You never know…
You never know when someone
May catch a dream from you.
You never know when a little word
Or something you may do
May open up the windows
Of a mind that seeks the light The way you live may not matter at all,
But you never know - it might.
And just in case it could be
That another's life, through you,
Might possibly change for the better
With a brighter and broader view.
It seems it might be worth a try
At pointing the way to the right Of course it may not matter at all,
But then again - it might.
Helen Louise Marshall
Exploring
New Horizons
In Academics
Eclectic Learning Environment
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Multi-Age K-8th
Inclusive--Multi-Cultural, Multi-Ability, Multi-Economic
Inquiry Based Learning
School-wide Enrichment Model (Taylor Talents)
Intrinsically Motivated Students
A Community Of Life-Long Learners
Child Centered w/ Parent and Community Involvement
Literacy Centered Environment
Research Based
Experiential Based / Student Initiated Projects
ACOS - Objective Based Curriculum
Authentic Assessment
Authentic Assessment
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Portfolio Samples (Electronic Portfolio)
Student Work Samples Showing Progress
Anecdotal Records
Student Self-Assessments
Parental Assessments
Weekly Contract/Journal of Activities
Teacher and Student Made Assessments (Rubrics/Tests)
Checklists of Math Competencies
Regularly Monitored Reading Assessments
 Dibels
 QRI
 Miscues / Running Records
As Available:
 Outside Assessments – perhaps through the University Testing Center
 Ongoing Cooperative Instruction and Assessment from University
Practicum Students
 Community Assessment ( Contests, PTA Reflections, Etc.)
Checklist of Student Competencies Correlated to the Curriculum (ACOS).
Progress Reporting
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Individualized Learning Plans (ILP)
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Developed according to the student’s Strengths, Weaknesses and Goals
Teacher, Student and Parents
set by
Comprehensive Narrative Report
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Based on the ILP, this report relays student progress, including areas of study the student
has completed during the semester, successes and recommendations for further
investigation, enrichment and development.
Technology
Computer and Other
Technology …
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Research
Writing
Presentations
Web Sites
Music
Video Display
Learning Games
Video Production
Digital Camera work
Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Publisher)
Keyboarding
Electronic Portfolios
The Arts
There’s more to art than
just coloring…
 Drama
through local theater
 Reader’s Theater
 Music
 Artists in Residence
 Drawing / Painting / Crafts
 Elements of Design
 Artist Studies
 Creative Projects
Community Service
Commitment to…
 Character Education
 Altruistic Projects
 Community Involvement
 Cooperative Learning/Teaching
Providing Diversity
Cultural Diversity
Economic Diversity
Social Diversity
Academic Diversity
We cannot begin know ourselves until we observe, experience and
respect the differences in others.
Kids Who Are Different
by Digby Wolfe
Here's to the kids who are different,
The kids who don't always get A's,
The kids who have ears twice the size of their peers,
And noses that go on for days...
Here's to the kids who are different,
The kids they call crazy or dumb,
The kids who don't fit, with the guts and the grit,
Who dance to a different drum...
Here's to the kids who are different,
The kids with the mischievous streak,
For when they have grown, as history's shown,
It's their difference that makes them unique.
As teachers, we must always put ourselves in situations where we continue to
increase our awareness and understanding of a diverse society. We will strive to
model the characteristics listed here and try to instill these values in our students.
The ABCs of Tolerance
Acceptance
Belonging
Community
Diversity
Equality
Fairness
Golden Rule
Harmony
Interests
Justice
Kindness
L ove
Model
Nurturing
Open mindedness
Patience
Quality
Respect
Success
Tolerance
Understanding
Validation
Worthy
eXceptional
Yearning
Zeal
Marian Wright Edelman
We pray for children
who sneak popsicles before supper,
who erase holes in math workbooks,
who can never find their shoes
And we pray for those
who stare at photographers
from behind barbed wire,
who can’t bound down the street
in a new pair of sneakers,
who never “counted potatoes,”
who are born in places we wouldn’t be caught dead,
who never go to the circus,
who live in an X rated world.
We pray for children
who bring us sticky kisses
and fistfuls of dandelions,
who hug us in a hurry
and forget their lunch money.
And we pray for those
who never get desert,
who have no safe blanket
to drag behind them,
