Classroom Scenarios

The children in Mrs. Logan's fifth-grade class are scattered about the classroom, sitting on the floor, at their desks, and on beanbag chairs. The teacher is standing at a chalkboard that spans one wall. Last week's project on the conflict in Kosovo covers half the board. The class is working on a unit on peace. Mrs. Logan draws a large circle and writes Peace in the center.

“It means no war,” Jared calls out.

“You can have it in your heart,” Amelia adds.

Steve says, “I don't think you can know what it means unless you were there, like in Kosovo.”

“There are 59 site matches when you use peace as the search word at yahooligans.com,” Paige says as she and Conor use a classroom computer to connect to the Internet.

“Maybe you can make a semantic map of the ways those sites describe the concept of peace,” suggests Mrs. Logan. “Has anyone tried the thesaurus function on the computer? How does the online version compare to the thesaurus we have in the class library?” She writes quickly as she tries to get everyone's ideas into the circle. “Let's take five minutes for journals. Write what you think about the idea of peace. Then we'll do a journal exchange. After your exchange, please choose one or two statements that best reflect what you've discussed and post your comments on the class homepage.”

The class becomes quiet. Some students whisper to one another; others are intent on what they are writing. Several students write using the computer; others use pen and paper. Cayla decides to post her comments on the class homepage immediately. She is hoping to get a response from her classmates when they have a chance to read what she posts. When it is time to share, the noise level becomes intense.

“I never really thought about how peace comes from inside you. I always think of it as something that is part of the country you live in,” Eliza says to Sheila after they've exchanged their journals.

“Killing is never going to solve anything! You've got it all wrong!” Keith is angry with Patrick. “Have you ever seen those guys at the veterans' hospital? My uncle is there, and it is horrible!”

“What would you have done in Kosovo? Let all those people just die without fighting back?” Patrick argues. The boys continue trying to convince each other.

In this example, the students used the symbol systems of oral and written language to construct meaning. The computer facilitated their movement across and between sign systems. In the brainstorming session, they expressed their ideas on the topic of peace orally. They used the Internet to research different representations of peace. They used a computer-based and a paper-based thesaurus to compare word meanings. Through dialogue, a consideration of one another's ideas, and their own research, they began to construct some initial concepts of peace. Their teacher gave them a chance to reflect on these ideas independently in written form in their journals, and then to share their thoughts. Cayla chose to use a broader forum for her ideas by posting her comments on the class homepage. She wanted to use the computer to prompt dialogue with a larger audience.

After some heated discussion, Mrs. Logan begins to describe the project they will be working on over the next two weeks. “I'd like you to break into your four research groups. Each group will be working on a different way to express peace. Group 1 will be the language group. Group 2, you are the visual group. Group 3 is the music group, and Group 4 is the movement group. The goal is to create a group project that conveys something about the concept of peace using your particular symbol system. You can use any of our classroom resources, check out books from the library, or use things you might find at home. If any groups would like to join forces, that's fine with me.

“I've posted the URLs for a number of websites where you can begin your research, or you can do your own searches. Remember to think about the criteria you can use to decide whether a site is providing you with good and useful information.”

Group 1: Using language to convey peace.

Group 1 began by accessing the websites that Mrs. Logan had suggested. These included first-person accounts from Kosovo at the sites of the BBC, CNN, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the U.S. Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio, and a community bulletin board run at the website of a nearby town.

Sean was flipping through an atlas he found in the class library. “This map is outdated -- is there a better one on the computer, Lisa?”

“I'm already searching,” she replied.

Some students began comparing information from the different websites. “How does the CNN story compare with PBS? Whose story is getting told on those other sites? The ones from Canada and England?” Aaron wanted to know.

“I really like this site! It let's you hear this girl's voice telling her own story about what it was really like there,” Kendra said. “I think we should do this project by telling a story,” she added.

“Why don't we write one?” Justin suggested.

“Why don't we take a whole bunch of stories and use them?” said Andrea.

“No, wait, let's do a talk show. We'll interview people who are there,” said Julie.

Group 1's final project was a talk show titled “Peace Chat,” based on the stories they had read on the Internet. They used the Internet, newspapers, and books to develop background information, and then they wrote a script and presented it orally.

One student was chosen to act as the program host, and two others were the guests who were interviewed. The group generated a list of questions for the guests, based on what they had learned. They invited the whole class to participate in their show as an audience. After it was over, they asked their classmates to send them e-mail to let them know what they thought of the presentation.

