Glimpses into the Classrooms:
A quarterly newsletter highlighting innovative assignments
From left, Upper School science teacher Lisa Keen works with a student on a lab procedure involving genetic engineering. Upper
School Social Sciences Chair Jack Henderson takes his class outdoors to continue discussions following a power outage.
Middle School
Cross-Curriculum
Fifth-grade teachers: What began as a reading assignment for fifth-graders has evolved into a
cross-curriculum project studying the Iditarod, the famous Alaskan dogsled race, and culminated last
month with a visit from musher, Rodney Whaley, and his four huskies. Middle School English teacher
Barbara Royse began the Iditarod project six years ago when she had her class read, “Black Star, Bright
Dawn,” a story about an Eskimo girl, Bright Dawn, who takes the family’s place in the Iditarod after her
father is injured. For Mrs. Royse’s class, students use research, technology, writing and communication
skills to present Power Point presentations on various aspects of the race. Science teacher Stephanie
Romary has the students study everything from the weather and climate to the environmental issues
facing Alaska. Social studies teacher Robert Benson has students study the geography, as well as the
economy of Alaska.
Foreign Languages: Spanish
Seventh-grade Spanish with Marees Choppin: Students created “Mi Familia,” family photograph
albums by scanning and downloading pictures of family members in a Power Point venue. In Spanish, the
students recorded their voices as they described each photo and family member, giving physical
characteristics, personality, likes and dislikes, etc. In their presentations to the class, each student
provided a brief summary in Spanish. The project is the culmination of all the skills they learned this year
– listening, reading, writing and speaking.
Geography
Merrie Clark: Seventh-graders spent time during third quarter on the Women of the West project,
a study of the role women played in the Great Overland Migration of the 19th Century. The girls spent a
week in the library, conducting research on a variety of topics including reading biographies of famous
women who traveled on the trail; learning the routes and features of trails such as the Oregon Trail, the
California Trail, and the Mormon Trail; and discovering how different women’s experiences were in terms
of journey preparations, hardships, chores, dangers, and leisure activities. Students used books from the
library collection; primary source documents including letters, diaries, and images from the Library of
Congress; and websites to conduct their research.
During the second week of the project, Dr. Melissa Wert taught the girls the basics of webpage
authoring. Each student created her own webpage to present her findings and linked it to her classmates’
pages so that the end product was a fully functional website that tells visitors all they could ever want to
know about Women in the West.
Mrs. Clark’s Women of the West project website is located at:
http://hh.harpethhall.org/faculty/clark_faculty/women_of_the_west/
Kim Nadell: Eighth-grade students study Ancient History, and they read Diane Stanley’s
biography, Cleopatra, in class. They then went to the library and used books, library databases, and
websites to research religion, home and family life, monuments, a professional person, and market and
city life. Instead of writing a typical “report,” the girls created illustrated historical fiction stories set in
Ancient Egypt. (These are now on display in the Library.) Students were evaluated with an excellent
rubric that included fact requirements, historical accuracy, creativity, and composition. Diane Stanley
came to all eighth-grade classes and talked about the image of Cleopatra as seen throughout history. A
project such as this requires a much higher level of thinking, as students must apply their research to a
creative project.
Math - Algebra I:
Reney McAtee: In a class on linear relationships, students used a graphing calculator to collect
and analyze data. They collected data on the drop and bounce heights of a tennis ball and wrote a lab
report (aligned with the IPS lab report standards). They analyzed the data with their TI-84 graphing
calculators and were able to link their calculators to their laptops to include calculator screen images in
the “Data and Analysis” section of their lab reports. In the end, the girls found a linear equation to
approximate the relationship of the drop and bounce heights of a tennis ball.
Upper School
Art:
Art I with Joan Curry: With 2006 Carell Artist in Residence Billy Renkl bringing his mixed media
approach to the classroom, Joan Curry altered her standard linoleum print assignment to integrate a
collage component that had the students incorporating research and critical thinking skills into their
artwork and elevating their collages to a new level of intellectual focus. Artistically, the collages
emphasized compositional skills and allowed the young artist who is developing technical skills to create
specific, layered, in-depth work with a message. Students chose current events topics ranging from
endangered species to the Patriot Act as the focal point of their collages.
In her collage project, a senior writes: “The focus of my collage project is on the duality of the
Patriot Act and the struggle between protection and privacy. In order to analyze both, I made two collages
representing the pros and cons of the Patriot Act. Each is from the perspective of someone who sees
truth only in their opinion on the matter and makes no concessions to the other standpoint. The polarity of
the two pieces suggests that there must be a happy medium between the two points of view as well as
between protecting only our safety or protecting only our privacy.”
English:
Nancy Grimes: The sophomore Honors English class researched and compared the Hero from
the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf and the Japanese Samurai warrior as implied in the novel by Gail Tsukiyama
The Samurai's Garden. The girls used critical books, web links, library databases, and current events to
compose a paper evaluating which hero would be a better model for today’s society. There was no right
or wrong answer for this assignment, and the girls formed their opinions based on their research.
Foreign Languages:
Spanish IV with Elizabeth Allen and Jacquie Watlington: As Spanish IV begins the last chapter for
the semester, “Nature and the Environment,” students are partnering with the Nashville Zoo. The
students chose a zoo animal (from any zoo) in which they have an interest and made an oral report in
class about the animal, its origins, habits, characteristics and any special or unique information they
would like to share. In the process, they incorporated new vocabulary from this chapter.
In addition, as they continue regular grammar studies, students will be taking on a large project
for the zoo's Education Department by translating their educational materials into Spanish that will be
available to community schools that have a need for Spanish language materials. Spirit of Service
Director Jacquie Watlington is facilitating this project with the students and zoo staff. The education
packets are quite challenging, and the students have been incorporating their new vocabulary and many
complex grammar structures into a "real-world" context. The hope is this opportunity will lead to others of
this kind, given the explosive growth of the Spanish-speaking community in Nashville. Eventually, we
hope to see our students volunteering to lead programs for Spanish-speaking children.
Latin IV and V with Emily Cummings: An opportunity to build mentoring relationships occurred
between Upper School and Middle School students when the Latin IV and V students prepared grammar
review lessons and taught one of Ben Abraham’s Middle School classes before the National Latin Exam.
The upper school students enjoyed the experience of teaching a class and the Middle School students
responded well. In addition, the Upper School students encouraged the middle school students to
continue taking Latin and the Middle School students asked upper school students questions about Upper
School life.
History:
Jack Henderson: In his class, Dr. Henderson incorporates the Harkness Style of seminar
discussions, which is much more student-oriented, with the teacher asking an open-ended question and
then stepping aside as the students take over the discussion. Moreover, unlike “opinion” discussions, the
girls must read a particular article or assignment for that day and are responsible for making certain that
they explore and understand all of the pertinent points. In this format, the students are much more
involved and “take ownership” of the reading far more than in a traditional lecture in which they sit and
take notes. Bonnie Moses also includes this style of discussion in her classes with great success.
Bonnie Moses: Upper School European History students in Bonnie Moses’ class were required to
research and write a paper about Napoleon. The topic was: “Napoleon: defender and preserver of the
Revolution?”
The girls took a position on the topic and supported their position with research, thus sharpening their
critical thinking skills. An excellent feature of this assignment was the source requirements.
 Two articles from a multi-volume reference source
 Two articles from library subscription databases
 One primary source document
 Additional sources may be used, but Wikipedia is not allowed because it is not a reliable source.
By requiring students to use scholarly sources, students produce better papers and learn the
difference between scholarly research materials and popular web sources.
Science:
Lisa Keen: Freshmen in biology class performed a form of genetic engineering called genetic
transformation. The goal was to create transgenic organisms that carry and express foreign genes. The
experiment illustrated how simple the process of gene manipulation can be. In the lab, three new genes
were introduced and inserted into normal E. coli bacteria by a process called heat shock. The most
interesting of the three donor genes transplanted originated from a jellyfish. This particular gene, Green
Fluorescent Protein (GFP), codes for a protein that result in the bacteria displaying bioluminescence. In
other words, bacteria that “take up” this gene will glow. The girls performed heat shock and plating of
bacteria onto agar Petri dishes. The girls returned to the lab after a 24-hour incubation period to observe
the results. The goal was achieved – they were glowing. This procedure was one that Mrs. Keen did in
graduate work at Vanderbilt University. She adds: “It is a satisfying feeling to be able to bring this
amazing technology to these girls so early in their Upper School education.”
Two sophomores with their Scienc
Olympiad robot, “Charles” took first place.
A collage of the Patriot Act, which
was created in Art 1.
Middle School students’ clay sculptures of
famous people show in Diane Stanley’s books.