who watch their parents watch them die,
who can’t find any bread to steal,
who don’t have any rooms to clean up,
whose pictures aren’t on anybody’s dresser,
whose monsters are real.
We pray for children
who spend all their allowance
before Tuesday,
who throw tantrums in the grocery store
and pick at their food,
who like ghost stories,
who shove dirty clothes under the bed,
and never rinse out the tub,
who get visits from the tooth fairy,
who don’t like to be kissed
in front of the carpool,
who squirm in church or temple
and scream in the phone,
whose tears we sometimes laugh at and
whose smiles can make us cry.
And we pray for those
whose nightmares come in the daytime,
who will eat anything,
who have never seen a dentist,
who aren’t spoiled by anybody,
who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
who live and move, but have no being.
We pray for children who want to be carried,
and for those who must,
for those we never give up on and for those
who don’t get a second chance.
For those we smother… and those who will grab
the hand of anyone kind enough to offer it.
Please offer your hands to them so that no child
is left behind because we did not act.
Question:
If we know all of this is “Best
Practice”, then why aren’t
our educational institutions
set up to accommodate
student needs?
Answer:
Because it takes much more
time, money, hard work,
commitment to professional
development, commitment
from students, parents and
community, than there are
resources available.
In the effort to provide
equity for all…
Schools have
lost sight of
the individual
needs of the
students.
An Exemplary School
For the past eight years, Tuscaloosa City Schools Board of
Education supported Central Elementary’s unique
approach to learning. With smaller class sizes and a
special focus on Literacy, Technology, Foreign Language
and Arts in Education, Central’s magnet status drew
students from primarily “high achieving schools” to one
in a “high poverty, low achieving” district. The school
maintained a core faculty dedicated to extensive staff
development and meeting individual needs of children,
through building a community of life-long learners in a
child centered environment.
Change is Inevitable
With a major influx of students from a
highly traditional school that closed, who
did not understand nor embrace Central’s
concept, combined with dwindling
resources exacerbated by Proration budget
cuts, the Central Elementary School of
Arts In Education program will no longer
be supplemented by the City Board.
Keeping It Going
A group of concerned parents has begun a grass roots
effort to begin a private school based on the same
principals as the fated Central program. Banding
together to “home school” their children the first year,
their goal is to develop interest in the community,
University, local churches and parents to rebuild a highly
effective and soundly research-based, non-traditional,
multi-age, multicultural program that sets high standards
for all students using the basic elements previously
employed at Central.
Did You Know…?
You may know students, teachers, parents and
supporters of the Central Elementary School of
Arts in Education. You may have heard about
the annual large scale school plays and the
Traveling Troupe of players that perform
around our city (and state) and on television.
You may know that Central was one of the first
Literacy Demonstration sites in Tuscaloosa and
that a third of its faculty served as presenters for
the Alabama Reading Initiative.
You may have heard…
You may want this for yourself.
You may want this
for your own
child or
grandchild,
a friend,
or your
community.
The Research
Strategies That Work
Teachers have a choice.
We can choose to cover the curriculum
or
we can choose to teach students to inquire.
If we choose to cover the curriculum,
our students will fail.
If we teach our students to inquire,
we will have a well of information from
which to teach and our students will have a
purpose for living.
Strategies That Work, p.93
Harvey and Goudvis
Lev Vygotsky
1896-1934 , Russian psychologist
Language and Thinking
• Emphasized Cultural, Historical, and Social factors in learning
• ZPD- window of opportunity for learning - with support
(scaffolding) between what one can do on their own and what is
beyond their capacity to learn
• Tools and Symbols – Language is the most important Tool in
society
• Learning Through Play – Encourages imagination and
connection prior knowledge to novel situations
• Social Learning Theory –
"Every function in the child's cultural development appears twice:
first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first,
between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child
(intrapsychological). This applies equally to voluntary attention,
to logical memory, and to the formation of concepts. All the
