculate, write it down, then it becomes a task, it becomes boring, and so students don't like that, well, I stopped, I hope I stop doing that, perhaps the grade 4, I am not sure about gr5, something about the past, may not be KF, they saw it as an extra layer of work, almost something unnecessary, I needed to be really careful, that was a challenge for me this yr. Also because what helped me is that the gr 6 had a wonderful year doing KF last year, we studied the human body, and we used it for deep questions, not just, and it was also some students used it more then others, and when we did the long jump, they loved it, because they were able to really understand and use the technology, and that is also what happened in KB talk, the difference about KB talk last year was, it involved KF, KF was opened during KB talk, so is the data projector, with the two, that was a huge innovation that happened last year. That should go into the other question, how KB talks advances. We would use KF during the KB talk that was a huge thing. So this year, the Gr 5, had been with us, how are we going to, and I really waited until it make sense, and then students would say to me, 'can I put it in KF?’ I would say, no! That should go... they were surprised that some one they know who uses KF to build knowledge, to say that it wasn’t necessary, so only this idea of choice, then they were more open to the idea of, it make sense to use it now', we would be storing a deep question that we can build on. I realize that some of the students who hate it in the beginning, would say, can I write a note in KF so people can build on, so we have to be careful how we use the technology, not for the sake of technology, it has to be for the sake of knowledge building. Some KB has been in KB talk, some kb happens in our notebook, and some happened there, I think that is the challenge this year. The other challenge is technology, oh my god, and how it is unreliable, and this morning, we tried to use it, and somebody laptop doesn't work, some body doesn't connect to internet, and the new things about, and so that is always frustrating, my intern today, said, like everybody was on, there maybe 3-4 students, he said, technology were...(30:40), I had to look at him, if I said that, then none of them will work, in a minute all will stop working, it forces you to have a strong stomach, I have to look at him and said, no, all are working, those we are going to fix it, even if we don't fix it, we have to be happy all the time, because that is all the work, the children are looking at you and we can give up easily, frustration is huge. We have to be always being flexible, and unfortunate it is quite unreliable.

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L27 How do you response to the challenges? L28 One of the challenges was about the Gr 5, and that is by taking it really, trying to

sort of create a situation where they believe it makes sense to use the knowledge forum. Where they feel if we did it any other way, it wouldn’t be this good, we did it, we did it on chart paper, on post-it, they see it, we are designing something where other students can build on to it. And the thing about technology is about trying to work with our technology support, Karen and ben, but also be able to, see if I become frustrated, then it is game over, so it is about, oh that is not working, lets do it this way, and try to be optimistic, that is the hardest thing.

Appendix B-9 Helen’s Interview

5+years Knowledge building experience Column 1 contain the segment number (denoted as the line number for reference) in the transcript, column 2 shows who was speaking (R is the researcher) and column 3 contain the text. The texts referred to in chapter 4 are highlighted in yellow (Section 4.2.1).

L1 How do you see the role of yourself as a teacher relative to a researcher? L2 As this is my first year at ICS, I am still trying to answer this question. As a

teacher, my focus is on the student, and how to move them forward. As a fledgling researcher, my focus is on my practice, and how changes I make affect the students.

L3 (b) How would you answer the same question before you adopted Knowledge

Building practice?

L4 I don`t know that I actively saw myself as a researcher before this L5 At the end of the school year, I would like students to leave with a greater sense of

self-confidence/self-reflection, a caring attitude towards others, and the motivation to direct their own learning.

L6 (b) What are the major things you do to develop these qualities? L7 I try to design open-ended learning experiences that allow each child to feel

successful. I also try to scaffold at appropriate moments so that children are able to achieve more than they expected, and feel encouraged to continue to put forth additional effort. I try to encourage children to view their accomplishments with a sense of pride, and to independently begin to assess what their best work looks like. This is easier in skills such as printing, and more difficult in skills such as scientific ideas.

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I try to help children to identify and express their feelings to themselves and to others. I also encourage the natural nurturing tendencies that children have, and make sure that children receive feedback about their behavior from others (I facilitate that if necessary).

L8 I try to ensure that the teacher’s role is that of a facilitator (rather than a “dispenser of knowledge”) so that children feel as if they are the experts in their learning.

L9 I try to give each child tools to resolve conflict and to work with others. I try to give

examples of successful co-operation through stories, role-playing and discussion. I also try to ensure that children are required to work with a variety of peers throughout the week to allow the community to make as many connections as we can.

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L10 (b) How would you describe this community? L11 The community at this age is a caring and “emerging” learning community. Our

goal is to care for the feelings and thoughts of others, while beginning to build a common knowledge base on which to move forward in our individual pursuits. Although the students have been together for several years, shifts in understanding make certain aspects of community building particularly important right now (e.g., trying to see others in a new way, respecting new friendships and new abilities).

L12 My view of Mathematics as a fluid subject that can be approached using a knowledge building framework has been my focus this year and is ongoing. This shift occurred when I first started planning for the year and reviewed the literature provided in a Masters Class from several years ago. It became a goal for my practice this year when we began to focus on KB talks in the classroom, and I realized how many principles could be applied in a math lesson.

L13 One improvement in my teaching that has been rewarding has been a move to a

more responsive approach to teaching science, math and writing. I first changed my writing program last year to try a detailed program recommended by my school board (authored by Lucy Calkins, an accomplished teacher and researcher). This program recommended much less direct group instruction and more individualized instruction through one-on-one conferences. It was exciting to see the growth in the students’ work, and it continues to be a learning experience for me. This idea of giving small lessons and then personalizing the support for each student in a responsive way has helped me to teach mathematics and science more effectively in the past year.

L14 Another important improvement in my teaching has been finding a personal balance

between home and school. This is not an academic improvement, but giving myself the time to pursue interests outside of school (which was not happening in the first two years of my teaching) has allowed me to become a more responsive teacher, as I have the energy and enthusiasm to take advantage of “teachable moments” that were likely passing by without notice in the first few years. When I immerse myself in other hobbies, I come back to the classroom with a renewed sense of purpose and a genuine pleasure to be there that can be difficult to maintain if I do not strike the right balance between home and school.

L15 I learned about the approach at ICS several years ago when I did my M.A. here.

L16 (b) In what ways have you improved KB talks in your classroom? L17 I have been trying different formats for my KB talks, to find out what works best for

this age group. We started our talks using physical reminders of our thoughts (duplo building blocks). This allowed students to concretely see where their ideas fit in the conversation (e.g., were they building on? Were they starting a new idea that was related to a previous idea?). It also allowed me to control the participation in a passive way ( each student was given the same number of blocks so that several students could not dominate the conversation, and so that students would begin to consider what utterances were “worth” using a block. We have also tried to have KB talks that were much less formal and allowed students to talk back and forth about an idea in a way that more closely mimicked a real-world conversation (albeit with 22 participants). There were no rules about the number of times you could participate, and the students chose to try the talk without raising their hands or having a facilitator choose who would speak next. This talk was very successful in several ways (staying on topic, generating enthusiasm, inspiring creativity of response) and less successful in others (chaotic, did not address equity - marginalized some students and rewarded others, did not allow for a range of participants). For more thoughts on this, I have notes in my COI on KF.

L18 I am struggling with 2 issues currently. The first is to determine the role of the

teacher in Grade One KB talks (how much facilitating should occur for true knowledge building: is the focus on the most efficient knowledge building at this age or on empowering students to feel that they control the flow of ideas?)

L19 The second challenge is in applying the KB principals to the Mathematics program in Grade One (and conveying this difference to parents and interns in the classroom when I am still struggling with it myself).

L20 (b) How do you respond? L21 I find that moving between self-reflection and seeking advice from colleagues (both

in this school and others) works best for me to move forward on challenging issues. I often will reflect on what the stumbling blocks are, talk to colleagues, reflect on their views, work again in the classroom, and then attempt to move forward with new ideas.

Appendix B-10 Zahra’s Interview

Zahra: 5+years Knowledge building experience Column 1 contain the segment number (denoted as the line number for reference) in the transcript, column 2 shows who was speaking (R is the researcher) and column 3 contain the text. The texts referred to in chapter 4 are highlighted in yellow (Section 4.2.1). L1 How do you see your role as a teacher relative to a researcher? L2 Well I think for me research go along well really well with teaching and I think all

teachers do it a little bit research in their practice without even knowing it, because good teacher constantly reflect on their teaching and think about how to improve it, and that is just the natural part of being a good teacher. But I think being a researcher makes it more systematic because you have a question you are focusing on, you are collecting date, you really reflecting on that and then trying to make the improvement, so instead of trying to make improvement on everything in your teaching, you just pick on one area and work on it. So in a more focused way, and it doesn’t feel as overwhelming. It is hard to think that you have to be better at everything every year. So I like the way research helps me to pick an area. But I think generally it makes me more reflective about my teaching and also once I research something, even when I finished formally researching, it is always an interest to me, it is always something I want to do better because I have a focused look at it. So research has a long-term impact on my teaching not just the time I did it.

L3 How would you answer the question, before KB, not sure what L4 I have been doing research about 16 yrs. so I was doing research before ICS in

public school board, about 1990 when I did my master degree, I was doing research, when I came here I was already a researcher. The way it change for me, is that the whole KB approach change my approach to teaching, I was working more from the students' interest, you know, respecting their question, and teaching in a more responsive way, not knowing where I am going so much, because don't know where students are going to take me to. So I guess it has changed the focus of my research, because most of the research I did since I came here was kb and KF, because when I came here I was so interested in that, and I didn't know anything about it, so that has been a change for me, the focus of my research has changed since I came here, but as I said I was already doing research when I came.

L5 I came here in 1980, wasn't in the ma program, so I got my teacher certificate and

I taught 5 yrs before I got my MA, so it took me 5 yrs, I had a baby, so it took me a while. So that got me into research, was during my MA

' L6 What are the three most important qualities you like to develop in your students? L7 Well, I think I like them to develop a respectful way of being, so that t hey treat

other with respect, and so in turn of course we have to treat them more respectfully, so just the idea of thinking about what behavior is appropriate in different situation, how to deal with situation respectfully, how to deal with conflict, to express different point of view respectfully, not just in school, but that they can go into the society and be kind, considerate people. So respect is really important. Responsibility, I want them to tae responsibility for their action, not to

blame others or to say oh I didn't do it, but to make good choices and when they don't make good choice, to admit to it. And also their responsibility into he classroom to be a good friend to be a good member of the community, to care of material in class, responsibility is huge for me, and I guess the other thing would be a real love of learning, so when they come to school, they don’t see the work of school as just being in school, they see as important in their life, and the thing we are doing fell important to them and they think about it at night. Like the question, they ask their parent and search their internet, so school feel like an important thing in their life, not just something they do and leave. So that pervasiveness of KB, I just like it to be part of their learning.

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L8 Can you elaborate on how you develop those qualities in class? L9 I think with respect, we just dealing with situation all the time with the children,

where they handle something well, and we talked about why that a good way, if they don't handle a situation well, I jump in all the time, if they speak disrespectfully, if they are unkind to somebody, we talked about it. We have a class meeting every Friday where we sit in a circle and we talk about the week. And one of the thing the kids can do is to raise up a problem they have, like a child has been mean to me, they cannot say the name but they can say this child is mean and this is what is happening, and the other kids give ideas and how they can solve the problem, I try to develop respect in that way too, because that is how you treat other people. Even the KB talk taught children to be respectful, they learnt o listen and build on, not interrupt or make face when they don't like someone idea, really they go through everything they do, I try to treat them with respect, I don't yell at them, I try to always give them benefit of doubt, so if they are doing something, I would ask them what is going on here, rather then assume that they are doing the wrong thing, I hope what I am doing and what other teachers treat the children help the kids to be more respectful because we treat them that way.

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L10 Like the Friday meeting, do they handle the meeting like a KB talk, talk about

responsibility ad respect?

L11 Hmm, a little bit, we don't talk about big topic like respect, we could. But we

talked about what went well this week, so everyone has a turn to say something they enjoy, and then we remind each other about things that are coming up, just reminders, and then we talked about problems or we might plan something fun in classes when we are doing together, so it has a specific structure so it is not so much like a KB talk, although sometime, we have discussion within it, and then it feel like it, but the whole thing is not lie KB talk exactly

L12 It is very structure, because there is certain thing we want to do and we only have

half an hour.

L13 I - the third question, so what are the important effort you make so enable your

class to work as a community

L14 Hmm. ok. So things that I do so that they are a community, well the class meeting

I just talked about I think make a big difference, and I think looking at questions that the children are interested in, and going from their interest builds community, because it is not me choosing, its the children together identifying what they are interested in, and having those common question build community, I think you see knowledge forum build community, because the children go on to the computer,

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they read each other idea, they build on, they know what other kids are doing, wherelse in traditional class, the class are doing something and giving it to the teacher. That communal aspect, we do a lot, the books, they share their writing with each other, we try to have a lot of conversation in class, I think that helps build community, I think it is just around the common interest of the class, really helps to build community. It is a hard question because it is really in everything you are doing build community, it is just what kind of community you are going to get out of it, every teacher build community, just that some community aren’t as happy as other, I think, with the kids, more focused on the teacher, I am interested in getting the kids interacting with each other and not focusing on me, not that focusing on whole group.

L15 I think you have already touched the second part of the question, how do you

describe the community you enabled.

L16 Z - I want the kids to rely on each other and not to only feel they have to come to

me, so if they have another question I like them to ask another child, if I give direction to the class and they don't listen, I expect them to ask another each other, I am not going to repeat my instruction and so if someone is doing something wrong instead of coming and telling me, they can go directly to the child and say you are not suppose to do that, I like children are talking to each other, I don’t want to be the center of the class, I like to be a member of the community, I have different role of course, but for me, is a quieter way of leading the class, like my voice, I don’t want to be the dominate voice in the class. I don't speak in a big loud voice. If you come to my class, I hope often you wont find me easily, because I will be talking quietly to a child, it is not my voice talking all the time

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L17 I - so I am training to do the same thing with my daughter, try to be not

authoritative,

L18 I know, it is hard, I think we talk a lot as parent and teacher, don’t we, L19 I - so the forth question, what have been your three most improvement in your

teaching in the past years.

L20 Z - I think just the whole use of knowledge forum, knowledge building approach

has been huge for me, just, I don't, I was never really a traditional teacher, but I think since coming in, the way I teach science and social study in a kb approach, is so much better, I think we go much further, before it would often ask the kids what their questions were, but there were never a way for the questions to live, so we might write them on a chart and hang them up, but we never loo at them again. At the end it doesn't matter if we answer the question or not. But because we have the software and the question live there, they do get there, or if they are not interesting they sort of get forgotten, it is fine. I love this way of teaching because the kids are so much more engaged, and learning becomes a part of them and they really care, so that has been a huge thing for me. I think since coming here, because that is the past few years for me, this is my fourth year. I think a huge learning for me here has been, just bringing me back to the way I was trained when I went here. I really try to hold on to that in a public school system, but to come here and find everyone like-minded, it brought me to right back to where I really believe the way children learn best, development of the appropriate practice, so what is appropriate for children of that age, really teaching to children needs, really knowing the child. So I think I am much more attentive to those things and I have such support in the way I treat children, the way I think about children, I have people I an talk to, that

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can help the children and the way I can think of children to help them, that has been a big piece.

L21 I think we have been doing lesson study on math and that has been a huge thing

for me, just looking at the way we teach math through lesson study has really influence my math teaching, also some research that has been done in my class by Joan moss on algebra. And being able to have contact with MA students who are doing math courses, there has been a lot of influences in the way I teach math, Katie gave me a great series that I can use next year, I think my math teaching has improved a lot through a lot of influence.

L22 I - I think you have already covered the part on how those improvement happened L23 Z -ya, the math one, I think I said that, the way the KB improve, so how did I

learn,

L24 - How do you, what kind of effort you made to achieve that kind of improvement L25 Z - because for KF, I knew nothing when I started, that was a really steep learning

curve for me, in my first year it was a lot of working with RR, we met regularly, he came into my classroom, that was a huge influence on me, that went into my second year, as I become more confident, I started my own research, and then reading, going to SI and talking to other teacher and last year, we started our weekly meeting and that combination helped me improve my practice, it has been a combination of things, but certainly in the early days, I was learning so much so fast, because I needed to, now it is more of refining things.

L26 I -so, do you use the time after class for those things, like certain time let home L27 Z - I do, I read the children notes, and plan, and all the research is done after class.

It is a lot of time/

L28 I - so the 5th question, from what sources did you first learn about the approach of

KB talk

L29 Z- from Ronny, he would be the one to tell me that that was something to do, I

also talked to RM, about the way he do KB talk, I think that was my main source, maybe just mentioned sometime in article, but the really how to do it, I learn from people right here in the building, I think it is different in different place I really learn the ICS KB talk, that really develop over the years as they do it

L30 I - did you make any improvement in your class, L31 Z - ya, I played around with it a lot, I am really interested in discourse, and trying

to have children talk to each other, without putting their hands up. So that if their ideas builds on to someone else, they can just say it, I worked over the year to, trying to get one person to start, children just talk, they take turn, they don't put their hands up, they learn to hold back if someone starts talking at the same time, they need to wait, it is very hard for children, I like a conversation where it really feels like a conversation, not when the teacher choosing who put their hands up, so that has been a big thing for me, and I also use a technique, that RR and RM has used, which is to have a pocket hanging on the wall and the children could put the idea in the pocket that they want to talk about, so children has more agency of what happen at the KB talk, it is not me deciding but they identifying we want to

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talk about this. We want to put the view up ion the wall and do some work, whatever they want to do. So that has been something I worked on, when they show me that idea I tried to use that in my own class.

L32 I - so for the next one, what are the major challenging issue you encountered

recently in your classroom

L33 Z- my class is all about children behavior this year, they are very challenging

class, they are loud, they get off topic very easily, they interrupt, there are kids who are physical, so there is a lot of that happening, it has been on behavior, to get the kids to settle down and focus, but they, just the past couple of weeks they have settled down a lot. I have been doing what I normally do to teach, because a lot of energy goes into building a community and getting the kids to calm down, yep.

L34 I - any other challenging issue you have in mind L35 Z- there is nothing else I can focus on, because if I cannot get the kids to settle

down and focus on what we are doing, then I cant do anything else, so I really have not been, well learning to use 4.6, has been big, but I have not, its been hard, but often the kids behavior is the first thing I have to attend to, maybe when we have problem with software, and I cant even bring my attention to that, because I am busy helping the children to manage, so it has been really hard, 46 has been a challenge, but I got the support, but not at the moment when I really needed it, but only on Thursday, Chris, sending email. But that at the moment help has not been there and that is really difficult, my class is so challenging and I really need people to help me right now. That has been a challenge, but I think it is going to get better because we can work out the kink.

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Appendix B-11 Janet’s Interview

Janet: 2-5years Knowledge building experience Column 1 contain the segment number (denoted as the line number for reference) in the transcript, column 2 shows who was speaking (R is the researcher) and column 3 contain the text. The texts referred to in chapter 4 are highlighted in yellow (Section 4.2.1). L1 How do you see the role of your self as teacher relative to researcher L2 I definitely see myself as teacher first, in my teaching and trying to thing about

research all the time, I think that official research, research that ends up being written up and you know, presented somewhere, is something that I do once in a while, but I am always thinking about my students, doing my research, what is a better way to teach them, what activities, in a way I am thinking about I guess about evaluating both students and myself. And that is like I guess from a research too. Teacher first but researcher on the side.

L3 So can you elaborate a little bit on the second part of the research? L4 So the research I am doing now is, both, 2 things I am looking at, came out of

teaching, one of them is using a speech-to-text – student who have problem with writing, and its been a long process of finding the right computer software that work with students, but what we are looking specifically is, if students who are using speech-to-text, if their KF entry are more interesting or longer or more frequent if they don't have to type them and they just speak it. The other piece of research is, students here in Canada has a individual education plan, an IEP and so we don't do them for everybody, we don't do them for all the students on special education, for one students we have her IEP on KF, so that everybody who is working with the students is able to see what her goals are, what are the activities that the professional are doing with her, it is easy to communicate for this one student.

L5 That is a really exciting area, advance would be great L6 Second question, what are the three most important qualities you would like to

develop in your students?

L7 T Well, because I teach special education, I think probably the most important

quality is to maintain their self-esteem, and just to make sure they don't see that just because they are not good at one particular thing and it affects them in any other area. And I think all of the qualities that I hope that my students come up with is that if they, if they feel good about themselves and their skills and their progress and you know, keep practicing, that they will be able to overcome whatever difficulties that happened, and it is pretty much what I want to see in them in the time I worked here. That inner motivation to overcome difficulties.

L8 R Ya, I think some of the things I do to develop these qualities are just always

pointing out the positive that are happening and keeping records of their work and that they are able to look back, and say, oh now I am able to write four sentences, and it is always like, hmmm how did that happen. And developmental, just encouraging them and making sure the lesson I do with them are not too difficult or too easy, challenging enough that they are moving forward but not too discouraging.

L9 T I forgot the second quality, L10 T Their motivation, there self esteem, I guess because I work with students as an

individual, it is not so much working with classes, and students.

L11 T I think that is pretty much the second question, the third question, what are the

most important effort you made to enable class to operate as a community

L12 T Again that is a little bit tricky for me, that one on one, or in the group of 2 or 3.

Because they are in such small groups, no one really misbehaving, or doesn’t treat each other with disrespect, because there is just so few of them, but I think there has to be a feeling of comfort and feeling of respect, because I am asking students to work on things that are hard for them. So if they are not feeling comfortable then they won't go for it, so I think they have to have a sense of community, or maybe a sense of comfort to, just to be there, and to work at their best, and I think that there is a few things that they do around the school that help out. Like the running team with their gym teacher doing it together, so I am working with student who has problem and students who don’t, because it is the gr 3- 6 that signup. Because all the children in the school know who I am, so its not like, oh you have to go and see Judith, and that will be terrible, but there is not really that attitude, which is nice. The other thing is in gr 1, I work with all the gr 1 students, children who are reading and students who are still not at that reading stage, all the students at various level of reading, so because everyone comes through my room in grade 1, it is not a place that s unfamiliar for them, so that these students who are having difficulty reading I worked with them in grade 1, in gr 2, they are still coming to them, but it make sense to them, it started last year and it is still hard so they continue, so it is not I pick them out of the blue, and it is not because they have problem, so all the students see that it is a natural transition for them.

L13 R Do you know how the students you work with would interact with the

classmate who.

L14 T Ya, I do, I am only working with the students, the student who are having

difficulty, I work with them 4 times a work for half an hour, versus students who are a little bit behind, maybe I work with them twice a week, maybe an increasing, twice a week, so the majority of the time they are in the classroom doing the things they need to do, so it is just a little extra help that they need.

L15 R That would be quite critical L16 R So the 4th question, what have been you three most important improvement in

your teaching in your past year

L17 T I think one improvement is just, probably, knowing the resources that are out

there, knowing what activity might be helpful for students of specific problem, so I guess just more experience with material and resources that are out there and knowing when to use them and just being more effective in using them, I think that has been something I have learned, and other thing is, just having more experience with assessment and being able to do the assessment and then being able to interpret the result so if I am doing an assessment on someone, at this point right now, I am much faster doing assessment then afterward at looking back and really see exactly where they are, I want to have more experience of that, because it is important, ad I think probably I guess I am also

become more confident of myself here, being able to talk to parents, teacher interview skill...and basically just through experience.

L18 T Well, because I teach special education, I think probably the most important

quality is to maintain their self-esteem, and just to make sure they don't see that just because they are not good at one particular thing and it affects them in any other area. And I think all of the qualities that I hope that my students come up with is that if they, if they feel good about themselves and their skills and their progress and you know, keep practicing, that they will be able to overcome whatever difficulties that happened, and it is pretty much what I want to see in them in the time I worked here. That inner motivation to overcome difficulties.

L19 R Ya, I think some of the things I do to develop these qualities are just always

pointing out the positive that are happening and keeping records of their work and that they are able to look back, and say, oh now I am able to write four sentences, and it is always like, hmmm how did that happen. And developmental, just encouraging them and making sure the lesson I do with them are not too difficult or too easy, challenging enough that they are moving forward but not too discouraging.

L20 T I forgot the second quality, L21 T Their motivation, there self esteem, I guess because I work with students as an

individual, it is not so much working with classes, and students.

L22 T I think that is pretty much the second question, the third question, what are the

most important effort you made to enable class to operate as a community

L23 T Again that is a little bit tricky for me, that one on one, or in the group of 2 or 3.

Because they are in such small groups, no one really misbehaving, or doesn’t treat each other with disrespect, because there is just so few of them, but I think there has to be a feeling of comfort and feeling of respect, because I am asking students to work on things that are hard for them. So if they are not feeling comfortable then they won't go for it, so I think they have to have a sense of community, or maybe a sense of comfort to, just to be there, and to work at their best, and I think that there is a few things that they do around the school that help out. Like the running team with their gym teacher doing it together, so I am working with student who has problem and students who don’t, because it is the gr 3- 6 that signup. Because all the children in the school know who I am, so its not like, oh you have to go and see Judith, and that will be terrible, but there is not really that attitude, which is nice. The other thing is in gr 1, I work with all the gr 1 students, children who are reading and students who are still not at that reading stage, all the students at various level of reading, so because everyone comes through my room in grade 1, it is not a place that s unfamiliar for them, so that these students who are having difficulty reading I worked with them in grade 1, in gr 2, they are still coming to them, but it make sense to them, it started last year and it is still hard so they continue, so it is not I pick them out of the blue, and it is not because they have problem, so all the students see that it is a natural transition for them.

L24 R Do you know how the students you work with would interact with the

classmate who.

L25 T Ya, I do, I am only working with the students, the student who are having

difficulty, I work with them 4 times a work for half an hour, versus students

who are a little bit behind, maybe I work with them twice a week, maybe an increasing, twice a week, so the majority of the time they are in the classroom doing the things they need to do, so it is just a little extra help that they need.

L26 R That would be quite critical L27 R So the 4th question, what have been you three most important improvement in

your teaching in your past year

L28 T I think one improvement is just, probably, knowing the resources that are out

there, knowing what activity might be helpful for students of specific problem, so I guess just more experience with material and resources that are out there and knowing when to use them and just being more effective in using them, I think that has been something I have learned, and other thing is, just having more experience with assessment and being able to do the assessment and then being able to interpret the result so if I am doing an assessment on someone, at this point right now, I am much faster doing assessment then afterward at looking back and really see exactly where they are, I want to have more experience of that, because it is important, ad I think probably I guess I am also become more confident of myself here, being able to talk to parents, teacher interview skill...and basically just through experience.

Appendix B-12 Premela’s Interview

Premela: <2 years Knowledge building experience Column 1 contain the segment number (denoted as the line number for reference) in the transcript, column 2 shows who was speaking (R is the researcher) and column 3 contain the text. The texts referred to in chapter 4 are highlighted in yellow (Section 4.2.1).

L1 R How do you see the role of your self as teacher relative to researcher L2 T At the moment I am the art teacher at ICS, that’s nice, art study, I have been

seconded to institute of child studies at the school board, I live in two world, I did my post grad work, my MA from the institute, I graduated from here in the institute and then went to teach at the TDSB for 8 years and now I am back here for a year while someone else has time off. It is good for me to have both backgrounds. I have also taught in oversea. I have all of that background. It is really nice for me and how do I see myself as a teacher relative to a researcher…I find it very difficult to separate the two, for me to be a teacher in action is to be a researcher in action. Whether it is from the point of view of preparing, the old concept of preparing the lesson or going out to see what we should we teacher, or in documenting and analyzing, which happen in all instances, as I am researching an finding information of what I am going to teach. I am constantly reflecting. So if I am going to teach a project on water, we will be looking at those things, I will also look at what I can do with these data, sorting at that stage, I bring it into the classroom and it become another form of research, research in action, that research is put on the table, I am looking at anything from how the children response to he lesson, I am looking at myself in response to what the children are doing ad this many categories to which I sort of guess, in very informal way, becomes information for me. There are of course more formal way of doing it. When I have my own classroom then at the end of the day, what I do it, I make documentation and then a quick reflection of very much about our action, we don’t have KF, and we didn’t. I knew about it but I wasn’t practicing it the way it, the way, in a set way, but what is as doing I have children reflection on their learning, their interaction with other, at the end of the day, I would sit down, every child do not have a computer, we have one computer, I have one computer up, a desktop and I would bring up my writing site, point them, all the kids would be on the carpet, and that we would document in the last hour of the day, what happen in the last hour of the day, what big ideas, who contribute it, that would go into it over the year, the format change, sometime I go child by child sometime I do it as a group. I find it critical to document what happened in the day. I would look at CD or something I had, many times you find you don’t have enough time to record, that part of your research fall down.

L3 R Do you feel it better here? L4 T A little, but I am teaching at a diff format, I have kids coming to me 1 hour, about

200 kids, back then I have 30 kids but the whole day. I find it equally difficult to do the documentation here. I have children coming in all the time. My prep is 15 mins, clean up and then the next class is there. The time to reflect, document is not there so much, unless I do it on my own in the evening. But the time to do in depth reflection with the children is not there simply because if they are only there for an hour, there actual work time is half an hour, after all the walking, getting ready, introducing, and if I say I want to debrief for another 10 mins, it is really difficult in that situation. I would love it, to have that one and half or 2 hour, you get to do your instruction, and then you get debrief and documentation time, then I can get to file

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it. For me it is important to do that part of research with the children. I find it quite difficult to do it. I feel teacher is a researcher in action.

