Learning Case 2
Vn006.02 Magic Words 5/15/77 Miriam tried again her ‘magic word’ game, “It begins with ‘p’ and ends with ‘e’.” The choice of time was unfortunate; I was in a hurry to some other purpose, so I snapped back “please.” “That’s not it,” Miriam claimed, for who can tolerate any conundrum’s immediate solution? Sensing my impatience, …
Vn006.01 Magic Words 5/14/77 While she was in the kitchen and returning to the dinner table, I asked Miriam to bring me something. She asked, “What’s the magic word?” My grandmother avers that the ‘magic word’ is ‘please,’ which can make so many things easy that would be impossible without it. We have never played …
Vn005.01 Tic Tac Toe 5/13/77 Years ago I bought a tic-tac-toe game for playing with Robby. The board is 12 x 12; the X’s and O’s are large yellow pieces. At that time I taught Robby a single strategy for playing the game: look for two ways to win. Robby quickly became quite good at …
Vn003.02 Journals5/11/77 When collecting the data reported in ‘Pre-Readers’ Concept of the English Word,’ I was shown by one of the children, Tina, a 3×5 notebook her mother gave her for writing down any words she wanted to learn to read. I bought Miriam such a notebook (a green one) some weeks ago for such …
Vn003.01 Openness and Reticence5/10/77 Miriam rarely discusses her activities in kindergarten unless directly asked. I was surprised today when Miriam volunteered that her class had put on a little play. I asked what part she played. Miriam I didn’t play any, Daddy. Bob Oh, didn’t you want to? Miriam I read the story and the …
Vn002.01 Productive Cheating 5/9/77 Today was a difficult day. Snow in mid-May for a beginning. Before that problem appeared, Miriam came early with me in to Logo in our joint expectation of going to the Coop to buy a hula hoop. With that option closed by inclement weather, Miriam pushed me early in the afternoon …
Vn001.02 Commutativity 5/8/77 As I sat transcribing the dialogue from recent logo sessions, I heard Robby inquire of Gretchen, at work in the kitchen, how many were 5 twelves. Gretchen simplified the computation by elaborating the problem: 5 twelves is half of 10 twelves. How much is 10 twelves? As Robby worked away on that …
Vn 001.01 Everyday Calculation 5/7/77 Miriam suffered a queasy stomach today, so she didn’t join us at our evening meal. She lay on the loveseat near our dining area. The speakers for our radio are directly behind the loveseat, thus more enforcing Miriam’s attention than ours. During a radio commercial we others chose to ignore, …