higher functions originate as actual relationships between
individuals." (Vygotsky 1978, p.57)
Lev Vygotsky
Classroom Implications
• Cultural, Historical, and Social factors in learning –
Diversity is imperative for a broad, well-rounded
education
• ZPD- Children should be continually assessed and
provided with adequate instructional support
(scaffolding) to maximize learning
• Tools and Symbols – Language (oral and written) is
the key to learning
• Learning Through Play – Play allows children to
imagine themselves in different worlds, making real
connections to learning
• Social Learning Theory Children learn through
Vygotsky’s Writings
Consciousness as a problem in the psychology of behavior, 1925
The Psychology of Art, 1925
The Historical Meaning of the Crisis in Psychology, 1927
The Problem of the Cultural Development of the Child, 1929
Play and its Role in the Mental Development of the Child, 1933
Thinking & Speech, 1934
Tool and Symbol in Child Developmen1994
Interaction Between Learning and Development, ZPD
Thought and Language, 1962.
Mind in Society,1978
Mikhail Bakhtin
Language Theorist
(Russia,1895-1975)
• Voice – the power (of the speaker) associated with language
• Utterances a sound, word or words that is spoken and all the utterances that
came before and in response (dialogicality) and the “addressivity” of the intended
audience that give it meaning.
• Speech Genres – The contexts that lend meaning to utterances
• Dialogicality - The dialogic nature of consciousness, the dialogic nature of
human life itself. The single adequate form for verbally expressing authentic human
life is the open-ended dialogue. Life by its very nature is dialogic. To live means to
participate in dialogue: to ask questions, to heed, to respond, to agree, and so forth.
In this dialogue a person participates wholly and throughout his whole life: with his
eyes, lips, hands, soul, spirit, with his whole body and deeds. He invests his entire
self in discourse, and this discourse enters into the dialogic fabric of human life, into
the world symposium. (Bakhtin, 1984b, p. 293)
Mikhail Bakhtin
Classroom Implications
• Voice
If children are not given “voice” they will no longer have
reason to speak and may become silenced.
• Utterances, Dialogicality & Speech Genres
Understanding the exchange of utterances spans all that has been
uttered before and what will come as a response and
encompasses the context of the utterance and perception of
the speaker and that of whom he addresses.
It is imperative that adequate attention is given to language to
ensure understanding. (Mere decoding is insufficient.)
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BOOKS BY BAKHTIN
Art and Answerability: Early Philosophical Essays
Translated by Vadim Liapunov. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.
The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays
Translated by Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981.
Translation of Voprosy literatury i estetiki.
The Formal Method in Literary Scholarship: A Critical Introduction to Sociological Poetics
Translated by Albert Wehrle. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973 (co-authored with
Pavel Medvedev). Translation of Formal'nyi metod v literaturovedenii.
Freudism: A Marxist Critique
New York: Academic Press, 1970. Translation of Freidizm: kriticheskii ocherk. The authorship of this
work is disputed. I. Titunik attributes the work to V. Voloshinov. Katerina Clark and Michael Holquist
attribute the work to Bakhtin.
Marxism and the Philosophy of Language
Translated by Ladislav Matejka and I. Titunik. New York: Seminar Press, 1973. Translation of
Marksizm i filosofiia iazyka. First published as the work of V. Voloshinov; the authorship of this work
is disputed.
Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics
Translated by R. Rotsel. Ann Arbor, MI: Ardis 1973. Translation of Problemy poetiki Dostoevskogo.
Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics
Translated by Caryl Emerson. Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press, 1984. Translation of
Problemy poetiki Dostoevskogo.
Rabelais and His World
Translated by Helene Iswolsky. Cambridge, MA: M.l.T. Press, 1968. Translation of Tvorchesto Fransua
Rable i narodnaia kul'tura srednevekov'ia i Renessansa.
Speech Genres and Other Late Essays
Translated by Vern McGee. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986. Translation of Estetika slovesnogo
tvorchestva.
Toward a Philosopy of the Act
Translated by Vadim Liapunov. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1992. Translation of "K filosofi
postupka."
Dorothy Holland
Soci-Cultural Anthropologist
• Identity -- Understanding of Self
• Agency -- Power (or social
standing) as perceived by self
and by society.
• Figured Worlds – The way we
