Cuttings

A large bowl of Chicken Soup for the Soul

Penny Clayton goes transatlantic and learns from mistakes

As a facilitator and trainer, I have often used a piece from "Chicken Soup for the Soul" by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen entitled "All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten", written by Robert Fulghum. It often brings a lump to the throat. "A bit American!", I hear you retort. True but in the kindergarten class I visited this summer, "a bit American" may be no bad thing.

This passage is actually a poster on the classroom wall and everywhere you look there are reminders of the "can do" culture which enables so many Americans to believe in themselves. On the day of my visit, the teacher of the class, together with her full time assistant, had spent five teacher work days preparing her classroom for the new year and eagerly awaited her new charges who were to have an open morning visit with their parents. The room looked bright and inviting just as any reception or year 1 class might look at this time of year and just as in England, those first few days were to be spent conducting a range of assessments.

Our trans-Atlantic conversations about education were wide reaching as we excitedly exchanged ideas. Her initial response to my question about marking was to look slightly puzzled as she carefully indicated to me that her primary aim was for all children to be successful and that her approach to all aspects of her work aligned with this aim. Recognition of achievement is therefore crucial and the children are often consulted on their preferred sticker or stamp for the day. All children use pencil and are issued with rubbers so they can change their work at will. The teacher prefers to go through work with the child present and when she finds a mistake puts a dot next to it. The child can then address the mistake and the dot is easily transformed into a tick or a smiley face. Crosses or lines through work are never used. This teacher accepts there are often two audiences for the completed work: the child and the parent. To this end, she may write a comment such as, "Jack needed some help with this" or "George found these concepts hard". As the child's reading skills progress then comments will be directed at the child always ensuring the spirit of the message is a positive encouragement to improve, to learn and to acknowledge success.

An experienced teacher whose results match her expectations may feel she has marking sorted but is always on the lookout for ways children can take even more responsibility for their learning. This year she intends to enable the children themselves to lead some of the consultation meetings with their parents. They will be given a set of guidelines, a chance to practise conducting the conference with a friend and will be expected to set goals with their parents at the end of the session. Children will be encouraged to describe what they think makes their chosen pieces of their best work good. Parents too are to be given guidelines for this formal meeting with their child. They will have an opportunity to talk to the teacher and have questions answered as well as being encouraged to complete a survey about the process. In this environment I was given a strong impression of a group of very young children becoming ever more confident and responsible for their learning and for their assessments. It caused me to reflect on a decision my husband and I had to take a few years ago when our sixteen year old son urged us not to discuss him behind his back. Although anxious to demonstrate our interest in our son's education to the school, we felt unable to attend parents' evenings as long as our son was denied access to the conversations - and he was!

I think the message I've taken from my visit to this school in North Carolina is to continue to seek out ways to trust the learners. Trust that they can rectify and learn from their mistakes, that they can be true partners in the assessment process and that if we trust them to take charge of reporting their learning to others then that learning can be so much greater. And all of this I learned in Kindergarten!