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Play this video and notice the strategies listed below. Think about their meaning, purpose or effect. Speculate on what the teacher may have been thinking that led to her words and actions.

First segment

• The use of an orange to give the butterfly a safe and attractive perch
• The hand waving gestures Quincy uses to symbolize the butterfly's escape
• The teacher carefully pronouncing "but-ter-fly" after Quincy says, "bow-fly"
• The teacher's interruption of Quincy's attempt to touch the butterfly
• Quincy’s more exaggerated arm gestures as the butterfly flies with vigor

Second segment 00:37 (If the time code does not appear, rewind the video)

• The care Jaylin takes to keep his arm still and straight
• The teacher's question about butterfly behavior rather than color or size
• The teacher's suggested answer to this question for Laila (Perhaps the class had previously discussed the butterfly's "tongue".)
• The wall-like angle of the orange Jaylin uses to get the butterfly to mount
• The emotion in the teacher's voice as the butterfly climbs Jaylin's shoulder
• The way the teacher reads Jaylin's right hand movement as a signal of discomfort
• The teacher agreeing to remove the butterfly but adding that it likes Jaylin
• The teacher announcing to Jaylin that she will capture that moment in a photo

Third segment 01:15

• The way the teacher attributes personal liking to an insect
• The teacher speculating that the butterfly might be confused by Grace’s dress
• Grace 's retort that her dress is not really nectar
• The teacher orienting Grace to the mind of the insect (“He might think…”)
• The teacher acknowledging that the butterfly tickles even though she cannot feel it
• The teacher adding “he likes you” after saying “he tickles” (attribution of purpose)

Comment
While each of the above occurs only once in the butterfly episode, each one represents a class of strategies that teachers and children use hundreds of times a week. As you think about these strategies, consider all that we can learn from them about how children think and about how teachers enter and extend the child’s world of wondering.

Length of stand-alone master video clip: 1 minute 32 seconds

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Keywords: Fours, Children-Teacher, Teaching, Animals