L5 R What are the 3 most important qualities you like for your students? L6 T I like them to be able to be really good ad absorbing information from their

environment. Be very perceptive, I really would like to improve intake of information, any kind of information. Whether it is sensory, or whatever, for them to be really perceptive. And then I like them to be really good at dealing with that information. I want them to have different tangible starting mechanism. Which I tried to do it with them all the time. Mechanism to help them sort things all the time. And I like to give them skill and a strategy to sort what is coming out no matter what it is. And then deal with it. And then take it and say, ok. This is how I can apply it usefully to my own life. I would also like them to very much, presuppose a rich environment. Classroom is a rich environment. I would like them to then be able to apply this information well. So they take it in, sort through it, and application…a project that we do. The three things I asked it ‘why are you doing this’ ‘where is this coming from ‘ –sorting process ‘what is coming to you right now, why are we doing this?’ those are three ways I like them to constantly thinking whether math or art, so see themselves as part of the picture.

L7 R What are the major things you do to develop these qualities? L8 T Anything to add L9 R I would, the major things I want them to develop is flexibility and openness to

receiving information. Some, they are very practical way…that teacher can start developing this, through different environment, making them aware, letting them know that the typical business is no one answer the right answer, the flexibility. The sense of. Get them to be confident to be able to inquire it and investigate.

L10 T 3. So what have the most important effort to make the class to operate as a

community? I think, it is actually very simply, the biggest effort I made is to make it very explicit. I keep talking about it. This happens more when I am with my old classroom. This happens more. If I have my own gr 3 gr 3 or kindergarten. We talk about the microcosm. We talked about ourselves as a social community and this is repeated again and again in many different ways. Of course I do the same thing here, and I have several classes coming to me, here it is about us talking about ourselves as an ICS community. How do we as a ICs community, how do we fit into the community, how do we function, how do we relate to community around the world. The model is slightly different here, here is ICS community, and we see other community, the group. What is the interaction between these groups and us, other geography, other cultures, and how we connect. I do exactly that when we do a class, but I also do a lot of talking about classroom as a community, us being a community, us being a team, we could help each other, e.g. in the yard. Hang together and we build; we eat together a lot, when I am in my old classroom. We would

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L11 T Have a supper day where we sit and eat with each other, we listen to each other.

This happen in circle. We eat together, it happens that way.

L12 T The kids love it, in my other classroom. We have special cooking; it is amazing how

polite and respectful they are in that situation.

L13 R How would you describe and characterize this community that you build

L14 T I describe a community within a community. No community exists as an island on

its own. Again the description would depend on where I was, in my old classroom I would describe myself as …here we talk as a school community and then as the. Fitting into larger social format. That describe in so many way.

L15 R How do you know the community is working well? L16 T I think really one of the best way is the respectfulness within children in the

classroom, in the yard, when you see them cooperate together, when you see them cooperate in the project, very often I would be busy with another child. I would tell them I cat help them then I am working with someone else. I know it is working well when someone says, ‘that ok, Teacher 1, I can go help her’. Or when the child has fallen, they have people come to them, they have very typical way of how the young group is working in a community. Of course you know it very well is they are not working as a community. Of course, ICS has a very developed community, in public school that has to be worked on. In private school, you have different houses, divided into diff houses in different grades. The tree house, the flower house, they form their own group. The solidarity. In school where I dot have so much support. It was nice and useful for me to create that sense, that we are the grade 3, I think they call themselves, the grade 3 machine, they feel good about themselves, that helped them a lot

L17 R 4. How do you think are your three most important improvements in the past years

and how that happens.

L18 T You know. Its been really interesting, one of them is just being allowing myself to

be…it is really allowing myself to have fun…if I love cooking, I love traveling, I love picture story book. Its been allowing myself to bring that complete enthusiasm and joy to the classroom. I did that but I was a little hesitant. Oh this is I, about myself. But then I got really brining myself. Knowing it and it really work. I am interested in something and kiss are also interested and bringing the learning to a high level. And that is increased, always there but it has increased. I think one of the things is also, the improvement, keeping studiously aware of current affair. Especially if you teach children from all over the world, you have to know what is going on. I have a general sense about it but now I have a more structured way to do it. No so much TV, but actually the more thoughtful article, you never know CNN where it begins and ends, but you really read beyond that and work it into my project, my lesson. For me as a art teacher is telling myself and committing myself to go out and actively mingle, go out and look at that exhibition, so much happening that you have to be out there. You are so tired, you tight art and you are going home to rest but you have to know what is happening out there.

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L19 R What are the major challenge and issue you encounter in classroom recently and

how do you response?

L20 T The most challenging issue today is children wanting to speed up and want instant

answer. They are doing this because of our media system. Our computer, the Google. I am like that now, I get back if my Google doesn’t come back

T~C

immediately. I want it now. The kids, at east I have known slower pace of life, I have known a life, when actually when I was in kindergarten, no lap book. We have slate; we have slate pencil that was it. In the same year I went to another kindergarten, they have books, textbooks; a kindergarten could be in any other cities. I remember when we have that slate, not even a chalk. 10 years later, we went form using pencil, but gr3/4 you get onto fountain pen. When you finger is full of ink, and you use it to shoot things at other kids. And two years later, tech change and fountain pen is replaced by ballpoint pen and exactly five years later, the computer, big change, so the kids I teach, none of this happen to them, they went straight to the computer, they have no slate pencil. Fountain pen. They didn’t dot hat, they just went straight to the computer, they want everything fast, instant solution, they go out anywhere else, they taught, ok do this lesson, so this second, do this third. Paste that, stick this and you get a beautiful artifact. They come into he art room and no thinking, you give them a fish but you have not given them to fish. What do we have, what beautiful thing do you have for us. I say, hold on, lets think about it, instant gratification, I think we must slow them down, on one hand, the surface part of them wants to surface, but deeper in them there is a dissatisfaction, there are, esp. kids in ICS, good thinker, higher sophisticated thinker, but they don have the practical skill to do that when they get into he art work. They have amazing ideas but how do I actually build it and that is how I slow them down and that slow them down is actually build them a skill. The compromise is I have to take that skill almost put a sugar coding on that skill. They think they are going fast (snap finger) but they are really learning to do the skill, it is interesting to craft the lesson and getting them to do the skill. They think they are doing this great fantastic thing but they are just learning basic skill and that is my basic challenge, how do I construct them. Do something totally do something else, chuck that chapters, so that’s it.

Appendix B-13 Rhonda’s Interview

Rhonda: <2 years Knowledge building experience Column 1 contain the segment number (denoted as the line number for reference) in the transcript, column 2 shows who was speaking (R is the researcher) and column 3 contain the text. The texts referred to in chapter 4 are highlighted in yellow (Section 4.2.1). L1 R 1 – how do you see the role of yourself as a teacher vs. that of a

researcher

L2 T It is interesting; basically I come here, as a teacher not planning to do any research but there is this system here to teach French. So Karen and I here started doing research in our classroom. I don’t feel that I am doing any research, I don’t feel I am doing any scientific research or analyze anything like that, but it is part of the teaching, you have to keep fresh and new all the time. Can’t teach the old way.

L3 R I: There are some researchers. L4 T But not for French. The research that has been doe is done for the teaching

method, another reach in BC has done, she is the one doing the research and she wanted OISE to be interested and I think they contacted me.

L5 R I: what are the three most important qualities you would like to develop in your students

L6 T I think most of all would be joy, to be happy about learning, enjoying

learning. That would be the first one. Then independence, and then curiosity. I want them to be interested in learning in French and not just learning in general and I try to bring out a lot, what is it to learn French, to live in France. I share I was little girl speaking in French. I think if I make them curious about my situation, particular, and I have a good relationship with the kids and I think they would want to know about it. For the joy, they would want to do it, I just teach from JK to gr1, they love it and they love to come to French. The independence, I feel they can know what they want, I often do different place, to act, also, I want them to have this sense that they are confident and that they can do it.

L7 R I: what are the major things you do to develop these qualities L8 T That was what I was saying, for example for the independence, I try to

make them confident, I teach them things tat are practical, not things that they wouldn’t use. For enjoying, I make it a lot of fun, so they are encouraged and they want to come. Sometime learning the language is not the easiest. Lots of games, because you can learn so much better if you are happy then if you were to learn it in the hard way. The other one is the curiosity, giving them background, show them clips of movie they get interested, they realized it is not something out of the reality, it is out there.

L9 R I – what are the most important efforts you made to enable your class

to operate as a community

L10 T One of the main aspect is physical, the couch, when they first come, they

all fit onto the couch, gradually we add chair when they get bigger, when they are here, they see each other and they can relate with each other. I sit with them. T build community hen sometime it is all of them against me. O competition among them, they all want to help each other to beat me. That work well. Sometime I build pattern in the seating so not all boys sit together, we mix and match, this way there is more sense that everybody is equal. And we have to work in smaller team and we change the team all the time and not just one group that help each other. That is the best way.

CS&C~C

L11 R I – how would you describe the community L12 T They are helpful and cooperative. They are happy; they like to help each

other because they know there is no competition between them. It helps them learn more because it facilitates an openness rather then being competitive and class and everyone want to compete with each other.

L13 R I – what have your three most important achievement, please elaborate

when and how these improvement happen.

L14 T The more important improvement, one has come with professional

development, we attend conference, we do to different workshop, and we found, that is how we found new teaching method for French. So after that we did workshop, and it really improved what we would be teaching and in ways in which we would be teaching. Because I felt much more able to transmit what I know, that allows me to be even better. The third

improvement would probably be, I think to try because ICS is such a different school, so much more, innovative, I find that, I am more open to new things then so the whole atmosphere of the school is to learn more, you don’t become a teacher and stop there. So you keep learning, even though I am not young I still think I have a lot to learn. It teaches me a lot. The students teach me as much as I teach them and to be, that openness is, that openness is very important.

L15 R I – you mentioned the new method of teaching in the very beginning L16 T This new method is called the gesture approach, it is called accelerate

integrated method. What it is is you associate a sign or gesture to a word. So when you teach, for example, munch (you do this (pretend to eat). So the child immediate imagines the action, so you say Je much broccoli (with action) and broccoli sounds like English, so I try to make it easy for them. So each word has a sign attached to it, almost like sign language. It is different not always a same sign. It really works very well. The kids learn to make sentences, not just memories by hard. I do JK, SK and gr 1; Karen does gr 2- gr 6.

C/S~C

L17 R I: what are the major challenges and how do you respond to them T The challenging issue in the classroom recently would be probably, the

class dynamic. We have some classes that everybody comes and they are the gap between the highest and the lowest student is smaller then when the gap is really big, I find this year, one of the classes I teach is really, all over the place, because there is so little, so it very hard to teach when you basically has to say sit down and stop rolling, so that is the problem, that is before the Christmas, they are so little, and sometime they group are so different in their dynamic, you take one child out and the class is perfect and you put that child in and the class go crazy, that is what I find difficult, how to manage the classroom.

SC~R

Appendix C-1: Helen’s case study Chronological events in Helen’s class according to journal entries, classroom observations and meeting contributions. Text coded are highlighted in yellow (Refer section 5.2.1 – 5.2.3)

Helen’s Journal Entries (H-J-date) Helen’s Classroom Observations (H-C-date)

Helen’s Meetings Contributions (H-M-date) (Condensed note)

My role in the KB talks by Helen . [H-J-10/15] L01. I need to understand What is my role in the KB talk at this stage? [C/S~C] L02. I feel instinctively that I should be involved as little as possible, to allow the children to feel that their voices and ideas are as important as my own [CS-R] - and yet from the transcript I can see that I interjected even more frequently than I thought I did (although it does not show what I was saying and so I am hoping that many of those interjections were simply routine-based -e.g., prompting a child to choose a new speaker). Next KB talk, Julie has offered to transcribe so I will look more closely at what I am saying to students and try to reflect on how I can improve the quality of knowledge building.

H-C-10/11-L01 by Helen . [2006, Oct 15] Knowledge Building Talk October 11, 2006 (S denotes students) The symbol (H) indicates that I (Helen) interjected, however unless the text is included inside the brackets, no record was made of what was said (the conversation moved very quickly, thanks to Jenny for transcribing a difficult conversation. The next talk we will try to include teacher interjections as well).

L1. Helen (new idea) I wonder why there are so many insects that are poisonous . . . That’s something I wonder

L2. S (building on) – to defend themselves. (H) To protect themselves if they don’t have poisonous

L3. S (new) – I wonder why butterflies are in so many shapes and so many different shapes and so many different sizes

L4. S (new) – I wonder why the bug that has the long tube (H) use it to collect food?

H-M-09/12-L01 Knowing where to start? I left a cage with two different types of butterflies in the classroom – I was hoping the children would compare the differences? [CS~C]

[H-J-10/15] L04 I need to understand how to improve the KB talk format this week? [constructed problem, CS~C]

H-M-10/05 L01: Helen - first time using database - how to change to graphic (enhanced). indent (the way the posts are displayed in a threaded discussion) doesn’t make sense for grade 1s. Enhanced version changed everything in the classroom.

[H-J-10/15] L05: I think that several students had a firm understanding of how to build knowledge [SA~R], but the format perhaps wasn't ideal (not enough blocks and too many people having to share in the same conversation). [CS~C]

L5. S (build) – I think the same as Will. I think Will’s right.

L6. S (build) – I think Ryan is right (H) Ryan - do you mean when I said they defend themselves? (H) Cale - about to defend itself

L7. S (new) – Why do butterflies have a long tube to drink? (H – same Q as

L8. Will?) Will – no, that was the bug that used its long tube on its head

L9. S (build) – I agree with Ryan that why insects have defences they don’t have poison.

L10. S (new) – Why are there so many butterflies? (H) Because do they have to be so many butterflies in the world? (H) Because maybe they, . . . I forget. L11. S (build) – Why do butterflies use their long tube to drink? L12. S (build) – Why do, . . . why are there so many butterflies in the world? That I’m thinking there’s all different kinds, some are green, . . . L13. Hailey (new) – Why do butterflies eat sugar and water?

[H-M-10/05-L02]People started to want to connect. once there was a lone note, ppl could see it [SC~R]. There is a bit of a struggle, half the class, only myself transcribing except for two kids. There are a couple of strands that are building. I’m trying to be only someone who types - if I have to say anything else, I’m putting my prompt in brackets (e.g. why?) [CS~R] Hope it’s ok, to put the kids on, as they are saying things.

[H-J-10/15 L06: Next time I will try giving out more blocks (3 or 4 per child?) and reassure students that they do not have to use all of their blocks. [CS~C]

[H-M-10/05-L03]Very different from the conversations that we’re having - ind. statements, and agreements, more caution, then on the website. Some are unconcerned with whole notes they are, and others are fascinated with who is writing them [SA~C]. I moved the notes further apart so that they are easier to see. We started with the question - She fiddled through to find how to change the author. The kids watched the butterflies emerging from the chrysalis.

[H-J-10/15 L07: This will mean making sure that those who do not share at all still feel a part of the community [CS~C]

L14. Sasha (new) – Why do caterpillars need to change into a butterfly in a cocoon?

L15. Grace (build) – (H) Ants (H)

L16. Magnus (build) – Why do bugs have – where do the bugs get their poison? (H) I already know that butterflies get their poison from milkweed but I don’t know about other bugs.

L17. Isabella (build) – Why is milkweed poisonous? (H) I don’t know.

L18. Jeremy (build) – I think they store their knife where their tongue is.

L19. Rebecca (build) – I think

butterflies need a chrysalis to get the blood into their wings

L20. Benn (build) – I think Ryan is

right that they defend themselves.

L21. Kiara (new) – Why do butterflies have blood?

L22. Justin (build) – I agree with Chloe because butterflies born eggs again so they have more butterflies. It goes around and around.

[H-M-10/05-L04]Kids had some great theories/questions, trying to figure out what is inside the chrysalis, b/c liquid comes out when the butterfly emerges.

[H-J-10/15- L08] Should I be requiring participation in a gentle way at the beginning so that all students feel successful and get a sense of themselves as someone who can participate in these talks? (e.g., you can share anything you'd like, we would love to hear your ideas?) [CS~C]

[H-M-10/05-L05] - As it gets bigger we will have 4 other ppl doing this [CS&C], and I’m telling them not to say anything. ‘you tell me what to type’ and not looking at them. [H-M-10/05-L06] Helen - next time if they agreed, and they told them i agree - introduced sticky note - i agree. a couple of kids. it’s a big thing to agree or disagree. [H-M-10/05-L07] Helen - should I keep the same language - my theory (rather than my idea). What’s your idea, hypothesis, theory...

[H-J-10/05- L09] The first talk I didn't address this issue, I just gave out 2 blocks to each student and the kids picked others until the blocks ran out [C&C~C] - although I think I did say "If you have blocks still, think of what you would like to say and it will be your turn soon" or something similar . .. hmmm. Perhaps that was an implied requirement. We already have the right to pass in our class so students know that they do not have to participate - even when L10 I suggest it. There are several children who do not spontaneously participate in these types of whole group activities but, when even gently encouraged, they enjoy sharing with the class and having their turn. L11What is my role in a KB talk -how do I encourage these children during the short times that I am talking? Leave it and talk about it at the end? Not sure yet. [SC~C] annotationHeather .

L23. Margo (build) – I agree with Justin because it repeats. L24. Ryan (new) – Are butterflies reptiles because they lay eggs? L25. Hailey (build) – I think that they put the thing that they cut the leaves with with the leaves. L26. Benjamin (build) – Why dos that bug go and suck people’s blood? (H) I don’t know. Maybe because it likes it as its food L27. Annelise (build) – I think Ryan’s right about the seal (?) thing L28. Sasha (build) – I agree with Chloe (H) I forget. Why do butterflies have that tongue? (H) I don’t know. L29. Grace (build) – (H) (put her piece where Sasha’s was) L30. Benn (build) – I forget what I was going to say. Why do ants have to cut L31. the leaves? L32. Daisy (build) – I’m agreeing with the poison one. I think why are all butterflies so poison? I’m starting to agree to theirs.

[H-M-10/05-L08] Helen = I think, I wonder, my idea is.... Nancy- the building block is an understanding of their own thinking and understanding other ppl’s thinking. If they have internalized that they can think, adn others can, it won’t matter what words we use. Now, words do help us, but sometimes it may be the best word. Chloe- they are so absorbed by the mechanics, so it’s better to connect to their thinking.

L32. Kiara (build) – How do the ants bite the leaves? L33. Isabella (build) – Why is milkweed poisonous? L34. Rebecca (build) – Why are some bugs poisonous?

H-M-10/13 - L01 Helen - we had our first talk . kids put their hands up when the person has finished speaking. We had tried conversation first, and this class can’t do that yet. My intern transcribed it, I did too much prompting [CS~C]

H-M-10/13 -L02 So many kids that would want to say something, and then they would say it. I was jumping in and asking questions. At the very beginning of the talk, I started it, and I was wondering why butterflies are poisonous.

Helen – Grade 1 – [H-C-10/18] 9:05 am – kids seated in circle, Helen Gives out block, Kids settling now

L1. H- We wont make too much noises, thank you daisy, this time you don’t have to share all your things, we are going to go boy girl boy girl. Now everyone is getting there

L2. I am going to remind you of

really trying not to use them. I like the way Jeremy build something with his and now he is leaving it, then it would not even knocked off accidentally, if you want to copy his idea, you can.

L3. [side conversation, S: Can I

have one more – h: absolutely not (gently), you have got some already, and you got two)

H-M-10/13 - L03 In gr. 1 I talked to Zahra already, and in a conversation it is hard for gr.1s to ‘add on’, rather than randomly ask questions, and there’s no conversation. I gave each kid 2 duplo blocks, and if someone wants to build on, you put it on top of the block. [SC~C, SI~R]

L4. H- Ok, We talked a little bit about the idea that KB talk is a place where we build on to other people ideas. Do we have some big ideas that we talked about right now. Butterflies and other insects

L5. H-Butterflies and other insects, that a big idea that we talked about. Any other big idea?

L6. It is pretty much the only big ideas, is it ok to talk about another big idea, (yes) absolutely, if you have a big idea, you just put your block a little further. I am going to ask Ryan to start today.

L7. S (Ryan) - Butterflies lay eggs, are they reptiles? Reptiles lay eggs.

L8. H - Ryan gets to pick the next person (Ryan pick R’na)

L9. S - How does electricity work (put block)

L10. H: Put your hand up if you want to contribute

L11.Sasha – How come monarchs spit out poison?

L12. Helen – (put up her hand)

H-M-10/13 - L04 If it’s a question about the same thing, but it close. If the question was not related, the block goes somwhere else in the space, that went over really well. It really did help. They got it! Are you building on or are you starting a new one? It was helpful to see who contributed and how they did. [SC~R] H-M-10/13 - L05 Nancy’ put her first transcript of her knowledge building talk on COI. I studied it first. [H-M-10/13 - L06]We will be putting it up. It was huge to see what she was seeing and when she was intervening. It was a bit embarrassing to read her COI, I felt like it was intervening. Kids sit and some only have something to say every 5 minutes. The kids who went after me were just modeling asking a question, I should have modeled that you propose a theory about it as well.

L13. H – I want to build on to Sandy’s idea and say, I wonder do monarch spit out poison how is it poison…my idea is maybe, Justin told us before they eat milkweed, that is poisonous, ,maybe what they eat make their body poisonous

L14. Justin – I want to build on to Ryan. (loud) Because reptiles are not butterflies – because they don’t lay eggs. L15. H- Hands up… L16. Chloe – (put block) – I think milkweed that they eat makes them poison, so if you touch them, then you would have poison on your hand L17. Will – I know butterfly… L18. H- Sorry Will – (Judith brought in some kids and got some kids to go with her.) L19. H- I am so sorry for the interruption –it is going to be strange that way coz Judith will be calling groups as we talk, if you just sit down, we have some big conversation going on. This one is about poison – (point to blocks) – this one is a question about ‘are butterfly reptile? (Turned to grace – is that yours (yes), you keep it if it is yours)

[[H-M-10/13 - L07] Helen - Genny was involved, developmentally delayed, but in this one she was able to contribute. IF you want to participate you can, but if you don’t want to you are showing me by knocking over the blocks, then you can go and read. She came back and was ready with her two blocks, and wanted to be picked. She responded to ants question, adn put her block onto the other blocks. The kids were paying attention adn felt like it was a contribution. Chris- a wonderful innovation - we are always focussing in on how do we get started? this narrative has been great.

L20. S - Why do butterfly spit out poison? [He is asking the same question as Sasha] L21. S – put block – are there so many different kind of butterflies that eat milkweed or only monarch. L22. S – I want to add on to Ryan – (wait) –(move to put block). What is Ryan about? L23. Helen repeated Ryan question, I think insects and reptile lay eggs – because I know ants lay eggs too. L24. S – why do butterflies have blood in the wings that help them to dry?

[H-M-10/13 - L08] Helen - It was open. Came from Nancy’s talk that went in all directions. She let it go, and at the end she brought it together [PD~R]. It’s helpful to listen ot what she was saying about it. I didn’t give them any topic. I said it’s a time when we talk about things and try to gain information. I showed them a video of soem butterflies and soem other insects. Butterfly questions from teh database were brought in, some questions about leaf-cutter ants, where do they keep their knives.

(Helen move around to gently remind some kids who were getting restless) L25. S – their wings are like the, like the, (move slowly walk to another group of blocks) Why do butterflies…their wings are like birds

L26. S – I am building on to Sasha – different animal eat butterflies, they get poison. L27. S - why do the butterfly push their blood into human body L28. S – I want to add on to (single green block), I forgot what he said, (boy repeats question), not sure, do I call the boy – ahhh, Will! L29. S– I want to build on my idea – L30. Helen- So you are adding on you own, you must have an idea L31. S: So they can dry them and fly

[H-M-10/13 - L09]

L32. At the end of the conversations, we looked at the questions that had a lot of build-ons, we spent a lot of time talkign about ‘poisonous animals’. [CS~R] The kids were building on about poisons, what else is poisonous, why does it work, what is it? [SC~R] etc. Butterflies and ants. Basically stayed on topic, but mostly connected to animals, change, poisonous.

L32. Isabella – it is a new question – why is milkweed poison? L33. I have a new idea- why do butterflies have a blood (not sure) looking stuff when they are in the cocoon (not sure) L34. (Helen puts her hand up and waited too.) L35. Chloe – adding on to Sasha – (put block) – I think milkweed is poisonous, because butterflies has germs and they eat them and people would know, people would know, people would know if it is poisonous, if it wasn’t poisonous, people can get butterfly germ when they eat the milkweed.

L36. S– I build on to Sasha – umm, because all butterflies eat milkweed because they eat milkweed and,…

L37. Another group coming in

with Judith L38. Helen- Justin please hold on

to your idea

L39. (Justin has to leave with Judith)

L40. Helen- Sorry Johny – hold on to that idea – we want to hear them. On your way out, pass the block to someone. Again boys and girls, I apologize. You are not on Andy pillow. You may not sit on that pillow, everyone move right over, fantastic. Every one moves over. Johny is going to tell us and everyone have block down, go ahead. Why do butterfly eat milkweed because they like poison, they eat milkweed all the time L41. Helen—I want to build on to Justin’s idea – I think that (hha-grace) maybe butterfly eat poison but what we talked about, to protect themselves, if someone eat them (like Chloe say) they become poisoned and get sick. I wonder if there are other insects like this. Boy – I think…I think…. (Inaudible) Grace – a

L42. Helen – which one do you want to build on, poison? Reptile? Which one?

L43. Grace move to poison and out her block down

L44. Helen – what do you want to say? (Finished? signal) – she moved back to her seat.

L45. S- How come butterflies aren’t reptiles?

L46. Helen- what do you think? I don’t know

L47. Helen – remember we try to have idea about our questions, so just guess. I think people get it by becoming …(inaudible)

L48. Helen- remember if you have a question you must have some kind of idea

L49. S - I am building on to Alice – butterflies do lay eggs L50. S – How do caterpillars get to make their wing inside the crystalli L51. S -I think I am building on to… why do butterflies, caterpillars have to go into a crystallis to grow into butterflies.

L52. That is actually – I want to remember… L53. H - We are going to shut down with three or four more people L54. Boy - I am adding on to….sasha idea – because milkweed is poisonous – so many animals that are poisonous eats it L55. S- (Put block far far away) – why do sea creature has eight legs? L56. (Look for boys with three pieces) L57. S (moves forward) – what is (name) talking about (she moves to the block), [Helen repeat the question ‘whether butterfly is reptile, kyra move back to his seat] L58. (Helen :kyra what is your idea)…something…are butterflies reptiles?

Put your hands high up –(girl with three blocks left) Boy: if some one touches it, then other animal touches it, so if someone touches or eats it, and then they will die L59. Girl: I want to build on to Sasha idea…

L60 Helen- this is a really fantastic talk – has everyone had a turn, just one turn, not even one? (to one child), did you want to?…ok, (Judith came in again)

L61. H- Boys and girls, here’s I want to do, just for about 10 or 15 mines. I want to try something it a little differently now, ok, we are going to try something different, if you look around, some ideas are really getting build-on, some just one block, they are really interesting ideas. I am wondering if we have so many ideas that we are not able to get them all. Let have a shaking break… – go drink water if you have to. H –when you come back, we are going to try something a little different L62. [Helen- CL I am going to try, these big questions, but so many disjointed thing, I am going to try no block, no hands and see what happens. Still some kids not sharing. Break – come back again.] L63. Helen- find a new spot Kids singing – settling down L64. Helen-ok, we are going to try again (count down). Ok, for a very short time, I want us to try talking in a different way. We are going to try without blocks and we are going to try without hands-up – I don’t know, gr 4s do that, and what can we do to be still respectful? L64. S- Don’t talk over other people’s voices L65. S- People don’t know who to pick L66. S -Lets vote – two choices – try hands up or not

L67. Maybe we should vote, Put your hand up now if you think we should have our hands more. Close your eyes. Put you hand up if you don’t want to have your hands up, put your hand up if you want to have your hands up L68. More people pick don’t want to put hands up L69. Helen- Since we don’t have block, We are going to have one idea – we don’t say it until we are done with one. if you have to think about people’s idea even if you don’t have ideas it. So we are having one idea and talk about it. Do we have to do questions? L70. Helen- do we have to do question, interesting. You can just share information about it. If we are talking about Halloween costume –everyone will say it, if you don’t have things to say about HW costume then you don’t say it. do we talk about HW costume? Why? L71. S: violence, L72. S: they might not know what they want but they want to be in the talk. It is not a school thing. L73. S: They may not know what it is if somebody is wearing a custom – someone may not want to talk abut it

L74. Helen– we talk about big question – is Halloween question a big question? It maybe just what is your costume. So, close your eyes and think about a big question –there were lots of big question on the carpet. I am trying to find a way to make it really fair, so we have a chance to start a big question. L75. Helen: Andy is going to talk about a big question, we are all going to talk about Andy big question L76. Andy – I think I forgot Ok,we start with someone else.

L77. S- how do ants bite when they don’t even have any teeth? L78. H (repeat) - How do ant bites when they don’t have teeth, this is where we are starting. Maybe they make it into little pieces and swallow it. L79. Maybe the knife is on them, cut them into pieces and then they can eat it. L80. Maybe they have a special thing in their body that could eat, L81. Maybe, the hole is tiny and they put it in the hole and chop it up

L82. Helen- I want to build on, I want to ask a question – you mean a hole in the body or ground L83. S- A hole in body. Maybe they have fingernail – they cant grasp a piece of eat it L84. S: That have a claws that pick it up and chew it L84. S:Maybe they have, in their mouth, special teeth that your cant see and feel and …they chop it up and eat it L85. S: Maybe they do have teeth but they are so tiny and sharp. You cannot see them L86. S:Maybe, they have teeth in their stomach L87. S: Maybe they umm, get a piece like this with their lips and do like this they swallow and chew it all up (rub hand on mouth)

L88. Maybe they go to a puddle, and they put their mouth there and drink. L89. Maybe they have outside, like on their face, L90. Maybe they have something in their check and suck it all up and go to the puddle and drink it and it wash it down… instead of chewing. L91. Maybe whatever, I am building on to (name)…. What if somewhere there is no puddle. L92. They can go to somebody house, climb up, and they can, somebody pull the tap open they can drink.

