An example part 4
| Teacher | We are going to leave the sticks now but I want you to think about what we have done. | ||
| John | Put sticks in order. | ||
| Teacher | What did we have to think about to do this job? | ||
| Nahir | Long and longer and longer. | ||
| Barry | Yes and then no bit sticking out so you knew it fitted. | ||
| Fran | Looking for the stairs … make them the same size. | ||
| Rhana | Putting the sticks like stairs with each one a little bit longer each time. | ||
| Teacher | So when we put things in order … | ||
| Rhana | You have to look at each one and think where it goes in order. | ||
| Teacher | So what kind of thinking is that? | The teacher draws the lesson to a close by expressing a way of ordering. It can be seen that each child moved forward to some degree in this lesson.
Later lessons showed that when seriation was used again the children remembered some of the learning from this activity and used it as a starting point for their current challenge. |
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| Barry | Thinking … in size. | ||
| Nahir | Big, bigger and bigger. | ||
| Fran | About size. | ||
| Teacher | Today when we put sticks in order, we had to think about the length … yes. Sometimes when you put things in order, you think about …? | ||
| Rhana | Big and small. | ||
| Teacher | Well maybe biggest to smallest, yes, or fattest to … | ||
| Fran | Thinnest. | ||
| Barry | Or longest to short. | ||
| Teacher | OK. Longest to shortest, very good. So one kind of thinking is about thinking of things in order. What else can you put in order? | ||
| Fran | Our shoes. | ||
| Barry | Ourselves. | ||
| Nahir | Books. | ||
| Rhana | You can put anything in order if they’re different. | ||
| Teacher | Yes, you can. You can see what’s different and then choose that to put things in order. |