“see” (perception) the world
based on nature and nurture.
Dorothy Holland
Classroom Implications
• Identity and Agency –
Perception of self and power (social status)
are determined by a complex combination of
intrinsic and extrinsic factors, nature and
nurture. Teachers must be sensitive to a
students’ total being in order to understand
, and thereby better serve their needs.
• Figured Worlds –
We must be able to see ourselves in a better
(figured) world in order to make it a reality.
Selected Recent Publications:
Holland, D., and J. Lave (2001), eds. History in Person: Enduring
Struggles, Contentious Practice, Intimate Identities (The School of
American Research Press)
Guldbrandsen, Thad and Dorothy C. Holland (2001) Encounters with
the Supercitizen: Neoliberalism, Environmental Activism, and the
American Heritage Rivers Initiative The Anthropological Quarterly.
Special issue, Krista Harper, ed. 74(3): 124-134.
Holland, D., W. Lachicotte, D. Skinner and C. Cain (1998) Identity
and Agency in Cultural Worlds (Harvard University Press)
Skinner, Debra, Alfred Pach III, and Dorothy Holland. (eds.) (1998).
Selves in Time and Place: Identities, Experience, and History in
Nepal. (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.)
Levinson, B., D. Foley and D. Holland, eds. (1996). The Cultural
Production of the Educated Person: Critical Ethnographies of
Schooling and Local Practice. (State University of New York Press)
Holland, D. and M. Eisenhart. (1990) Educated in Romance: Women,
Achievement, and College Culture. (The University of Chicago Press)
Lisa Delpit
Ed.D., Harvard University
Benjamin E. Mays Professor of Urban Educational Leadership, Georgia
State University; Founder and Director, Center for Urban Educational
Excellence; Senior Research Associate, Institute for Urban Research,
Morgan State University.
Author, Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in
the Classroom (1995);
Co-Editor, The Real Ebonics Debate: Power, Language,
and the Education of African American Children
(1998)
The Skin That I Speak: Language, Culture, and
Ten Factors Essential to Success in Urban
Classrooms
 Do not teach less content to poor, urban children, but
understand their brilliance and teach more.
 Whatever methodology or instructional program is used, demand
critical thinking.
 Assure that all children gain access to "basic skills," the
conventions and strategies that are essential to success in
American education.
 Challenge racist societal views of the competence and
worthiness of the children and their families, and help them to do
the same.
 Recognize and build on strengths.
 Use familiar metaphors and experiences from the children's
world to connect what they already know to school knowledge.
 Create a sense of family and caring in the service of academic
achievement.
 Monitor and assess needs and then address them with a wealth
of diverse strategies.
 Honor and respect the children’s home and ancestral culture(s).
 Foster a sense of children's connection to community - to
something greater than themselves.
Lisa Delpit
Classroom Implications
No matter what race, religion, color or
creed, children must be taught as
individuals, taking special care to
understand and accommodate their
social and cultural backgrounds,
accepting, incorporating and
celebrating their diversity within the
Selected Writings by Lisa Delpit
Other People's Children : Cultural Conflict in the Classroom
by Lisa D. Delpit
New Press; February 1996
"A letter to my daughter on the occasion of considering racism in the United States," Racism Explained
to My Daughter, Tahar Ben Jelloun; The New Press, 1999
"A letter to my daughter on the occasion of considering racism in the United States," Harvard Education
Bulletin, Sp., 2000
"Act Your Age Not Your Color," Growing Up African American in Catholic Schools, (eds. Jacqueline
Jordan Irvine and Michelle Foster). New York: Teacher=s College Press, 1996 (pp. 116-125).
"The Village Tok Ples School Scheme of Papua New Guinea." In I. McPhail and M.R. Hoover (eds.),
Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Literacy in the Black Community, Newark, DE: International Reading
Association. (in press)
With Kemelfield, G. "Language Policy in Education: A Case Study of the Village Tok Ples Schools in the
North Solomons, Papua New Guinea." In J. Cobarrubias and J. Fishman (eds.), International Education
and Language Planning, The Netherlands: Mouton. (in process)
" The Politics of Teaching Literate Discourse." In J. Fraser and T. Perry (Eds.) Freedom's Plow: Teaching
in the Multicultural Classroom, New York: Routledge (in press).
"Culture Offers Clues to Literacy: An Interview with Lisa Delpit," Harvard Education Letter, Vol. VIII,
No. 6, 1992.
"Education in a Multicultural Society: Our Future's Greatest Challenge," Journal of Negro Education, Vol.