L92. But tap water is too strong, might push it down.

L93. Maybe someone was doing

the hose and the tap is dripping and (slurp. Slurp)

L94. Maybe maybe, (chaos)… L95. Maybe they have a special

tube that they can eat. And then they eat it and swallow down the body

L96. Maybe the tap water is

running a little bit. L97. Maybe what if the tube is too

long for them to walk.

L93. And then they eat it up and swallow it, L94. Maybe maybe…chaos L95. H-I like to interrupt, so many people are doing such a great job, people keep looking at my eye to see if they could talk, I am not going to do that. think about if you have a lot of turns to talk, you should keep quite and let someone talk –

L96. maybe they have something in their…they can drop it, chew it and they can eat it. L97. They have an imaginary tongue and they can go anyone and slide down a door and to a tap. L98. They need to… L99. Maybe they can go into the sewage and suck their tongue and eat it. L100. Maybe when I was washing my hands ants came and when they went into the sink, they die.

L96. Maybe they have little pocket in their stomach and they store food in, when there is too much food and maybe there is a special drain in it and they can take it out of their stomach. L97. H- this is a really good conversation. How do you think it work when we have no blocks (thumb up an thumb down). You look around too. Something went well. What do you think went wrong?

L98. s- Too many people talking, too loud L99. s- too many maybe maybe L100. H- they just say again and again until they have something in.

L106 H-hands up if you think you got lots of turns. If you have less turns. I think we can be formal – formal means with rules. Sometimes we do it that way, I love that we talked about the

More Kb talk by Helen . H-J-10/19 – L01 Today I tried two KB talks and am still thinking about what the results of the two different talks were. I had a great conversation with Julie, Nancy and Chloe about the KB talks and I am trying to think about some of the issues that they raised (is the role of the teacher in Grade One to be more directive, and support the students by helping direct conversation? [SC~R] What does a truly productive KB talk really look like at this age?) as I plan the format of the next talk[CS&C~C].

H-J-10/19 – L02 I think that so much of the conversation in the class is already supported and guided by me at other times, that I feel that there needs to be a time when students feel they are building knowledge without teacher direction [CS~R] (and without it being a peripheral result of conversation -ie at snack time, when wonderful conversation can take place but the importance is not recognized by the students). Instead the KB talk lets students know that their ideas are valuable ((or is that an adult perspective?

H-J-10/19 – L03 possibly children think that snack conversation is of more value than a KB talk?. [CS~R] This is my first reaction to the idea that perhaps it is more developmentally appropriate to be more involved in the discussion. [SC~C] My gut reaction is that the more I am directing and supporting, the less power I give to students to feel that the focus is on their thoughts. I am also continually surprised when I take risks (like letting students try a KB talk without hand-raising and without intervening).. . But is that too distressing to some children? I know that it is uncomfortable for some of them, but I also feel that it can be an opportunity for them to problem-solve. Is it not worth the risk? It's possible that children do not feel safe enough for this to be successful.

H-J-10/19- L04 The role of a KB talk by Helen. I need to understand how do the different types of knowledge building experiences help children to confidently take part in the process? [CS~C]

[H-J-11/04] Richness of KF vs KB talk by Helen . After the KB meeting on Thursday, Clare said something that got me thinking – L01. She mentioned how much richer the conversation on the database is, than the KB talks in Grade One(that is true, but it was not something I had identified before she introduced it [SC~R], L02. because I have rich conversation with individuals and in small groups that I was not considering as part of the KB talks and so saw that children could do this thinking in smaller groups without the social concerns) and that’s maybe what is happening on the database L03. – they know who wrote the notes but they don’t have to think about feelings or turn-taking or trying to connect with what more than one person said [SC~R] (a difficulty of the group talks, at this age I think, is in the desire to respond to several peoples ideas, because they often seem to have to go back quite a bit and that is to address a friends question or comment)

(look back at transcripts to see if I can find some examples). Annotation Helen

[H-J-10/19-L01] graph by Helen . I used the contribution graphs to find out which students I should be working with on KF [T~R], and found something interesting - the child with the largest number of notes is not a child I would have expected. What are the quality of her notes? [T~R]

[H-J-11/04-L01] Watching a KB talk in Nancy's class by Helen . I went to visit Nancy’s Grade 2 class during a KB talk and got so much out of it. It all ties in with the struggle that I'm having with the content of the KB talks andwhat level of discourse I’m hoping for.[C/S~C]

[H-J-11/04-L02] New information It’s interesting to think that in GR 2 they are just beginning to be able to collectively follow an idea through from a question to some theories [SC~R]

[H-J-11/04-L03] and perhaps in grade one KB talk it’s just to get them used to the conversational format L04.(although if we make the groups small enough then connected conversation can occasionally happen, and even in larger groups connected conversation can happen, but not for every participant at every moment [SI~C]. L05. S New information being Nancy’s class also helped me to really appreciate that not every child has to be tuned in all the time to benefit from the experience

[H-J-11/04-L04] L06. Not being the one responsible for the talk allowed me to see it in a very different way than I have been thinking about talks in my room. And I saw that although there were children who were not always engaged, those children were still able to participate at different points throughout the conversation and contribute wonderful ideas .[SI~C, SA~R] L07 (and I knew, watching the Gr 2s that this moving in and out of attention was not a failing of the talk, but a reality of such a little body and mind engaging in this complex exchange of ideas,(SC~R) and yet it took watching someone else's class to gain a perspective on my own. L08And I think that was something that was bothering me , the idea that there was no way for every child to connect throughout the whole talk.[SI~R, SA~R] When we read a story in class, I feel as though every child is connecting on their own level, and in a conversation I worry that so many things are passing them by that some are unable to connect meaningfully so it’s a struggle.

[H-J-11/25-L01] Half-Group KB talks by Helen . I have tried to get time out of my schedule for half-group KB talks, to see if that might work better (C/S&C-C) I will have to look at the transcripts closely to see if there was a difference in building or connecting with others ideas. Instinctively, I felt as if some children dominated the conversation more and the few who didn't contribute were not listening as closely as they had during the whole group talk. [SI~C] We have been cutting down idea introduction to just one question, and new questions must connect to our original (this had never been clear to me before talking explicitly with other teachers about it - I had been opening it up to many children, and that was chaotic but very motivating for many students (each one participated in some way).[SI~R]

[H-J-11/25-L01] Drawing after a KB talk by Helen I tried asking students to draw something they had learned/thought about after a KB talk. Disaster. The talk began with the question posed by a chld earlier in the week, "Why do you need a family?" I was excited because it seemed like a rich question and I thought the talk went fairly well[CS~C]. There were a few points where I felt redirection was needed and so I put up my hand and asked a question and that seemed sufficient [SI~R]. The times when I thought we needed redirection were as follows:

R’na did you know that the bridge has to hold metal because cars are made out of metal so that’s why it needs to have those poles to make it stand Benjamin: pillars? R’na: yah, and on that bridge -what’s it called? Will: suspension bridge? R’na: no, the famous one Ryan: Tacoma narrows R’na: yah, so here’s the bridge and here’s the car going across and (drops it).

[H-J-11/25-L02] The first was a point raised by one child who said that families protect us from bad people, several children perked up at this and a short discussion followed, where students pondered why someone would want to take you from your family (one answer that many seemed to find satisfying was that robbers would steal you and train you to be a robber) I redirected and thought the talk moved onto a less potentially upsetting area. [CS~C]At another point, a child discussed whether you might be eaten by something when traveling in the jungle if you left your family.

Rose (student teacher): so I hear a lot about how the bridge has to hold it’s own weight and the things on it, but how do we make it strong? Leah- pillars Rose: do you want to explain? Leah: so there’s pillars here and here and the pillars go deep down into the water Will - the bridge is here (using the paper towel), sometimes the bridge cannot have pillars because the something that it’s crossing is really tall and deep so it would use up a lot of metal and take a long time to build. So let’s say the ground is here and this is the bridge sometimes they can put a little pillar there and there to hold it (indicates sides) and they can make really strong attachments to hold it. Sometimes they don’t have big railings Rose- so maybe if someone hasn’t had a chance to say anything you could pick them, or if someone hasn’t had a chance they could put up their hands

[H-J-11/25-L03] Overall though, I thought there were other interesting ideas raised and I wasn't concerned. However, when asked to draw something from the talk, over half of the pictures featured robbers and "bad people" trying to take children away. [CS~R] Some of this can be explained away by a group phenomenon - it only happened at a few tables and seemed to be initiated by a few key children, with others copying from the pictures/discussion that ensued.

Benjamin: so sometimes they go across a valley and it smashes (tears the paper towel) Ryan: can you not break it because other people might want to use it? (Will gets a book) Benjamin: but what if someone wants to break it to show something? Will: Two books! Rose: Is this helping us learn more about bridges?

[H-J-11/25-L04] Regardless, it was very distressing and I felt like I needed to debrief the class afterwards. We came together as a group and talked about whether they thought children being taken away happened a lot (they didn't) and whether it was something they felt worried about (they claimed it wasn't).[SC~C] L05. After that, our special friends came and I explained that we were stuck on an idea about our families needing to protect us, and the Grade 4s were able to redirect their special friends to brainstorm other ways that families are helpful. No children seemed upset, and there didn't seem to be any repurcussions beyond that conversation, L06. but it has made me rethink the way I will ask children to record their thoughts [CS~C]. Perhaps next talk I will ask smaller groups of children to go and work independently before I send others to draw their picturesOr perhaps children can identify what they will be drawing about before they go to their seats? . [CS~C] [ It's a steep learning curve :)

Helen: I’m trying to hear what we can learn from Benjamin, so can we go back to that -what were you saying? Benjamin: sometimes a bridge will go across a valley and the cars wait and then when they go across it smashes. Helen: why would the bridge break? Benjamin: When the car got into the middle - Will: it didn’t have enough support you’re saying?

[H-J-11/25-L07] Informal KB talks by Helen We have been working on a social studies unit in Grade One over the past few weeeks, and since the "Why do you have to have a family" talk two weeks ago, we haven't had a formal KB talk. L08. Partly because it has taken me that long to process what the next talk will look like and what the follow-up of the talk [CS~C] (drawing) will look like, but also because we have been using our Wednesday time to build homes and create structures. [CS&C~C] An interesting thing has happened in the time that we have not been regularly having formal KB talks. Not one child has asked if/when we will have another talk, L09. but when informal talk begins to gain a bit of momentum in regular circle settings (e.g. we were talking about a book we had just finished reading) several children spontaneously begin to apply the conventions of our KB talks. This has happened twice in the past week.[SI~R] After three or four comments about the same idea in the book, a child looked around and chose the next person to speak (before this, it had been hands up at me, or calling out into a silence).

Benjamin: Yah ,so the car falls into the valley and the people die. Rose- it’s lunch time so can some people whose voices I haven’t heard help us remember what we’ve been talking about today? Kiara: Bridges can snap in two (why?) because if there isn’t a pillar in the middle across a valley Astrid - you need bridges to get across water

H-M-12/14/06 Helen: this is not such a logical step for a lot of teachers, even if they are community builders, tribes etc. The step of passing on responsibility to the kids [SC~R]- colour coded kids posting questions on the board, three different topics. She is someone I thought would jump on board immediately, but when we started talking about this, she was really uptight about letting go - she was worried abotu curriculum expectations being met. Helen: Curriculum is not the same here, we don’t have to report three times in a year, and in parent interviews, we don’t have to address things that we don’t know enough about yet. The reality of the ‘assessment peice and the end point in view is important out there. [CS~C]

[H-J-11/25-L10] No children seemed suprised about this, and although children did not all adjust themselves so they could face the person who was speaking, they did make sure that when the person was done speaking they could see them to be chosen.[SI~R] It's interesting to think that some of the children seem to sense a type of talk that dictates whether one format or another is used.

KBtalk 28 April [H-C-04/28-L01] Thank you so much for stopping (making shadow puppets by blocking the projector) o quickly, make sure you are sitting down. H: When I get in, grade 1, structure 2, that is big If you look, all the notes in my view are red, means that I read it all, it turns read when you open the note. I go home and read the notes you put up. But we don’t really have the time to talk about it. I thought this is a good time to talk to you about them

[H-M-01/12] Helen – there is still a struggle to make kb work for younger children who are learning to talk an idea without being affected by others [SC~C]. Helen – in primary, I’m struggling with a way to introduce a way to get the information introduced [CS&C~C], it’s just a transmission model. How do you make sure that they are coming up with it. [SC~R] I feed it to kids. FCL is really well organized in terms of how you get into it, and you really can do it, and you can learn as you’re going into it. [H-M-01/12] Helen – you probably brought people back and got them excited and re-focus. [CS~C] I’ve been planning the whole way, how do I learn this and help others do it next year when I go back to public school. How do you ensure deep understanding of principals [CS~R]. A group that drops in that has the deep understanding.

[H/J/01-29-L01] Knowledge building on different levels? by Helen . I watched the video CL put up in the "teacher's discourse" view and now am thinking about the different levels of KB talks. We had a discussion in the KB meeting today about when things are effective and when they become too formalized, and I'm still struggling with this. I agree that the talk should be moving students to a deeper understanding and that some of the requiremtns we put in (using blocks, everyone taking turns) can make the conversation less coherent and can interrupt moving towards a deeper understanding [CS&C~C].

H-C-04/28 – L02] Here is one thing though, so I can remember everything that you said, I got the video camera turned on. If you have something to say, can you say it in loud and clear voice? I want to remember incase my memory doesn’t work. Remember we talked about bringing some notes over and naming it structure and bridges, and people helped to pick which note to move over, and lots and lots of thing, and then there are some other new notes, and I thought – you know what, we have done a lot about structure, and I love to go through some of the notes and read some, so this one is Isabella, do you see this, this one says ‘ bridges over water’, I am just going to try to open it up.

H-M-04/12 L01 Helen - two weeks ago, we had a talk using the projector showing the view - I didn’t touch the view, and things started to pile up. That part worked well..I had to almost lead them to a new view. We had to talk about naming it, and that’s where it felll apart for me - what would we put in it, what should we call it? ideas: 1) bridges now, rather than structures, 2) call it structures 2 3) take all notes that have lots of notes attached and move them over... It was apparent that a lot of students had different ideas [CS~R] Richard - they had great concepts- ideas with lots of notes- really alive.

[H/J/01-29-L02] But the kind of knowledge building that works for a whole group is different than a half group or smaller, and so I think different goals are appropriate for those bigger class discussions. I also worry that when the same children drive a conversation (even when others participate in it) that it is only those children whose understanding is deepened, and others are lost at the edges. I need to understand how can we facilitate KB for a whole class?[SI~R] Let's face it, the half group is great but mine is taken up with Math and Judith pulls out half my kids during the other specialties, It's just not an option for my schedule [CS&C~C] (nor will it be an option next year in a public school. So how do we make these things work in such a large group (is it just impossible at this age? [SI~C] Do we just use things like the blocks and limit natural conversation but give a sense of what building knowledge could be like?) [CS&C~C] I think that the block idea is a good one (After using it twice I feel exhausted at ensuring that all 22 children got to express their ideas in a timely way,

I think I read that one. hhm,hm..It says, “if bridges are over water and they are made of wood, they have to be strong, other wise, they might collapse with too many people, Jeremy Or they could rot

H-M-04/12-L02 Helen - it wasn’t successful b/c we couldnt’ come to an agreement that would make sense to everyone in the class. There were still some kids left behind in this discussion b/c it was so deep. [SI~C] Julie saw that the struggle was how can you separate a bridge and a structure, because bridges are structures...some kids wanted to separate views based on the groups that they were in... I didn’t want that!!! In the past few months, Some of the talks felt like they were bounded in some way that the kids felt comfortable and do some reviewing/summarizing at the end of the talk. I had less and less to do with it in terms of the structure. this talk blew this all apart - and the only 7 voices getting loud. Then the kids went outside, and I thought it didnt’ go well, but chewlee did.

[H/J/01-29-L03] and I definitely see some hazards - too focused on number of contributions, no real conversational flow, too long between ideas, too many ideas for some children to focus on) but it also is a good way to show students how their ideas fit in with the class and how they can add onto another idea or start their own inquiry and how powerful it is when we are all focusing on the same idea. [SC~R]

Or they could rot, good and kiera also added on some information like Jeremy, ‘some bridges can collapse if they are not too strong like some other bridges did, I actually think this is a little sticky notes, I think that happened when you press that button instead of build-on, so we go in, and don’t worry about that, but I do want to know, Kiera – what other bridges were you thinking of?’ Honeymoon bridge. Like the honeymoon bridge. Niagara falls that would be great information to put into your notes. Can you put it in now? So some bridges collapse if they are not too strong, like some other bridges did, what else should I write?

H-M-04/12-L02 Nancy- Sometimes when there is a lot of energy in a discussion, it isn’t the most balanced talk. You can trust that it brings a care/passion to the discussion that you can build on after that. Soemtiems if feels like the engaged discussion happens when there are two kids having opposing views. To me, it sounds like a great talk! Helen- i think i’ll have to change the structure a bit, because we used to do a lot of community building talks that were evenly balanced..I feel like a KB talk needs to take the place of those as well[CS&C~C] Zahra- kb talks are the hardest things - it’s risky as a teacher to let them go off, but you end up having more of the good than the bad. it’s a long developmental piece to grade 3 and grade 5 . Helen - there is a big divide between grade 1 and 2.

[H-J-01/29-L01] more thoughts about Half-groups by Helen. We have been holding half group KB talks and it's interesting to reread my reservations about them earlier in the year, because many of the doubts (too much domination by a few voices, children who aren't participating are very obviously not engaged, narrowing of topic means we move it forward but not all are as interested) are all still there, but I've started to work around them I don't know if my modifications make sense through a Knowledge-building lens, but they feel right to me so I'm sticking with them for a bit longer. [CS~C] I've rearranged the schedule so we can have half-group conversations and if children do not participate in the conversation, I'm pulling them aside in a smaller group and asking if they'd like to talk about it (e.g. "There were a lot of people talking, and I know you have great ideas but weren't sharing any [CS&C~R].

Like the honey moon bridge’ Do you see how Clara has this amazing idea, and she added more information, and that was really important, because when we just write little things, like some other bridges, maybe the little kids wont remember what are the bridges, if you give them the name of things that would be great. Ok, so we are closing that one up. I am looking around, I see lots of things, I see…(the sun one), the bridges…that just came back in, so Kara and Daisy didn’t get a chance to do the shadow puppet. Water land, can structure be built on water and on the land, right here Anthony answered, they can be built on water but they need abridge under the water to help them stand up. This is really interesting because more then 1person build on to Anthony, here we go, you don’t always have to build a bridge on water, Ryan said, and Benjamin added on and says, sometime they just build it for fun, some of the stuff you cant walk on and you build bridge so you can walk across it.

H-M-04/12-L02 Nancy - i have kids who don’t speak in those talks, discernment between the kowledge building - you are an appropriate member if you didn’t have an idea or a build on and you didn’t speak. In my class, some kids talk, and don’t help the knowledge building. Sometimes the kids go on the database and contribute there. Knowledge building is about where is the next idea coming from, and if it happens to come from the same kid for a few terms, then it’s your job not to add ina way. Helen - i struggle with that, to create a space for an equal chance for everyone to say something. those kids feel they can say something, but it’s said well, and other kids nod, and the kids feel powerful because of it [SI~R].

[H-J-01/29-L02] Do you want to share them now, with just a few people?" Almost all children who do not participate in a group of 11 seem to enjoy talking in the smaller group of 3 or 4, and we do get further in conversation [CS&C~R] (because you don't have to raise your hand? No, the children seem to instinctively take turns by going around in a circle or looking at someone who hasn't contributed yet) Possibly because it feels more like a normal conversation and they know that in a normal you should directly address what the person before you was talking about (in larger groups we still often have children talking at cross-purposes) Either way we had a wonderful talk after our formal KB talk where Rebecca and Sasha and Isabella were discussing whether a structure which is on the water had to be tied into the ground - they had real life examples that had been brought up by others during the conversation but did not go anywhere, and suddenly this tiny gorup was talking seriousl y about whether a structure needed to have posts or not [SI~R] (although I have to review the transcript because I was also more actively involved in the conversation than I am in class and how they can add onto another idea or start their own inquiry [CS~R]

I think I actually added on to Benjamin What really excites me about those notes is, people were reading them and answering them. Different bridges are built on different things and some. How amazing that they are really reading them and thinking about them. I have one more thing to show you, and that is, we have these things that you guys have not been using, people have started to use, and I’ll show you, lets start a new note, here is my note and it is from me, and maybe (is it first going to KF) maybe I am going to build on Anthony, Anthony said that some people can walk across the steady bridges and some bridges on the highway and there are no space for people to walk. I want to add something, I have seen people walking on bridges and there is space for them to walk, and it doesn’t seem very safe. And I want to add that in, but, here in the corner, look what is here, there are two things, one says ‘I wonder’, the other say ‘my idea’, and some people, Cleo and Rebecca, were with me and I show them how to use it, and in fact they even taught a few other people as I saw it popped up in other people’s note, I saw in Kieran’s note, and someone else note too.

The ideas sometimes are moving forward, and sometimes not. I am less concerned about it going deeper every time. If sometimes they come to another understanding, e.g. supports and piers, that’s what I imagine would happen with older kids. there are other moments when it’s really random. I try not to have KB talks when they have been on a field trip or it’s been an indoor recess. Also, b/c the kids are together for the years, i want them to not get stuck thinking about who is the one who talks the most, and who is the good reader etc. In these formative years, it’s important to make sure is fair.[SC~C; SI~C]

and how powerful it is when we are all focusing on the same idea.

I put it in my note before. Yes, Isabella too. I see it moving but it doesn’t need to move so slowly. I can show you here. The other one, is your idea underneath, you idea is most important part of KB, the thing that you are thinking, so that other people can say ‘hmm, I wonder if I think that a great idea and yes I think it is true, I saw that and I think it is true. Like what Anthony said about bridges with no space for people, I am going to write ‘I agree and ‘I have seen bridges on the highway that have no sidewalk. I am clicking ‘add’, so it tells my idea. I want to have ‘I wonder’ now, I wonder if it is safe to walk on the bridges over the highway. What if you needed to get to the other side?” that is my question – what could you do? And I am going to close it, and I am going to think ‘yes, I am going to think about it’, ok. I am going to at bridges on the highway. That tells people all about it.

H-M-04/26 L01 Helen - I tried to show on the projector a few notes, to get class together and lok at big questions about bridges. AS soon as I opened the first note, they all had ideas nad wanted to write. In the beginning I shut them down a bit,[CS&C~C] but they coudln’t help it - really wanted to share the answer. So we had a kb talk instead [CS~R]. I love the idea that in a few years that they can read and talk about things. Helen- a lesson that they teach is about being a good reader - like a detective and you try to figure it out. ‘I can read this!’ Helen - the ideathat if they are working hard enough on it, they shoudl be able to read it... Helen- someone asked me what ideas we cover in grade 2?

[H-J-01/29-L03] Vocabulary Growth Applet by Helen . I've looked at the notes from some of my students and have found (using the vocabulary growth applet) that the student who had the highest number of notes on October 19th used almost exclusively basic words, while several others who did not contribute as many notes have shown growth in vocab over the last two months. An interesting tool to use [T~R]

Ok, can we read this one Kierra started, can structure be made after the sun. Sun is so hot, and then he wrote because… You can’t build it to the sun, it will burn! You could also put my idea The sun is in the space and no building can get to the space Someone else They can’t go to the sun because they go to space and if they did they would get burnt It is more than 3000 miles away and the moon. You go to the moon without the time limit of…

H-M-05/10 [L01] Helen - kids finding facts conflict depends on the group. Some kids will struggle with it. Some kids are happy wiht their theories are not explaining everything. Other kids jump in and say if ths’t true, then this can’t be true! You could have a small group discussino and if a child doesn’t think liek that naturally, you could move alon gwith out those inconsistencies being pointed out. Some kids being rigid about what is believed. This group has ideas about what the universe looks like. A theory is something that expains the facts. E.g. Big Bang - does this explain all the facts. It’s a theory. What exploded if there’s nothing? big bang vs. the everything seed.

[H-J-01/29-L04] Viewing video to inform practice by Helen . I also watched some new video Chewlee put up ( about the developmental piece of Knowledge building) and that included Carol talking about this class last year in a less successful way and that has lead me to believe that I have been expecting quite a bit of connected conversation, and that expectation is based on the “space” conversation that we have a transcript talking about (a KB talk that took place last year involving the students in my class).[SI~C]

Structure. If people want to build structure that high, they could, but if they get to the sun, they would turn into dust. Structure can’t be in the sun, because when it is raining and lightning, the lightning would strike. You can’t build structure up to he sun, because there would not be enough air and people would get really hot And you might o have enough space to build… If you build a building as high as the sun, they would have to put a space suit on.

[H-M-05/10-L02] Kelly: bunch of students who still can’t handle having what they know now was an earlier , improvable idea, be there. They realize the importance of not getting rid of an earlier theory, because it sparked their own thinking, but don’t see it individually. They know their ideas were built on someone else’s theory. Helen - half of the kids have totally disowned their previous theories and ideas. at six. Kelly- it’s not necessarily something that they take pride in yet - they just know it needs to be there. The groups all think it’s interesting but they don’t want to appear that they didn’t know something. But they understand that it show their growth.

[H-J-01/29-L05] And in reality, that was only one conversation with that class and it was an important enough moment to record it and to read out for the group so that should have been an indicator for me that it was unique.[CS~R] But I think that when you don’t have experience with this kind of talk, you start to ignore your own instincts and think that the best practice of others is actually what is happening every day in classrooms. This made me think that the conversation in my classroom was not successful because I had spectacular examples of what could happen, and no context to put them in. However, viewing the video that dealt with the same class in a different way helped me to get a better picture of the knowledge building that went on last year for these kids, and now I think that if I continue to focus on the linking of ideas, as their teacher was last year, it may be another way to make a smoother transition for the children who are still struggling with the KB talk.[SI~R]

Bridges if you go up to space and you go …than you get really sweaty and you don’t know if you need a space ship You get really hot, you would actually die, you get so close to the sun, you could actually die Could have a giant air conditioner It becomes … You cant build it because it would destroy it and it would turn into atom and it is what everything is built out of, and so the people would fall out and they would turn into atom

Helen - they together have a mythology as a class. Even misinformation can happen like that. I said something about pluto’s moon was half the size of pluto. They knew half the size meant smaller. Last year we learned about sauron...by the end of the discussion they all felt that was what they remembered from SK...even if it was just two of them. We are getting more of the developmental - do they want to close the space because they can’t make sense of it, or because they need to focus on something else?

[H-J-01/29-L06] Drawing success! by Helen . After avoiding this activity for a bit, I've asked them to draw after a KB talk again and it was such a success! They were thoughtful and shared ideas with each other at the tables, and we have posted their pictures in the room and they are generating conversation several days later [SC~R]! Pheww, no more disasters (though a lot of pictures of houseboats - but that's bothersome for a different reason) I'll take simple ideas to scary ones any day!

You will really have to …it is like … I am kind of building on to Isabella idea, the if conditioner only work with air in the building, but when it is near the sun, the building could actually be… The only thing that could go up to the sun would be a rocket ship but it can’t be close to the sun or else it would turn to dust or atom Sometimes if people wanted to build stuff to the sun, they would keep building it onto the space, and if they put spacesuit on, they would go out of air, so it kind of only is true that sometime the structure cannot be built onto the sun, even if they get it onto the sun, or if it is impossible for it to stay on in the air, turn to dist, or if it is for it to stay whole.

[H-J-02/01-L01]My role (term 2) by Helen Interesting to think that the dilemmas are similar a few months later, even thought I feel I understand more about knowledge building. Two ideas 1) My Role in the KB talks 2) Ultimate goal of early KB talks they're so closely linked. [CS~C; SC~C]

But if you don’t have space suit on, you could die from lack of oxygen If you have a giant space suit, then if you were up there, you would possibly die because you run out of air. Maybe air…but it comes close to…on a cool place You can’t really build a structure. Because it might kill yourself (not clear) Maybe if they were really good protection, the spacesuit that they are wearing or the …we could make a …

H-J-02/01-L02] My Theory is that if the goal of an early KB talk is to have students gain a deeper understanding of an idea [CS~R], then the teacher needs to intervene to pull those threads together and suggest connections or nudge students towards making those connections. But if the goal is to allow students to feel that they are building knowledge and discussing ideas without looking to an adult to validate them (instead they announce them to the community), then the teacher needs to be less involved.[SC~R]

I love for us to read the last two notes that are attached, remember just wrote ‘no, the sun will burn the building, remember the sun is 1000degree hotter then building, and then, Megan wrote in his note on burning, with an interesting title, ‘I agree with Justin’, because if it build up to the sun then it will disappear, so I like the way Megan said, I agree and that the light, if it build up to the sun, it would burn up and disappear, and here Leah has put in a note and it says, building cannot be build up to the sun, and she ha cannot in big letter, so you know what she really means.

[H-J-05/02-L01]Great KB Talk by Helen The latest KB talk we had was the best yet. It was a half group for about 20 minutes before lunch on a Tuesday and I'm still trying to work out what was in place to make it so fantastic.[CS&C~C] There were a combination of things (along with, of course the development of the kids in the class and the practice and experiences that they have had up to this point). The first I think, is that it was a completely new topic, the second that the question was big in a different way, more open-ended (but with a clear starting point to work with) than the questions they have asked in talks before and (The question was "how many stars are there in the sky?") and that pulled in children who were excited to think about a really big idea. I wish I could say that I chose the question for those qualities, but I chose it mainly because it was one of the only notes on KF that was not related to structures and was tied into our new unit. [CS~C]

How did she get cannot in big letter? There is a little button that says caps-lock and you can use that. (Back to note) It says, no because then the people in space would have to use spacesuit, now it is interesting because what we talked about today, maybe people would be able to add to Leah’s idea about space suit, we talked about the if they have enough air, there is a lot of thing we talked about in the talk. Remember we talked about doing a summary, maybe Rebecca and astride can think of something to tell us, what did you talked about this morning? What would you say?

