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Home / Curriculum  / Capturing children’s communication in everyday actions
Posted on July 19, 2023
Curriculum, Staff

What's in a name? Shakespeare's Juliet claims a rose would be as sweet whatever its name and look how things turned out for her! In the story of 'Rumpelstiltskin', the conniving goblin is only bested when the Princess guesses his name; and many of the characters in the Harry Potter series are terrified of 'He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named' and there's good reason; there's power in names. But imagine that power was used for good and not for evil ... In 'Finding Nemo', Dory has great difficulty remembering all but one name, and she achieves that when she is with those for whom she cares and who care for her, and it is through that lens that I am coming to understand the power of Cultures of Thinking - in naming the ways of being we live and work by in and for our classrooms we consciously and consistently are affirming and sharing our teaching practices that other schools might take for granted or see as 'part of the grind'. But not here. Here is where exploring, exchanging and evolving our practice has some space, has recognition, has a name. Claire Trappitt writes about one of her experiences as a leader in Cultures of Thinking and as a classroom practitioner:
When I began with Cultures of Thinking in my classroom last year, I was able to hold rich dialogues using a variety of thinking routines with my class. We used the routines to unpack our knowledge about art, deepen our questioning techniques, create theories and drive our own learning using verbal communication as our vessel. But this year, my cohort are not big communicators, aren’t yet ready to hold deep and engaging conversations as my previous class could. What did this mean for Cultures of Thinking in my class? How was I to implement these thinking routines that asked for verbal responses? How was I to engage these children in the rich, meaningful conversations as I had in the past? This has made me reflect upon how I view communication. Do we only communicate our best ideas verbally? As I pause and reflect upon my teaching experience, I know that children convey their ideas in a multitude of ways. They draw their ideas through art, they share their ideas about cities through block construction, they demonstrate their prior know of animals as they gather similar figurines. It’s not they don’t communicate their ideas, it is they just don’t communicate their ideas verbally.
As I gather the children’s ideas, knowledge and theories through observation, I can progress their verbal communication. We now look at how we can build on their verbal communication skills, by giving them the language to use. “I can see you are squeezing the toy fish to make the air blow out, I can see you are thinking about how the fish moves, I wonder is this the same fish as the one in Finding Nemo?”

We now look at how we can build on their verbal communication skills, by giving them the language to use.

They say a picture tells a thousand words and this is true, especially when young children are not in tune with holding back their facial expressions and gestures as adults may be. So, it is with this new lens, I now am noticing the ways children communicate through their everyday actions. Noticing the power and wonder of carefully holding and channeling their way of naming what they see.
Claire Trappitt | Acting Cultures of Thinking Co-ordinator, Pre-Prep A teacher
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