What do you do instead of a “follow-up” or “extension of
learning”? Well in one simple single word using four letters, you: PLAN. You
plan for teaching and learning. You plan for possibilities. Writing about
planning is not something that can occur in a blog article. That’s a whole
freaking book…
I need to focus on follow-ups which have been a big
discussion on a FB group as well as the bigger EYLF etc group. I’m also dying
to write about Easter craft, but that will have to wait.
I see so many requests for extension ideas for activities …
Brian was interested in painting today. What extension activities can I do for
this interest?
Well Brian was interested in painting with brushes at the
easel. He was busy exploring the paint: how the colours mixed upon the paper.
how they blended in to each other and how they created - like magic new
colours. It wasn’t an instant colour change - there were streaks of this colour
and streaks of that colour and then somewhere in the middle a mixing and a
muddling into a new colour. A colour that Brian had never before seen before
much less made himself. He was learning how to turn the brush to move the
bristles. He was learning that the changes of pressure from his hand changed
the way the paint worked upon the paper. He learned that he could control his
hand this way and that. He was learning that there was cause and effect in the
world of painting. He learned that he had to share the paints with Tammy who
was on the other side of the easel sharing the same pots of paints. Brian was
learning. But to you: Brian was painting.
I see all this confusion. Confusion about what learning is.
What interests are. What the role of interests play in learning. I see lost
educators. I see educators being pushed out as fast as they can so they can get
the next lot in. They throw educators out into the workforce where they get
jobs (hopefully). One hopes that these educators land jobs in services which
‘get it’ but I see more often than not, they don’t. So you have unprepared
educators placed in services that are also not prepared … Add “The Cycle” to
this and you get chaos. You get fear. You get pressure. You have all these
educators being pushed into completing this “Cycle” … You observed something -
now you must plan an extension for it. That’s the cycle.
I disagree.
An observation is merely a moment in time. It is a small
snapshot of a child engaged in learning, playing, growing, being, becoming. It
is not the definition of a child. It is not the be-all and end-all of that
child. It is a moment. A moment in time. And you are being told you need to
extend the interest or extend the learning. Most people go for the interest. I
think possibly because the educators before you went down that path or because
the word interest appears in the NQS or because it seems more responsive
perhaps? I don’t know.
But you have to plan something right? You have to do
something to show that you are being responsible and maintaining the cycle.
Let’s go back to Brian.
Brian is learning. If we go and implement all these extension
activities based upon what Brian was interested in .. We go from painting to
painting. We completely rob Brian of the time and opportunity and resources to
continue on his learning path of painting with brushes at the easel. The
assumptions around the NQS and the planning cycle are robbing Brian, all the
Brians of their real learning.
How do you support Brian? How do you plan for Brian? Well I
would hope that easel painting would be a core element of your learning
environment. I would hope that there were a wide selection of paints out each
and every single day. I would love to see thin brushes and thick brushes in
pots or in repurposed glass jars. I’d love to see painting at a table as well
as the easel. On big paper and small paper with collage bits and pieces
available - all freely. You could change the tone of the paints by adding white
or adding black. You could make paints up with the children - long after
Brian’s had his unhindered time to explore. You could mix the paints in jars
and give them names that have meaning for Brian and his peers. You could create
a colour wheel using the paints in the store room. You could buy artists
acrylics and water colours and mix pure colours and compare the quality of the
paints we use in children’s services to the quality of pain that artists use.
You could explore the great artists - both historic and contemporary. You could
do all of this - AFTER - you give Brian the time to learn to be a painter in
his own right. Brian is three years old - THREE. 3. Give Brian time. Give Brian
resources. Give Brian YOURSELF. Give him your time. Use your teaching skills to
support him … Draw his attention to what he has done … Give him the language
that he may otherwise not have. In fact if you don't have the language of art
on the tip of your tongue - that is your “follow-up” or your “extension of
learning” … Go and teach yourself the language of art … tones, shades, colours
beyond red, blue, yellow, green … learn about magenta and chartreuse and teal.
Please don’t rob Brian of his learning. Let Brian be. Let him
learn. Support him with your teaching skills. Don’t distract him or redirect
him away from his learning with novelty painting you sourced on Pinterest or on
Facebook.
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