[H-J-05/02-L02] The talk had the most phenomenal beginning (Anthony saying "Have you ever wondered . . .") and that allowed children to come at the problem from a variety of angles (thinking about stars, about numbers, about counting stars and the logistics of the task of counting stars) and I don't know how I can replicate that reliably, but I do know now what type of question I should be looking out for - one that can be adressed on a few different levels - practically, theoretically, creatively. [CS~R] ANother thing that worked was the flow of conversation - they FINALLY were able to blend in turn-taking with responses from specific people (prior to this we had struggled with conversation becoming stilted by turn-taking or overwhelmed by chaotic calling out) [SI~R]

Remember we did this last time and it was really great. What would you say to people what we have talked about this morning? I love how patiently people are waiting. You are so patient, waiting for Rebecca and astride So we go on to playground – what did you talk about, and you would say? We talked about bridges – we talked about building buildings up to the sun Yes, that is the tow ideas we talked about today, that are great. Thank you.

[H-J-05/02-L03] I don't know if it was practice, familiarity with the format, or if some of the comments made throughout the year were accepted more deeply but there wasn't outrage when someone jumped in to argue a point or to rephrase when they were misunderstood, and when that train of thought ran out, they seemed to be able to go back to hands-up and choosing the next person without a lot of transition time [CS&C~C] - at the beginning of the talk I said one thing that I have said before (but it felt as though they heard it/accepted it more easily and I said one new thing. The first was a reminder of the purpose of our talks - "we want to think about one thing all together and build our ideas, like the blocks we used at the beginning of the year, remember how the ideas that lots of people talked about got bigger and bigger? If we all just think about one idea, imagine how big it can get" the other thing that ws new was that we only had less than ten minutes to have a talk and so I asked them not to spend much time choosing the next person to speak, so that we didn't waste any of our time (it turned into a 20 minute talk because they were so involved in the topic).[CS&C~R]

Everyone else, please turn this way. Ok, we had this entire big question, how we build building up to he sky, maybe it also sound like bridges is not what some people want to work on now. Krista came to me yesterday after library and told me how people were interested in atoms, DNA, and I thought, you know, that is interesting, coz we were also talking about seed and how things grow and I realized that maybe we are almost done working on bridges, and we are moving on to a new idea that lots of people are interesting in, and that’s about creation, and how things are made,

[H-J-05/02-L04] I also loved the energy level they maintained, and it felt (trite?) as though this was one of the first times that I could actually see the idea moving from person to person, changing a little, being added to, and I could feel the concentration that they were all giving to the idea. [CS~R]

We could go on space…but we were talking about space too, and that is great, you know what, the idea of creation can be thinking about space, it is about how anything started, and you know what, I thought I had read a really great book, and so I have a really great book, and you will stand one moment while I go get the book.

[H-J-05/02-L04] Another thing that was incredible was listening to the way that children applied information they had learned in class to this new problem [SC~R] - we had read a book in math called "How Much is a Million" which talked about how long it takes to count larger numbers, and there were several references made to that book, as well as to other books we have looked at in class.

Grade One KB Talk – Half Group,May 1, 2007 H-C-05/01 Anthony: Have you ever thought that numbers never end? Because I think numbers do have to end.. Have you heard of google? You might think it’s a website and it is, but it’s also a number. I think maybe there must be a google stars because there are so many. Benjamin- there’s probably hundreds and thousands and hundreds and thousands and hundreds of stars. Maybe even more than a google – even more than googleplex. Ryan- well I don’t think we can really know, we can only see the stars in Canada., there are stars in Australia, in london (listed several places). . . . if we had to find out how many stars there are we would have to go around the world and that would take 100 years. Will- No No one of my neighbours have gone halfway around the world and it only took him 5 years

[H-J-05/02-L05] The last (but one of the most important) was that the level of care taken with others ideas was vastly improvedChildren were questioning without disagreeing and there seemed to be a focus and a goal to the conversation that the idea that ideas are central is still one [SC~R] that I’m struggling with

Margot-so I believe how many stars is 1000 or maybe infinity. You couldn’t count the stars because you would have to ask your children and they would have to ask their children and it would have to keep going and going – and the last person ‘s life what if they can’t have babies, and who would count the stars for them? Kiara- if you want to count all the stars then you’ll have to go in a rocket ship up to outerspace and go past all the stars counting them Leah- I want to add onto Kiara’s. It might take like 100 years to count all the stars

[H-J-05/02-L06] I agree I agree, but . . . what if this focus on ideas mean that children’s voices are not heard in the classroom equally. But are they anyway? As long as there is a time for children to feel their voices are heard I think a focus on moving ideas forward, or going deeper into ideas is a much more useful goal than the completion of a series of arbitrary tasks.[CS~R] But am I doing this? Just ensuring things are hands on is not enough. I need to be guiding the children towards something, and I don’t think I’ve had a clear idea about what my role is. Now I feel my role is to prepare them for later years (looking at the long view perhaps now is the time that they need a model but it’s so hard because I don’t want the kids who are struggling with these things get the idea that some kids are good at it and others aren’t).[SC~C] It’s the same cohort all the way up the grades and you get stuck in a role in that group (by others and internally as well) and

R’na it might take even more than 100 years because I ‘m actually building onto leahs but also it’s really long to get to outer space and you could get older and older to count the stars Margot- so like it’s hard to count the stars because you could do the same star over and over and over again. Because also stars can move from place to place (benjamin-they can?) so you could be driving on and it would take a long time and you would have to get your grandchildren n to count them. So you don’t want to count the stars Ryan- by the time you count all the stars just like in the how much is a million there would be just one simple gravestone. (Benjamin: what do you mean?) because you die Will- if you were counting stars and you need to go in a rocketship to count them your rocketship would run out of fuel and you would have to get another one and another one and you’d run out Hailey- how about if your rocket ship didn’t have enough batteries or gas to go on? Will- that’s what I said

[H-J-05/02-L07] I hate that my teaching might contribute to that. By taking over the conversation and guiding it in a very invested way 1) I miss opportunities to help children feel powerful in a safe way[CS~R] 2) I am the one setting the goals for the class, whether I pretend that the learning is child-led or not [CS~C] (if I have an outcome then I ultimately can’t help expressing it – e.g. the “failure” of a conversation about moving things around in the database that Chewlee helped me to see in another light ). . . but without that community of chewlee and the other teachers, how will I monitor myself? And should this be so hard? If I didn’t hold myself back from jumping into the children’s conversation I would have completely taken over and misunderstood their intentions. and realize how far off the mark you were earlier. Although I did try to hold back, I wasn’t able to both hold back and look at the situation objectively, which I felt more successful doing when I was a bit apart from the conversation/had no goals of my own but listening).[SI~R]

Hail-I know, I’m adding onto yours Will-oh Anthony- I’m adding onto Margot’s remember when she said infinity? Infinity is not a number, it’s just counting going on and on and on. Maybe she means that you count to google and then count to a google again Margot – I meant you would have to count on and on into the future Anthony: But will there really be a future on earth? Margot: I think everyone knows about the future and everyone believes in the future so you’d have to count far into the future Benjamin: but one second is into the future. And besides, what if you had a rocket that is powered by sunlight and the stars have light like the sun so you’d never run out of fuel? Will- maybe, I don’t think they make them though Benjamin-but then you might make one, like the cars that use sunlight Will- what happens if you get too close to a star? Benjamin- don’t get too close or you’ll die

[H-J-05/02-L08] I am a good teacher who is putting a lot of my energy into this. If it is this hard for me, and this easy to make fundamental mistakes then how can we make it easier so that it can be disseminated into the greater school community (how do I convince people to join me in working with an inquiry-based program if I can’t give them more than “you won’t know whether you’re doing a good job or not until you have a breakthrough [CS~R]

Ryan- what happens if it gets all cloudy and it blocks all the stars and your rocketship can’t get any light and you go down, down into the universe Benjamin- did you know there’s no down in the universe? So you could just go out How did people feel – thumbs up or down? (all up, sasha halfway)

Richer KB at last! by Helen . [2007, May 03] H-J-05/03 We're finally surpassing the database in terms of connections to each other during a KB talk - the last few weeks the talks have included a sharing of information between students that was not reliably there at the beginning of the year (though there need to be a few more talks before I can say confidently that this higher level of discourse is reliable to expect.[SC~R] For more specifics about the changes I added the note: "The latest KB talk we had was the best yet."1 Great KB Talk

Margot- what if your rocket ship can see through the clouds and they have stuff so they can see through, maybe then you can have a piece of paper and you can circle the stars you’ve been counting and then you’ll find the dots – then you’ll count the stars Will- but Margot, it doesn’t matter what the rocket ship can see through, it doesn’t have eyes – you have eyes and you can’t see through it (Helen: only a few more – time’s almost up) Margot- you can put on a mask to see through the clouds and besides how can there be clouds in the universe? Anthony- some kind of fog can be a gas from outer space – have you seen gases on Jupiter? Benjamin: and there might be dust from space dust Will – but there isn’t a mask like that, and then what happens if a black hole comes and sucks you up? There were really interesting questions and that people were really good about giving each other turns

[H-J-05/02-L08] My Theory maybe we're seeing these fantastic connections in the conversation now as a result of all of the scaffolded practice on the database (the children needed to learn how to question and disagree and move an idea further in a less pesonal way (e.g. through the medium of the computer) before feeling comfortable enough [T~R] to work with others in a more personal way (e.g. self-mediated KB talk) with a clearer understanding of the social/verbal challenges of building an idea together Whatever the reason, practice, development, sheer luck, I'm so glad that we have reached this point. I can't imagine what they'll be capable of at this time next year!

(Helen – sounds like we’re moving into a different problem, that’s interesting. Sasha is ready for a turn now) Sasha- did you know that google is not really a number and google plus is not really a number? Anthony (under his breath) google plus isn’t a number but google is a number (Helen: I heard Anthony saying something about google – what was it?) Anthony: google plus isn’t a number and google plax isn’t but google is a number Kiara: Isn’t Sasha: isn’t Anthony: it is

(Helen- hmm -how do you know that it is?) Anthony: my dad told me and my sister told me and my grandfather told and he used to be a miner and he’s really smart Benjamin- what’s a miner? Sasha – they dig for gold and stuff Anthony- yeah and you have to be really smart Oh (silence) (Helen –. we need people who didn’t have a turn to help - what’s one of the big ideas we talked about?) Astrid: stars? (Helen – and what’s another big idea?) space. (Helen: Great, Wow! that was an amazing talk – I feel like we learned lots of new things.

KB Talk May 14 (Circles) Chloe: I think there’s way more stars than a google because stars have to be circling the whole world Justin – because the sun is a big star Jeremy _ I have a question I want to add onto yours – if maybe um the sun is circling a sun. Because the sun is circling the sun the top of the sun might circle the bottom of the sun. Justin- I want to build onto yours. So there’s actually more than a million googleplex stars because like it says it has to circle the whole world and all the planets – mercury Venus Earth Mars Uranus Jupiter Saturn Pluto except it’s actually an asteroid Justin: Yeah for real Annelise – maybe the stars could melt I think. I was building onto chloe’s Isabella- the stars could melt what are you talking about

They’re hot But the sun is a star But they’re burning hot Imagine fire melting the sun is a giant thing of fire and gas so how could gas and fire melt? It would have to be plastic. Chloe- I’m adding onto Annelise’s. The stars are actually a bit cooler than the sun. The stars could melt if they came up to the sun and were almost touching it Grace: Stars – Justin You know stars? They’re like hotter than the sun but some are colder than Pluto Chloe_ I’m adding onto my own idea so stars when they’re circling planets how cold they are or how hot the planets are – sometimes the planet can change the stars temperature I think. And the stars sometimes even touch some of the planets Jeremy: the sun doesn’t move the planets do. Daisy: well there was also this movie called the wizard of oz and somebody did melt in that movie, the wicked witch of the west, but she wasn’t a star Jeremy: She was actually made of Styrofoam

Isabella: No she wasn’t Jeremy and Chloe: She was Isabella: She wasn’t Helen: Is this helping our big question? Isabella: the sun doesn’t move. When the sun sets, it moves around the planet when it spins Annelise: the sun is one of the biggest stars in the whole universe Justin: well stars can be like big or small and some are like heated over. Chloe: when new stars get born what I think is that they’re actually cold and they start moving and start circling the sun they get hotter and everyday when they circle the sun and the planets and they circle the sun, even if the planets are cold and if they circle the sun for a month they get hot

Annelise: I forgot what I was going to say. Chloe: I’m adding onto my own idea. New stars are born every day and they can be as cold as the coldest water and if they start circling the coldest planet like Pluto (Jeremy: it’s an asteroid) but if it starts circling mercury it would start getting way hot because mercury is the hottest planet. And if it starts circling Uranus it would sort of get hot. Cale: I forget Benn: if a star circles the sun it wouldn’t melt (why) because the sun is a star and there are some stars hotter than the sun and bigger than the sun in the universe. Jeremy: I want to add onto chloe’s again. Mercury would get cold- mercury would stay the same if the sun started to circle mercury. Cale: the sun really doesn’t circle (H-why do you think that) well the planets circle the sun but the sun doesn’t circle the planets Let’s say this is the earth and this is the sun (demonstrates with hands) Isabella; the planets go around the sun it’s not the sun that’s moving it’s the planet that’s moving. That’s what you see at dawn – when it’s night to one half of the world and day to the other.

Justin: the sun is actually kind of a planet and kind of a star. Well. The stars can be hotter or colder - that’s between the temperature. Like some could be 2500 degrees and some could be 300 below zero. Chloe: but when we went on our big walk it was in a straight line not circling cause if it’s circling and it’s 5 big feet and 1,2,3,4,5 and then we would have to step away from there and 5 more big feet and we’d have to go over there and over there and over there. It doesn’t make sense to me Justin: actually all the planets are in a circle like that Chloe: you’d have to walk over to the other station Cale: on the earth circles the sun and that makes day and night but if the sun circled the earth that would still make day and night. In the soulth pole and the north pole Jeremy- the earth spins at 1000 miles an hour and people have made a plane that can go 4000 miles I choose lunch

Appendix C2 – Nancy’s case study Chronological events in Nancy’s class according to journal entries, classroom observations and meeting contributions. Text coded are highlighted in yellow (Refer section 5.3.1 – 5.3.4)

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

[N-J-09/07-L01] Thursday, September 8: The kids each poured some of their water (the water they collected in the summer) into a communal jar. They told the story of how they collected it and we put a flag on the map showing where it came from. Last year I don’t think we did the mapping at the same time as telling the stories. I think that was probably better. [CS&C~C] I felt that it was really too much to keep the kids on the carpet for as long as it took to hear each story. Next time I would do it in parts instead of having everyone share at the same time.

[N-J-09/13-L01] (13 Sept) At snack time I read a picture book called The Floating Orchard, a flood story (*centering on a plum tree). The children had been bringing leaves into the class and we had a look at them. I asked ‘why do you think they’re so dry?’ We had some discussion about that [CS~R] (see KB talk Sept 13). - Miles noticed that even with warmer temperature, he felt colder. - because I had talked to a chemistry teacher in the summer I had recently thought about the role water plays in body temperature. I shared some of what I knew with the grade twos. That led to a conversation about sweat, as well as some interesting theories about the position of the thermometer and why Miles may have felt warmer than the temperature we read on the thermometer. [CS~R]

Graphing of temperature – daily N-C-09/13 Snack talk 13 sept During snack, the students began a discussion about leaves. Amelia asked the question, "Why do leaves get drier and drier every day after they fall off a tree?" The conversation turned to construction and cutting trees down. Jesse: Trees give you air. So don't pick off the leaves of trees. Miles: Leaves hold oxygen inside of them Sam: The leaves in the room are dying Kaitlyn: construction can kill underground animals. Keegan: when construction cuts down trees, birds may mistake the sound of the chainsaws as mates and then they get confused and get killed and die.

[N-M-09/14-L01] Sept 14 Nancy- water/sustainability. What could be the doorway to sustainability for seven year olds?[CS~C] Already asked the kids to bring water from their travels/home. Wasn’t going to launch right into water, toying with questions of on an island what would we bring? but, kids brought water and questions about water, and there’s no holding them back. [CS~R] water-shiny? sweat - makes you cold? temperature? Kids bringing in leaves and a lot came up about the trees. Chloe worked with them a lot before with trees.

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

[N-J-09/13-L01] Since the students seemed to have many questions, they got the opportunity to go to the library to research the answers to their questions [CS~R].

Later in the day, Miles asked the question, "why is it warmer out if my body feels like it is colder?" Sam: Smog is pollution and it keeps heat closer to the earth. (He then began to talk about his air conditioner and how although it keeps him cool on the inside of his house, it makes it hotter outside) Josh: I don't get it- why does water make you colder if it takes your sweat off and sweat is just water?

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

[N-J-09/24-L01] Reflecting on KB Talk that happened on 14 September: We had our first formal KB talk on this day. We had generated a list of big questions that had come up in our discussions (‘What were some of our questions?’ I asked and wrote them on a piece of paper to post) We decided to explore the first questions on the list in a KB talk. It was a question Anny ha.” Who made up all the words we say?’ I was not completely sure about going more deeply with it because it did not match my goals of ‘sustainability’ and ‘water’ as our area of inquiry, however, when Miles told us he had discussed Amelia question with his uncle, I felt it was worth following up on. I thought at least it would be a good practice of how to have a KB talk.

[N-C-09/21] One topic: What should you do in a KB talk? S:Wait for each other to talk S: Building on to each other T:What are some questions that people are talking about to bring our understanding to a deeper one? Q – who made up all the words we say (amelia) T:Miles thought about it and has something to say T:Shall we start with that question, what are the other questions Q – who invented numbers? T-Can you think of other questions that we have talked about before? Q – what water is make of? S - I know what it make of! S- how did water get into the cloud T-maybe our idea will change, after we (explaining for CL – the pictures on the wall shows their ideas) S- how does the sun gets the water into the sky? Swhat are clouds made out of? T- are there any water S–what are there clouds in the sky? S – why are water make thing shinny? S – why is water wet? S- What makes up water? T– same question as miles brought up S- what does the word water actually means? S- that’s Hanes(?) question – what is water? T- What do you mean? S- what does the word mean – s-what does wet means (I guess it means when something has water on it). T-It would be nice for us to have time for these questions. T-Shall we start with question ‘where does the word come from? but first let me ask you, what is a KB talk? T: there is a question you are going to talk about – people put up the hand and every person gets to choose the next person to speak S-when do you put up th ehand S-after one is done

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

[N-J-09/14-L02] KB Talk September 14, 2006 We began with a posing question period in which the students had the chance to brainstorm questions that they would like to discuss with the class. :[CS~R] The KB talk on Sept 14 was rich – and actually touched on some areas related to ‘sustainability’ [CS~C] Some of the questions that came up were really exciting Jason: who invented numbers? Guire: what is water made of? Cameron: how does the sun make it get up in the clouds? Keegan: why are clouds in the sky? Kaitlyn: why does water make things shiny? Sam: what does the word water actually mean? Amelia: who made up all of the words we say?

T- if you are beside someone who is going to have a personal conversation, can you tell me, so we could change your seat. S – where does all the word come from? S- well, I think I have a look but I know the question refers to people in the world, I am finished eva – people make up talking by just banging things and saying weird noises – that’s how they made up things to say? sam – on the cement(?) – these expert up the Hamalayas, found this body intact in the ice - bone intact, clothes and shoes were still on, so they are researching on them – (observe - norah put up the hand to ask to be chosen to talk)– n – can you say more about how it relates to Amelia question sam – this is how they believe he was killed, an arrow in the shoulder and he collapse – I just wanted to say, he died like a thousand year ago, Josh – this is , this is like Amelia question – how do they up languages and the word in the languages. This is about you, how they make the language is – they have to make it up..oh..sounds like you ‘?’. Before that, they started pointing and then they make up word. Then about Sam – I think the guy they found is the person walking on the arctic – maybe it is one that turn into human – they may have made now and arrow – maybe Sam – I just want to add on to my thing – they found him with pocket – with food, they found dried up meat in his pocket – they also found a fruit or something. He wasn’t African or anything, he was a real human, he wasn’t a monkey or anything, they found hi,. He still has skin on the shoulder, so… T- I just want to say that we keep trying to ask the question – so we can go deeper, it would be nice to have the group help him to relate kiren - Ancient people, Roman, Greek – they started by making up the whole series of words an things, pointing to things that ..they turn into funny noises. And then later in Egypt and Rome and Greece, they started to think of languages – an they found out they can put all these words together and make a huge language – latin- which is also Spanish and portugese, started French and French – Latin is the ancestor of French – part of French is the English…the Greeks and the Roman and the Egyptian with their languages – so soon people were speaking the languages

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

S – how do they make the sound if they don’t know what they were ,they just invent, they don’t know it. Thea – for Italian – ‘getto’ means cat and French means ‘?’ , sometime I forget and say getto in French. I am not really adding on. Jason – tied to miles – ‘uuh’ means a number in Chinese English?? Eva – I think him in the ice, maybe he could be one of those people inventing the language. Norah : I am just thinking of a question – is language still being invented or is it still being invented, new words S – they are still being invented – one of the episode, the main character – created a word – but theta everyone else think it is silly and cute – we invent words everyday. By mistake – it happens when you make mistake with words – when you made mistakes – maybe the word is already there or you have created some word Amelia – I don’t have much to say Kaitlyn – I was using computer – my sister typed in a word and it sounds something really weird, sometimes you can make up meaning about words. Jason – when did you watch the show Pretty much everyday, when I can Thea – bricks and material – when did they invent it? S – they probably invent..put stick on the ground and leaves on top – they kept doing it until…. And sam –what did they find aournd him when the guy is in the ice – Sam – they found other scattered arrow – Norah – I want you to think for a minute – if you read it in the book, then you say you read it, but if you don’t know, then say you don’t know – They went down because they saw the guy – I show this on the show. Maybe that guy – maybe he wasn’t or he was, but I think he wasn’t , he had clothes on – Sam – did he has clothes on Maybe that could be someone with him even thouh he didn’t see anyone, maybe the person gone with the arrow, maybe they worked it out, maybe someone – did they find anything on the arrow Sam – it was like a spearing arrow Ben – I think these people are called caveman – I think the only thing they invented is the fire and wheel Cameron – well, I think I just forgot what I wanted to say Norah – we are talking about the iceman – inventing

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

Cameron – where did the other person go. We are going to end although we can go on with these ideas Timeout –what questions are we trying to understand in a deeped way. Amelia – word invention Norah – some new questions came up but it is good to remind us of the questions we were trying to do. S5 - Who name Jay – who kill them…. Maybe you can ask Sam later, if you have some idea then you go on. Kaitlyn – I went to French – show a lot of things that they used, teeth and bone to make necklaces Norah - two more ideas Thea-when I was at the exhibition – maybe, not the exhibition, in my cottage, in the olden days, what would they use for tools. These are tools they would use in the olden days, they have wood, they have to make the own tools out of stone. Remember when we were doing our water – kaitlyn brought an encyclopedia Who names the dinosaurs? T: those are interesting questions and we are going to get a chance to get some of these onto Knowledge Forum T: I will get students onto computers – another group went to get laptop from Ronny’s class

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

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N :So what are some of the questions you have? Jason: who invented numbers? Guire: what is water made of? Cameron: how does the sun make it get up in the clouds? Keegan: why are clouds in the sky? Kaitlyn: why does water make things shiny? Sam: what does the word water actually mean? Amelia: who made up all of the words we say?

[N-J-09/16] Amelia's question began to generate some talk and so we focused on what the students in grade 2 thought of language and where it came/comes from.[CS~R]

[N-C-09/16] Amelia: I think I know the answer to my own question, "the first people on the planet." Aoife: people made up talking by banging things on the ground and making weird noises Sam: there was once this man that people found in the ice and he wasn't African or anything- he was a real human like us- not like a monkey

[N-J-09/18] Sept 18 - we got on a water hunt in the around the school. We made a list as a class of all the places we found water.

Josh: how do they think languages are related? How did they make them? Miles: they have to make them up and tell each other Kieran: sign language was the first and then it turned into funny noises. Latin is...Romans...Latin is also Spanish and Portuguese which started French. Latin is the ancestor of French and French of English.

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

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[N-J-09/20] Sept 20 – we got together with our special friends (grade 3). Brody told the grade twos that his class last year decided they wanted to save some of their collected water to pass on to this year’s grade two class. As a representative of the class (last year’s grade 2, John poured some of the saved water into our collective water jar.

Greeks and Romans know each other and soon people started speaking the same language. Hannah: How did they make up sounds if they didn't know what they were? They were just invented Thea: Gato is cake in French and cat in Italian Miles: English/Chinese connection Sophie: Who made English? Nancy: is language finished being invented or is it still happening? Hannah: (Refers to a show where a new word is invented) it is probably still being invented because we learn new words everyday Thea: how did they invent houses, markers, bricks? Miles: People who invented words built their own homes and kept making stickier cement Benn: I think those people were Caucasion but the only thing they invented was a wheel and some stories Meghan: who named the continents? Hannah: who named the dinosaurs?

N-C-09/20] KB talk – 15 September - ‘How does rain get into the clouds?’, and we decided to use this as the focal point of our class discussion - That’s the theory that I have, when it leaves the atmosphere, it leaves and pops. Once it leaves the atmosphere, there won’t be enough air to keep going. The students were then asked to draw a picture of how rain gets up into the clouds. They then told us their theories and we wrote their ideas on their drawings.

[N-C-09/15 KB Talk September 15, 2006 Amelia asked the question, "How Does Rain get into the clouds?," and we decided to use this as the focal point of our class discussion. Aoife: Water molecules evaporate into the sky and are invisible Keegan: Water molecules are called Water Vapor Kieran: Sun shines down on water and gathers rain and takes steam up to a sky and it turns into a gas in the clouds. The clouds get so full that they pop and also make thunder and lightening. The water pops and makes thunder.

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

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Benn: So a cloud popping is thunder? Kieran: Yes. The pop is so loud that we know it's thunder and we hear it on earth. Sam: (pointing to Jesse's book) that's why the arrow is pointing to the clouds. The sun gathers the rain, well not rain really, but water, and it gathers it and before it can get to the sun, it stops at the clouds before it gets to the sun. That's the theory that I have. When it leaves the atmosphere, it leaves and pops. Once it leave the atmosphere, there won't be enough air to keep going. Hannah: (using Kaitlyn's book) The rain is over a river and the river collects the water. There also is water in the air and that goes up into the clouds and then it pops because it gets so big. If it doesn't get so big, the water just goes back into the air.

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

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Kaitlyn: Water vapor is gas and the gas goes into a cloud and turns into rain. Sophie: There's water above and below the clouds Miles: I know how lightening is made. Lightening is made by traveling faster than sound Jason: If it's foggy and lightening, it's probably going to rain Sam: In my backyard on a sunny day, I looked behind my house and it was raining and there was thunder and lightening. It didn't make any sense because it wasn't in my yard at all. It stayed behind it. We weren't getting wet and it was pouring nearby! Jesse: Winds pushed the rian from both ways and made the rain stay in one place. Meghan: There was a wet side and a dry side Amelia: Sam, do you know why the rain wasn't moving into your yard? Hannah: I have a different explanation to Sam's story. Normally, tons of clouds explode at the same time but maybe this time just one cloud behind Sam's house popped. *The students were then asked to draw a picture of how rain gets up into the clouds. They then told us their theories and we wrote their ideas on their drawings.

[N-J-09/21] Sept 21 class discussion, we wrote questions on the board and posted onto the wall. Questions in major categories 1) Water and survival – why do we need water? 2) About water: Why does river move? Why is water wet? 3) Why does it rain? 4) Who make the first language?

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

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[N-J-09/22] Sept 22 Friday Sept 22 Chew Lee brought the database and we reviewed the "how and why" of note-making. I didn't feel that I managed the discussion/lesson very well. - Then I sent the kids to the database to create a note. I remember feeling a bit unclear about what I wanted them to do. I asked them to put a question about water in the database – or another question that come up in our talk. [CS~R] I wasn’t sure whether I should have been restricting it to water questions. I think I felt at that point that I also wanted to honor the other great questions that the children had been bringing to our conversations.[CS~R] -The children’s homework was to write about the water they had collected in the summer.

[N-C-09/22] Notes on Knowledge Forum Title: rivers: Why do rivers go so fast? Why do they move? Title: water: Why is water wet? Title: ferst man: How long ago was the ferst man alive{I need to understand} Title: NHL water: If you pote fire on NHL water, what will happen? {I need to understand} The Title: rain: The sun shines on the sea and collects water, tugging it up to the sky. It puts it together and makes it into clouds. The clouds get bigger and bigger and BIGGER…until it pops. If it’s a GIGANTIC cloud…POP! It explodes and it is called thunder. There can be explosions of fire, too, called lighting. And so tha’s Title: continents: who named the continents

[N-J-09/26] Thursday September 26 Laura told the children about World Water Monitoring Day. Friday September 27 Back from a trip to England, Jesse told us about trying to collect water from the Thames. This led to a conversation about keeping rivers clean. I told the kids that there is a river called the Don River in Toronto that many people have been trying to clean up. Benn suggested that WE go clean it!

[N-M-09/26] Sept 26 [N-M-09/26-L01] Nancy- 1)invitation/scary challenge: to change your thinking as you teach and to move to design mode of constant improvement. 2) we don’t have a how you do it, but we have developed protocols or tools that help to facilitate what we do.[CS&C~R] I think that the notion of how you do it steps A, B, C, D, is not what we can pass on. But the idea that there are tools that you are going to use, and as a designer that you are going to need is something that we can do, and that you need. E.g. how to use the software, how do you ask questions of the kids etc.