In the creation of “Peace Chat,” the students in Group 1 listened to and read stories from a variety of websites. They discussed what these stories meant, evaluated their sources, and argued over interpretations. They reflected on meaning, reflected on how best to present the concept of peace, and generated questions to be used in their presentation. They constructed knowledge from multiple symbolic representations of information, and they reflected on how to use language to convey what they wanted to say. Throughout, the computer was a resource for their social construction of meaning.

Group 2: Representing peace visually.

Group 2 struggled with how to represent their ideas about peace. “I think we have the hardest one,” Brianna complained.

“No way! All we have to do is find pictures so you can see peace. How hard can that be?” Stephanie said.

“What would you use?” asked Joe.

“You could use a dove, that's a symbol of peace,” said Stephanie.

“How about a flag?” suggested Oladipo.

“Whose?” asked Sandy.

“Everyone's,” said Oladipo, while Jennifer interrupted, “Ours!”

“That's so boring. Besides, we need to think of how to present it. Are we going to use photos, make posters, or what?” Gillian wanted to know.

“You are just talking about symbols for peace. We need to say what we mean,” said Jeneel.

“How about making a webpage? That way as we keep thinking up more and more ideas, we can keep adding to it,” suggested Anne.

“I like that -- we can link it to a lot of the really good peace sites we found, and it can include a lot of different ways of thinking about peace,” said Seth.

“We can add different kinds of music, too,” said Pete.

“And art,” added Tami.

“I'll draw some designs,” said Oladipo.

Group 2 decided to use their struggle to come up with how best to represent peace as the basis for their presentation. The webpage was entitled “What Does Peace Look Like Anyway?” To begin, they went to Digital Education Network's tutorial on how to use Microsoft's Front Page, West Loogootee Elementary School's page on website creation, and “Create Your Own Web Page” at Small Planet Communications for some ideas. Their final design incorporated clip art and audio files.

In the creation of their project, Group 2 students discussed the complexities of the concept of peace and decided to create a webpage to capture their ideas. They talked about what to include on the page and how best to use the medium to express what they wanted to say. They explored the different symbolic representations available to them -- clip art, music, text, graphics of all kinds, and so on. They constructed their own knowledge from multiple symbol systems and decided to let the viewers of their presentation have access to these various systems. Throughout, they reflected on the forms of language.

Groups 3 and 4: Representing peace with music and movement.

The music group and the movement group decided to combine their efforts. “I think we can do a lot more if we try to use music and movement together,” said Beth.

“Don't forget about pictures!” added Tina. “I found some great photos at The American Ballet Theatre's online photo galleries that I think we should use.”

“I think we shouldn't just use ballet -- and, anyway, those are just pictures. I found a site that really shows African dance and music. It's got audio and video and everything,” said Denise.

“Great, but how can we combine all this stuff?” asked Matt.

“What about the music?” Daniel wanted to know.

“We'll find some music,” Judi said.

“How about some of us research dance, and the rest find some music?” said Denise.

The combined groups 3 and 4 formed two new subgroups. The students who were researching music decided to focus on jazz, and they visited several websites to find background information. They found out about the styles of jazz, and they learned about jazz musicians including John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Michael Brecker, and Sonny Rollins.

After listening to a number of jazz selections online and on CDs they brought in from home, the group decided to use an audio file from a Duke Ellington site as the music for their production. They decided that it captured the feeling of peace and harmony they wanted.

Tina, Beth, Denise, and Brett worked on dance steps, intent on matching them to Ellington's rhythms. “This is really hard, isn't it?” said Beth. “Trying to get music and movement to match is really frustrating.”

They went to the library and found books about the history of dance, and they used the Internet to search for video of dance styles from different cultures. They tried to incorporate some of what they saw into their own patterns.

The combined group's final project was “Peace of Mind,” a story told through music, images, and dance. In the final production, images were displayed as a backdrop, jazz music played softly, and the students danced. After their performance, they asked the class to write about their reactions.

In the creation of this project, the students looked at images, watched dances, and listened to music. They discussed how to find the best combination of pictures, movement, and sound to capture their ideas about peace in the sense of “peace of mind.” They reflected on the different symbol systems available to them to make meaning, and how to use these systems in their production. As they thought about how to express peace without written language, they used the computer as a resource for exploring other symbolic representations to make meaning.



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Reading Online, www.readingonline.org
Posted November 1999
© 1999-2000 International Reading Association, Inc. ISSN 1096-1232