Taking Time to Listen

The other day while students were involved in their independent learning, I sat down with one of them and asked what she was doing.  Her response prompted the interest of a small group of peers around her so I captured a documentation of their conversation. Below, is the conversation and where it has led since.

Educator: What are you learning about?

Student 1: Our band is going to Canada's Wonderland and I'm excited so I am looking up and comparing the heights of roller coasters there.

Student 2: I can't wait to go to Canada's Wonderland.  

Student 3: Me neither. The Leviathan is the tallest roller coaster there.  Do you think I should go on it?

Student 2: I'm going on the Leviathan!  I can't wait!  

Student 1: The Thunder Run is only 10 meters tall.  Is that even as tall as the flat rides?

Student 4: It's only 10 meters?  Is that even as tall as the little kid's roller coaster?

Student 1: I don't think so.  It's not very tall though.  How tall would that be in real life? 

At this point, I joined back in the conversation.  

Educator:  How might you be able to find out?

Student 1:  It would be hard to show.  These are the roller coasters and the heights of each of them.  (pointing to a table she had made with roller coaster names and heights in metres).  If I drew the Thunder Run, I would make it 10cm since it's 10 metres.  

The student and I then had a conversation about how each of the roller coasters could be represented to scale using cm instead of metres.  I suggested that the heights could also be represented with items that may be found in the classroom.  The student went to retrieve cm cubes to show the heights of a few roller coasters.  We thought it would be neat to see what a 10 metre roller coaster really looked like.  Tomorrow, we would go to the gym and measure it's actual height.   

How Listening To One Conversation Led to Further Provocations and Learning:
Knowing that the band trip to Wonderland was still weeks away and that a number of students in the class were excited about the trip (and amusement parks in general), I decided to use this conversation as a beginning to further provocations.  The next day, I brought in pictures of roller coasters from the park.  Students who saw the pictures immediately asked questions about what and who the pictures were for.  

Student interest in the pictures and topic led to the creation of this bulletin board as an invitation to explore and learn further.

Some of the newer demonstrations of learning included:

• A comparison of heights of low rides at Wonderland
• Repeated attempts to build a roller coaster
• Measuring with a metre stick (in the hallway) the actual heights of roller coasters
• Recording thinking about roller coasters

Duct tape wasn't working well.  What else could we use?

Adding to our provocation- photo of student work and wonderings we have.

Measuring the height of the Thunder Run, using cubes to mark each metre.
Problem-Solving along the way:
"What will I do when I run out of room at the corner?"
"What will I do when I run out of cubes to mark each metre?"