"Second Graders Discuss Magnets" Video

Today we watched a video in which a school district's science specialist was visiting a second grade classroom to discuss magnetism. The teacher posed a question about something that one of the children had discovered. She placed a small magnet on one side of her hand and said, “You had a magnet here and a magnet here (on top and under hand)…and what happened? The student responded, “I moved the top one and the bottom one started moving with it.” She said, “Here's what I want you to talk about in your team table with each other…talk about why Craig could move this magnet and the other one would move.”

Every so often, Emily paused the video and had her students discuss their thoughts about the way the science specialist was teaching the unit on magnetism. Some of the things they noticed were:

• The teacher let her kids come up with their own ideas.
• The kids knew good social rules and were able to express their thoughts using statements like, “I disagree.”
• The teacher re-says what the kids are saying so that everyone can hear. Hearing things twice may spark more conversation.
• Sometimes when teachers rephrase what the students are trying to say, they can rephrase the thought incorrectly which can cause a lot of confusion. Rather than trying to rephrase her students' thoughts, the science specialist asks clarifying questions.
• The science specialist wanted the children to explain their thoughts, rather than teaching at them.
• The students were able to express their confusion/ideas and one could tell they had well formulated thoughts.

Swire, K. (2006). Second graders discuss magnets. In D. Hammer and E. van Zee (Eds.) Seeing the science in children's thinking.Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.