Materials for Insect Unit
Emergent Project: Power, Force, and Motion
Planning for an emergent study represents the other end of the road-trip analogy, a “bottom-up” process. This type of planning focuses on identifying starting points for the exploration of an idea or topic, developing insightful observations via teacher-child interactions, documentation about what is happening, and expanding the plan accordingly. The teacher consistently asks:
- What did I see?
- What does it mean?
- What does it tell me about the childrens needs, interests, knowledge, and skills?
- What might happen next or how can I help children to further the inquiry/exploration? (Chaille, 2008; Gestwicki, 2011 Helm, 2007)
Planning for an emergent project generally proceeds as follows:
- Observe/identify an interest through exploratory activities, active listening, focused discussions, and representation of childrens initial ideas about their thinking.
- Choose a tentative topic.
- Provide materials and resources to support multiple possibilities for directions the inquiry might take.
- Document what happens.
- Organize and reflect on documentation.
- Adjust future planning to adapt to the direction of the inquiry.
- Account for learning standards as the project proceeds.
Observe/identify an interest or topic through exploratory activities, active listening, focused discussions, and representations of childrens initial ideas about their thinking This study was initiated by a team of two teachers (Mary and Jane) and their assistants, working with a group of twenty-eight 4- and 5-year-old children. It started with observations they made early in the school year about the childrens play and interest in superheroes, documented in the case study notes in Chapter 1. As time went on, the teachers continued to observe that this interest did not wane but continued to evolve, especially in the dramatic play area, where many scenarios and characters were developed and acted out. It also showed up during writing workshop time, where the childrens daily dictations and story writing contained similar characters and story lines, and in daily play outside.
Late in the spring, Mary worked with some of the children who asked the teachers to convert the dramatic play area to a woodland forest. They subsequently started requesting time several days in a row to present “plays” that featured fairies, transformers, and animals of different kinds. Always the theme of these stories involved the exercise of “special powers” to solve problems or explain phenomena the children did not understand. One of the stories developed by five children (three girls and two boys) was dictated to the teachers as follows: