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Home > Resources
What Makes an Elementary School 'Essential'?
Sidebars:
Elementary School
Networks for Change
An Essential
Elementary School Explains Itself
to Visitors
Two Approaches
to Knowing Students Better
Essential School
Qualities in Other Elementary School
Philosophies
Integrating
the Elementary Curriculum
Try and Make
Me! Motivating Young Learners
Reading and
Resources
The problems that drive secondary
schools to move toward more active
learners, more intellectual depth,
and a simpler, student-centered
structure also show up in many elementary
schools. How do the Nine Common
Principles look when they play out
in a younger setting?
You hear a lot of talk in Essential
School circles about how elementary
schools have got the right idea.
In the good elementary school, they
say, the teacher has a couple of
dozen students of diverse academic
background, and enough time with
them to know them well. She can
coach kids through rich projects
that come from the real world, without
changing to a new subject area every
time the bell rings. She can focus
on doing a few things well-reading,
writing, solving problems, making
art, getting along with each other.
You can see parents in the good elementary
school classroom; by high school
they will largely have vanished.
You can see kids' work all over
the walls. More than a high school,
a grade school can often feel like
a family, not a factory; even its
average size is far less daunting.
When Theodore R. Sizer founded the
Coalition of Essential Schools more
than a decade ago, he first aimed
his call for reform at secondary
schools, from which his own experience
had come. In imitating the discipline-bound
patterns of the university, he argued,
they had lost the simplicity and
depth of their elementary cousins.
But before long, the Coalition opened
its arms to the many elementary
schools for whom Sizer's Nine Common
Principles rang deeply true. Today,
about 20 percent of schools affiliated
with the Coalition include the elementary
grades, and the number is growing.
Yet ironically, as the national conversation
about education evolves, Essential
elementary school people are worrying
more about the very issues that
secondary schools confront.
Younger children suffer at least as
much as older ones, they point out,
from society's low expectations
about how well they can use their
minds, and from a curriculum that
privileges certain "ways of knowing"
over others. Even in the early grades,
many systems start to sort kids
into those who have a bright future
and those intended for low-level
jobs in the workforce.
A barrage of national, state, and
district mandates undermines a school
community's power to decide what
and how to teach its children. (This
typically translates into a push
for classroom methods whereby the
teacher transfers "basic skills"
directly into compliant young minds.)
Standardized tests, which young
students must take in ever greater
numbers, are crowding out the good
grade school teacher's habit of
tailoring learning tasks to students'
genuine interests and needs while
watching and documenting each student's
growth.
In the meantime, financial and societal
stresses make it harder than ever
for families to help their children
learn. An acute shortage of well-trained
teachers plagues big-city districts.
And fewer systems are willing to
buy their teachers the time it takes
to reflect with each other on what
works best for kids.
At the same time, Essential high schools
are realizing that if students are
to use their minds well in high
school, their earlier schooling
must build a base for that. "We've
got to get it right in the beginning,"
says New Mexico educator Marlis
Mann, who has been instrumental
in her state's push to embrace Essential
School principles from kindergarten
through high school and college.
"Otherwise, change is well nigh
impossible at the upper levels."
Not only in New Mexico but in Florida,
Indiana, Missouri, and other states,
just as many elementary schools
are joining the Coalition as are
middle and high schools. More districts
are moving to create "pathways"
that share a coherent educational
pattern across the grade levels,
and to bring their staffs together
more for talking and planning. (See
Horace, Vol. 11, No. 5, May 1995.)
And to stimulate dialogue and collaboration
among themselves, Essential elementary
schools have also created a support
network of their own, the National
Elementary School Networks.
What to Teach and How?
But what does classroom practice look
like in the Essential elementary
school? What does using one's mind
well mean to a first or third grader?
In curriculum, teaching practices,
and assessment methods, Essential
elementary schools tend to reply
in strikingly similar ways.
"For me, to be 'essential' means
that the children are engaged as
workers with an intellectual focus,"
says Marlis Mann. "They might start
with a question like 'What is a
frog?' and move on to explore reptiles
and amphibians. They'd get lots
of opportunities to develop skills
in sequencing, classification systems,
and strategies for problem solving."
A child-centered classroom will adapt
to the learning needs of each child,
Mann observes. "For instance, American
Indians don't use singular classification,"
she says, "and so these children
look at an object in a more integrated
way, not classifying it so readily
by color or shape. We need to recognize
this in the elementary grades and
teach 'bicognitively'. Kids may
be changing their whole thought
processes when they go from one
language to another."
The Essential elementary school's
curriculum typically centers on
language-not only reading, writing,
speaking, and listening but also
the language of numbers, spatial
relationships, thinking out problems,
and expressing oneself through the
arts. Focusing on language gives
coherence and unity across grade
levels to what students should be
able to do. To lend even more cohesion,
many schools come up with themes
or strands that bring together different
subject areas in an integrated fashion.
"Our curriculum starts with questions
about what's around us-the subway,
the seaport, the native peoples
who settled this area," says Kathy
McCullagh, who directs the Earth
School, an alternative public school
on the Lower East Side of New York
City. "By exploring these things
in ways that suit children's developmental
readiness, we can create a seamless,
integrated day."
Down the hall in Rosadelle Perez's
combined first- and second-grade
class, for instance, students have
visited the city's Transit Museum,
then built a classroom subway model
from wooden blocks and meticulously
fitted it out with turnstiles, wheelchair
ramps, and mosaic tile murals.
The project involved practice in reading,
writing, and arithmetic skills.
But it also laid a foundation of
how to learn that will continue,
McCullagh points out. In third and
fourth grade, Earth School students
make a garden in the back alley,
complete with compost heap; by fifth
and sixth grade they are writing
City Hall to protest the bulldozing
of community gardens. "Their understanding
grows," McCullagh says, "as they
build and recreate the objects of
their study."
Such a "constructivist" approach comes
up again and again in talking to
Essential School elementary teachers.
For this reason, many use hands-on
projects as a way to spark children's
classroom learning. Group projects,
as veteran teacher and author Lillian
Katz has written, give young students
a context in which to apply academic
skills, at the same time developing
their initiative, their habits of
inquiry, and their ability to collaborate.
As children develop and test out their
emerging ideas, Essential elementary
teachers also do a good deal of
listening. "Kids have to make sense
of the work themselves, often through
discussion," says Simon Hole, who
has taught fourth grade at Narragansett
Elementary School in Rhode Island
for 22 years. "At this age they
may not have the writing skills
to express themselves very well,
but they can talk about anything,
at any level. They can use their
minds well if we give them a chance
and listen."
Hole describes sitting with a group
of 20 children on the floor in his
classroom, for example, puzzling
over the meaning of Alan Arkin's
book, The Lemming Condition.
"Why does Bubber not feel like a
lemming, which he is?" he asks.
"The kids talk with each other about
his choice not to jump off the cliff
with the others, and about how that
relates to themselves and the decisions
they have to make." If the language
is too difficult," he notes, "we
read it out loud together."
Every Student as Worker
Essential elementary school teachers
place a premium on active learning,
which often puts them at odds with
the conventional grade school's
reliance on lectures, drill, and
work sheets. As well as receiving
whole-group instruction and individual
coaching, students often work together
in small groups whose members may
be of different ages or at different
academic levels but share interests,
motivation, or needs.
Elementary schools have also been
in the forefront of the reform movement's
move toward recognizing the individual
character of each student's learning
style. As more children with special
educational needs are included in
regular classrooms, and as more
students come to school with little
or no English proficiency, teachers
at the elementary level are faced
with the particular challenge of
making real the Coalition's maxim
that all children can learn. Every
day's work finds them at the center
of the controversial debates-about
inclusion, about bilingual education,
and about high standards without
standardization-that preoccupy policymakers
throughout the nation's educational
system.
At Milwaukee's Garfield School, a
citywide public school specializing
in math and science, the number
of children in poverty has risen
steadily during the last few years
of "welfare reform," principal Deborah
Jupke says. "It's an assault on
the entire family structure," she
declares. "The school has to go
beyond a narrow focus on the child,
and focus on whatever impacts the
whole child as a learner in the
community. How can you do homework
if you're homeless?"
Calling on Martin Haberman's research
on effective teachers of children
in poverty, Garfield emphasizes
"caring teachers" who use every
strategy they can find to engage
students in learning. To improve
continuity among grade levels and
to know their students better, teachers
are encouraged to stay with the
same class for two consecutive years
in the practice called "looping."
The school routinely includes in its
regular classes the 18 percent of
its students with "exceptional educational
needs," and teachers are encouraged
to find new ways to make that work
well. In one fourth-grade class,
Jupke notes, an exceptional education
teacher and a regular teacher have
teamed up with a "very mixed group,"
taking turns instructing the whole
group and working with small groups
in rotation. In a recent research
project, all students reported on
the planets, working with materials
adapted to suit their current achievement
level.
"We find that all kids benefit from
inclusion," Jupke says. "The extra
small-group attention gives any
child a chance to pick up on skills
that may still be weak, without
dropping behind the class. They
can encounter the same information,
but perhaps in smaller chunks or
with different entry questions."
One of Garfield's partners in the
Milwaukee Elementary School Network
is Escuela Fratney, a two-way bilingual
school that draws English-dominant
and Spanish-dominant students from
around the city in equal numbers.
"We teach reading in the dominant
language until the beginning of
third grade," says principal Carol
Schmuhl. "In addition, much of our
content-area curriculum uses children's
literature and asks students to
think critically about the issues
they read about."
Four broad themes unify the school's
multicultural priorities: "We respect
ourselves and others," "We share
stories of the world," "We can make
a difference on Planet Earth," and
"We send messages when we communicate."
Partly because of this sustained
focus, Schmuhl says, Fratney students
do especially well on required social
studies performance assessments.
"Our city and state curriculum and
assessment requirements are quite
compatible with the Nine Common
Principles," Schmuhl observes. "In
fact, our staff members helped shape
the district's K-12 teaching and
learning goals, which are moving
toward more authentic assessment.
The fifth-grade science assessment
is an experiment for kids to figure
out."
Making Assessment Essential
"When you're trying to keep the child
at the center," Kathy McCullagh
notes, "you've got to use ways other
than tests to get information about
the child's strengths, interests,
and progress." Some Earth School
teachers receive training in the
Primary Language Record, a detailed
portfolio that documents their growing
literacy. And the staff meets at
least monthly to conduct "descriptive
reviews" of children, student work,
and curriculum and teaching practices.
(Both these processes are described
in Horace, Vol. 13, No. 2, November
1996.)
"We observe what our children know
and can do through sitting beside
them and watching," McCullagh says,
and then she dryly describes the
battery of standardized tests her
students nonetheless must undergo.
"When the scores come back, they
don't reflect what we know about
them." In fact, when they send test
scores home, Earth School teachers
include a letter home to parents
to put the results in perspective.
"These scores are not a measure
of everything a child knows," it
reads in part. "Tests are only a
small part of what children do in
school. When you look at your child's
scores consider them as one more
piece of their work-like a painting,
or a poem, or a research report."
Even teachers whose districts use
more open-ended standardized "performance
assessments" find themselves frustrated
by the tests. Limitations compared
to richer observations of student
work. When scores simply record
that children do not meet grade-level
standards at a particular grade,
they complain, it is difficult to
show actual student growth from
one year to the next. In addition,
they remark, it seems unfair to
assess a child's writing ability
using just one prompt for one kind
of writing on one day.
At the New Suncook School in Lovell,
Maine, a group of such teachers
worked out an alternative system
of assessing reading and writing,
with a small grant from the Southern
Maine Partnership, a regional Center
of the Coalition. First they used
their existing standards to create
clear descriptions of nine consecutive
"stages" for reading and writing,
culminating with the proficiency
they expected from eighth graders.
In cumulative portfolios, students
now submit, and teachers score,
a writing sample demonstrating proficiency
in each stage (or several samples,
in the later stages). Their reading
portfolios include a taped oral
reading, a written reflection on
a piece of reading (for the upper
levels), and specific observations
by the classroom teacher. Aided
by a handbook of exemplars, teachers
rate student work samples along
the continuum of stages, making
the portfolio into a ready record
of prior achievement as the student
moves on.
Spurred by the success of their pilot
project across the district, the
New Suncook teachers extended their
method to assessing students. Mastery
of content and skills using portfolios
of work on interdisciplinary theme-based
projects.
"As we try to 'standardize' authentic
assessment for reliability purposes,
we sometimes lose the child's individuality
in the process," write Karen Johnson
and Rhonda Poliquin in a detailed
and useful booklet about their method.
"The portfolios are a beginning
step toward including both standardization
and individuality in authentic assessment."
Collaboration Around Kids
It's rare, though, that elementary
teachers get enough time together
to carry out such an ambitious rethinking
of their practice. Though they teach
fewer students than their secondary
colleagues, they are usually on
duty all day long, without the planning
and preparation period that can
come with a less integrated day.
But other factors (not least, the
high percentage of women in their
ranks) make elementary school teachers
among the most collegial in the
field. And collaboration-with parents,
with community agencies, and with
each other-permeates most Essential
elementary schools.
At Oakland Park Elementary School
in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the
faculty has reorganized classes
into multi-grade "families" that
include teachers and students from
kindergarten through fourth grade.
"It's not just a social system;
we buddy up for all kinds of things,"
says Pam Tindall, who teaches one
of the school's nine mixed-age classes
of first and second graders. "My
class regularly goes to read and
write with a third-grade class.
I can tell it has a big effect on
improving quality-their work takes
on much more importance to them."
Oakland Park teachers meet regularly
in family groups, grade-level groups,
and study groups, discussing Coalition
principles, comparing notes, and
trading materials on ideas ranging
from puppet shows to photo journals.
Teaching parents is part of the
work of teaching children here;
at tables in the back of the school
auditorium, a dozen mothers work
on learning English or studying
for the high school equivalency
exam, with child care provided for
their younger children on the premises.
And the outside community has also
joined the effort: local banks and
restaurants share information and
resources, and even the shrubs that
line the walkways near a maze of
portable classrooms were planted
with the help of a nearby center
for handicapped youth.
"My own experience with the Nine
Common Principles shows that at
first reading, elementary people
say, 'We already do that,'" says
Simon Hole. "We personalize teaching
and learning; we include all students,
we're generalists. But if we take
time to examine the principles more
deeply, we find we may not have
looked hard enough at them. Do I
have a sense of commitment to the
entire school, or does it stay close
in to the classroom or grade level?
Do I really look at and expand my
knowledge of what's going on in
alternative assessment, in learning
theory? Or do I group my heterogeneous
class into separate reading levels
and teach them separately?"
Elementary teachers throughout the
Coalition are asking the same questions.
And as new bonds form between traditionally
separate spheres of early and later
education, their answers are beginning
to cast a long shadow over the future
of how their students learn.
Elementary School
Networks for Change
The Center for Collaborative
Education (CCE) in
New York City created
the National Elementary
school Networks(NESN)
in 1993 to add an
elementary school
voice and perspective
to the school reform
movement in the United
States, and to demonstrate
a school-based model
for restructuring
education and supporting
learner-centered
teaching. Building
on the work of both
CCE and the Coalition
of Essential Schools,
it aims to shift
ownership of school
reform efforts to
school communities;
to build new relationships
that extend and deepen
school practices;
and to connect the
areas of school practices,
policies and advocacy.
In Milwaukee(Wisconsin),
New Mexico, New York,
Indiana, Ohio and
Colorado, NESN has
supported the development
of school-based centers
that sustain local
whole-school elementary
reform. By doing
so it created a place
for elementary school
practitioners in
the Coalition of
Essential Schools
to discuss pathways
that link kindergarten
through twelfth grade
in the school reform
context. And in the
process, it informed
the restructuring
of the Coalition
itself, by demonstrating
the strength and
vibrancy of school-based
centers.
By enlarging the definition
of who can participate
in the work of school
change, NESN leader
Priscilla Ellington
says NESN's school-based
centers provide crucial
stability to reform
efforts. They highlight
the role of reflection
and inquiry in deepening
teacher practice,
extend the conversation
to include all members
of the school community,
broaden the notion
of leadership and
create new access
to setting the reform
agenda in schools.
"Centers provide
both a foundation
and a framework for
school change"
she says "supporting
the important conversations
about teaching and
school practices
while developing
ownership of the
practices and the
work".
For more information
contact NESN 1573
Madison Ave, Room
201, New York, NY
10029-3899. Tel:
(212)348-7821.
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An Essential Elementary
School Explains Itself
to Visitors
Visitors to Earth
School classrooms
are welcomed with
a simple flier that
explains the school's
philosophy, and asks
them to look around
for signs of how
children at the school
are learning. For
example, it says,
"Do you see evidence"
of:
Young readers, writers,
and mathematical
reasoners at work?
Books arranged invitingly
in the room, easy
to take out and put
away
A variety of books
(fiction, nonfiction,
reference, easy,
difficult, student-made)
Words at work (print
on the walls of the
room, labeling classroom
objects)
Graphs, charts and
other math work displayed
n Materials that
children can use
to help them understand
math concepts
Themes that give
depth and unity to
classroom studies?
Books, charts, student
work with a common
focus
Art projects, cooking,
and music related
to this focus n Large-scale
projects that look
like they have been
going on for days
Photographs, art,
class books about
trips in the neighborhood
and city
Children working
independently?
A place in the room
for each child's
individual storage
Areas where children
can work on their
own
A schedule for the
day posted in the
room so children
know what to expect
Supplies stored so
that children can
get what they need
to do their work
Children working
cooperatively?
A place in the room
where the whole class
can sit together
and talk
Tables arranged so
groups of children
can work together
A chart of class
jobs
Older children helping
younger children
Children helping
each other solve
problems
Children making
choices?
A variety of activities
going on at the same
time
Materials (such as
computers) that invite
children to explore
and find out more
Teachers supporting
and extending children's
efforts?
Children's work displayed
attractively on the
walls of the room
Small groups working
with teachers on
specific challenges
Folders, notebooks,
or other systems
to individualize
assignments
Teachers questioning,
encouraging, and
praising children
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Two Approaches to
Knowing Students
Better
The commonsense Essential
School principle
that teachers should
know their students
well is consistently
borne out by such
research on school
effectiveness as
that conducted in
the 1980s by Paul
S. George and Lynn
L. Oldaker for the
National Middle School
Association. In many
Essential elementary
schools, the following
strategies for achieving
this personalization
are gaining ground:
Multi-age Primary
Classrooms
Teaching primary students
of different grade
levels in multiage
classrooms is increasingly
common in Essential
elementary schools
with a developmental
philosophy of learning.
Because children
develop at very different
paces from concrete
to more abstract
thinking and learning,
mixed-age advocates
assert, it makes
little sense to sort
and label children
into fixed grade
levels from an early
age-especially if
the result is retention
and an early sense
of failure for the
child. Better to
extend the age range
in the classroom
and provide a nurturing,
success-oriented
environment for children
at widely different
developmental levels.
British primary schools
have used mixed-age
grouping since the
1960s; every seven-year-old,
for example, must
demonstrate mastery
of certain math skills
before moving into
the next level. In
the United States,
mixed-age classrooms
display various grouping
patterns. Many schools
combine five- and
six-year-olds, then
also provide a mixed
first and second
grade (with six-
to nine-year-olds),
as well as third-fourth
grade and sometimes
fifth-sixth grade
combinations. Few
favor grouping five-year-olds
with eight-year-olds,
believing that younger
children need time
to grow used to group
work with the older
ones.
Research on mixed-age
grouping shows that
it works better for
some children than
others, but that
no students seem
to do worse. Many
bright but immature
students benefit
from a mix of academic
stimulation and a
social environment
geared toward younger
children.
Mixed-age groups present
several challenges
to teachers. They
must come up with
activities and materials-theme
cycles, projects,
and the like-that
can pull together
their learning objectives.
They must adapt their
teaching and assessment
style to a more individualized
approach, perhaps
working with small
groups that shift
by task, or using
work plans or "contracts"
to keep track of
students. Mastery
of various skills.
Often, they must
work more closely
with another teacher
to share ideas, resources,
or students.
Looping
Whether as a formal
policy or an informal
arrangement, many
schools interested
in knowing students
better are trying
out "looping,"the
practice of allowing
teachers to keep
the same students
over a period of
two or more years
as they advance from
one grade to the
next. Looping has
some of the advantages
of the multiage classroom,
but many teachers
find it easier because
the ability and age
range of students
is not so broad.
Some teachers use
looping as a first
step in the move
to multiage groups.
Because looping lets
them begin the year
with a closer knowledge
of each student's
prior experience,
teachers say, it
maximizes time for
learning and allows
summer to include
assignments or projects
that link one year
to the next. Its
disadvantages: students
could suffer from
two years with a
poorly performing
teacher; multi-year
classes could include
more than the usual
share of children
who need special
attention; or teachers
may not receive the
support they need
to deal with the
new level's curriculum
and developmental
aspects.
Looping has long been
common practice in
Europe and Japan;
in Rudolf Steiner's
Waldorf schools,
teachers stay with
the same group of
students for eight
years. In the United
States, the Society
of Developmental
Education in Peterborough,
New Hampshire offers
materials and information
on the looping approach.
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Essential School Qualities
in Other Elementary
School Philosophies
The Basic School.
A comprehensive plan
to strengthen elementary
education developed
under the late Ernest
L. Boyer at the Carnegie
Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching,
the Basic School
is part philosophy,
part blueprint for
bringing together
all the key components
of what Carnegie
regards as effective
schools. In addition
to its larger objective
of excellence for
all, the Basic School
sets five educational
goals for students:
to communicate effectively;
to acquire a core
of knowledge while
making connections
across the disciplines
and relating what
they learn to life;
to be a motivated
learner with the
skills to gather
information and solve
problems; to feel
a sense of physical,
emotional, and social
well-being; and to
live responsibly.
The Basic School seeks
to build a community
in which teachers
work together and
parents are actively
involved. And it
gives high priority
to character education,
calling for students
to apply the lessons
of the classroom
to the world around
them via the seven
"core virtues" of
honesty, respect,
responsibility, compassion,
self-discipline,
perseverance, and
giving.
The Basic School curriculum
is organized around
eight integrative
themes-"core commonalities,"
or universal experiences-that
spiral upward from
kindergarten to the
upper grades. Every
traditional subject
or academic discipline,
Boyer argued, can
find a home within
these themes: the
Life Cycle, the Use
of Symbols, Membership
in Groups, a Sense
of Time and Space,
Response to the Aesthetic,
Connections to Nature,
Producing and Consuming,
and Living with Purpose.
The Basic School places
great importance
on fostering children's
love of learning.
Class size is kept
small, the teaching
schedule is flexible,
and student grouping
arrangements are
varied to promote
learning. Beyond
a solid academic
program, the school
provides basic health
and counseling services
and afternoon and
summer enrichment
programs for students.
For more information,
contact: Basic School
Network, James Madison
University, 101 Roop
Hall, Harrisonburg,
VA 22807. Tel.: (540)
568-7098, (540) 568-3803
(fax); e-mail: bafumome
@jmu.edu. Or read
Ernest L. Boyer,
The Basic School:
A Community for Learning.
