Building a Sense-Making Classroom
A sense-making classroom? Although it’s part of my personal teaching philosophy, and something I speak about often, I realize some of you may be thinking “what does that even mean"?”
Sense-making is just what it sounds like - making sense of things. The reason this is important for me to use as a lens when lesson planning is that it keeps my lesson student-centered. I fully believe that students cannot learn something they haven’t made sense of. Lecture, rote practice, and (often) worksheets aren’t the strongest ways to make sense of anything.
When I set out on a path to make my classroom “‘A Sense-Making Classroom”, I started by breaking down my day. I am a compartmentalized 3rd grade teacher, so I teach all the subjects. Take a look below to see how I view each subject I teach.
Having a sense-making philosophy doesn’t mean I never tell/show students things. This is sometimes a misconception. For example, as a constructivist I believe students learn best by constructing their own knowledge. But there are also different types of knowledge. Our phonics system was created, and thus is a social knowledge. Students are not going to “construct” this exact system that was created. However, they can “discover” it by making sense of it and “adopting” it. The reason this is so important to think about is because often times, we think students “understand” something, when they are just simply regurgitating things they heard us say, using patterns of a practice sheet, or reciting poems/songs. Our language, both oral and written, has some pattern, even if it is convoluted at times. We call this set of patterns phonics and it is important to teach kids to make sense of it, build connections with it, and fully understand it. It is one thing if they can recite some songs to you, and another if they can find and pick out phonics patterns everywhere (thus helping them read in and out of context).
Number is a much more natural skill (I have written extensively on this so I won’t bore you now) with our approximate number system, but our base ten number system was created. It is however, built on very consistent patterns that our brains are more than ready to understand. It is way more intuitive and consistent (and fun! okay, bias) than the phonics patterns system. It’s what makes the number system work so well! But oftentimes we take for granted that kids’ brains can make sense of and understand this deeply, and resort to memorization, flash cards, and songs.
Social studies gets perhaps the worst of it. Over the years, textbooks and curriculums have wiped out almost every aspect of sense-making when it comes to social studies. Students (and adults!) should be learning history with the goal of understanding it, why past events happened, who was important, what voices were left out, and (here’s the kicker) how it applies to our world and problems today. This is partly the push coming from social justice supporters (and rightfully so) but this should just be build in to history lessons and classes. Students shouldn’t be remembering, reciting, copying, and memorizing history - they should be analyzing it and making sense of it.
When I stopped thinking of my day in “subjects” and began to think of what students would be making sense of, the shift was easy. Suddenly my lessons were filled with formative assessment, observation, check-ins, and activities that made sure students were understanding concepts, not just becoming parrots for “my information”. I also stopped using and thinking the word “doing” in regards to students. I didn’t want my students “doing” anything more than I wanted them to be “understanding” something. The doing should always aid the understanding, otherwise it isn’t a great use of time.
For example, when creating a math lesson or resource, I could easily think about how I want students to be doing multiplication. This could be done through fact sheets, times tests, worksheets, slides, etc. But if I want students understanding multiplication, I have to think in a completely different way. I will need more visuals and manipulatives; i will have to ask more questions that aid students to think deeply, and I will need activities that encourage students to show and explain their reasoning so I know if they understand. In the end, my goal is for them to be master multiplication understanders…and inevitably that means they will be master multipliers. The sense-making step always leads to mastering the skill itself. But mastering the skill itself doesn’t always lead to sense-making. Sense-making will insure that students retain the skill, apply it to other contexts, and (in most cases) enjoy it more. That’s because sense-making is…pretty fun. The human brain loves to solve, make connections, and figure things out. It’s why escape rooms have become so popular and and board games and video games still reign. We love to make sense.
So why don’t we do it more?
How do you see yourself adding more sense-making into your students’ day? Let’s talk!
Happy teaching!