61, No. 3, 1992.
"An Interview with African-American Educator Lisa Delpit: Teachers, Culture and Power,"Rethinking
Schools, Vol. 6, No. 3, 1992.
"Acquisition of Literate Discourse: Bowing Before the Master?," Theory Into Practice, Vol. XXXI, No. 4,
Autumn, 1992.
The Skin That You Speak: Language, Culture, & Identity with Joanne Dowdy, The New Press Research
examining racism and its impact on creating superlative teachers in urban classrooms with Joan Wynne
John Dewey
My Pedagogic Creed, 1897
• "I believe that education is the fundamental method
of social progress and reform. All reforms which rest
simply upon the law, or the threatening of certain
penalties, or upon changes in mechanical or outward
arrangements, are transitory and futile.... But
through education society can formulate its own
purposes, can organize its own means and resources,
and thus shape itself with definiteness and economy
in the direction in which it wishes to move....
Education thus conceived marks the most perfect and
intimate union of science and art conceivable in
human experience."
John Dewey
Classroom Implications
• To effect positive social change
we must effectively (not
necessarily efficiently) educate
our children (our world).
Jean Piaget
Swiss biologist and psychologist (1896-1980)
• Genetic Epistemlogy – The study of the
development of knowledge
• Stages of Development – Stages of Development
– Sensorimotor stage (birth - 2 years old)
– Preoperational stage (ages 2-7)
– Concrete operations (ages 7-11)
– Formal operations (beginning at ages 11-15)
• Assimilation and Accommodation of Schema
• Equilibrium and Disequilibrium
Jean Piaget
Classroom Implications
• We must plan developmentally appropriate
curriculum that meets the developmental
needs of the learner.
• Children construct knowledge through
experiences.
• Children build schema (knowledge) by making
connections to things they already know and
expanding their knowledge base.
• Equilibrium is a state of balance. When a child
approaches something unknown, the
disequilibrium creates the need to learn.
Piaget’s Major Works
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1918, Recherche. Lausanne: La Concorde.
1924, Judgment and reasoning in the child, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1928.
1936, Origins of intelligence in the child, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1953.
1957, Construction of reality in the child, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1954.
1941, Child's conception of number (with Alina Szeminska), London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1952.
1945, Play, dreams and imitation in childhood, London: Heinemann, 1951.
1949, Traité de logique. Paris: Colin.
1950, Introduction à l'épistémologie génétique 3 Vols. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
1954, Intelligence and affectivity, Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews, 1981.
1955, Growth of logical thinking (with Bärbel Inhelder), London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1958.
1962, Commentary on Vygotsky's criticisms. New Ideas in Psychology, 13, 325-40, 1995
1967, Logique et connaissance scientifique. Paris: Gallimard.
1967, Biology and knowledge, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1971.
1970, Piaget's theory. In P. Mussen (ed) Handbook of child psychology, Vol.1. New York: Wiley,
1983.
1970, Main trends in psychology, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1973.
1975, Equilibration of cognitive structures, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
1977, Sociological studies, London: Routledge, 1995
1977, Studies in reflecting abstraction. Hove: Psychology Press, 2000
1977, Essay on necessity. Human Development, 29, 301-14, 1986.
1981, Possibility and necessity, 2 Vols, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987.
1983, Psychogenesis and the history of science (with Rolando Garcia), New York: Columbia
University Press, 1989.
1987, Towards a logic of meanings (with Rolando Garcia), Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Associates, 1991.
1990, Morphisms and categories (with Gil Henriques, Edgar Ascher), Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
Associates, 1992.
Connie Kamii
Professor Early Childhood Education – UAB
Studied under Piaget for over a decade
• “Teachers need as much scientific
knowledge about how children learn
mathematics as physicians have about
the causes of illness.” (Kamii, 2000)
• Dr. Kamii has replicated and furthered
the research of Jean Piaget to show
that “all children construct, or create,
logic and number concepts from within
rather than learn them by
internalization from the environment
(Piaget 1971; Kamii 2000).
Connie Kamii
Classroom Implications
• Young children are taught mathematical procedures
