Running head: Case Study Project: 1st-Grade-Meeting Rug

Case Study Project: 1st-Grade-Meeting Rug

Katherine E. Graves
Montana State University-Bozeman

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Table of Contents
Case Study Project: 1st-Grade-Meeting Rug.......................................................................3
Description...........................................................................................................................3
Environment................................................................................................................3
Research Question.......................................................................................................3
Synthesis & Analysis...........................................................................................................4
Discussion............................................................................................................................5
References............................................................................................................................6

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Case Study Project: 1st-Grade-Meeting Rug
Description
Environment.
The case site I choose for this project was a first-grade-meeting rug. It is located in the
southeast corner of the classroom, at Longfellow Elementary School, nuzzled in between the
front white board, the shelves and big windows, and the easel for writing and reading. At the
front of the rug is the easel and then just beyond that is a library. The student desks are in the
middle of the room beside the library and the easel. There is a door to the left of the rug across
from the windows about 15 feet away. When looking at the rug, there are five rows of colors:
blue, orange, green, yellow, and purple, with four squares for each color. The dimensions of the
rug are 10 feet wide and 8 feet deep. Each square is 2 feet by 2 feet. I chose this area in the room
because it has enough room to move around in and brings all of the students into one condensed
space.
Research Question.
My research question is How does the (meeting) rug in Ms. Coppolillos first-grade
class at Longfellow Elementary encourage or discourage hands-on learning about community
and culture? I did not originally call it the meeting rug; however, after my interview I realized
that is what it is called, and it applies to my question about community and culture. In support of
this research question, I created three sub-questions for my interview: Question 1: How do you
think the space on the rug could promote learning about community and culture?, Question 2: Do
you think the individual squares compared to the whole rug could be used for a lesson on
community? If yes, what is an idea you have of doing this? (Clarifying the question: could you
bring in that they are individual people and individuals make up a community. Demonstrating

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that using the rug itself?), Question 3: Do you think the space on the rug would have any
negative aspects for learning about community and culture? I used all three subjects to support
my research question.
Synthesis & Analysis
The evidence says that the meeting rug encourages hands-on learning about community
and culture. As Coppollilo said in our interview in a response to my third question, do you think
the space on the rug would have any negative aspects for learning about community and culture,
No, it does deserve this type of thinking about it though (Personal communication, 2016). She
is saying that this environment does not discourage hands-on learning, but to do it effectively
there has to be a well thought out plan that considers all aspects and promotes learning about
community and culture. While I was observing the space during my double entry field notes task,
I noticed that the space was big enough for the students to have their own little bubble, and for
them to be able to move around. In the specific activity they were doing during my observation,
they ended up moving from individual squares into a meeting circle. Both of these set ups gave
the students opportunities to practice being apart of their classroom community. They are
encouraged to take turns speaking, and look each other in the eye when talking. The space could
also be used for something as simple as the students presenting their ideas about what they
learned about community and culture in a lesson. Another idea that Ms. Coppolillo had was to
play a game all sitting facing forward in individual squares, and then do the same game in the
meeting circle having the students noticing the differences between the two and why one might
be better than the other. You could try to play a game or have a short discussion sitting in their
squares and then play it or have the same short discussion sitting in a circle. Making it more
active than just talking (Personal communication, 2016). All of these things can be used to

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foster social studies learning, especially when it comes to hands-on learning about community
and culture.
Discussion
The Meeting Rug holds the potential to support highly effective social studies education
by being a space that allows students to move around, see multiple view points, and encourages
classroom community. Because the rug is 10 feet by 8 feet this gives an area of 80 square feet.
Which is a surplus of room to have students be in and still be comfortable. This space encourages
classroom community because the space isnt big enough to hear the teacher if multiple people
are talking. Therefore, no one can hear the teacher, so they must practice respecting each other
by taking turns talking. If I was going to teach in this learning environment, I would have the
students bring in a personal artifact. We would talk about how we can respect each others
belongings and how we treat each other when someone else likes something different than our
own likes. Then, we would pair up and look at the object trying to decide what it is, and why it is
important to the person. Then the students could as each other questions to figure out these
prompts. To dig deeper this could be the introductory of studying culture or community in the
way that we could look at each others objects, and then we could have an artifact box from a
specific type of culture, and compare and contrast our own classroom/community culture vs. this
other culture in order to raise the rigor of the lesson. I would do most of this on the rug because
one person at a time can show their artifact or pairing on the rug would be very easy. Also,
looking at the artifact box from another culture would be simple as all the students face forward
towards the front.

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In conclusion, I believe and the evidence clearly shows this space does a very good job of
supporting social studies education, and that this meeting rug can do a number of activities
benefiting the students understanding of community and culture.

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References
Copplillo, C. (March 30,2016). Personal Communication.