Children’s Learning and Sense Making: Earthworm Conversations
Example 1.0
Excerpt of a conversation with a grade three girl while looking at earthworms.
1 Cindy: What are you going to do with the worms?
2 Teacher: Just look at them.
3 Cindy: What’s wrong with that…its all red at the front.
4 Teacher: I don’t know.
5 Cindy: Is that where its hearts are or something?
6 Teacher: Is that what you think?
7 Cindy: ‘cause there’s little red dots or something.
8 Teacher: Red…right there? What do you think?
9 Cindy: I don’t know. I think they are about the middle…
aah…this one inches…it couldn’t get off.
10 Teacher: What else do you think is inside the worm?
11 Cindy: Well I don’t know what’s inside of it to make it
move. You know it probably has stuff like we do
Like when something hurts us we curl up…and
They probably do that too so….and having so
many hearts I don’t know what’s going to happen
And they….
12 Teacher: They have many hearts you think?
13 Cindy: Yeah.
14 Teacher: How many?
15 Cindy: Have you heard about that? They have like seven
So that if they get cut off…like that one…they have
another heart so they can live.
Refer to example 1.0
a)What does Cindy’s understanding of earthworms look like?
b)What aspects of her understandings are accurate and what aspects are inaccurate?
c)Can you identify points at which she infers new knowledge?
d)How can we help Cindy extend her learning?
e)What experiences can we provide, which will allow her to explore the earthworm
circulation?
Example 1.1
Grade one girl talking about earthworms: sex.
1 Teacher: Tell me, what do you know about worms?
2 April: They umm…they both…they’re girls and boys.
3 Teacher: They’re both?
4 April: Yes.
5 Teacher: How do you know that?
6 April: Because my mum told us.
f)How can we help April elaborate on her knowledge about the sex characteristics of earthworms?
g)What experiences can we provide?
Example 1.2
Grade one girl talking about earthworms: what eats them.
1 Teacher: What else do you know about worms?
2 Ann: I know that they like damp cold places and on
rainy days they come up but…but that’s exactly
when robins are looking for food…so worms
can get caught very easily.
3 Teacher: Uh huh..so what do robins do with them?
4 Ann: They take them to their babies so the babies can eat them.
h)Compare and contrast Example 1.1 and Example 1.2 in regards to richness of understanding for April versus Ann.
Source: Bloom, J. W., (1998). Creating a classroom community of young scientists: A desktop companion. Toronto: Irwin Publishing.
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