3 Exploring Sign Systems Within an Inquiry System

The students sat quietly, lost in their own thoughts, as the last words of The Barn (Avi, 1994) reverberated through the classroom. Gloria had chosen to read aloud this short chapter book to her intermediate multiage students because of their interest in immigration and the topic "Having a Better Life." Their intent faces showed that this story of three children who build their dying father a barn in 1855 had touched them deeply. "Oh, I just need to draw," sighed Ramon. Gloria responded, "Do you need time to think through your feelings and connections before we talk?" Students nodded their heads. She suggested that they respond in any way they needed in order to think about the book and reminded them of the many sign system tools available-musical recordings, the keyboard, art materials, journals, masks, puppets, dress-up clothing, and mathematical manipulatives. The students quickly spread throughout the room. Cynthia wrote in her log about her feelings related to the father's death and the children's loneliness. Camille put on the headphones and composed music on the keyboard to get at the feeling of the cold place where the father was buried. Reuben, Matthew, and Tommy looked through musical recordings and chose a pastoral piece by Beethoven, which they played as they discussed scenes from the book that were important to them. They then moved to pen and ink drawings of the same scenes while the music continued to play. Other children used watercolors, tempera paint, pastels, chalk, charcoal, or pencil sketches to visually portray images from the book that reflected their emotional responses. Ramon experimented with pastels, gradating colors from cool to warm in his picture of a lamp spreading warmth across the dying father. Several children reread the ending of the book, and an-