that are developmentally inappropriate for them,
leaving them confused and frustrated.
• Teachers must understand what teaching practices
are developmentally appropriate for children to be
successful learners.
• Teachers must listen to children to understand what
they know. (A single “answer” does not tell the
whole story.)
• Children must reflect and discuss their
mathematical thinking.
• Mathematics must be made real by making
connections to real life events.
Writings by Constance Kamii
Howard Gardner
Developmental Psychologist
Multiple
•words (linguistic intelligence)
Intelligences
•numbers or logic (logical-mathematical
intelligence)
•pictures (spatial intelligence)
•music (musical intelligence)
•self-reflection (intrapersonal intelligence)
•physical experience (bodily-kinesthetic
intelligence)
Howard Gardner
Classroom Implications
How smart are you
How are you smart
Because children learn in many ways and
have differing needs and interests, a rich
variety of educational opportunities should
be presented to allow ample occasions to
reinforce learning, making connections to
individual learners.
Howard Gardner on:
The Educational Reform Movement
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Q: Education reform and restructuring activities have been the subject of a
lot of conversation from the White House to the state house to the school
house. What is your evaluation of the school reform efforts of the past and
of the present?
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Gardner: What is surprising to me is that the discussion about school reform
has continued as long as it has. I think that a number of people, including
me, felt that there would be the usual hubbub after ”A Nation at Risk" was
published, but then we'd go back to “business as usual," and that clearly
hasn't happened. There are more people who are involved in education
reform or who are concerned about it than there were in 1983, and I think
that's very positive. I think the second thing that has become clear to most
of us who work in the area is how difficult it is to bring about really
substantive change in schools. There are certain kinds of cosmetic changes
you can bring about very quickly, but if you ask, “Is teaching occurring in
different kinds of ways?" “Are children learning more?" “Are they able to do
things they couldn't do before?" or “Are schools organized in different kinds
of ways?" I think the answer is that while there have been some promising
beginnings, we all realize now that it's much much harder than anybody ever
thought.
http://www.ed.psu.edu/insys/ESD/gardner/Reform.html
Gardner’s Books
 The Arts and Human Development (1973)
 Art, Mind, and Brain: A Cognitive Approach
to Creativity (1982)
 Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple
Intelligence (1983)
 The Unschooled Mind: How Children Think
and How Schools Should Teach (1991)
 Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in
Practice (1993)
 Changing the World: A Framework for the
Study of Creativity(1994)
 Who Owns Intelligence? (1999)
Alfie
Kohn
Expert on on human behavior, education, and social theory.
"perhaps the country's most outspoken
critic of education's fixation on grades
[and] test scores." His criticisms of
competition and rewards have helped to
shape the thinking of educators -- as well as
parents and managers -- across the country
and abroad.”
Time magazine
Alfie Kohn
Classroom Implications
Teacher, parents and administrators and
community should think critically about :
•Standardized testing : Does it test fairly? Equitably?
What has been taught?
•What do standardized tests measure? (“The size of the
houses in the neighborhood.”)
•Motivation to learn (intrinsic vs. extrinsic rewards)
•How are “standards” related to your school curriculum?
(Once a teacher asked me what I expect and incoming 4th grader to
know. I thought that it really doesn’t matter what I expect, I must
take them from where they are and move them ahead as far as they
Books by Alfie Kohn
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BEYOND DISCIPLINE:
From Compliance to Community (Assn. for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 1996)
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THE BRIGHTER SIDE OF HUMAN NATURE:
Altruism and Empathy in Everyday Life (Basic Books, 1990)
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THE CASE AGAINST STANDARDIZED TESTING:
Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools THE CASE AGAINST STANDARDIZED
TESTING: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools (Heinemann, 2000)
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EDUCATION, INC.:
Turning Learning into a Business (Revised edition: Heinemann, 2002)
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NO CONTEST:
The Case Against Competition (Houghton Mifflin, 1986/1992)

