lighting a fire: February 2010

This week, we tried doing the entire 3-2-1 Bridge thinking routine, and I didn't know if the boys would be able to do it or not-of course, they blew me away. So far this year, we have only done "half" of the bridge. When the boys come up with 3 words, 2 questions, and 1 simile, it does help them to "unpack" their understanding of a character or concept, but it is not really getting at the point of the routine. When I participated in this routine at Harvard, we generated the words, questions, and simile using the idea of culture-- then we read a fascinating article, did the same thing again, and then built our bridge to connect our understanding and articulate how it changed. I finally saw an opportunity to try this routine because we had read a fascinating chapter in The Twenty-One Balloons about a very innovative and unique house full of creative inventions. Before they read the chapter, we came up with words, questions, and a simile associated with the idea of a house. Then we discussed common threads running through most people's ideas-- they realized comfort, security, stability, strength, protection were the connections they found. Then the next day, after they had read the chapter, I showed them the animated video below of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater house and also showed them pictures from a site with "weird houses from around the world." I told them we weren't going to talk about what they saw, but that I wanted them to consider how these houses were different than what we had talked about the day before. They met with their same partners and generated new words, questions, and similes. Then they used an index card and yarn to connect their similes and explain how their thinking had changed. This was the most difficult part for them, but it was incredible to hear what they shared. One group went from the simile of a house being like a box to a house being like a drawing-- they explained that now, they see that "anything is possible" with a house, unlike being "stuck in a box" before. Another group's new simile was a house being like clay "because you can mold it into whatever you want it to be." I was fascinated by the conversation we were able to have about going from "one-dimensional, flat thinking" to "3-D thinking." I have never felt so invigorated or excited about what was going on in our classroom- they were engaged and excited about what we were doing. I will definitely continue to use this routine in this format because it challenges the boys to explain their own understanding and how it has changed.