See What Children Know
We know that round spaces afford conversation, enclosed spaces afford intimacy, and high spaces afford achievement – for children as well as adults. However, some features of a classroom might not be commonly characterized by what they may afford. In this video clip, four children race back and forth between a wall mirror and a cushioned corner. A study of this clip reveals yet another affordance of space. We will call it “bounding events.” Notice that when the children race to the mirror, they press their faces close to the glass, and when they race back to the cushion corner they tumble into its softness. These two end points contain more than location. Each offers an interesting event that emphasizes their arrival there. The spaces provide the children with bounding events.
Watch this clip and ask yourself: How would the rules of the game differ if the space did not have these bounding events – the interesting actions at the end points of each run? (Remember to click on the video title or thumbnail to access the video player).
Click here to subscribe to our entire streaming video library of 180+ titles. Click here to purchase a high-resolution copy of this video that also includes the text analysis.
Notes from the Field
This may be the Spring break period for many of our subscribers. We take this opportunity to invite you to send us information that you believe would be of interest to others, something we could enter in "Notes from the Field" in a future issue of Videatives Views.
On a personal note, particularly relevant to our subscribers in the state of Hawaii, George Forman will present a talk in Honolulu at the Mid Pacific Institute on April 17th. The talk is titled Finding the Big Ideas Behind Activities and Themes. For more information, please email ktokuyama@midpac.edu.
Also in April, Ellen Hall and colleagues from Boulder Journey School will travel to Cambridge, Massachusetts to participate in the Reggio-Inspired Pre-Institute Day at Lesley University. The title of the Pre-Institute is: Messing About in Science: Making Visible the Thinking and Ideas of David and Frances Hawkins. Featured presenters include: Eleanor Duckworth, Lella Gandini, Diane Levin, Deborah Meier, and Karen Worth.
