From: valerie boes
Submit: Post Field Note
VisitDate: 10.30.96
Adult-Run:
Children-Run: Selected
Collaborative:
Unclear-Philosophy:
Bottom-up:
Top-down:
Unclear-Approach: Selected
Informal: Selected
Formal:
Unclear-Type:
Date: 30 Oct 1996
Time: 21:36:04
Remote Name: ss1mac-18.ucsc.edu
nela-13, maria-13, ana-6
Today at barrios unidos ana asked me if i would color with her. Ana and i went into the other room and started to color. a few minutes later nela and maria came into the room. they said they wanted to color, so we started making pictures of each other. i made a picture or two of each of them, and they all made a picture of me. Nela, the girl who i've worked with the last couple weeks who does not speak english, started on a picture of me. After she had made the head of me, she asked me how to spell my name. i sounded the letters out in spanish and she would repeat and correct me if i mispronounced a letter. After she wrote my name over my head, she wrote "carson" on my sweatshirt. (that is what was printed on my sweatshirt). After we were done coloring, i started to play connect four with sara. While we were playing the shaft opened and spilled all of our discs. This happened a time or two more and sara recommended that we not be allowed to win if we had four vertically. she rationalized this new rule by saying that when i try to stack mine vertically, she has to block me. And when she does this, then we pile the discs to high and then the shaft opens. I thought this was a really observant thing for a six year old to think of. so we ended up playing connect four only horizontally and diagnolly.
I think that today was children run. one reason i think this is because i didnt really ask what anyone wanted to do. i just sort of followed the girls requests and played along in their games. i played by their rules, i colored what they told me to. i was basically getting bossed around by them. it was really nice though because today i was extremely tired and didnt feel like making any decisions. the day was so informal today that i dont really think i would know how to catagorize it in terms of bottom up top down. today reminded me a lot of when i use to babysit. i cant put my finger on why right this moment, but for some reason i had a familiar feeling all day at b.u.
The reason i noticed sara's rationale in connect four, is because i love how young kids minds work. what she said made so much sense to me. i love the simplicity that children are blessed with. i m not saying they are simple or that they dont have complex things happening in their lives. im just saying that its refreshing to hear someone make sense out of a situation without throwing in complications. im starting to really learn things from nela. i think thats part of the reason that i noticed what she did. i also thought it was very cool how on her own, she made use of the letters on my shirt and of my name.