PUNISHED BY REWARDS:
The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes (Houghton
Mifflin, 1993/1999)

THE SCHOOLS OUR CHILDREN DESERVE:
Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and "Tougher Standards" (Houghton Mifflin,
1999)

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A CLASSROOM . . . and Other Essays (Jossey-Bass, 1998)

YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY. . .:
The Truth About Popular Beliefs (HarperCollins, 1990)
Wilson, Minear (2003)
Open / Closed Dialogic Inquiry
• In student research and their
culminating classroom presentations,
children explore and inquire more deeply
when given freedom to pursue choice
and interest rather than when given
strict guidelines.
Action Research
Classroom Implications
• We must continually observe, reflect and
adjust to the needs of the learners in a
classroom. Working in a “lab type”
situations, in cooperation with local
College and University professors and
teacher interns provides opportunities to
reciprocate new ideas and techniques.
What did
YOU
learn in school?

Think briefly about the things
you learned in school…
What memories do you have?
 Good?
Bad?
 Massive Quantities? Very Little?
 What do you remember?
"Education is what remains after
one has forgotten everything he
learned in school."
» Albert Einstein
HOW
Should we
Teach?
LEARN AND RETAIN
(J. Scott, 1990)
From the work of Joyce and Showers and other,
we know that people learn and retain at the following rates:
10% of what we
HEAR
15% of what we
SEE
20% of what we
SEE and HEAR
40% of what we
DISCUSS
80% of what we
EXPERIENCE DIRECTLY or PRACTICE
90% of what we
ATTEMPT TO TEACH OTHERS
What
Should Be
Taught?
· things previously, but no longer, generally taught in public schools: Bible;
computing cube roots; Grimm's fairy tales; Aesop's fables; solid geometry; Rudyard
Kipling's poems; Longfellow's poetry; the Iliad; the Odyssey; use of the slide rule;
Robert's Rules of order; Latin; Greek; Greek mythology; rhetoric; geography; logic;
logarithmic extrapolation.
· things not previously taught but now taught in public schools: The laws of
association, commutation and distribution; computer literacy; space science; plate
tectonics; elementary functions, "pre-calculus"; World Cultures; substance abuse
education; human sexuality; AIDS prevention.
· things still taught but rarely used outside of school: long division; computing
square roots; synthetic division; formal grammar.
· things generally useful but not taught in "status", e.g. college preparatory,
curricula: auto maintenance; child care; cooking; woodwork; stenography and
typing; filing; bookkeeping.
· things not generally taught in the public schools, but very useful: basic law;
home maintenance; stock market analysis; basic organizational skills; political
activism; income tax preparation; gardening and library science.
THE FOUNDATIONS OF CURRICULUM
©1999 Gary K. Clabaugh & Edward G. Rozycki
Educational Goals
· social, civic and cultural goals: e.g.
interpersonal understandings and citizenship
participation;
· intellectual goals: academic knowledge
and intellectual skills;
· personal goals: emotional and physical
well-being, creativity and aesthetic expression
and self-realization; and
· vocational goals: being prepared for an
occupation.
Jon Goodlad, A Place Called School
What Structures?
Logical Structure - "basic skills"
...teaching will be more effective if it incorporates the ways the elements of
knowledge are related logically. -----B.O.Smith "Introduction" to Education and
the Structure of Knowledge Fifth Annual Phi Delta Kappa Symposium on
Educational Research. (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1964)
Pedagogical Structure
...what is learned will be retained longer if it is tied into a meaningful cognitive
structure. Pedagogical structure is that organization imposed on curriculum
according to some beliefs about how people learn.
Disciplinary Structure