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

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[N-J-10/02] Reflections Oct 2 I asked the kids if they had a question for a knowledge building talk. Guire was eager to talk about what water is made of – mostly because he had an “answer.” I said, ‘so it’s not a real question for you?’ However, I felt it was a good question to explore. I suggested that, even if Guire had an answer, there was more he – and we – might want to think about with respect to “what is water made of?” [CS~R] The kids were instantly raising their hands to begin the conversation.

[N-M-09/26-L02] Nancy – the opposite from previous comment– I feel that with this inquiry process, at the beginning I am the vaguest [CS~R]– inside me it’s sorting out. Even in the first few weeks, where their questions are going from…. Then also, what is the beginning? Is it in the summer when I asked them about water, or is it when someone said to me to try the sustainability theme. Chloe- that was more a pre-step – what’s the big idea that’s going to take us somewhere? E.g. bridges as a curriculum, or you saying water and sustainability…but that’s before the knowledge building with the group.

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

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[N-M-09/26-L03] Nancy- the part that I was thinking about was a group of people coming together to focus on one concrete thing, an object of learning, or moment of knowledge building. Researchers, teachers of multiple grades, and specialty teachers to get together to see how is this going to work.[SI~R] Feeling a tension about the tools and the ‘you see the patterns that you want to/expect to see’. That makes me feel about philosophy and theory that we have to impart somehow, and about the first one, it’s exciting because it’s about us learning how to learn too. That’s why we have the summer time conversations. Also thinking about expertise is in terms of the getting stuck with it. e.g. of expert chef – you feel what’s next.

- the ‘tools make the culture’ – is it because we have been doing this, that we want to say you feel through this, but is the way to get there being taught that this is how this happens.

[N-J-10/5] We had a KB talk (see transcript) focused on Guire's question "What is water made of?" It was a smaller group on this day because a number of children were away for Yom Kippor.

[N-C-10/02] KB Talk What is water made of?

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

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Guire: hydrogen and oxygen, “those molecules are made of “kortz” (quarks?) which is a kind of chemicals” Jason: What are those things that water is made of? (Guire:) Kaitlyn: molecules, “kortz” can be the same size [??] Jesse: What Guire was saying… I think… I don’t know if water is very safe. My concern is how do people drown? If you stay in the water how does water pull you down? I think maybe those chemicals…. [are dangerous]

Josh: Water was not made by man. [“Good point” – Aoife “Very good point” – Jesse] Guire: How do we know if its dangerous? We have not explored… [?] Keegan: If man didn’t make water, how do we know what it’s made of? Aoife: Since water wasn’t made by hand what thing in space made water on earth? Jesse: Before time meteors came and sprayed out water… melted from the sun. Kaitlyn: When it rains in winter, ice forms on top of the snow. When you step on it, you can see the snow under the ice. Amelia: I have a question about Kaitlyn’s …. How can you see the snow under the ice? Kaitlyn: [response] Aoife: If water is made out of ice, how cold does it have to be to make water freeze?

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

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Cam: Under zero. [Short spontaneous discussion about what “under zero” meant – negative numbers, etc.] Jesse: But also, I might be wrong in a way because the sun is hot so how can it make water because it [water?] is cold? Jason: Why is water blue? [N: reminder re: what is our original question] Kaitlyn: The sun is the closest star to the earth… a popcicle will melt…. because the sun is very close to the earth. Josh: The sun only looks bigger. How do we know it is bigger? They only say that in tales. Keegan: How hot does it need to be to make ice melt in single second? Cam: There are some starts that are bigger than the sun. [pause] I have something else to say… [description of large star in Orion’s shoulder] [discussion re: turns to talk] Amelia: How do you know the mill’s [?] star’s bigger than the sun. And there’s also more than one sun.

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Kaitlyn: Trees can make oxygen and trees need oxygen to grow. … ice doesn’t always stick together Thea: Oxygen also helps us breathe. Kaitlyn: If there wasn’t enough trees there would be no people […etc.] Thea: Trees also give us shade. Kaitlyn: If it was too hot we would get hot… trees shade… air conditioning. Nancy: I am thinking about what Guire said about water being made of hydrogen and oxygen and Kaitlyn said trees make oxygen, does that mean trees make water? [CS~R] Aoife: But trees take water with their roots. If they take it, how can they make it? Kieran: Trees breathe in carbon dioxide; they expel oxygen and nitrogen. If there aren’t trees, carbon dioxide which traps heat [,,, ozone layer… atmosphere] it would get so hot and there would be no life. Kaitlyn: Also when you water the plants… they grow higher. Josh: How is this our question? Ice, tree stuff is not our question. Meghan: This is sort of answering Aoife’s question: trees take water and mix it with sun to make food.

Cam: I want to go back to Amelia’s question. Orion’s shoulder.. I saw it in a planetarium. Keegen: Man didn’t make the water so they shouldn’t really take the water. A few last questions… Jason: The stuff that water is made of… what is THAT stuff made of ? Kaitlyn: What are molecules made of and how do they get into the water?

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Thursday October 5 Some kids went on KF today. Kieran wrote an email to Russ (a chemistry teacher in the US who had offered to help us) with all the questions we had written up on chart paper

N-C-10/05 Oct 5 (Knowledge Forum notes) Title: what is water??? Water is a kind of liquid Title: molecules what are water molecules made out of. Title:water cycles <My theory> There is all sorts of cycles Raw there is life cycles, water cycles, and a lot more cycle.

N-M-10/05 5th Oct Nancy- the power of this tech, and the process that we’ve been part of is that you can make it your own and it’s designed to support a community, it’s come out of an academic place where talking about my theory make sense, but we are in a process of enabling kids to be in this bigger idea of shaping their learning and what’s the next question and all that.[T~R] The language comes from academic grown up communities.

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Nancy: Language conversation as well as sustainability. I have been not so clear about what the view is about, I have said - we’ve had some interesting conversations and a lot of big questions have come up, let’s put them up. I’m intruiged by what situation will that create in terms of sorting? [CS~R] Kyle - if it did take on a life of it’s own.language of design... Nancy- I do have that we are going to cover ideas about water, what may happen as we get more notes, what shall we do with the notes that are not about water at all, what shall we do with it. Kyle- would love to see what happens when it’s time to do a new view, a rise above etc. Ronny- one of the characteristics when we went ot all teh classes doing KF was that there might be a focus or a mission statement that was advertised. to help to direct the kids to something. Nancy- i felt anxious about extra questions, b/c you can come up with a lot of interesting questions. Zahra- say ‘is that under our umbrella?’, maybe you could put them somewhere else. Ronny- when we were doing kb, you can put a background picture to have notes contained in a space. use graphics. Nancy- do you do a lot of looking at the view as a whole class? [SI~R]

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N-J-10/06-L01 Friday October 6 We reviewed the email Kieran had written and got feedback from the whole class. A few small changes were made. Among the suggestions given, was the idea that we should write "second grade" rather than "grade two" because Russ is American We also opened a package that had arrived in the mail - it was the box of water tests kits, so we talked briefly about testing the water for World Water Day. I read the simple children's picture book called, "The Little Island". In the midst of the story some children began to discuss living on an Island..

Ronny - I do, but it’s difficult to do that and sustain everyone’s interest. you have to have a timeline, and know that view yourself, b/c kids will get bored. You want to facilitate the process. Do it before it becomes too many notes. be open to what kids will categorize, and it may be that you just drag, and then pull them together, and write it on paper headings, and ok if teacher does it at recess. you want kids to know that we as a community sort the knowledge. You have to help facilitate them and to be really prepared. They realized that they are doing it, then children would be managing it and you are modeling it for them. original view may become a welcome to many views with links.

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N-J-10/06-L02 I had had dreams in the summer that we would address this question! I suggested that we hold off the discussion until we finished the story and then have a KB talk.[CS~R] The KB talk was fascinating (see transcript). We focused on the question, "If you were going to an island where there were no cities and no people living there, what would you need to take with you?" I had thought that a question like this might be an excellent way in to the theme of sustainability. The kids thought of everything from seeds to midwives!

KB Talk after reading The Little Island (by Margaret Wise Brown). N-C-10/08 In the middle of my reading of this story some students began to discuss living on an island – exactly the discussion I had thought about this summer as a way to think about sustainability! I suggested we go on with the story and have a KB talk when we had finished the book. I introduced the topic of the talk with this question: If we were going to live on an Island where there was no city and no people, what would we need to bring or do to survive? Katilyn: A big boat or… a canoe would be too small… it would rock. You could bring your own seeds and stuff to grow crops. Cara: If you wanted to live there for the rest of your life you should bring something to do…. and more food (not just fish and berries). Thea: - shelter – some people make a house out of sticks Guire: house boat. If it rains you could sleep on the boat. Sam: You could take a cruise ship and a tool set, boards and bricks. You could make a house. Batteries, loaves of bread, also bring some flashlights so you could see where you’re going but turn them off in day ‘cause that wastes electricity. Thea: You couldn’t turn on the lights ‘cause there’s no electricity. Cara: Things to float on… Kaitlyn: At my farm/cottage outside there’s an electricity plug. I don’t know how it got there… use it for karaoke. My friends live in the country… live near a river.. they have a shed, they have a pool there. Jesse: If you were on the island sometimes it would be hard. You would run out of stuff. You would have to have a map so you could get back (so you could go to get food). You would need a lot of people to help you live – everyone helping around.

Nancy- last year, there was no way some ppl would let you move the notes. So it went in a totally different direction.even rise aboves were an issue (gr.2s). Then other kids were checking verbally and it was ok.[SI~C] whole class talks in gr.2

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Jason: Another way to get shelter is to turn over a canoe and [sleep underneath?] Miles: Once I went to an island; it was Bermuda. … it was very small…. thousands of small islands…. Josh: If you don’t want to do pollution to the island or pollution around it, why would you go? Why go at all? Kieran: If you were to go to an island with no electricity and no city you would have eto go in a boat. You would need to put your boat in the island & sleep under it. … row boat vs. canoe… For food you would need to go round and pick wild plants or bring seed and fish from the island. Sam: Adding on to Jesse’s I thin about needing more people to come. You could each bring a boat and you could each build a house. It would be like one of those Indian small town things – groups of people.

N-M-10/12

Thea: … boats with beds…. tie the boat so it won’t go… you could sleep in the boat and there could be food and pots Aoife: If you were living on an island with no electricity you would have to bring your own water. Sophie: If you bring stuff you would also have to go back to get stuff. Meghan: If there was no electricity you wouldn’t be able to build… you would have to put poles in the water… friends [?] Sam: This is actually quite funny: So women would come, right? So you would have to bring a fully trained midwife or doctor. Keegan: If you brought a boat with food, but it took a few months to get there you would die before you got back. … if you finished all the food and the lake water wasn’t good enough to drink… if you didn’t have food for 3 weeks you would die and if you didn’t drink for 3 days.

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Hannah: Three things: 1. Some boats don’t have covers. 2. (Adding on to Sam) my parents are doctors so I’d be okay. 3. If you were running out of food you should notice…. Kaitlyn: Where my mom was born it’s a very small island called Mauritius. I’ve been there. There’s schools and daycares… there’s not very many parks… there… Sometimes when you are a scientist you can’t just make electricity…. shelf at home – shows the back of an electricity plug

Jason: This is building onto Keegan: if you were in the ocean, you could survive a couple more hours because you could fish Cara: You should bring medicine and bandages in case you were cut on a rock or something. Thea: Adding onto Jason – I don’t think you could survive….. the fish could have chemicals and if you eat one maybe you could die. [Jason: pan, knife, Keegan: scanner??] Miles: - taking something out of fish… - Bermuda… - Hawaii…. Norah: We need to stop soon. [Led a little “wiggle break”.] Jesse: Adding on to Jason’s question: I don’t think there’s electricity so you couldn’t use an oven. Jason: - portable oven… If you had lots of money and a person was there to camp you could trade money for food.

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[N-J-10/11-L01] Oct 11 Tested four different samples of water (1) class water, (2) distilled water (3) puddle water (4) ICS tap water – for temperature, pH level, dissolved oxygen, turbidity [CS~C]

[N-C-10/17] Class talk – October 17, 2006

- answering the question: ‘what is acid rain and where does it come from?’

- what if there is ice on other planets

- what is water made of? We need a stethoscope [microscope] to see water molecules.

- Talk on expert’s response

Sam: the power plant's tower cracked so the stuff they use to make energy kind of blew out of the smoke-stack and it was like a volcano- so acid rain is caused by pollution and generates energy and its not stable enough to hold energy and it bursts and that's where acid rain comes from. It's like poisonous gas. Jesse: Germans were mean to the Jews and they killed them in gas Miles: Acid Rain is like citric acid and the acid probably mixes with other gas like the stuff that comes from cars and the factories.

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Problems: October 19, 2006 [N-C-10/19] In a side-conversation after reading Russ' letter, three students discussed the origin of the universe Amelia: Who made the universe? Miles: God made the universe because he was always there Guire: No, the universe made itself. It squeezed out of something really small. Miles: God said, "Let there be light. Let there be dark and then there was. God made trees too. It was all just there.

[N-C-10/19] KB talk October 19, 2006 In response to Russ' letter... 1. Humans can make water Jesse: an ice planet's water made water on earth Sam: this planet used to be all water Aoife: yep Guire: yep Josh: yea- it's true Sam: a hurricane or something came to affect the whole water of the world. The continents were all ice and the land was icy. The ice then started to melt. 2. It is rare that there is water on earth Aoife: what if there is ice on other planets? 3. Waht is water made of? Aoife: we need a stethoscope (Nancy says microscope) to see water molecules

[N-M-10/19] Oct 19 Nancy- what was the quality of the conversation? We want ppl to contribute, but if we are knowledge building in that moment, the importance is that we are all improving our knowledge, the quality is important. Nancy- think of it as a toolkit thing, lets pay attention to the conversation. I wouldn’t do it now, but some of what Kyle is saying is intruiging me to see if this can teach about the quality of conversation, Nancy- also by limiting, making your contribution more precious. As a skill building thing in terms of conversations, there are kids who feel that their voice should be there all the time.

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[N-J-10/23] Class talk – October 23, 2006

- Read a book about water and sweat and read a statement, ‘there’s water in our groceries…’ and asked student what it means

- Water in the vegetables

- Liquid in the juice

- Kaitlyn –‘last year, we did an experiment and Robin (gr 1 teacher) had a glass bottle and dropped five marbles in it and the water went up.

[N-C-10/23] Nancy continued to read the book on sweat and water and some questions about water continued to be asked by the students... Hannah: If you boil water with nothing in it, bubbles rise higher and higher. Why do the bubbles rise? Miles: Heat takes away oxygen and the heat goes into the bubble and it goes into the air. I don't know what that really means or if it's right, but I think it is. Jesse: I get it- the heat of the water is hot and the flame under it rises up and it can only manage to make a tiny spec of warmth and it gets pushed up. The water gets higher and makes bubbles. The heat is pushing the water up. Kaitlyn: I have a book about bubbles in oceans. There's a crack in the bottom of the ocean and it makes bubbles

Sam: It's like an underwater volcano and there is lava in them. I think that there is. Yes, there is, I think. Guire: Yes Sam, there is. Sam: yes, I know. there definately is lava in them. Nancy continued to read the book and got to a part of the book that explained that raindrops cannot fall unless there is something in them (e.g. bacteria, dust, etc...) Cameron: What happens when the raindrops hit the ground? Jesse: When the raindrops fall and hit the ground, they leave a mark and because the smoke always leaves a mark and the salt helps to heat the water, it forms a dot on the ground.

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[N-J-10/24] October 24, 2006. I felt so pleased with myself last week when I used some recess time to make a record of our inquiry to date! However, the computer did not respond when I pressed "contribute" and then the kids came back from recess and in the end my note was lost. Unfortunately, I also lost some of my motivation for putting my notes in the database. However, Laura has reinspired me because she has been faithfully recording all our KB talks and getting them into the database. So here I go again....

[N-C-10/24-L01] Class talk – Oct 24, 2006 Some of the students in the class began an experiment on how water evaporates with Laura. Other students (Gillian, Kiere Hannah, Chelsea, Kaitlyn) spent some time with Nancy reading (reciprocal teaching) about Ryan’s well.

N-M-10/26] Oct 26 N-M-10/26-L01] Nancy - note would not contribute for some reason [T-C]. Helen - same thing happened. I saved it into a word file before I left the screen. Maybe next Wednesday was a tough day. Nancy- in gr.2 I am alert to the question that should be brought into knowledge building talk - e.g. book - water is always going somewhere [CS~R] E.g. stop, there is a beaver dam, and the water there is not moving. Younger kids, it may not be there next day. My group, right now, let’s write down the questions so that we can look at them another time. This was through talking to Patty McDonald, we define question at the beginning , and the way I’ve been talking to them about it this year, -we are going to talk about one question to see if we can deepen our understanding of it. sometimes there are tangents, and sometimes we follow them, sometimes not. I am noticing questions and bringing the to the kids. with experiments and readings, inquiry time sometimes is kb time, and sometimes not. I am modeling it.

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

[N-C-10/24-L02] Nancy continued to read the book on sweat and water and some questions about water continued to be asked by the students on Knowledge Forum

- why do bubbles rise? - Theory #1 ‘ heat takes

away oxygen and the heat goes into the bubble and it goes into the air.

- Adding on to theory #1 : the heat of the water is hot and the flame under it rises up and it can only manage to make a tiny spec of warmth and it gets pushed up. The water gets higher and makes bubbles. The heat is pushing the water up.

- Theory 32 – cracks in the bottom of the ocean makes bubbles in the ocean.

- What happens when the raindrop hits the ground?

Theory #1 – it hit the ground, leave a mar and because the smoke leaves a mark and the salt helps to heat the water, it forms a dot on the ground.

N-M-10/26-L02] Nancy- kb so exciting is that kids are part of the higher level of thinking to manage the process [SC~R], and that there is a developmental piece to this.[SC~C] There has been years of modeling. I’ve been thinking that there is a certain kind of chaos in kb, when the ideas are everywhere and I think there can be a chaos in the thinking and ideas that come forward, but i do think that in terms of process of how we work together, we are responsible as teachers to make sure that that part is not chaos - e.g. focus on these terms, we create a structures that makes room for many ideas to come and maybe be a bit chaotic, but it is us managing/modeling a certain way of talking and thinking in terms of how we listen, focus on one idea, take it deeper, and make connections between things. Chaos in content and ideas, structure is teacher responsibility. b/c when we talk about child centered, we don’t want to jump in, but until we’ve had a good experience, how can we expect to create that? [CS&C~R]

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

N-M-10/26-L03] Zahra: I like the part about getting experts. Nancy : I like to have connection to get into the hockey ring arena, I really want to go to the place were the leafs play. I have content goal within the emergence and I know I want the kids to learn about in water cycle. [CS~C] It is nice to be teaching it again, I know I have some good readings on it, but the kids are at different reading level, different learning, and then something happened, like the note on the database about hockey ice, that would not have happened last year, that part, I want to get the kids to go to the hockey ice arena, the person who keeps the ice.[CS&C~C] What I am talking about is, even within like the water cycle, some kids would want to learn all about everything they can find out about water cycle and some would say I understand it and move into a different topic and allowing that flexibility within that landmark.

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

N-M-10/26-L04] I think it is my goal that every child gains an understanding and within that, there are different levels of ability, and so, how far and deep one kid can go, but, this year, right now where I am at, I do have a goal that every child would learn… that is the goal within the emergent part, [CS~C, SI~R] the emerging part is I don’t know what day would be on ice, condensation on another and … we do different experiments, I am working with a different intern and we do different experiments this year depending on what she is finding and what the kids are doing. Something would repeat, we really want them all to do painting of the water cycle once they have an idea. We also started different way because some child say ‘ how does the rain gets into the cloud, and we have a KB talk at early stage about it, and so we got them to draw their theories. That came into the room in ways that I could not predict. But I am glad because I thought, yes, this is what I wanted them to gain some kind of understanding, but if a child say that I am not interested in water cycle, I would have found a doorway to it because I want you to know. [CS~C]

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

N-M-10/26-L05] I want to go back to the idea of content and saying how I want everyone to know about water cycle, I think that is important, I think I look at the curriculum, I say..these expectations, that’s ok, these 10 expectations, these are the big ones, these are the ones that all should know. [CS~R]What I try to do it, I set up the classroom so that not everyone come to the experience the same way [CS&C~C]. So not every one would come to the experiments, children might specialize, this way, everyone would get the 10 key things but they wont be get it from me, they get it from each other. And we’ve done, various thing throughout the year, like the rise above view, essentially children determine what are the big ideas that the children think everyone should know in their area of specialty. They end up going deeper and more precise then the ministry curricula expectation. They might list twenty, where we would be happy with the 10 big ideas. But I think that is important, I think everyone should know, if we are doing medieval, and we are focusing on magna carta, every one should come to it at some point. Not necessary from me, not even so much the jig saw, it has to be deeper then that. It has to be so that children know that they need to know the community. That is our role. (that is what we do, what is the big question.) Yes, how do we, they don’t always see that, we see that as we get older, children don’t necessary see it

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

[N~C~11/16] KB talk – Nov 16 Snack talk

- Chelsea and Jason reported to the class about the environmental club meeting that they had attended. Share ideas on ‘litter-less’ lunches.

N-J-11/222 Nov 22 I just spent some time in the database. Here are some thoughts: Interesting conversations in the database that would be worth following up on:

1) clouds burst/ don’t burst – this could be a great topic for us to do more research on

2) NHL hockey ice – I would love to find out more about this because I think the kids would be interested in it

3) why is water- this is not a big topic, but I like to share the etymology of the word if I could find out something about it.

need to talk to children how to make research notes and impt of putting notes in your own words, organization of the view/ heading.[SC~C]

- Issues – gobbly-gook notes; blank notes; answer to so and so, two words response

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

N-M-11/24 24 Nov 06 Zahra – children trying to make the comment that nobody else would make, a contribution that is a little different. Nancy- what was the quality of the conversation? We want ppl to contribute, but if we are knowledge building in that moment, the importance is that we are all improving our knowledge, the quality is important.[SI~R]

N-C-01/08 Jan 8 Discussion about the plant-in-a-jar experiment. Kids predicted whether the plants had survived. They decided to change the experiment so that one jar has the lid off, one has it loosely on and the third remains as is been with the lid on tightly. In our observations we noticed that some water had percolated into the soil, the plant were surviving; I think we also saw condensation on the inside of the lid.

N-J-01/10 –L01 A fascinating conversation ensued in which I discovered that Kieren was a lot more welded to his theory of bursting than I had thought! [SC~R] Kieran asked, ‘what happens to the empty cloud? What about the coating around the cloud? And ‘How can the water be in the sky without a container?’ it was exciting to see the other kids trying to explain to him why his theory didn’t make sense to them. They had to dig into their own understanding and theories! CL pointed out that Guire actually used questions to try to get Keiren to see the flaws in his own thinking.

KB Talk Jan 11 –with projector N-C-01/11 The class talked about interesting notes and a few ‘problem notes’ .e.g. meaningless titles or ‘I agree’ notes. - Teacher asked the kids about interesting conversations that were happening in the database.

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

N-J-01/10 –L02 I was only about to jot down a few word that the kids were using…Guire said something about ‘maybe it can just go through the cloud; I wasn’t sure exactly what she was getting at.

-

N-J-01/10 –L03 what was really exciting about it was it became a real and animated conversation between those children – no longer anything structured by me or by a classroom process of some kind. [SI~R]They were involved in an authentic conversation in which their thinking was challenged by the ideas they were presenting to one another. I saw a genuine struggle in Kieren as he faced the challenges to his theory and shared his assumptions (‘How can the water be in the sky without a container?)

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

N-J-01/10 –L03 At snack I read a native story about the ‘cloud swallower’

- KB talk re: what should we do next? It evolved into a conversation that primarily focused on a bucket of frozen water Aoife had brought into the classroom.

- In small groups, each with an adult, we read the new series of books from Sophie’s dad’s publisher on rain, snow and clouds

(very easy reading, but some interesting facts at the back. One group of children went onto KF)

N-J-01/19 I think Ana tested the bucket water with a small group of children this morning. Later they reported on their findings and the following week added the information to our graphs. Noted: in the midst of all this we also were having huge talk about recess and struggles over ‘owning and stealing snow and ice crystals. I talked about the fact that the snow and ice belong to the whole community and ultimately to nature. Yes, agreed Bennm because a squirrel might take some of the ice and save it for the summer to have water

N-J-01/25 Krista began taking small groups to the library to work on research sills –she took to groups each for about a half hour.

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

N-J-01/26 Fri Jan 26 – Krista took two more groups to work on research skills. I was really not sure what we were going to do. I had asked CL to bring the data projector because I thought maybe we’d just start there – have a look in the database and see if the kids had notes they especially wanted to look at. We never got to the database.

N-C-01/26 KB Talk 26 Jan L01 Nancy : About our water inquiry I would like to know if anyone think if there are other things about water that you want to know, or a new questions we should address? S: we have different ideas about clouds L02 Nancy: well, in knowledge building, we don’t debate but rather we have different theories and we’re using them to build our knowledge. So has anyone found new information that’s changed their mind about how clouds form? L03 Nancy: ‘before we discuss our research, I have a question. When scientists work, do they have one idea that stays the same or do they sometimes change their idea. S:I think scientists always discover new things Nancy: how do they do that S: they think of new ideas S: they do experiments S: they read a lot S: they learn about other ideas and they think very hard Nancy: great, so now lets talk about the question you have about water. S: Why does water bubble? S:‘When it gets hot, water starts to bubble’ S: I think when it gets hot, water bubbles and its because of air molecules.

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

N-J-01/28-01 I have idea what made me ask it, but at some point I suggested – amazing listening – new energy from the research – I structured a lot – kept asking the kids to come back to how the information helped them in their thinking and what problem it helped them to think about – I was really impressed with their ability to make these links and I felt I was understanding some things in a new way – or ganining clarity, anyway, about the purpose? Of what we were doing.

N-M-01/29 Jan 29 Last research group went with Krista in the morning

• Keiren shared an article about Global warming. Discussion followed – the kids had many questions on water, especially on Jesse’s frozen water bottle

N-J-01/28-02 Thought a lot about Keiren’s statements and theories – how they might be of benefit to all our thinking – how I/we had maybe got caught up by his ‘cloud bag theories’ and missed some of his bigger questions that could help us (‘how can water be in the sky without a container?’ – how we might protect him from staying in a polarized position.

N-J-01/30 Jan 30 Had kids write something we’d done that helped them to think about water – on a sticky, sorted stickies, new list of big questions – really worked with Kieren on getting at the heart of his question about cloud bags followed by Jesse’s water bottle

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

N-C-02/02 KB Talk Feb 2 Nancy – today we will focus on one question: how to clouds hold together? S: there is little droplet of rain, mist gets into the sky and makes clouds and it clumps together. S: Also, when it gets heavy, the cloud can’t do it anymore so it rains Nancy: anyone has other ideas about how do clouds hold together? S:water evaporates into air on dust and as more steam goes into, it becomes white. Then pieces of dust holds the cloud together. S: Dust in clouds comes in tiny pieces and the water grabs on. S: clouds have bags to hold them together S: Clouds have no bags, the water evaporates and comes together in cold air S: no, there is bags S: but how come we cannot see the bag?

[N-C-02/07] KB Talk Feb 07 The main focus of the talk – what we need to do next to further our study of water -what we can do to protect our earth - Most kids agreed that we can change things around

N-M-02/16 L01 16 Feb 2007 Nancy: it is interesting the developmental piece is interesting for me because I feel that the gr 2 level, there is less we can do as individual or maybe it is my teaching style that I don’t get many, they do research, but as their teacher, you are kind of, that collaborative lot, because they are less dependent, but I hear that, I said, wow, in our study, in our conversation, what is our question? because I am mostly the one...not entirely, but...

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

[N-C-02/15] KB talk in Gr 2 class, 15 Feb 2008, 11 am. S - students (names that I missed) Nancy Start of the conversation - reading off the white board - getting kids to put in missing alphabets - 'Web of life' - movie brink N- here is what I am going to ask of our KB talk today, I want you to sit with someone whom you think can help you to focus on our conversation today. It might not be whom you always sit with. N - what are the things to remember in a KB talk? How does it work best? K - Rise up your hand after you are finish. N - yes, if you are finish you said you are done and pass on to someone else S - don't turn to someone beside you and talk to them N - make sure it is one big conversation Daisy - and also, the sooner we get done and we can get lunch N - it is not something we are rushing to get done, so we have time to build on knowledge Daisy -don't interrupt when someone is talking Emily - when someone is talking, don't start whispering about what they are talking about, like a diff talk, a diff topic, when someone else is talking. N - a KB talk is on one topic, not on diff topic, we try to think about one idea, we might talk about things that are connected, so we can go deeper and deeper N - about the movie - the owl said to human being, you are just one strand in the web of life, I would like to hear about what you think about what the owl mean.