Ewing, NJ: Carnegie
Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching,
1995.
The Reggio Emilia
approach. This
approach to teaching
in early childhood
and the pre-primary
grades, developed
in the northern Italian
community of Reggio
Emilia, has attracted
much recent interest
in the United States.
The curriculum centers
around long-term
small-group projects
that arise from the
interests of children;
it uses drawing,
sculpture, dramatic
play, writing and
other "symbolic languages"
as the means of investigating
children's emerging
ideas. Teachers are
regarded as both
constantly learning
themselves and continually
documenting the children's
learning; working
in classroom pairs,
they divide responsibilities
so that one can systematically
observe, take notes,
and record conversations
between children.
Teachers and parents
then use these observations
in curriculum planning
and evaluation. Reggio
Emilia's approach
makes parents, community,
and the physical
environment central
to young children's
education.
For more information,
see: Edwards, C.,
L. Gandini, and G.
Forman, eds., The
Hundred Languages
of Children: The
Reggio Emilia Approach
to Early Childhood
Education. Norwood,
NJ: Ablex, 1993.
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Integrating
the Elementary Curriculum
The Earth School in
New York City designs
classroom studies
to address children's
concerns and curiosity
at every age, and
to grow more complex
as their questions
and ability to understand
information changes.
The curriculum centers
around two year social
studies themes that
relate directly to
students own environment
and to the interdependence
of people. By investigating
a topic deeply, children
practice skills from
across the curriculum.
And rather than a
confusing, fragmented
course of study in
which each grade
level is disconnected
from the others,
the curriculum sets
the work of students
in a steady progression
as follows:
Pre-Kindergarten
and Kindergarten:
The world of
the child: This includes
"me in a classroom"
"me in the school"
and "me in the
neighborhood".
First and Second
Grades: the Child
in the City: Children
may investigate playgrounds,
Central Park, bridges,
factories, zoos,
produce markets,
housing, or the South
Street Seaport.
Third and Fourth
Grades: Manhattan
Island Long Ago.
Children research
the history and environment
of the Lenape people,
who were native to
the region, and of
the settlement of
New Amsterdam.
Fifth and Sixth
Grades: Coming
to Freedom and Justice
in America. Ten and
eleven year olds
research the colonial
period and the Bill
of Rights the Reconstruction
era and civil rights,
or immigration from
other nations.
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Try and Make Me! Motivating
Young Learners
How do good teachers
get children to believe
that learning is
its own reward? Since
1959 University of
Wisconsin professor
Martin Haberman has
observed and analyzed
the behavior of very
effective teachers
working with children
in urban poverty.
Successful teachers,
he concludes, care
most of all about
knowing children
well so that they
might find entry
points into their
learning. They deal
with behavior problems
not as "discipline"
issues, but by working
to find new ways
to motivate and interest
students. They measure
their success by
the degree of effort
they inspire in students.
They work with parents,
rather than supervise,
inform, or blame
them. They stay away
from letter grades,
and shift the students
explanation of success
from "ability"
to "effort"
they use the class
to set group norms
of expected behavior
and see punishments
as a last resort,
an indication that
they have failed
in their work of
motivating students
to learn.
In 1995 book Star
Teachers of Children
in Poverty, Haberman
describes some e
strategies such teachers
use to create intrinsic
motivation for learning.
Ultimately students
cannot be forced
to learn he writes,
and the game of teachers
pretending otherwise
is one that traditional
teachers inevitably
lose. In the classroom
climate established
by starts, learning
is transformed from
teacher assignments
to "something
we're in together"
They do this, he
says, by:
Knowing that it will
take time to win
children over to
an interest-based
approach and arouse
their natural curiosity
and interest in learning.
Beginning with some
external rewards
for class, group,
and individual participation,
but watching for
kids to show interest
in particular activities.