Curriculum can be structured along disciplinary lines. Academic disciplines are
social organizations. They consist of people who have been taught in a certain
tradition and who recognize certain items of knowledge and approaches to them
as "belonging to their discipline." Disciplines put limits on inquiry. Facts
discovered in a one discipline may be ignored in pursuing investigation in
another.
Institutional Structure

They way we organize schools often acts to determine curriculum. Institutional
structure is revealed in the organization of knowledge as curricula, grade-levels,
courses, units of study, texts, chapters and the like. One way of understanding
curriculum is that it is an institutional construct. No experienced teacher, for his or
her own purposes, needs a formal curriculum. But in the context of schooling,
where coordination and control become concerns, curriculum documents are
used to give the appearance of order.
The
Dream
Our School









“One Room Schoolhouse” Concept With Multi-Age
Classes (K-8+)
Inquiry Based Learning
Student Commitment, Responsibility and Ownership
In The Program
High Standards Set According To Individual Needs
With Parent/Student/Teacher Input
High Level of Parent Interaction, Participation and
Support.
Highly Qualified Staff
Community Facilities Incorporated into Study (Public
Library, Museum, Parks, etc.)
Community Relationships / Service
Adopt-A-School Partners
What shall we name our school?





The New Horizons School - We are exploring new Horizon
The New School ~ The Old School
The Village School – It takes a village to educate a child
Mrs. Minear’s School for the Irreverent - Margo
The School for Kids Who Don’t Read Good –
Zoolander (matt’s contribution)





P.S. 911-We Are An Emergency! (my birthday ) (Jen’s contribution)
A Place Called School – Goodlad
The Learning Place
The Discovery School
The Experiment ~ The Experience
We are going
places!
We Need Your Help!
We will have many needs as we start up in the next few
years. You can help!
Do you have…

A building or rooms that are available during the week?

Computers or other technology that you plan to replace
in the near future that you might wish to donate?

Office equipment –file cabinets, desks, tables?

Special talents that you wish to share?

Friends who wish to volunteer in this worthwhile
endeavor?

A desire to learn more about our ideas?
Get on board
before time
passes us by!
References
• Kamii, Constance. Young Children Reinvent Arithmetic. 2nd ed. New
York: Teachers College Press, 2000.
• Piaget, Jean. Biology and Knowledge. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1971.
• Holland, D., W. Lachicotte, D. Skinner and C. Cain (1998) Identity
and Agency in Cultural Worlds (Harvard University Press)
• Holland, D., W. Lachicotte, D. Skinner and C. Cain (1998) Identity
and Agency in Cultural Worlds (Harvard University Press)