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

Magnus - I think the strand and the web of life - the animal is killing them, you are just a strand of life and someone can kill you too. S - some people kill human because they are drunk, they are so crazy, (interrupted by students) I am not finished yet, and some people, this guy and he likes to kill animal Daisy - people can kill people in war Cleo - sometimes they are not always drunk Anthony - some people eat people, (interrupted by students), (N-oh, its Anthony’s turn) I am done S - I think in the web thing, you are just one strand, and it means you are just a little web in the web of life. Analise - sometime people kill each other because they hate themselves Justin - ok, this is how you get drunk - N - this is what we talked about, in the movie - the owl said to the human being 'you are just one strand' , we are talking about why he said that. J - I have to think of it, I just choose someone Benjamin - some people kill other people for fun, or just because they want to Caleb - I am building on to Anthony, xxx eat other people and there are, in Caribbean, (missed) N - something about people killing people, maybe it is, but can you explain how that is related to the web of life? Anthony - I think the one strand in the web of life, is trying to say that the animal is actually more important, because human is cutting down their habitat Rhea - maybe the owl is trying to say the animal need the tree more then the animal do. S- It is just one part of it, we don't need to cut down the entire tree and the entire habitat, because we can use other things to replace. S - one people kill themselves

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

N - is it helping us understand this better? (S- no), you have to talk about something that help us understand, s- maybe human is the tiniest bit in the web of life Hailey - I forgot what i was going to say/ s- when the bad people when they think of something - bad people are always bad, they always shoot, they make bomb, they never think they are good enough, they just shoot themselves. N -does that help us understand what the owl said to the human being 'you are just one strand i the web of life' s - why would people want to kill themselves and be mean to themselves. benjamin - i have three things, cannibal - eat themselves, killing yourself is called suicide, the owl means by one strand, because we kill people margo - sometime, i think that owl said we are just one strand in the web of life, he said that because he said the spider is a good person and the web doesn't mean anything. norah - i am wondering what is the web of life it is like a circle of life, i don't really know what it is, but it is kind of lke the circle of life j - t is like all the life in the world will - i think when the spider said, you are just one strand in the web of life, he means it is a little bit, and the world. j - i know what the web of life is, like first, the mother get the baby, the baby grows and grows and it gets old and it dies

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

an - the animal gets a a baby, people eat everything, s - i think that is call the food chain a - people is just one strand, just one, because people are only one strand, every type of animal has one Emily - web of life is when the animal die, but before he died, he had a baby and it goes on and on... s - people need oxygen to survive, and that is pretty dumb of them, you are like the part of the world, but not the most important part j - you know the owl said, and the spider in the middle, i think he means that you are not the only one in the middle b - the web of life, like the spider spin the web, the circle in the middle, the life is in the middle, and the strand are all the habitat and animal s - he means you are not the only doing the bad and ..not the only one who... there is like a big web - the animal has babies and sometime they die, and it keeps going on magnus- the spider eats the...the bird eats....the snake eats....the .... s - wouldn't that be the food chain s - i am adding on to magnus, the possum eat the snake, the bear eat the possum, then the tiger eats the bear, the great white shark eats the tiger, the ... N - i am going to ask everyone to sit up straight on their bottom, breathe in and our cleo -the snake eats the beaver, the eagle eats the snake, N - we have 3-4 minutes before lunch - i am asking if someone could put up their hands, what are the main ideas r - the web of life in the food chain n - any big idea, does anyone has things to add on?

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

s - we talked about what the animal eat r - they talked about cutting down trees and they are helping themselves because the tree gves you air n - any more big idea m - the web of life, meaning you are just in way of the web of life n - did people say that? j - nothing margo - we talked about how animal live in one place and another animal eat that....I am done

KB Talk - March 5 N-C-03/05 Kieren shared the cloud response email with the rest of the class. Theory #1: there is a layer of air between them, a wisp of air pushes the cloud into the next one and it keeps going on and on. Theory #2: the vapour evaporates and the cloud disappears into thin air. Theory #3: clouds evaporates because of the heat of the sun, and it evaporates because there is nothing holding them. Theory #4: cloud evaporates because they need to make space for other clouds. Nancy: do you think it has something to do with water droplets that makes the cloud white?

N-M-02/16 – L02 and then just thinking about the relationship between whole and parts, i was thinking about something I was just reading, about scientist, sciences that looks at system theory, chaos theory, but also like biology 'understanding more about biology, anyway, those kind of new sciences are sorta of blowing apart, looking at the world like a machine, about classifying, that came as a shift, to start to look at whole and relationship about the parts, classifying the parts, and thinking about what does that mean, and it is always coming back to the whole picture, asking the kids to see the big question, do you have a bigger question, that comes back to giving meaning to the parts, in a way it was like my kids going to the library with Kattie, they have a piece of researching skill supported, like you basically do some research for them, it wasn’t about not being their question, but the technical skill of going through the whole thing and find it, it was like the scaffolding, you are going to do that for them so they can get the meat.

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

N-J-03/27 Reflection March 27 March 1st – There was a thunderstorm and I spontaneously pulled out a picture book called ‘storm.’ It is quite an old fashioned book, but there was something rich about reading as we experienced a real storm ourselves. At some point the topic of thunder came up and someone said ‘the thunder is the cloud popping’ – inspite of myself, I blurted 12 Aprilout something like, ‘no cloud don’t pop’ and added lamely, ‘isnt that what some of our research shows?’ I couldn’t see Kieren’s face as I said this so I didn’t know what impact my declaration had made. Later I wondered more about putting my own voice of authority in there so strongly for this topic in which the kids have been working hard to build their own theories. Somehow, I think I just couldn’t sit still when I felt a misconception was being reinforced with a lot of conviction

N-M-02/16 – L03 but that is just like, when you are i early years, it is easy to identify, if they cannot write, then we said we'll write for them then they can tackle the big idea, But in a way you said, they cannot research, and not saying in a huge way because they are learning now. But it is almost like saying that is the technical skill (K - but those are high school skill too), it is slowing them down (application too..it is pulling it together) (Chorus) it is like us taking the it is alright for you to use this this because you can't

N-M-02/16 – L04 and when these kids brought back the new information from these book, i said, oh i am pushing them, they are only 7. I would say to them, which of our question help us think about, I just, I was so pleasantly surprised with how they can do that if they are asked to. so it is not enough to just say, oh I found out about blah blah blah, and they made really good connection

Nancy’s Journal Entries (N-J-date)

Nancy’s Classroom Observations (N-C-date)

Nancy’s Meeting Contributions (N-M-date)

.

N-M-04/12-01 12 April Nancy- Sometimes when there is a lot of energy in a discussion, it isn’t the most balanced talk. You can trust that it brings a care/passion to the discussion that you can build on after that. Sometimes if feels like the engaged discussion happens when there are two kids having opposing views. To me, it sounds like a great talk! Nancy - i have kids who don’t speak in those talks, discernment between the kowledge building - you are an appropriate member if you didn’t have an idea or a build on and you didn’t speak. In my class, some kids talk, and don’t help the knowledge building. Sometimes the kids go on the database and contribute there. Knowledge building is about where is the next idea coming from, and if it happens to come from the same kid for a few terms, then it’s your job not to add in a way. Nancy- what excites me about this is that KF uses computers in the way that they work best. if it’s not doing that - sorting information and recording it. We use knowledge form b/c it’s the perfect tool to sort, archive, and store information.

N-M-04/26 26 april Nancy- when you look carefully at their work, they look like they are doing something but they are not. Raises the question - ‘is it an independant task, or is it something that needs to be scaffolded in small groups’ thinking through steps of making a note, or what to say.

Appendix C-3: Zahra’s case study Chronological events in Zahra’s class according to journal entries, classroom observations and meeting contributions. Text coded are highlighted in yellow (Refer section 5.4.1 – 5.4.3)

Zahra’s Journal Entries (Z-J-date) Zahra’s Classroom Observation notes (Z-C-date)

Zahra’s Meeting Contributions (Z-M-date) (Condensed note)

Z-M-09/14 Sept 14 Zahra: I am waiting to see what may emerge from the kids [C/S~R]. It is ironic because at this year’s SI, we started KB before starting a community. Now I am just waiting. Really interested on using ATK at the end of each day to inform my daily teaching. How the tools link to the (KB) principals. How they help the kids to understand the principals better.

Sept 29 Helen - With these kids – wondering where it starts, it is diff at this school ---I was struggling why, there were no build up, the moment we started – we started .. how does it starts, we have to pull in kids, from public school. My kids know there isn’t one answer how they …they have this idea that … Zahra: How does that happen with such young [SC~R] kids would be interesting for ppl to know too. Where does this culture come from?

Z-J-10/2 10/2/2006 L1. We started our first inquiry today. The children were all going to have turns on the database, but first we had a short discussion about what KF is for and how we would use it to explore problems of understanding and to put out our theories and build knowledge together [SI~R]. L2. The children made some contributions, but it was a quick discussion before we got the children on. We created the first view (Cycles) together and reviewed how to make a new note, do a build on, put in a title and contribute a note. L3. I didn't feel I had to be labour this too much, as this class did a lot of KB work last year. L4. I wasn't too worried about the new children, as I usually find they pick up on the idea of knowledge building quickly and that other children will help them as they have questions about how the software works. [SC~R]

Z-C-10/2 KB talk 2 Oct 06: ok, I know that many of you are in ICS many years and we are going to start using KF, and as I told you today is the day. I said in the message this morning, the reason that Marianne and I thought that cycle is a good topic to start with because many of us seemed to be interested to know why the moon is rising and setting at a different time every day (C/S~R). and how that keep changing. and if some day, the moon doesn't rise, or maybe doesnt set on that day, and also how the moon faces keep changing, sometime it is a full moon, sometime there is no moon, sometime we just got all kinds. we thought it is a interesting thing to start with,. but we also though you have othe problem of understanding some other things that is about cycle. so when you get on the database, we created a view for you to work on, you can put question not only about the cycle of the moon but about other cycle. so ok, say that loud, what were you thinking

Z-C-10/05 Demo on KF: KB talk, 2 Oct: And now in this box I can write my problem of understanding, I can write my theory, I can write new information. Maybe I can start off by saying I have a problem of understanding, I am going to pick a scaffold. My theory – to understand new information, this theory cannot explain, I don’t love that one. I probably try to get rid of that one because I don’t really like that scaffold. Maybe we all start with I need to understand. ..Part of KB is for you to know what other are interested in, wondering about and what they know. [C/S~R] So you need to know people’s note. The other thing is if you don’t read, you get the same note as someone else. Maybe someone has already got your understanding down, you don’t have to write it but you need to create a build on note and write more.

Z-C-10/05 (Knowledge Forum notes) 5 Oct by John k. [2006, Oct 02]. Why is the moon made out of cheese? Gravity nu Kaylie I. [2006, Oct 2] gravity is what makes us stay on the ground. Astroids and Crators by Kaylie I. [2006 Oct 2] My theory is that astroids flot because of gavity. So they smash into the moon that make crators. when the moon doesn’t set by mia.s. [2006, 0ct 2] i need to understand How come someimes the moon doesn’t rotate by sam m. [2006, Oct 5] it doesnt the world rotates does the moon move by alexandra b. [2006, Oct 2] moon crators by ad. I [2006, Oct 02] I need to understand why does the moon have crators on it. how the daysget shorted by carmen I. [2006, Oct 02] Because in winter the days get shorter.

why by k I. [2006, Oct 5] why cant you see the moon for a whole month? breathing on the moon by sophia j. [2006 Oct 05] No, there is nothing to breath in. the moon by rae m. [2006, Oct 5] what does that mean give me more info danger by rae m. [2006, Oct 05] so you can get arowd with out poloting cus if there is to much of it we wont have eny oxagyn and well all sloly start to dye. cheese 2 by john k. [2006, Oct 5] earth matirial by rae m. [2006, Oct 5] what is the earth made of

Z-M-10/05 5th Oct Zahra: only thing that is worrisome is that you want kids to bring it in, and then you provide it when it’s come up already, so it’s not already there to choose from. Chloe agrees, this was how it worked before. Don’t worry about ‘is that a good note idea’, you are giving them good information and they are learning about a whole different space. Zahra: it is important for the researchers to know - to talk to the teachers if they are doing analysis on the kids’ writing. Zahra: we made a scaffold that said ‘I agree because ‘ and they are customizable and Nancy - your class is doing really well - they are far along with what they know. Zahra: I can create a scaffold for just my class...how do I add each one? type in the left box up there.

The days get shorted by sophia j. [2006, Oct 5] My Theory is that the days get shorted as the weather gets colder/ the moon moves by rae m. [2006 Oct 5] is there gravaty on the moon not made of cheese by alexandra b. [2006, Oct 05] the moon is not made of cheese a cycle by kaylie I [2006, Oct 5] or a tree, and frog cycle the moon is not made out of cheese by mia s. [2006, oct 5] the moon is not made out of cheese and i don’t like cheese like rae said. sun by kaylie I [2006 Oct 05] Its to far from the sun the moon is rock by mia s. [2006, Oct 5] yes it is rock and I don’t like cheese either and if you talking about your mouse cheese thats and insalt gravity by as I [2006 Oct 05] why does’t the moon have gravity? gravity by sarah c. [2006, Oct 05] gravity is the thing that makes you fall

Z-J-10/02 –L01 10/2/2006 We started our first inquiry today. The children were all going to have turns on the database, but first we had a short discussion about what KF is for and how we would use it to explore problems of understanding and to put out our theories and build knowledge together. The children made some contributions, but it was a quick discussion before we got the children on. We created the first view (Cycles) together and reviewed how to make a new note, do a build on, put in a title and contribute a note. I didn't feel I had to be labour this too much, as this class did a lot of KB work last year. I wasn't too worried about the new children, as I usually find they pick up on the idea of knowledge building quickly and that other children will help them as they have questions about how the software works.

Z-C-10/05 (Knowledge Forum notes) < 5 Oct by John k. [2006, Oct 02]. Why is the moon made out of cheese? Gravity nu Kaylie I. [2006, Oct 2] gravity is what makes us stay on the ground. Astroids and Crators by Kaylie I. [2006 Oct 2] My theory is that astroids flot because of gavity. So they smash into the moon that make crators. when the moon doesn’t set by mia.s. [2006, 0ct 2] i need to understand How come someimes the moon doesn’t rotate by sam m. [2006, Oct 5] it doesnt the world rotates does the moon move by alexandra b. [2006, Oct 2] moon crators by ad. I [2006, Oct 02] I need to understand why does the moon have crators on it. how the daysget shorted by carmen I. [2006, Oct 02] Because in winter the days get shorter.

This is all on tape. Z-J-10/02 –L02 The turns on KF were wrought with problems -- we couldn't get kids logged on because some had passwords that were different in format than the others and two were not on the list of users yet. It was hard to get some computers to connect and one kept crashing. All the notes went in at the top of the screen and we couldn't move them around, so everything bunched up there. I was really pleased, though, with the notes the children made. They really understand what to do and most needed no help with writing their notes. There were a couple, however, who said "I don't know what ot write". I'm sure I've never had a child say that to me before!

why cant you see the moon for a whole month? breathing on the moon by sophia j. [2006 Oct 05] No, there is nothing to breath in. the moon by rae m. [2006, Oct 5] what does that mean give me more info danger by rae m. [2006, Oct 05] so you can get arowd with out poloting cus if there is to much of it we wont have eny oxagyn and well all sloly start to dye. cheese 2 by john k. [2006, Oct 5] earth matirial by rae m. [2006, Oct 5] what is the earth made of The days get shorted by sophia j. [2006, Oct 5] My Theory is that the days get shorted as the weather gets colder the moon moves by rae m. [2006 Oct 5] is there gravaty on the moon not made of cheese by alexandra b. [2006, Oct 05] the moon is not made of cheese a cycle by kaylie I [2006, Oct 5] why by k I. [2006, Oct 5] or a tree, and frog cycle the moon is not made out of cheese by mia s. [2006, oct 5]

the moon is not made out of cheese and i don’t like cheese like rae said. sun by kaylie I [2006 Oct 05] Its to far from the sun the moon is rock by mia s. [2006, Oct 5] yes it is rock and I don’t like cheese either and if you talking about your mouse cheese thats and in salt gravity by sarah c. [2006, Oct 05] gravity is the thing that makes you fall gravity by as I [2006 Oct 05] why does’t the moon have gravity? gravity by sarah c. [2006, Oct 05] gravity is the thing that makes you fall

Z-C-10/12 no trees by alexandra b. [2006, Oct 12] there are no trees on the moon so there is no oxygen why cant you breath by k. I. [2006, Oct 12] why cant you breth on the moon? is there nothing to breth in? when the sun comes up by ad I [2006, Oct 12] I think it does when the sun comes up

Z-J-10/10 Oct 10 I asked the children to see f they could see the full moon this weekend and many told me they did as they came in this morning. As part of the calendar many children had told storied of seeing the moon rise and seeing a yellow moon. It was really neat to see how unenthusiastic they were.

Z-C-10/26 (Knowledge Forum notes) 12 Oct - 26 Oct the moon by kabir s. [Oct 26] no it doesn’t because I thought that the moon always keep going and the sun stays there moon is rock by rae [Oct 26] is not its rock bicycels by kabir [Oct 26] why are they bicycels in the world moon fases by ts s. [Oct 25] how come the moon has fazse the days get shorter by ad I [oct 25] I need to understand how the day get shortor water in space by rae [Oct 26] if you were in space would water fall or stay in the air The Moon SIKEL by antigone [Oct 15] New information after the moon has its sikel some peopel don't know what happens next. This is what happens you can't see the moon for a hole month. gavity and oxygen by mia s [Oct 13] the moon has a little of gravity almost said oxygen even though this note has nothing related to your note.

The Moon by mia s [Oct 13] i geuse it might be that the earth is turning so the moon sets at diffrent times gravityb makes you fall by rae m [oct 23] it holds you down and if you jump it makes you fall the moon and what it is made out of by kaylie [23 oct] Another theory is that the moon is made out of rock and some gravity and maybe some left overs of another thing or rock. how many by k.I [oct 23] I need to understand How many cycles are there? There are alot of cycles byt I need to know how many? what I think the Earth is made of by maeve I [oct 23] I think the earth is made of water, Rock, Dert, Sand and gravity holds it together

Z-J-10/12 Oct 12 Our first KB talk today. I felt it was important for the children to have a chance to talk about what was going on the view. Some of my concern: children using annotation in a silly way or to correct each other’s spelling. Some kids writing far more annotations than notes a string of note in responses to the problem ‘is the moon made of cheese?’ contained many silly notes, but some good ones to about what the moon is really made of (SI~R, T~R).

Z-C-10/12 Today is Oct 12 T- we are having our very first Kb talk T – what we do in KB talk is to talk about any question, concerns you have. When you think about what we are doing on our database, the other thing is to talk about something of our problem of understanding that we are working on. Today we are going to look at the database, put it up on the screen and we are having it on. When I put the database up I want you to look at it and tell me if there is anything you want to talk about. I am going to log myself in and then we going to get the database on. We are having our KB talk and our problem of understanding, (C/S~R, SC~R) like why the moonz rise in different time, then we sit in the circle but I think it is easier if we stay in the seat. S – why does the sun reflect. T – oh, lets start with that. If you cant see the screen, you should move your chair. There we go. Very good. You will be amazed to see what we have up there. It is really good. So this is the database of the school. If we use the green dot to make it bigger when you get on, that is why the screen is like that, you can see everything on it. (S – do the cheese one, do the cheese one!) I am going to ask you to stop moving the chair. Now Alec has something to say, Alex would you tell the class what you have told me. Alex – I think we should stop the talk about the moon is made of cheese, because it is not. (whisper: yes it is..laughter)

Z-M-10/12 12 Oct Zahra : first kb talk with 14 kids. Rather have a successful talk that everyone can build on when they get back (from running meet). It all started with the thread 'is the moon made out of cheese'. Some went on serious track, others went on a silly track. Kids point out that it is a problem with notes of cheese...said some of the notes should be annotated, reminder of doing that. John who write the orignial note has his head dpwn. But in the end, I said 'it wasnt a bad question, but people went in a silly direction and that was the problem. Then his head popped back up. I asked the kids to go back to look at all notes in the cheese string, and to go and delete the ones that were silly and werent helping, and to put some of their notes into annotation instead of notes. The kids have trouble not interrupting but they used a lot of kb language. Last year I would have said, this is what I want to do. This year, I said this is what the time id for, what would you like to do. Also, last year I had them on the carpet, looking at the screen. This year, Ellen suggested having them on the carpet and we tried that. Kids were just at their tables for the kb talk, but everyone turned to each other, and everyone was in chairs and could see, but it was much better.

T – so Alex is saying something, do you have something you want to build on to what alex is saying s- the moon is so not made out of cheese. T – Alex was making a serious comment and I am wondering if you agree or disagree with what alex is saying. Chorus: Agree! Disagree t- why were you agreeing. s- Then it would not have these note like it build on and then people would say haha! t- what do other people think S – I agree we should stop coz it might get people to be really tense(?) and swearing(?) …and then if people keep building on it is going to be all over the database and we wont have other things. T - ok, what do you think S – also I see note that I agree, it is not a note, it is only 3 words, it is crowding th whole database. S – once you start doing it, it kinda fill the whole thing with inappropriate and it crowd the view and it is not fair to people who wants to have a real (conversation) ya, a real conversation and they cant because of all these notes. I: What do you think jonah? S - I think people who write silly note should erase them S – I agree with alex. Ya. I think we should stop cheese notes. (t – why do you say that)Well, some people say no many times, when I open notes it is always the same. T - I am now worried that I would forget what you are going to say. So the same note issue and also the notes that are considered silly. Ok, who else has some opinion on it. s- I think we should stop doing like cheese coz people keep doing cheese 1, cheese 2 and cheese 3. And people keep adding on

s- You don’t have to put it on the database because you can just go to the person to say it. T – katya s- I think….the whole database, I don’t think sometime…(not clear) s – I am kinda like building on to Mia, but not really, but like someone had to write I don’t understand and can I have more information. Why don’t you just walk to the person and not in the database. s - you can click on notes, it is not too big right now, if it does, it pops up then it is just going to that and then you don't own stuff you know, you click the view and you don't really see the notes in it. t - it is a great comment. s - i suggest the cheese because other people were just saying 'blah blah blah' and they are also writing things like, you know how to spell words and you write it wrong and i think you should .... t -adam s- don't they talk abit of the moon conversation? but it, some of them is just no point in taking up the space, like 'you are right'

Z-J-10/22 Oct. 22 L1: no notes - Jack (reading fine) 1 - Eric - (reading low too) 2 - Antigone, Katya, Lenny (all reading low), Sarah (reading a lot) 3 - Brody, Trevor (reading okay) 4- Carmen (reading low) L2 Everyone else has 7 notes or more. Want to sit with each of these chldren today and talk to them about a note idea, help them get it down. What is the barrier? -- lack of focus? typing sklls? ideas? maybe they're not reading enough? lack of engagement with the problems? (maybe they could write some new problems) (T~R)

t : broody s - oh, maybe that person is from another class, so that is why they can't... t - I don’t think I would worry too much about that right now. s -we put something on the cheese section...(inaudible) t -that is the question on the database I think. there are lots of ideas here. we are going to make some decision in just a minute. but i really want people to have a chance to say it. s - can we have...(inaudible) s - I am kinda building on to Mia, sometime if the whole string get fill with cheese, and when you click on something ... (laughters) t - Alex s- I think we shouldn’t do it because it takes up a lot of space. any of that cheeze thing, it could be in the conversation t - you know what I can tell something. alot of you did a lot of work on KB, I am hearing from this community, I am building on' I have something to add' you are really listening to each other ideas, agreeing and disagreeing that is what Knowledge Builder do.

Z-J-10/23 –L01 Oct. 23-27 by Zahra d. [2006, Oct 30] new notes created or modified on Monday Oct. 23 Maeve – 4; Mia – 3; Kaylie – 1; Briana – 1; Jonah – 1;Kabir – 1;Kaitlyn – 1; Rae – 2;Sam – 1;Sophia - 2 So 10 children did not write any notes. We did have trouble getting the computers on-line. Many had to be restarted, even halfway through the morning, as they'd lose their connection. (This after they'd been updated to 10.4). Z-J-10/23-L02 I'm finding that many kids are pretty unfocussed when on KF. Some spend time fooling around with the function keys, getting up and talking to others and just not seeming that engaged in their KB work.

but you cant just say agree or disagree, it is the same as the database, you cant just say i agree, you can go to the person, if you find yourself writing 'I agree' and 'I disagree' note, can you also write. It is important. I also hear that we don’t want the same note over and prayer again,. It is important to read first then write your own note. the other thing I am noticing is some of you is using annotation, did you learn to use annotation. probably not all of you know what is annotation, let's start out with the very first note, )at the top), of the cheese string (laugh..cheese string). I want to say something, there are a lot of notes here are not all silly, they are not all silly note, and this is a good question because it made a lot of you think about what the moon is about, what happen is that some of you is silly, but the person ask the question, asked a good question. I think we have to know that we are not going to get rid of all the notes, they are great notes, we want to get the silly notes off.

Z-J-10/23-L03 I wish these kids had never learned to make annotations! Need to talk to them about writing 'I don't get it' -they need to be more specific, or just close the note if they don't have a theory about the problem being asked. Also - I don’t (or do) know that one child responded to another child's annotation and wrote 'p.s. you are cool!'. So now we have children using annotations to 'chat', they are not even responding to the note. Tomorrow I'll take the kids in 1/4 group and work with them to go through all of their notes, delete annotations, move annotations into notes, move notes close to others about the same problem. Against what I usually do. I've just deleted a whole bunch of annotations as I've read notes from Monday. It seems too time consuming to do them all with the kids. So many notes have 2 or 3, and it's a few kids making almost all of them.

Does anyone know if they use an annotation here? (the first one int he cheese string) Does someone know if they use annotation, i know Sam use some. oh there is one, Jonah wrote a note and travis has put an annotation in. When you go here, it gives you a little sticky notes, I wont show you how to use it here, some kids get a little carried away, they use that and not write any information. since we are learning how to use it we might as well use it properly. s - spelling t - spelling, I don’t want you to do that, please don’t correct people's spelling. it is not what KF is about. if some one spelt it wrongly, be gracious and leave it that way. t - ok, if you just want to put a little comment like that, but it is better if you want to create a build on and say why. s - oh it is like, someone say that thing, I don’t get it, it is more information t - ya, so instead of putting it one the view, instead of taking space in the view, the annotation can say 'I don’t really understand, can you tell me more' , could you please make it easier for me to understand' that is a great time to use annotation feature. any other thoughts about when to use annotation.

Z-J-10/26 Oct. 26 L01 This morning I sat with the most prolific writers (often of annotations, unfortunately), searched their notes, deleted annotations, made annotations into notes and vice versa and talked about what a problem it is when thye are spending more time making annotations than notes. All looked a little sheepish and agreed to stop writing annotations unless it was really necessary. L02 At our KB talk we agreed to make two new views -- Gravity and Planets -- and moved notes to them. This has eased up the space on Cycles and will, I hope, bring some focus to some of the excellent questions that are there. L03 At our KB meeting after school Ronny said that he doesn't allow his 5/6s to use annotations at all. I had no idea! What a relief to know that I can outlaw them totally!

s -inaudible t - ya, if you really cant understand what someone is writing then you can us the annotation to say 'I don't understand'. ya, sometime it can help you make your note clear. t - you know how you put them into the sticky notes, to start a sticky notes, you just have to press this stuff that says annotate and it would give you a sticky notes. well, I don’t want to do this, I just have to back space through them. because I made them the computer should let me erase them. hmm..it is not. let jsut see what travis said 'jonah, why did you put so many exclamation mark?' travis says, hmm. what do you think Jonah. t - can we make a rule about punctuation mark. can we say just one. t - do you think that is a good use of annotation, it didnt take up space in the view it just use annotation. t - ok, this is what I want you to do, when you get on KF, I want you to check all the notes, if you have a note in the cheese string, get it (ya, laughter), and think if my note is silly and I will show you how to get rid of them. does anyone has a note that they think is silly? s- that one at the bottom t - we are going to click on the note then you go to file/edit, so it has, here we do, delete. it is gone. so today I want you to check your notes and if you think it is a silly note, you delete it.

Z-M-10/27 27 Oct 2005: L1 zahra: I went through the database and identify problem of understanding that they are curious about right now (C/S~R) and then the child who wrote the note, we wrote it on these cards so we can hand them up and have them off the database and see what we are up to (T~R). And then next week for their homework, for their, on their sheet, they are going to write the problem of understanding that is most pressing to them now. . . . L2 Zahra:We have install the pocket, it has been wonderful kid put in stuff we have tones of ideas. (CS&C~R) Civilization how tech was made. Tech problem. Roger put, ‘computer wont start!’

children who has created few notes: Antegone; katya; sarah' lenny; jack; eric; carmen; trevor; brody; john; jonah Jack, Jonah and sarah and reading more. The others who aren't writing much are reading less too. Interesting to see how the social network looks. Even at 20 there's quite a clump of kids. I don't know what is good though.

t - I think we have to stop here. every body, that was our first KB talk, I thought we have to do a few times before we can do it. you listen and you give you idea.even with someone like Kaile, who is new, I think you know what it is about by the way we talk about it. t -ok, s - Zahra, are we going to start something on KF t - not today. ok, here;s what we are doing. s- how do you log on to other people, like grade one... t- you can just click right on it, on the screen when we go on. but I don’t want you to spend your time on other people's database.

