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What Do We Expect to See?

Thank you to the students in Mrs. Rodney’s second grade class for writing the story

and creating the artwork for this book.

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One day,I came to your class with a question,and I asked you for help.I said,I’m confused about this thing called seeing.We do it every day, but I think it is more complicated than it seems.Do you think 25 minds, and 25 pairs of eyes, are better than one?You agreed to help me,so we set out together to talk about seeing,and what it means to all of us.

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We started by thinking about the differencesbetween seeing and not seeing.

We wondered- what things could we not see?First you said the air- it’s all around us, but we can’t always see it.

Then, you said we couldn’t see everything that might live underground.So, we drew pictures of what we imagined to be underground,

in order to see what is normally invisible.

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You sketched worms and their tunnels,water, fossils, and fish,cities for their families,and snails as well.

You drew miners digging for treasure,the fiery core of the earth,and molten lava coming up through the dirt.

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What you sketched was amazing, and so realistic!You illustrated what you knew

from books, science, and school-but we thought to ourselves…

If we can’t see what is far underground,why didn’t anyone imagine something new?

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You said,it’s easier to know than to imagine.You wanted to get it right, and didn’t know you could be creative.So then we wondered, what are we knowing instead of imagining?How often do we see what we know,instead of seeing something new?

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So we set out to discoverwhat we imagine, know, and see.

We each wrote a story about a time we saw something we didn’t expect,

and how it changed what we know and imagine.

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To help make your stories clear, you drew pictures showing what you sawnext to what you had expected to see.You showed bears crossing monkey bars…basketball coaches making slam dunks…animals in strange places…clouds shaped like a game of ping pong...getting a good grade instead of a bad one...and the ocean returning something you lost.

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Your stories and illustrations showed how seeing something we didn’t already know

changed our expectations.So we talked and we thought together-

why do we think bears can’t walk on monkey bars,older people can’t dunk a ball,

and we can’t get a good grade…when actually we can?

You said our minds and our memories,what we have seen in the past,

shapes what we knowand what we expect to see.

So we decided to figure this out.What parts of our knowing make us see certain things?We thought and we chatted, and we wrote and we drewand together we decided to map our way through.We made lists and connected the dots,drew pathways, circles, and clouds…We were amazed and astounded-so many places, people, and things!

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Tired from all our hard work,we sat back and gazed at our map.

What does it all mean?With so many possibilities,

how can we ever be sure of what we know, imagine, and see?

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You said, everyone has different experienceswhich shape what we expect to see…so everyone sees differently,and that’s okay with us.

You also said everything and everyonedeserves a second look,because we really might not knowall the things that we see.

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So thanks to your help,your minds, words, artwork, and time,

I understand better what it really means to see.Together we figured it out

and worked our way through-from old ways of knowing

to new ways of seeing.

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