Using the problems
children face every
day in their neighborhoods
as the basis for
learning activities
Building on events
in other classrooms
and around the school
to arouse students'
interest
Capitalizing on children's
interest in music,
games, and popular
heroes
Recognizing the outstanding
talents of some children-such
as singing, playing
chess, programming
computers, dancing,
speaking another
language, etc. will
spur the interest
of others
Modeling learning behavior
by bringing their
own interests to
class: weaving,writing,
construction, film
making, etc.
Using individual leaders
and the natural influence
of groups and teams
to follow-up activities
Raising questions-the
answers to which
the teachers do not
know-that will spark
the curiosity of
children and spur
them to investigate
and explain to the
teacher
Using real events-such
as performance for
parents, a class
magazine, or the
production of a school
play or program as
a focus for involving
children
Spending countless
hours listening to
children tell about
their activities
out of school, to
learn what their
interests and talents
might be
Meeting with parents
to learn more abort
a child's current
and potential activities
Conferring with other
teachers, reading
popular journals
and searching for
new ideas and strategies
that will interest
children in activities.
From Star Teachers
of Children in Poverty,
by Martin Haberman(Lafayette,
Indiana, Kappa Delta
Pi, 1995) Tel: (800)284-3164
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Readings and Resources
Sue Bredekamp and Teresa
Rosegrant, eds. Reaching
Potentials: Appropriate
Curriculum and Assessment
for Young Children,
Vol. 1. Washington
DC: national Association
for the Education
of Young Children,
1992.
Carnegie Corporation
of New York, Years
of Promise: a comprehensive
learning strategy
for America's Children.
New York: Carnegie
Corporation, 1996.
Tel (212)207-6285.
Dorothy Cohen, Designing
groupwork: Strategies
for the Heterogeneous
Classroom. New
York, Teachers college
Press, 1994.
Robin Fogarty, The
Mindful School: how
to integrate the
Curricula. Palatine,
IL. Skylight Publishing
1991.
Galef Institute 11050
Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Tel: (310)479-8883
Karen Johnson and Rhonda
Piliquin, Developing
Learner-Centered
Assessment System:
K-8 Literacy Continua
and interdisciplinary
portfolios(1995)
5.00 from Southern
Maine Partnership
117 Bailey Hall,
University of Southern
Maine, Gorham, ME
04038 (207)780-5498
Lilian G. Katz and
S.C. Chard Engaging
Children's Minds:
the Project Approach.
Norwood, NJ Ablex,
1992
Schlomo Sharan and
Yael Sharan, Expanding
Cooperative Learning
through Group Investigation,
New York Teacher's
College Press, 1992
S. Stainback and W.
Stainback, Curriculum
Considerations in
Inclusive Classrooms:
Facilitating Learning
for All Students.
Baltimore: Paul Brookes,
1992
Jim Grant, Bob Johnson,
and Irv Richardson,
The Looping Handbook:
Teachers and Students
Progressing Together.
Peterborough, NH
Crystal Springs books,
1995. Society for
Developmental Education
101 Sharon Road PO
Box 577 Peterborough
NH 03458. 1-800-321-0401
Virginia Education
Association and Appalachia
Educational Laboratory,
Teaching Combined
Grade classes: Real
Problems and Promising
Practices. Charleston
WV Appalachia Educational
laboratory, 1990
National Association
of Elementary School
principals, Standards
for Quality Elementary
and Middle Schools:
Kindergarten through
Eighth Grade
Alexandria, VA NAESP,
1990 1-800-38 NAESP.
Prospect Center, North
Bennington, Vermont
05257-0326. (802)-442-8333.
Project Zero, 323 Longfellow
Hall, Harvard Graduate
School of Education,
Cambridge, MA 02138.
(617)495-4342.
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Price: $5
Code: H13:5
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This resource last updated: May 14, 2002
Database Information:
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Source: Horace.Vol. 13, #5. May 1997.
Publisher: CES National
Type: Horace Feature, Horace Sidebar
School Level: Elementary
Issue: 13.5
Focus Area: School Design
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