L3 And then even question how you move one view to another, problem of understanding, how does earth turn, they have been using different category, notes come in to all 5 pocket, giving us direction for KB talk – great for kids to see that they are deciding they what to talk about in our KB talk. (C/S~R) (Zahra showed a 'pocket' she brought with her) They are empty now, have you had Knowledge advances yet, one of the thing was to make rise above, so they are really interested in pulling their ideas together in the rise above. The new ideas are for later, if we talk about problem of understanding, they just get it in database they talked a lot about it. They really could say, write down on the paper and a remind on what they should say, I should do that L4 Or, to make sure someone take charge and make sure the idea get on other computer Occasionally I send one of the computer immediately (CS&C~R) Also, some of them can be solved on the database, active group. Interested to see solution and proving solution to the problem

The Moon by mia s [Oct 13] I guess it might be that the earth is turning so the moon sets at diffrent times gravityb makes you fall by rae m [oct 23] it holds you down and if you jump it makes you fall the moon and what it is made out of by kaylie [23 oct] Another theory is that the moon is made out of rock and some gravity and maybe some left overs of another thing or rock. how many by k.I [oct 23] I need to understand How many cycles are there? There are alot of cycles byt I need to know how many? what I think the Earth is made of by maeve I [oct 23] I think the earth is made of water, Rock, Dert, Sand and gravity holds it together

gravity makes you fall by rae m [Oct 23] it holds you down and if you jump ot makes you fall the moon and what it is made out of Kaylie [oct 23] Another theory is that the moon is made out of rock and some gravity and maybe some left overs of another thing of rock, how many by k.I. [oct 23] I need to understand How many cycles are there? There are alot of cycles but I need to know how many? what I think the Earth is made of by Maeve I [23 oct] I think the earth is made of water, Rock, Dirt, Sand and gravity holds it together Uranus by sam m [oct 23] because they did you get a problem with that

Z-C-10/23 KB Talk Oct. 23 by Taylor Y. [2006, Oct 25] Z =Is there anyone who has a problem of understanding Adam=like a question? Z=yes, like a question. Jack=Can we see the Jerome Video? z=discuss reason Mia, I’m wondering how the cycle of rocks works Trevor=how come the database doesn’t work, contributing not working z, were not talking about problems with the database right now, tell us when Rae: If you are in space would water flow? z, is this under the umbrella of cycles though, it sort of is but..Adam, how come if the earth is moving and we don’t feel Katya, with the earth turning..Eric, cycle of water, sewage cycle Maeve, how come it takes a year for the earth to go around the sun Kaylie, gravity question Jack, how does gravity work z=discussion about trust and silly comments/questions, mia repeats questions m-how come the moon sets and does rise, or rises late or not at all, Trevor, maybe that the earth is round and it goes round at different speeds at different times of year jack, a great thing that Trevor brought up, but I think at different times of the year it always goes at the same pace, maybe it only goes faster or slower and their is no normal speed

kaylie, in the winter the days are short and in the summer longer, so it may have something to do with thatanti, adds to Kaylie seasons and moon and earth spinning, and months used to be called moons, Kaylie, i read in a book that the earth always spins at the same rateEric, then why do the days get shorter?Anti, Answers eric, because it sort of moves in a more slanted circle, and more and less can be cover by darknessEric, maybe different times of the year, it goes the same pace/faster so thats why the day gets longer. z=discusses appropriate reactions, responses, classroom is safe sam- adding to Eric’s, when the earth is going around it is closer to the moon so the moon would come toward it earlierbrody, that because there is so much snow in the winter because the snow slows it down maeve, same comment kaylie, maybe because of the snow the earth goes a bit lop-sided antigone, the earth is always on a slantjack, if the earth is on a slant than why aren’t we falling off sam, gravity adam, how could it be on a slant because it’s a circle, sphere sarah, because the top is here and the bottom is here and there’s a slant

Zahra, asks sarah to get the globe, sarah is this what you meant, do you understand what sarah meant?eric, i agree with jack because we are not sliding around the classroom when the earth moves around sophia, only some countries in the earth don’t have snow, like mexico eric, went to mexico last year and it didn’t snow

Z-C-10/23 Oct 23rd we are going to have a KB talk, we are always going to have one at this time, on monday. Last week, our Kb talk, remember we had the projector and we were looking at the note, moving notes around and this time we are going to have a different KB talk, we are going to talk about a problem of understanding that is interesting to the group. something that you are wondering about that has to do with cycle, it might be problem of understand that is on the database that people have been doing a lot of writing. or maybe it is just another problem of understanding that you have not talked about. is there any body who has a problem of understanding, a question, something interesting for us to talk about, basically, yes, problem of understanding, questions, something you want to understand - mia's idea: i was wondering about the cycle of rock mia idea, lets all hear it again how come database doesnt work, everytime i try to contribute it doesnt happen

boys and girls we are not talking about problem of database, the best time to talk about it is when it is happening at that exact moment, to get me, Taylor or Jane to help you. if you are in space would water still boils? - is that under the umbrella of cycle? maybe, it is sort of a little there because we have been talking about things in space (like the moon and cheese), but it is a bit off the topic, a bit. any other problem of understanding - how can the earth move but we do not feel it? - how come the moon rise up and stay up until night? T: ok, thats a good problem -how come when the earth spin around and we don't turn with the earth, if it spin around...(because we are staying on the spot) no sam, don’t start answering yet, we are not giving answer now. Ok, you got the question of earth spinning

water cycle, but not like evaporation but like when you go to the bathroom ok, are you being silly or serious serious ok, like where does the water go to from the bathroom oh, so you are talking about the whole sewage system cycle ok how come it takes a year for the moon to go round the earth? how does gravity work - gravity isnt really in the 'cycle', but we have been talking about that. Is the motorcycle named after a famous cyclist? - everytime you open your mouth at the KB talk I want you to think, are you being silly or serious, is what i am going to say helping and moving us forward or is it sort of stopping us. when you put your hand up, what does it mean. I have something to say. - yes, i trust you..the trust is broken everytime something silly is being said.So when you said something silly, the next time you put up your hand i wonder if I should call you. I am wondering what Mia is saying about your question about the moon, can you say it again, and if you have an answer, i shouldnt say it is an answer, or a theory, share it with us

how come the moon sets and sometime it doesn't rise. anyone has any theory maybe the earth spin around, maybe one time it goes around, it slows down depending on what time of the year. anyone has anything to build on I think that is a great thing that trevor just brought up. i think sometime the speed, it only goes faster and then it goes normal speed. what trevor has spoke about, do you have something to add on? I think what trevor said is great, i think because the earth is spinning and the moon is spinning so it goes slower, in a way, they change at different time. it is spinning, it goes around and goes slower. I don't think earth speeds up, because i don't feel it.

Oct 27 - Nov 2 why the earth moves by ad I [27 oct] My theory I think the earth moves because there is very low gravity so the earth woul float around the new moon by rae m [oct 27] I read in a book when the moon is between the sun and the earth its called new moon, is it true same or not by rae m [oct 27] My theory the moon does not look the same evrey night

N-C-10/27 (Oct 27) what we are doing this morning is to look at your notes and improve your notes by adding titles, or some of your annotation were actually note, so we are going to switch your annotation into build on, some of your annotation is not really worth putting because it just said, oh you spelt that wrong, and it is silly. so we took those not to be an annotation. And some of your note should be annotation, it is just figuring what should be an annotation and what should be a note. I found some of you were actually spending more time writing annotation then notes. and that worries me because i still think yo are missing what KF is for. what we do is try to focus on idea, try to improve idea, we try to annotate notes, and we still need time improving ideas, and that is what we want to do. so I have asked some of you to stop making annotation for a while and just focus on making of note. if you are not sure, you can come and talk to us. it is really really important that you

so what would you want to work on, gravity? or the moon? but which one is more about cycles, moon or gravity so maybe moon, the one on gravity is a little different, maybe we should move it to another view so we go here and create a new view, what do we call it? gravity and we want to have our scaffolds on the view. the author...grade 3 and me and now e have a brand new view. the thing tricky is lets find some notes on gravity, lets try to move the whole thread, we are going to highlight all the notes now we will go to our new view, which is call gravity and try to paste it in now. now lets go back to the other view and get rid of them from there. hopefully they are still working on it. we are going to have them reorganized a little bit. what about the one about gravity and the moon, should they stay here or move to another view? anyone has any notes with gravity as title so many notes and ideas, lets find a main question, what is the main question that

[Z-J-10/27] Oct. 27 There wasn't too much for the children to say when I told them we wouldn't be using annotations any more, as the older children don't. I checked and everyone respected this request as they made their notes today. Children are still quite rowdy on the computers, hopping up and down, playing with the function keys.

mae's question the moon has very little oxygen, this is another good question after the moon has its cycle, I am abit concern about these notes, they are not about cycle, they are about planets, should we move to another view, we should safe them for later, is it planet, planet is not really in our umbrella of cycle, the moon sets at different time of the day,..these are interesting notes, i hope some of you will build on here are some on oxygen, another cycle is season, I wonder why different part of the world has different season then canada. this is a great questions

[Z-C-10/30] Oct 30th today just for the short time we have, i am going to spend 10 mins on a problem of understanding that is interesting to you. I want you to talk about something on the cycle view, put up your hand if you have an idea well, cycle is our main focus so lets try with it - people talking about planet silly and inappropriate thing. - too much going on in the cycle view - I am just thinking, sometime people add on to something and it is unrelated, because they don’t know how to make a new note ask yourself if this is to be a new note or an add-on - I want to say how do you go to another view - you go to welcome lots of way to travel between views - click 'back' - background

I heard somebody says what is a rise-above, can you tell us what is it, not even fully, then someone to build on -they are all on one topic and all the notes are on that topic, and it is one note, -it looks like a file on the screen, you clic on it and a whole bunch of note will be seen -kinda like, it is bigger then all other notes, there are 20 notes in there and i think it is a good way instead of making more notes for the view, you can put notes onto there. - name of the rise-above must tell something about the topic, something about the rise-above - can you put a note on a ris e above that you just made absolutely the rise above will have a whole bunch of note, we are going to pull them together, see what we understand , then you can build on to the rise above and also at another point, you can put more notes onto it, maybe we have 10 notes, then we have more notes, then we can put it in. - instead of making more views, we can create more rise-above

the thing you are thinking about is on culture. -do you have an idea how you might organize this. what kind of work are we going to do in all these views who has some idea - there could be one for ancient culture what I am going to do now is to open a note to put your ideas in, - we should have a view on north America, South Ameria, Australia, Europe and Asia, and one for others, ok, I will put in continents plus others - discussion on what views. it is not a problem, it is what you decide. - I want to do spanish - history of the world - like history of the world - why don’t we make a bunch of rise above so we have more space

good idea - each notes should have its own rise-above there is a lot of rise-above - pictures on the views and rise-above pictures on the view, you think it might make the view easier I think our main question is do we want to start wiht one view then move to diff views or we start with different view for diff culture? chanting no that is not the way we decide, i want you to think about it. voting we are going to start with one view

Z-C-11/02 Nov 2 - Nov 6 mving moon by rae m [2 nov] why does the earth move rain by katya b [ nov 2] wher dos it rain the most. Different colours of the moon by ad. I [nov 2] its not because it turns diffrent colours the sun by katlie I [2006 Nov 02] the sun started to shine 4 and a half billion years ago before there was nothing but gas and dust

UN SUN by rae m [nov 6] I Think ThEY Mean Sum The Sun by rae m [nov 6] somtims it is incloded as a plant slow by rae m [nov 6] I think it moves slowly the sun and dust by mia s [nov 6] cause the sun is a star and the big bang was made out of dust so that made stars and planets and the sun which is a star UN by ad I [Nov 6] what is the UN urnis by ts s [nov 6] it pronounced urnis

the moon and trees by mia s [nov 9] no ther's no oxygen on the moon so the trees can't stay alive birds and gravity mia s [nov 9] it does hold birds down when their on the ground walking and the have wings so they can fly but gravity still holds them down shield by sam s [nov 9] my dad once told me that had figuerd out that theres a sort of shield around the world that allows us to have air whith out it escaping the planet earth that is probably why there is no oxegyen on other planets 1 year ago their was a whole in the shield and scients said they would try to patch it and they did. The Moon by jonah [nov 9] Because the moon reflects light off it

[Z-J-11/02] Nov. 2 Today we sat together and looked at the Cycles view to identify as many problems of understanding as they could. Each child wrote his or her problems on a file card and I'll hang these on the board. Next week for homework I'll ask the children to pick the problem they are most interestesd in and find out more from: - parents - family friends, relatives (maybe someone can come in and talk to the class - magazines, newspapers - own library, Public Library - tv, video - Internet

Z-C-11/09 (Knowledge Forum notes) Nov 9 - Dec 14 Smelly chees2 g p. I bet they did, but probably a diferent kind. GRAVITY, alexandra b. gravity is what holeds you to the grond and makes you fall moon or sun maeve l [ why do we have a moon or sun? Cirius sophia j. [1 Dec] Why is Cirius called "The dog star"? blow up alexandra b, 2006, dec 04 (11:45:52) the earth is not going to blow up intell long after we are dead gravity, alexandra b, dec 04 (11:43:58) My theory is gravity is something that doese'nt come from eny thing China, 2006, dec 04 (11:52:18), k l. My theory In China there is a Great wall called the great wall of china it is really high,It's for wars so nowone can get into the city ,An kill people , moon by maeve L [Dec 1] maybe it's because the Earth stops in the middle of the night?

Z-M-11/03 Zahra - Also, the measure in

ATK that shows the kids is working across all the views. Would that be symmetric as well, that everybody is working on the same things (all the views) not just on theirs.

Zahra – we are getting it, they

want to learn how to make rise above, the idea of what helps them to ..all those things seem ok …not just the epiphany part, we are experimenting , where are we now, so we keep going, it is the time where it comes together and then move forward again.

Nov. 6 - 10 by Zahra d. [2006, Nov 12] Activity Nov. 6 Z-J-11/06 Everyone had a turn on the database today. They also read readings about gravity and how the earth never stops moving. attachment Notes read today attachment Contributions today

Z-C-11/06 KB talk with projector - coherence in view Gr 3, we are going to start now our KB talk, and what I thought we could do today is some work that is really really important in the KB community. I need you to go back to your seat, and the work I am thinking about today is call bringing coherence to the view and what coherence means is to try to make the view easler for people to understand. For you to understand and for people to have a look, so when I look at the view I know it is about cycle. but when I look at the view it self, what do you think, do you have any idea what the view is about.(T~R) s - ya (chorus) t- you probably have some idea t - well, probably you have some idea, of course you know what the view is about, i hope you do. but there are ways taht we can organize it so it is easier for you to navigate your way around and we also, when people come and look at our view, they can say, oh thisis about that, and they can navigate their way around. think about the way you did last year that would bring some coherence to our view. adam? adam : we move all the notes about something to one corner and (and make a picture) t - and how would it connect it? in what way s- just that, just a small part that is all connected. you mean they are all build on to each other. Any other things you did. t : you mean they are all build on? (tes). any other thing.

Nov. 9 N-J-11/09 The children had turns on the database today. There was no time for a KB Talk because of the Remembrance Day Assembly.

s: we make all the things into one note and you are open it and read all t: ya,making a rise above is the way to bring coherece to a view. that you are bringing all the notes together, you are rising above, you are figuring out what all these notes are about. s: we put pictures of whales and above that we put picture of rat. then we choose the notes to put that t : we could put pictures on the view to make it more coherence. good, any other things? ok, I have one we did last years, we put labels, instead of putting picture we put words. but first we move all the notes around. All the notes about gravity in one place, and then after we did that moving around we do rise above that trevor is talking about. s: i need to ask a questions, it said view cycle, why, how are we going to use the writings, they are writing about moon and stuff. t: oh, we started talking about moon faces then we sort of got onto some other thing. ok, here's another ideas, sometime if we go on to other topics, we could make new views. so if we find out that we are writing about gravity, do you think gravity is connected to cycle...pause..'no', 'yes'. because if you thought that it didnt. we could make a new view called gravity , we could move al notes on gravity to another view, called gravity. so there are different things you can do so that all the notes on the view are related.

s: why can't we call the view, the world view? t: because our view is about cycle. the topic is too big, the world. but we can make other views, k. we can move the notes out of here if we don’t think they are about cycles. last year we could talk about an umbrella and we would say that questions that we were talking about must be under the umbrella. we would decide if gravity is in our umbrella then we put it here because they connects to each other. so maybe we decide gravity is in the umbrella because it relates, or we might want to have a different view for gravity. are there other things that you think can bring coherence to the view. s: any other ideas? before we start doing something. ok, t: there are notes that you write that are about different cycles, maybe we can out all those notes together. t: ok, do you think we can start to move the notes around and put the notes that are the same into the same section of the view, would that be ok with everybody, it is important that all member agrees. I am not going to go home at night, and say oh my note is moved and I don't even know it. I will not move things around the view without your permission. because it is not my view. it belongs to our community and so we need to make those decisions together.

[Z-M-01/12] 12 Jan Zahra: we are continuing on our view on cycle and planets and then we started off with this 'culture of the world' view. and just before the holiday we split off into views about continents, cause it is getting too crowded, and now we have asian, north america, europe. And we have Kabir who loves the globe and ...the atlas and things like that, and so now we split off and then they just went on it one time this week, because we try to finish up other things and we are getting ready to go to towingo, we haven't done tones this week, but the kids still seemed to have some enthusiasm for it all. so we will see. I am not married to staying with this, but if they are into, we will, if not, we will move. In a couple of weeks we will see where the energy is, but for now, they are happy yo get back to it and eager to get back to where they were before.

[Z-J-01/21] by Zahra d. 2007, Jan 21 Z-J-01/21-01 Trevor, Sarah, Lenny and Antigone - no notes in week and a half before we went to Tawingo - had three turns on KF. Lenny could have missed his turn while with Judith. I should keep track of that. L02 Antigone and Sarah read the most and second most number of notes by far. Lenny had only 5 kids read less than him; Trevor 3. These two I need to keep an eye on. Need to encourage Antigone and Sarah to write! L03 Interest seems to have waned in the Cycles, Gravity and Planets views. I'd like to do some work making rise aboves and bringing coherence to those views. Maybe I can do that in 1/4 grroups this Thursday. (C/S~R) Z-J-01/21-02 L04 There is great interest in Cultures -- might have the children do some research on a country they're interested in and find out about food, houses, education, weather, clothing, holidays etc. Karen and I plan to work together to teach jot noting; this might be a good time.

S: what if it is covering someone else’s' note T: we can move those down too. S: how do we exactly do that T: I will show you. S: I have special power and I can do something that you can't do. I can move everybody's notes and on that computer a lot of you can to. But you are not allowed t move somebody else note but your cannot. If you agree I will move it and we will reorganize the view a little bit. t: one thin I did over the weekend there is a lot of notes that is really far away from their build on, so I move them closer, these are the lone notes and should not have things around them. They should be clear and they should be ..With other string of notes to connect them close to the root note, that one here (pointing to the screen). T: so lets have a look up here guys. Lets see, what is up here on the top, it is the moon cycle, we have a build-on and we move them. What do you think you can do when I get the laptop? Don’t move, stay right where you are. Zahra's instruction to students: Go on KF and there is still a few notes on cheese string that are silly. I will be coming around to talk to a few of your on the notes you have, some notes can turn into annotation so we don't take up space. And some notes, we want to get our KF on track; we want to resolve our problems now.

Z-J-01/21-03 Also some interesting threads on why countries have wars and a thread of environmental concerns -- global warming, why people kill animals, pollution, and conservation. We might go somewhere with this too. Need to switch over our Inquiry Reading book collection to countries and the environment.

Z-C-11/15 (Knowledge Forum note) Cheese conversation [15 Oct. - 2 Nov.] Cheese 4 by john k [nov2] That’s reite (right), Lenny the moon is cheese No by Sam m [25 oct] No it is not cheese john not cheese by kaylie I [oct 6] the moon is not cheese moon cheese by Maeve I [23 oct] the moon is not cheese it is a star the moon is not cheese! by k.I [nov 2] The moon is not made out of cheese it is made out of rock. those dots on the moon are not cheese holes they are moon holes cheese 2 by john k [oct 5] the moon is cheese not made of cheese by alexandra b. [oct 26] the moon is not made of cheese the moon is not made out of cheese by mia s [ oct 5] The moon is not made out of cheese and I don't like cheese like rae said oops about cheese by mia s [oct 12] I didn’t understand your note I thought you said it is cheese

Z-J-02/04 Research ideas by Zahra d. [2007, Feb 04] Identify about six children who are not participating fully in some way: - Not writing many notes in relation to others - Not reading many notes in relation to others - Not building on - Isolated in terms of the social network - Not showing growth in writing - 2 measures - Not showing growth in use of domain vocabulary Could do principles survey with them before and after Could also interview them to find out their attitudes toward KB, some of the barriers that might be getting in their way How many of them are fairly new to KB? Is there a difference between children who have a stronger sense of the principles -- doing they produce/participate more? Or is it kids who have LD designation who have trouble?

Z-J-01/26-01 Attachment contributions Nov. 1-Jan. 26 This graph indicates that Sarah, Antigone, Eric, John, Katya, Lenny, Jack and Trevor have made 15 notes or less during this time period. Everyone else has written 18 - 60 notes. (T~R, SI~R)

Z-J-01/26-02 Attachment notes read Nov. 1- Jan. 26.png This graph indicates that Trevor, Lenny, Jack, Eric, John have also read fewer notes than others - 150 or less; everyone else is 200 - about 475. Kabir, Briana, Maeve have also read fewer notes than others; their reading was not in the bottom 8.

Z-J-01/26 - 03 Attachment Build Ons Nov. 1 - Jan. 26.png This graph indicates that Katya, Antigone, Eric, Sarah, Lenny, Jack build on less than 14 children in the class. - 8 notes or less (others had written 9-50 build on notes). Sam and Kaitlin were not among the bottom 8 for reading and contributions but are among the bottom 8 for build ones. Children to target: Trevor (not on build on list but in lower half of class) Lenny - all three Jack - all three Eric - all three John - (not on build on list but just out of the bottom 8) Katya - low on contributions and build ones; reading a little better Antigone - low on contributions and build ones; reading a little better Sarah - low on contributions and build ones; reading a little better

Z-J-01/26 - 04 Attachment SNA Read - Nov. 1-Jan. 26.png This graph for reading, set at a threshold of 35, indicates that Nine children are not as involved in the social network in terms of reading note and having their notes read by others: (Briana), (Carmen), Eric, Jack, (Jonah), John, Katya, Sam and Trevor. Children in brackets were not highlighted on the graphs above. (T~R; SI~R) Attachment SNA Build Ons - Nov. 1 - Jan. 26.png

Z-J-01/26 – 05 This graph shows build on connections at a threshold of 3. Children who have build on connections with one or no classmates are Trevor, Lenny, (Brody), Jack, Sarah, Antigone, John and Eric.

Z-J-01/26 – 06 Vocab Growth Eric, Jack, Katya, Sarah, Antigone, John, Trevor, Brody, Lenny had the lowest measures of vocabulary growth. Writing attachment Writing - Sarah, Eric, Jack.png Attachment Writing - Antigone, John.png Attachment Writing - Katya.pngattachment Writing - Lenny, Trevor.png

Z-J-01/26 – 07 These graphs show the children's writing activity and diversity. Each graph has different values along the y-axis depending on the child's productivity so it is difficult to compare children. I didn't try to find the 8 least productive children; rather, I created graphs for the 8 children identified from the previous measures. Hopefully it will be possible to compare their writing activity and diversity to these graphs after the interventions.

Z-J-02/02 Themes in notes by Zahra d. (2007, Feb 02) Cultures view - notes about why there are wars lead to questions about the Underground Railroad Africa view - question about why we have more money in Canada than they have in Africa Also a big build on tree in Africa view that touches on many issues - Why people kill animals - Substances in the oceans that kill animals - Pollution - Energy conservation - Species becoming extinct Attachment Africa view Feb. 2.png

Z-J-02/05 Attachment Notes Read Feb. 5.png Range from 4 - 53 Attachment SNA Feb. 5.png This SNA graph set at 3 shows that everyone is connected in some way with others. Lenny, Trevor, John and Katya are the only ones who have no build on links. I may need to be more explicit about the importance of reading others' notes and trying to improve their ideas by building onto them. I'll run vocab and writing growth after our second session.

Z-M-02/02-01 N - just I have a few thoughts while you were talking, one is that gift of authoritative sources, and new information, I think that we just an experience, with grade two, when Karen, its that we have that spinning, we have that question, give them theory, we only have that much experience, we are going to give them again, then Karen started to do the library research in small group, where they took more personal question and went and got information. It was one of those teaching days when I have nothing to plan, I guess we will look into the database, CL sets it up for us, and something happened where somebody said something ad I asked the kids about their research, the new level of energy is incredible, to get these information from authoritative sources into the room, I felt that our whole study is rejuvenated, I just wonder whether part of that is not just, oh you are a great teacher, it was not just information that come out of our own head and experience that gives life to your inquiry and questions and all that. I just have a lot of that in my mind and the role of authoritative sources and how great it can be.

Z-J-02/08 Research - Day 1by Zahra d. (2007, Feb 08) Attachment Note Contrib. Feb. 5 .png Range of notes 1-9 John - 0 - read 16 Trevor - 0 - read 8 Antigone - 1 - build on - read 7 Eric - 1 - build on - read 24 Jack - 1- build on - read 10 Sarah - 2 - both build ons - read 28 Katya - 2 - read 21 Lenny - 2 - read 21 Next session - pay attention to how these children are spending their time on KF. Are they talking/off task/out of their seat? Part way through the session, ask them if they have made a note and if they haven't, ask why. See what the barriers might be for them, especially for John and Trevor (who also read less than others). Maybe they would do better sitting on their own using a laptop? Antigone also read quite a bit less than others. I think hers might be a focusing issue.

Z-M-02/02-02 Z - I agree with you because sometimes, you see all the database and I am not introducing enough from outside, and I feel that things are moving along, it is just that in in, we are not expanding, or kids would be pickering, like we got kids who write 'it snowed in Australia', you go 'please, could you read it up', (laugh) and he wrote, my dad make jacket for Australia ski team and maybe they are practicing somewhere else. I mean we don't know. But that kind of ...just need to rant out more often. Z-M-02/02-03 Z- you know it is important, something you did that I think I need to do more, but it is so hard, is to take the time to step back and not just be looking at the day to day basis (CS&C~R), but try to look at the whole, how is it going, what do I need to do, it is so hard to find the time to really reflect, to go beyond the reflecting, and actually doing something, and oh we are not doing enough of authoritative sources, The kids questions aren’t that good.

Z-J-04/04 - 01 [2007, Apr 04] Today we started an inquiry about sound. We had a KB Talk on Monday where children could raise any problems of understanding or theories they have about sound. They talked about musical instruments (drums, strings, the hole in the guitar) and how sounds can change, echoes, why a gun makes a loud sound. Children used vocabulary like vibrate, muffle and amplify. Today I asked the children to put some of those ideas onto the database and any theories, problems of understanding or information into their notes. I encouraged them to use scaffolds. Attachment Notes Created April 4.png

Z-J-04/04 - 02 This graph shows that everyone but Eric made at least one note. (Mia was absent.) It took Eric a long time to log on and he was pretty unfocussed by the time we got him on. Jack came late. Trevor and Brody interrupted me to ask if they could go to Judith to use speech to text. Attachment Notes Read April 4.png

Z-J-04/04 – 03 The children went on in two groups. I asked the second group, especially, to read all of the notes before they went on. Differences in reading rates may be due to the fact that some were in the first group and didn't have a chance to read the other group's notes. I'd like to really stress reading in hopes that the children won't repeat problems of understanding and notes as much. Attachment SNA Read.png This graph is set at a threshold of 3.

Z-J-04/16 - 01 Zahra d. [2007, Apr 16] Rae and Mia were absent. Eric, Brody and Lenny didn't make any notes. I need to intervene with Eric -- I think working alone would be best for him. Lenny too is not very focused during his time on KF. Wrote one note - Carmen, Katya, John, Kylie and Sarah. Maybe they were doing a lot of reading? Kylie and John - 2 revisions Carmen, Katya, Sarah - one revision each Brody, Eric, Lenny - no revisions

Z-J-04/16 – 02 Trevor made 6 notes on speech to text! Jonah is down as having read 90 notes, but he was observed lassoing large groups of notes and opening them up that way. This certainly reaffirms to me that we don't want kids to have access to the tools! Sam did not read a single note! Hoe can that be? Katya read two notes; everyone else was 9 or over. I do need to give Katya some support with the reading. Everyone had a turn on KF today. This afternoon we had a KB Talk where I asked kids for strategies to help kids in the areas that they feel are hard for them. I'll add the ideas at another time.

Z-J-04/26 Tools by Zahra d. [2007, Apr 26] Attachment Notes Read Apr. 1-22.pngattachment Contributions Apr. 1-26.png-

Appendix D-1 Weekly meeting on 18th May 2007

Column 1 denotes the line number and initial of teacher contributing that segment in the meeting. Column 2 denotes the groups according to the number of years of Knowledge Building experience: (I) <2 years of knowledge building experience (ii) 2-5 years of knowledge building experience (iii) 5+ years of knowledge building experience Column 3 denotes the coded problem space and its perspective (Centrist/ Relational) (Refer section 6.2: How do we encourage meaningful participation in a KB Talk?) Line, Initial of teacher

Gp Codes

L1 K:

<2 How do I know what or which question to start off so my students are interested in what they are doing and that it would lead me to the content I intended?

C/S~R

L2 R - 5+ For the work on light, I am not asking them to create a tension, or to create a crisis

but if anything, maybe this need to be sort of collecting data to monitor what we see, and then if something come up then it becomes the question, there isn’t a fixed way to do it.

SC~C

L3 N - 2-5 I am thinking of my class inquiry on rat, it (the rat) is right there in our classroom;

there is a constant connection. I am just thinking about the kids’ question. So I think I choose a problem not just because they are interested but it’s also because everyone else is doing it.

C/S~C

L4 R – 5+ It (question) is not absolutely on their own, it could be later, that is later, so I just get

them to continue to collect observation. SC~R

L5 N – 2-5 My kids have this question, about why the rat is not drinking from the silver

container…but then the kids have theory, “it is not warm enough”, “I don’t think they like the silver. It is because they are bright”…. so they have some interesting, and they went to Karen to do research on internet, one person found out about the pee tray, it is shallow on one end and so on, so I went to the hardware store and find out about rat and water and we had a conversation, in the conversation we have, Trevor said’ “I think we should try it out” and Alex say, I think. And this afternoon we tried it out. So but they have interesting theory

C/S~R

L6 - Guest I would be wondering the role of teacher as a KB teacher, the perspective of how much the teacher would be involve in determining the curriculum, what might be an ideal, teacher guiding student in inquiry of content knowledge

L7 N - 2-5 It is funny, I feel my question is not entirely about content, (but) the inquiry, the

other I thought should I shape it more so they are learning life cycle, so on. I didn’t think I focused on content. I have not been anxious about the content at all, I haven’t even think about what they are going to do next, I just build up the room with books on rat, they have been thinking on their own, they have gone on internet, I have not been worried about content, but the places, introduction and doing research an the database, I am just wondering are there some other questions I should be asking them, some questions as a way to direct what they find out. But for the question on the role of the teacher. I am not sure exactly if I should…should these be the only avenues I am providing or are there other avenue I should be giving them. Should I say now it is a project or… we should…. but certainly I have been the one and the

C/S~R

kids are not coming to me and say, we should talk abut XYZ.’ I have been picking on what the kids are doing and offering these conversations.

