Patriotic Tunes

January 29, 2010

On an Historic Note

Collaboration among colleagues is one of the hallmarks of a strong faculty. This week our third grade team, along with their associate teacher, a colleague from a neighboring town, and our own Mr. Toppa have all combined their knowledge and talents to enhance a teaching and learning experience for themselves and the students.

The third grade teachers have been leading an ongoing unit about the beginnings of the American Revolution. After a recent visit to observe a classroom at a nearby public school, associate teacher Ms. Morris brought back a brief play about the Boston Tea Party, which fit perfectly with our own students’ work. The skit includes many details about the Patriots’ protest against British control, introduces significant individuals, and supports the background reading, field labs, and research that the children conducted throughout the fall and early winter. The children eagerly seized upon the opportunity to incorporate drama into their social studies lessons, and the teachers used the script to reinforce many of the concepts and geographic locations that had been addressed earlier in the unit.

When Ms. Morris described the project to Mr. Toppa, he immediately lent his support by locating a song about the Boston Tea Party. In music class, he taught the children to sing the selection as well as how to play the melody on the recorder. Back in the classroom, the words to the song provided an additional opportunity for examining the context for the colonists’ rebellious act. Was it OK to dump the tea? Many students thought that the protestors had a right to show how angry they were about the British fees on tea. The children discussed the concept of a tax: A teacher asked, “Are there good taxes?” One child thought that yes, some taxes were good because they helped people who were homeless, and they helped raise money for schools and roads. Many children thought it wasn’t fair to have a tax on tea, because people drink it every day.

As they rehearsed the song and the play, the students brought a historic scene to life, accompanied by laughter, serious attention to detail, and camaraderie. They will perform the full production in the classroom on Monday, which will be a fitting tribute to Ms. Morris’ last day as their associate. As for the inimitable Mr. Toppa, his role as an honorary social studies teacher is a joyful demonstration of the value of integrating arts into the core curriculum, and a testament to the benefits of communication and integration across many areas of study.

Social Action Through Legal Protest

January 20, 2010

Legal Eaglets

What happens when a talented teacher has the autonomy and resources to choose his subject matter, organize and plan his lessons, decide how much time to devote to an area of study, provide the most appropriate materials for the students, and focus his passion for the topic into a curriculum unit? What if the topic in question is challenging and complicated?

The answer to these questions is unfolding right now in our 6th grade social studies classroom. Mr. Spencer and the students have embarked on an exploration of ”the ways that people changed segregation,” in Mr. Spencer’s words. This week, they have established a foundation for understanding the judicial process, a critical step in understanding how the people fighting for civil rights challenged laws and forced new interpretations of Constitutional amendments. One of the important concepts in this unit is the idea of legal precedent, and Mr. Spencer balances the lessons by introducing landmark cases as well as day-to-day examples.

Mr. Spencer organized Tuesday’s introductory discussion around technical definitions of legal terms, illustrated by situations that the students could easily imagine. He described arguments that the students might have with teachers or parents, making the idea of precedent approachable and tangible for the students.

“I could teach this all year, easily. And it wouldn’t even be hard to do,” said Mr. Spencer after Wednesday’s lesson, which included a discussion about the ambiguity of the idea of equal protection under the law, a right granted to all Americans through the 14th Amendment. For homework, the students had read a description of the Supreme Court’s Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896, which established the “separate but equal” practices that defined segregation. In class, they watched a documentary film about the legal strategies that led to the desegregation mandate at the heart of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. The film includes moving images from the segregated South, and the students were encouraged to share their responses to scenes that had affected them.

These lessons present significant information about a critical period in American history. More importantly, however, Mr. Spencer wants to make sure that the students think deeply and critically about how legal language can be interpreted in more than one way. In this case, the central question is, “How can you read the 14th amendment and still have segregation?”

Our 6th graders will be continuing their study of the civil rights movement for several weeks. As they build their knowledge about the events of that period, they will apply these higher order thinking skills to more and more questions about law, society, equality, justice, and fairness.

The Legacy of Dr. King

January 15, 2010

Content and Character

My sister was teaching kindergarten in New Hampshire in 1999, when that state first recognized Martin Luther King Day as a holiday. On the Friday before the long weekend, she presented a lesson about Dr. King and other leaders of the civil rights movement. The following Tuesday morning, a mother approached her at the beginning of the school day. “I understand you taught a lesson about Martin Luther King,” she said. “I thought you’d like to know what came home.” The mother then shared her daughter’s description of the lesson my sister had taught: “Mommy! We learned about Martha Luten King. She was a leader who wanted everyone to ride the bus.”

This story shows how a well-intentioned, but overly complicated lesson can be misinterpreted, and raises an interesting educational question about how to teach challenging material to very young children. Often, the challenge revolves around identifying a core theme or concept, and using that topic to build children’s understanding in a gradual way from year to year. During the past two weeks, our primary grades teachers have demonstrated great skill in doing just that.

All of our classes have participated in lessons and activities related to Dr. King’s life and teachings. In the primary grades, teachers have worked with special care to match their lessons with the children’s developmental level and prior knowledge. They have been attentive to possible misconceptions as they teach basic information about Dr. King and his ideas, and have developed creative approaches to help the children appreciate his legacy.

In Pre-K, children wanted to know what Dr. King looked like. The teachers immediately found a photograph to share. One child wanted to know, if he was a king, who was the queen? The teachers explained that King is a name, like Andrick or Zamore. Then they emphasized the message that people can be different from one another but still be friends. The children learned to conduct surveys to find out who shared, or did not share, their interests. In Kindergarten, the class learned a song about building a better world that used American Sign Language, prompting one child to ask if Dr. King wanted to teach everyone to sign. “No,” the teachers explained, “but he did want to make sure that all people could understand each other’s words.”

The first graders have been reading biographies about Martin Luther King for two weeks. They were stunned to learn that a good man could be sent to jail--16 times! Their beautiful mural depicts significant scenes from Dr. King’s life, drawn by children who can envision the world he dreamed.