L8 N – 2-5 Do you have thoughts about it, just when the kids have been in the database for a

long time, and there were lots of note on the topic, and then there is a feeling that we have … should we just send keep them on the database

CS&C~C

L9 Z 5+ Sometimes I think the kids’ interest starts to wane …or maybe it is not, maybe it is

time to do a Rise-above, to create a Knowledge advance patch to bring the knowledge, here is something you are still wondering about, maybe some kind of, some sorting, something I do it with small group if they (the rest if the class) can tolerate not being there, it is difficult with whole class, some kids when they are not there, and some things are being done when they are not there these are being done, it is hard..

CS&C~R

L10. C-

5+ What is your thought about using KF on this?

L11. N –

2-5 I was saying before that I thought it would be a short thing, I know they are very motivated, my feeling is that the rat that arrives in our classroom, the kids will be motivated, basically I said, find out more about it and lets put it on KF and we can look at it.

SC~C

L12. C –

5+ It is a place to gather their thoughts, it sounded to me that they would be responding to it in a different way from gathering, investigating, maybe by having the kids to come up with the categories, it sounds like you weren’t using it for the big question, you were using it for something else.

C/S~R; CS&C~R

L13 N –

2-5 Yes, Kind of. Today we have no laptop (no connection) because of the storm, so a few kids got a few notes written, I got them to list the topic in which they see and I am thinking to ask them to see the question they are most interested in, and maybe do a rise above

C/S~C

L14. Z-

5+ Yes, like Chloe say – sorting

L15. R –

5+ Maybe some sorting, categories, then use it for plants later

L16 N –

2-5 Maybe they can find some interesting question

L17 E –

<2 Are these three samples that you show, are they our classes, or any classes? What I was thinking is that the class is characterize as doing something more then knowledge construction, such that I could imagine, the reason I am asking is, if we were to make s a case, the university president, was saying ‘what is the evidence base for the impact of the lab school that the experience of the child here makes a difference. What you said is very timely, but at the same time it says to me, should we, what we all are, who are so same-minded, knowledge creation is of such high value, we would look at the collaborative – distributed contribution, collective contribution, so we have the evidence that that something is and we say that is evidence of something, but do we have the evidence that that something.

L18 N –

2-5 I just read a book – national research on learning – about our learning, about the newest rule of learning, they talked about the new age where it cannot be just about

C/S~R

content anymore, it is not the skill we need, the content is there, internet is huge, it is these other skills that are becoming different, and all these kind of skill, these are what we measure them…linking it to what we do here, it is not just content anymore, when we say, I thought huh, this is what we do. What we do to make it clear, it does not just know facts any more.

L19 C- 5+ I think just based on what you showed us, the web in conjunction with the portfolio –

is extremely dramatic – the opportunistic model has brought the children to something that they did not get in the other two model, never thought they would.

CS&C~R

L20 Z –

5+ I am also thinking hearing the way the children talk –reading the transcript that shows the children in meaningful talk – that is not about content but about how do you listen, how do their idea grow – I think something else we do, it worth letting David…. know, you might forget the content of the talk but it is the way they are engaged (in the talk).

CI~R

L21C- 5+ When I talked about the science – can they hear what the other children is talking

about, can they hear other people ideas, modify their thoughts, it is about the new information, can they hear other people’s idea,

L22 N –

2-5 Can they take a piece and let them form their thinking, the input to their thinking. 21st century skill – teamwork – leadership, creative problem solving, risk taking, these kind of tool n a way can help elaborate team working skill, leadership and risk taking, when children initiate inquiry rather then children

SC~R

L23 5+ In such interesting way, the way Howard Gardner talked about social aspect, the

simplicity of the knowledge, the ethics …the opportunistic model is bringing it together.

C/S~R

L24 5+ We need to get a way of assessment that talk about how we measure what we should.

The three-year study. Now, we just can’t accept that people would say, well, why would that be different.

Appendix D-2 Weekly meeting on 3rd Nov 2006

Column 1 denotes the line number and initial of teacher contributing that segment in the meeting. Column 2 denotes the groups according to the number of years of Knowledge Building experience: (I) <2 years of knowledge building experience (ii) 2-5 years of knowledge building experience (iii) 5+ years of knowledge building experience Column 3 denotes the coded problem space and its perspective (Centrist/ Relational) (Refer section 6.3: How do we know if a Knowledge Building principle is coming alive) Line, Initial of teacher

Gp Codes

L1-N <2 Symmetric knowledge advancement. Do you feel we are doing that; this to me is that you don’t keep in your view, in your class, which is the challenge

L2-E <2 Where are Oksana’s class when we need them L3-Z 5+ It does say within and in between, in your class as well, not as beyond the class L4-C 5+ Not so much to do with school, something you see that you for e.g. talking to

medical team, people understanding, to step out of there community get really important information, before it is isolated unit and now it is informing as a whole.

L5-A <2 And you kid is out in the larger world, not just in your community. SI~R

L6-R 5+ This is the one when Rick interviews us; it is always identified as troubling to us. L7-Z 5+ Do you know anybody make that comes alive and how do they do that L8-R 5 You are right that it is beyond the wall of the classroom; this is the one that

people talks about. The research will talk about symmetric knowledge advancement as teacher candidate learning how to teach and the children learning at the same time.

L9-R 5+ The line here that says, Co-construction of use, across teams, like using the

medical community, rather then having a team specific view, like what happens in our classroom. I am thinking for example, a view on pain, like what does pain means etc., all member s of the medical community are working together towards that, another approach could have been to have talked very specifically, people working in isolation in a way. For us, it is where we are more concern with how to structure database that causes children to work deeply but yet always contribute to knowledge advancement that everyone is, coming back to, working towards it, the bigger question. This idea of across teams, we don’t have children working in groups.

L10-N 2-5 We do this in these meetings. We each are a little team, with our intern in our

classroom and we have knowledge advancement in a team through the exchange. Would that be an example? Not so much for kids in a classroom, but it happens right here

SI~R

L11-Z 5+ Also, the measure in ATK that shows the kids is working across all the views. Would that be symmetric as well, that everybody is working on the same things (all the views) not just on theirs.

T~R

L12 Guest Its good to also see them in pair, to think about which one goes with which one.

The idea of community and Collective responsibility, related to whether they are working on one view vs. when they are struggling on all the view. They are trying to be a community member.

SI~R

L13-E <2 One of these, which is different, rise above, to me, rise above is a different

creature then some of these other principle, because it seems to suggest a technique, or a way we of applying these principles together, I always thought to include this as part of the KB principles, I may be flawed in my thinking, my own mind that it’s the way we apply the.

L14-N 2-5 Rise above is not just techniques, higher-level formulation. Maybe we are using

one term for different thing. The principle behind it is that idea behind it is that let idea exist in certain messy state

T~R

L15-E <2 And that would be different from improvable ideas? L16-R 5+ Rise above talks about ideas that appear to be contrasting and diverse, we don’t

just talk about like notes but opposing theory with supporting evidence. Forces you to expand and think about how an idea expands. E.g. we have evidence to support both theories of light, it is not able which is right but how do we bring the two theories of light together.

CS~R

L17-C 5+ Rise above is not something that is commonly used for young children. I always

thought it is that that point where the idea came to a point where it’s always that an epiphany, certain thing has come together that allows you to move to the next step.

C/S~R

L18-N 2-5 It almost feel to me that you are looking at one field and move up 100m and see

many fields together, that jump, not just you see a nicer field, a nicer flower but that another layer of understanding

L19-R Guest Tendency of kids feeling frustrated with their notes consumed into another notes,

really does differs between grades, a rise above would change the demography of the note

L20-N 2-5 It says in the article, adapting to change, in an expert KB team, it’s that adopting

to a new way of looking at things, to keep raising the bar – to keep having a new way to look at it.

L21 Guest Rise above also for cleaning up, e.g. Zahra has active and messy views and they

can use it as a way to clean up the views. Also, the need of having the kids name as co-author in rise above, and then they are quite ok with it. …. We are trying to teach the kids that this is how.

L22-Z 5+ We are getting it, they want to learn how to make rise above, and the idea of what

helps them to. All those things seem ok …not just the epiphany part, we are experimenting, where are we now, so we keep going, it is the time where it comes together and then move forward again.

L23-R Guest Refer to Nancy’s point, Where is idea improvement? Idea diversity, more and

more ideas, so where is it going, it gets to a point where it needs to cut back, the cut back could be moving notes to a new space, there is something rise above then just moving notes to a new space.

L24-C 5+ I was going to talk about a developmental piece. The first two points that talk

about idea as artifact, for a young child, they are not really to appreciate it as a artifact, when the idea go, they don’t see it as an artifact, the class is not going to hold the idea that their idea is a ball of clay has to be said explicitly to them over and over again.

SI~R

L25-R So at this point, the rise above, the note – (it is sinking in) – (laugh) – it has not

been really successful up till now.

L26 5+ Something that we liked to think about, because we talked about child

development as corner stone of our philosophy and how we do things here – how do we map child development onto these principals, we talked about how to create environment for KB discourse to happen, to allow the kind of work to happen on KF – all that is about, kids in SK, JK may or may not be using KF but they are certainly working in an environment that allow that kind of talk to be meaningful and valuable to such work, and that would be valuable in any grades and any classroom.

SI~R

L27-C <2 The year you were trying to capture the conversation that you were trying to help

the children to, off the database, to identify what was important, what they wanted to inquire? You were trying to sum up for them and get that– that count as a developmental appropriate way to help the children to learn how to do that and also the value of how the ideas could be maintained, that the idea can be maintained, there are a lots of diff ways, many ways might not be inconsistent with what our philosophy in our school but might not be the traditional way in

SI~C

L28-E 2-5 Something I find, the way this happen, you are getting your members to adapt

ideas – ‘ok, I am going to be a little flexible and …but we are all going to get to the same point, some of what we did, there have been major adaptation, it just doesn’t look like what it is like – I often say that the idea here and the technology there has not catch up with what the children is able to do. I remembered a class, that there were members who were responsible for certain ideas,

T~R

L29-Cl 5+ They pull out things that were important for all to know L30-C 2-5 A year or two ago, I spend sometime in my COI – but I just sat with each

principals and how I felt nursery kids could do…I just went how this principles work with nursery and what is development not possible

L31-N 5+ When is it that majority of the children say ‘I liked your idea and I am going to

take that idea as our idea’ when is it happening, I know it is in grade 4 – we do rise above- but at what age does the transition happen, it happen because they have all these training earlier year – I don’t know if children, without the training, would be able to look at idea that way.

CS&C~R

L32-R <2 We have an argument about light – someone said actually now I have changed

my mind, I am going too go with Sergei idea – sounds like that there is a sense that there is an idea

L33-A 5+ Maybe an idea should not be

L34-R 2-5 Someone said ‘ so and so, I reject your idea’, I was going to say, there is a nicer way to say, maybe ‘I have a better understanding’’

L35-N 5+ Very rarely, the children we taught is able to hear other idea, last year, we have a

kids who could convince the rest of the kids, but more often you get the kids holding on to their idea. The kids in the class would not agree ‘ beaver eat fish’ – he is going to say that right now too.

SC~C

L36-C 5+ Authoritative sources L37-Z 5+ I did, I got her a book and brought it back to read, it is really difficult L38-C <2 Is there something we could do to get it happen earlier then do it naturally L39-E 5+ Using modeling word like ‘maybe’ (modeling as a structure to influence

behavior) CS&C~R

L40-C 5+ Do children at SK know that children have different idea – L41-R 5+ They do get that children have different idea L42-C 5+ My next question is, when do they care about others idea? SC~R L43-R 2-5 There is definitely more emotional attachment to ideas – they hold on to

something I do, I talked about the story when I was a little girl, they want to hear the story again because there is an emotional attachment to the idea – it is not like ‘oh, I am going to go with that… they really want hard and fast proof, we really have to do the experiment. Two yeas ago, we had a problem on shovel – there is a conversation on KF, but that is because we already did the question, we took the picture and put on KF, they had the idea of what they want to do, they were great in this case, there was a discourse, but no answer – because we went on, the snow melted and we got it out…the emotional attachment to that is that we all playing on the playground, this is what we have been working on together

SC~C

L44-Cl 5+ The more immediate and more relevant to their life, the more detached they are to

their idea, when we talked about rock – it was really about how do we get there, we are really getting to the idea – someone came up with an idea and they say ‘yah!’

SC~R

L45-C 2-5 So, if they have been discussing it in an abstract way then it may not be so… L46-N <2 Is there understanding of idea and what someone else idea is, somehow related to

the authentic issue, about the child own life, what the person is going to say is because of the impact on their.

L47-E 5+ The other thing is, when do children accept that–hmm. In the rise above talks

about rising above trivial things, difference, when do they recognize that taking on, working on someone else better theory is not the failure? I think our children is more tuned to this then other adult because they have been used to that because of our work on write the theory – an archive of the process

L48-R 5+ Knowing, or treating that theory is improvable L49-Z 2-5 It is kinds of funny, in our school – our kids are the one that say ‘ our idea is

wrong’, it is kind of reverse, it is weird that we actually celebrate that kind of thinking

L50-N 5+ I am thinking if a child who is new to this environment is ok with the idea of

having this misconception out there in the open, by themselves or others?

L51-Z <2 There were four boys, angry with each other – they couldn’t let it go, one of them

were still thinking about the concept of accepting that, if in KF they could do it, how does it translate to their life outside

L52-B 5+ My kids can’t do it; they have a hard time understanding it. L53-Z 5+ It is interesting that they are able to do it better on KF L54-Z 5+ We did have a conversation that the kids were trying to change their note, and we

say, oh no, why don’t you just add on to it. A lot of us, as adult, would not want our misconception to be out there, I think that is taught and not developmental

L55-C Guest I think so, that is being taught, the idea improvement. Also we make it explicit on

how to talk in these KB talk – it is always taught to be kind to each others idea, Oksana would say that she is teaching democratizing knowledge, she uses different principle, very explicit.

L56 <2 When you first get to Rose, what did Oksana do L57-E Guest She does a lot of direct teaching on it, she talked a lot during the early

conversation, about ideas, a lot about …provide culturally sensitive about the principles, the change at rose is dramatic – the kids are just different from the rest of the school. There is a lot of change in the culture around the grades that is doing this; she does a lot of direct teaching, direct mapping and modeling that shapes the conversation. Her ‘cross talk’ – building on. Using the language of the database – building on, taking turn, waiting

L58-R 5+ It is like that here too, but we think it is naturally, about direct teaching, we say

we work constructivist approach, the children has a question and follow through in their inquiry. I do teach a lot of direct teaching about the process, I think of Maria with the hands, somehow with the notes we praise, we do give signal about what we value and what we is it that we do that has children not need us as the teacher in the inquiry but the teacher of the process. Today. We are doing battery, I would be happy with what they come up with, but they are saying why, what is the next level of the question. I think that is natural for children, but somehow, we allow children to do that, we don’t say it is annoying but we encourage and praise that, I don’t know if I teach this group about that. We think it is the next step, it is the process. It is interesting to know what is the direct teaching about KB

L59-R <2 I have a technical question, is there a recommended way to do KB talk? The cross

talk by the previous teachers –more of boy-girl, put up your hand, etc., but this year my kids were saying ‘oh no, we just yell off, we just say…

CS&C~C

L60-A 5+ I would do it in a more natural way, the kids can keep building on until we are

exhausted with the thread, we have all sort of problem of kids dominating the conversation, we would talk to kids about giving people a chance

L61-Z <2 I have that problem, it is a debate, and there are someone talking loudly and more

then the rest. L62-A Guest Debate is the antithesis of the KB –discussion or percussion, smacking on the

conversation, it is good to talk to them, well in a debate, someone win, KB discourse is not about taking one good idea that is here and hearing it, it is about listening to other people and working on it, we have done …students. Debating…but that one reason to say that this is not really a KB talks for us. What happened last year were they started to self-check themselves? So and so were not talking and … were talking more

L63 5+ Yes, they were, it was a good indication of democratizing of knowledge, also

where does it fall in the developmental trajectory. I have done discussion like that on novel -. Maybe it is not as …

L64-Z 5+ The talk about the talk is very beneficial - we would do that sometime after the

talk – I was intrigued that Bev were doing the B-G formation, we discovered that that is not necessary – one year someone say – I don’t like to talk bout I do write a lot – maybe a KB talk about the strength,

L65-R

Appendix D-3

Weekly meeting on 23rd February 2007 Column 1 denotes the line number and initial of teacher contributing that segment in the meeting. Column 2 denotes the groups according to the number of years of Knowledge Building experience: (I) <2 years of knowledge building experience (ii) 2-5 years of knowledge building experience (iii) 5+ years of knowledge building experience Column 3 denotes the coded problem space and its perspective (Centrist/ Relational) (Refer to Section 6.4 When and how we should support rise-above?) Line, Initial of teacher

Gp

Codes

L1 Z:

5+ Z -Wasn’t I understand that something you do with the kids, so young, on a big basis. My last year class got big time on rise above, that was because I has them two years and I had a chance to move along with it. By the end of the year they were doing it in small group by themselves, they would say I am going to make a rise above and they would do it. This year’s group is totally latched on to them. And last year, before Christmas we did a lot of work with rise above and in Jan, tidying up the view that we have finished working on. But right now they want to use it right at the beginning of the inquiry, as soon as there is a critical mass about anything, they are in our KB pocket of things to do in KB talk, let do a rise above on our maple syrup, pioneer, or whatever. So, they are using it as a way to keep things under control now, and the view don’t get too crazy, they totally get it that they are not the end, they are totally using it that this is where we are now and using it to build on. Last year, they were saying, no, we can’t build on it, the note is gone, and this is it. This year is totally good with it. They seems to have a lot of patience of doing them, now they asked to do it themselves, which I am not suggesting and so on Monday we are going to try it, the idea is that they have to come to me and we announce to the group so everyone knows not to work on the notes, and we are going to see how it is going, I hope kids are not going to be like ‘you took my notes’. It could it be totally crazy or just totally rise to the occasion.

SC~R

L2-M Guest M - Give me a scenario of what they might want to rise above. L3-Z 5+ I guess it is when they see a lot of notes on a subject, they feel that they have

come to, not to the final understanding, enough there to write a summary note and move on

SC~R

L4-M Guest M - So they are monitoring the view? L5 -Z 5+ Yes,

L6 -R 5+ And restating the question, whatever the questions are. So these rise-aboves are build on – so they have to build on to.

T~R

L7 -Z 5+ Z- The rise above is the root note and everything else is added to the rise above. T~R L8 - M Expert M – I am wondering when students get the sense of the view, not just monitoring

their notes and their ideas, and they have some sense of the ideas of the view.

And you are saying that by grade 3. L9 - Z 5+ I think that they are. It is really neat; they are doing such great work. L10-R 5+ I am teaching a lot of students that were in Anne’s class last year and Anne didn’t

use KF that much. And the history had been that when students left grade 4, some would like to go to Anne’s class. They knew they won’t, they saw KF as another thing and they would study less. So for this year, I have some very bright students who aren’t 100% convinced, but I hear what they say, they have valid points. They would say, why would I want to read five notes that tell me nothing, students saying, I think you are right and I think you are wrong. And because we are working on 4.6 now, one of the views that we started is called the human body; I wasn’t part of that on that day. I have to be honest that when I went there I tried to look at it through some of those students eyes, and I didn’t know why to begin, and the title didn’t give me enough information, and the few notes I did opened weren’t satisfying, so why would I commit to reading this note. And so sort of what you were saying with rise above, what we have been doing is, we have been thinking about ‘what is a KF note?’ ‘What would be a KF question? And today, what we do reciprocal teaching, we are doing human body, students were reading cells and immune system, and normally what I would have done in grade 4, after they done that, someone would have written the new information in the database. Today, we decided not to do that since all are in the classroom, we would share that information, like we get to share what we get from video. We are not trying to be phony about it, so we have the same collective understanding, then out of that sharing comes the new question, e.g. ‘Why, if swelling is because a lot of blood if rushing to the area, are the artery get fatter or on hold waiting for blood to come in.’ That is a great question we can put on the view. We are really being aware of not crowding the view, be careful of the type of question we put up there. That is counter to what I used to love to do, to just put the questions up there, getting the children to put in their theory, kids in old grades get tired of that. Today I found myself saying; when you write down the problem make sure you write down a theory. And a student said, ‘I know a theory, I know it is a guess, it is an educational guess ad I don’t have anything to say now.’ I had to say ‘ok, just write down the problem.’ And people don’t need to add the theory. We are being a little bit careful to make it a little but neater and easier for children to enter. Sort of similar as last year when we spoke about rise above in last year meeting, that was the goal, to try to use it to… so that focus is clear, rather then 500 notes, there are 10 problems, how is that going to fell like, as oppose to when it is looser.

T~R

L11-Z 5+ Easier to navigate L12-C 5+ Maybe deeper then being easier to navigate, that, maybe it is a much more

efficient use of database, people can be more engage in a deeper level. I sound like a more thoughtful…

T~R

L14- C 5+ It also suggest that your class is really thinking about thinking, what is useful to

their thinking and what is not useful to their thinking. SC~R

L15-M Expert Are you saying this is developmental, I am not quite sure, for older grades, just

getting their theory out there is plenty and that there is redundancy, and so forth, I am not quite sure, are you suggesting this is for older grades, or thinking of the view as a whole s what we should be thinking.

L16-C 5+ I would be reluctant, at an early age, to define it like that, children has to be SC~R

engage in the database, the idea that lived in their head and out of their mouth is now living somewhere else.

L19-E <2 The thing that happen today, not about the database, but they are preparing to

share their knowledge, they decide and what they want to work on, based on their interest. Today they had to work on deciding who would say what. One of the group has a major emotional drama, one of the group member who wanted control, the girl and another was going to do it and that was it, I actually felt that those were the challenges they get to have when they need to collaborate, they came back from recess, smiling and all, I though that is the nature of collaboration and that is a really useful part of the process of facing those dilemmas.

SI~R

L20-K 2-5 Does anyone have any Problem of understanding? L21C- 5+ I had a great conversation in my class, we started on Monday, and I am all ready

to sit down and took it down on the chart paper. It was very exciting, the question was, ‘why is it sunny outside and we have to wear snow pants?’ It was a great question, a perfect developmental question. So, Those first conversations we had before the holiday were great, so the very first kid put up the hands, I said, ‘so tell me about the sun’, the sun is here and the earth is here. It looks really close but it is not very close it is far, it is not going to be warm, and it is going to be very far. I put down my marker and we just sat down on the carpet and I said, ‘I think we just need to talk’. The really greatest deep misconception was, they believe it is the sun that is causing [the temperature change]. I promised them that we would get on the KF, but we were having problem with the Internet.

CS~R

Appendix D-4 Weekly meeting on 12th October 2007

Column 1 denotes the line number and initial of teacher contributing that segment in the meeting. Column 2 denotes the groups according to the number of years of Knowledge Building experience: (i) <2 years of knowledge building experience (ii) 2-5 years of knowledge building experience (iii) 5+ years of knowledge building experience Column 3 denotes the coded problem space and its perspective (Centrist/ Relational) (Refer to Section 6.5 What is the best way to manage a Knowledge Forum View?) Line, Initial of teacher

Gp Codes

L1 N:

2-5 Part of what happen, of what is happening in database, it is really chaotic, we are also aware that we are just letting kids go in, not productive, aren’t the kind of notes that really help them to build knowledge, I also know that some of them are new and so I think some of it are innocently like they are not realizing what the goal is, so we have been talking about how next to help them and work on the database, we did talk about using the data projector and just having …how we can get as a whole group, I felt it has to happen as a whole group because they all have to know it. We need to know how to do it, CL has another thought, to let them do some editing of their own note, kids writing yes, without very much more (thoughts) because they have not done a lot of KB, I am not sure I would like to work with them, I want them to gain more understanding, the goal of they are communicating. I am just not sure whether what is the way to do it to make it more useful. To start and do it’ll together or quietly To do it all together in a big process. (shared public space)

SC~C SI~C

L2, Z 5+ We have the same issue in the class even though they are all

experience, somewhat. We have a lot of notes that are like yes, not, why are you saying that notes that didn’t advance our idea. We talked about every note that needs to have an idea in it they can go right to the person to tell the person and talk to them, they can go tell the person. I also got the kids, they can go search their own notes, we are still in that process, kids say oh I got some silly notes, this year is a huge problem.

SC~R, SI~R

L3, N 2-5 How did you get the students started to look at their own

notes? SC~C

L4, R 5+ We talked first, and they searched for their notes, they

created just for this year, they put in the notes, it really easy. SC~R

L5 N – 2-5 N - That would be fun for them, L6 -Z 5+ It also give them a sense of, you can refine the search, the

note they created is improvable SC~Rv

L7 -R 5+ Nancy, you can also in the reader, have the actual note

appear (to show the kids), not the actual note but the text, so all the text appear, you are not printing all the notes

T~R

L8 - N 2-5 But the kids need to go in and search the notes? L9 - R 5+ You can click text or note, the actual note, the text of the

note appear.

L10-N 2-5 Maybe we would use the data projector and have the whole

class talked about, these are notes that are helpful and then get the whole class to search for it.

T~C

L11-N 2-5 Maybe we could have the whole class talk about it. That

would be better.

L12-K 2-5 I can videotape, it if it is on a Friday. Anyone else has

problem of understanding

L13-R <2 One thing, just the phrase – problem of understanding -

about the scaffold, The students were really hesitate to say that they have a problem of understanding, I say that is a good question, you might want to take it down, and the kids say ‘ no, no, no it is not that I need to understanding. I just wonder if anyone has that, has such experience, less to do with the technology, but what is the approach.

SC~C

L14- R 5+ When we did electricity, it was a getting the questions down

session, I made it clear that if you are not responsible for any follow up to the question on the database, the question will be worked on if here is an interest, not something they need to work on, we were just getting them. What you can do is in the view display choose not to show author of that note, that

SC~R

is another way, In my case is diff scenario, what I avoid is having children saying, no I don’t want children to think oh I have three questions and so I have to do three times more work, it is just to get all the question and theory on there and see if people interesting.

L15-R 5+ How would you go through it? L16-N 2-5 The bottom of the bottom of the view – of the toolbar, you

need to click the bottom of the tool bar, the information ‘i’ for note and ‘i’ for view, you click off author and only title will appear. If it is small only title will appear, we try to keep it large so that all things will appear, small if another way of managing.

L17-Z 5+ Some kids may not like it, they want to see their name on it. L18-K <2 Program still recognize who created it right? (yes) L19-E <2 You are speaking also of plain philosophical stand of where

is the ownership of knowledge and problem? So, is it why they held in the class this point of view, or is it..

L20-R <2 It was two children, on separate occasions. Because we were

doing something different. It is around this, it is not so much they are throwing off theories it is more of their age and stage, and they want everybody to be in.

SC~C

L21C- 5+ It is interesting that they perceive that. L22 N –

2-5 Do you know what the question is?

L24 R 5+ It was a clarification, something not that deep, I cant

remember, something not that difficult, not that deep or I can’t remember. It wasn’t so much (the question), a lot of the other children probably would have to clarify as well.

L25-R 5+ That will be interesting to ask, Joan and her team, whether

that is typical, coz it isn’t building something…

L26-M Guest it kinda of surprise me, they must have a natural sense of it

to feel this …

L27-R This week we had, all classrooms, first year MA students

visit, they have a series of questions that they had prepared, SC~R

everyone asked about KF, it was interesting for me to hear the responses to these questions it was interesting, my class, the Gr 6 this year, those from Anne’s class, they have a year of less KF use, and so their comments were, there were some very good comments, one was, they clearly saw the positive side of KF, the negative side was, you need to read ten notes and all ten notes have the same information and same question. I hear that over and over again, because that would be frustrating, I said, here, I have a pile of photocopy paper and said, you imagine opening this and read this, that would be frustrating to someone who is focused, doesn’t want to waste time. We talked about it, and I don’t know if I have stressed before that you must read first and then write, you need to read, so if you screen is blue, there is a problem, I don’t know what others think. Even today we say, you know, make sure you read all the questions that are there, before you even add in new information.

L28-N 2-5 We have tones of repetition like that. We have an interesting

incident with repetition, CL discovered from her analysis, realized that one child in my class was copying another’s note, this is the child who is very ambitious, my sense is that she has a lot of praise by getting a lot on the paper, she would often say, ‘look how much I have done’. I haven’t approach her, have not dealt with it, not sure exactly how she is doing it, what she does, whether she read and write, or whether she is sophisticated with technology. (maybe she is copy and paste) oh yes, I think she is really reading and saying that is a good idea.

SC~C

L29-C 5+ I had that, a child she was taking book , hiding that and

typing, because they are used to be praised for certain kind of accomplishment just very open to idea is very very, difficult, she has to get something in.

L30-N 2-5 The children..this child came in with recess, three stacks

printout. I am trying to find out if she did it on her own, I said is there something interesting that you would like to share with the class and she looked at me and said, oh I was just getting ahead, I am ahead of you now. I was thinking, oh so you know where you are going, oh I am glad you did.

SC~R

L31-C 5+ What did you do when you have that situation? We didn’t

talk about it as a whole class.

L31-N 2-5 We talked a bit, not with the class. That would be really and

then after a while she stopped, after a while, it was quite alright.

L32-K 2-5 Thanks – does anyone have thing they want to share?