T-When you give gifts? C-Proud, concerned, impatient. (Various children.) The class settled to writing, and the teacher moved from one to another speaking about feelings, metaphors, similes, contrasts, and comparisons. Social studies.-The teacher reminded the children, "Tomorrow we will share our social studies committee reports. What points do we need to keep in mind?" The children volunteered: Does it fulfill the assignment? Is it well organized? Every member of the committee needs to have good background information so all of them can answer questions. The whole committee must read on the whole problem. Environment.-The room environment was especially inspiring. Finger paintings provided color, and many of the posters dealt with points specifically emphasized by the teacher. Some examples follow. A Committee Doing Research— Understands the assignment. Decides what it wants to do. Uses many sources of information. Pools information. Discusses the problem. Plans how to report. Finds answers when questions are raised. Some Free-Time Activities Read a library book. Finish incomplete work. Write original stories. Work on your unit. Write poems and jingles. Make up riddles, tests for social studies. Prepare crossword puzzles. Become an expert on a special topic. For Effective Creative Writing Pick a topic you like. Make the first sentence count. Stick to the point. Have every sentence move the story along. Show human feelings and qualities. Try humor. Use colorful words. Lead to the climax. What happened? Are You Following the News? When-where-why? What is the background? Show on a map. Call the expert for details. Read daily-listen to TV. Similar posters showed what reporter, audience, and chairman do. *Homogeneous class. Teaching-Learning Situation No. 3* Current events.-The children were preparing to read an article about communism in Junior Scholastic. They wrote the words "Communism" and "Communistic" on the chalkboard. T-What ideas are involved in these words? They put people in jail. (This was echoed by several children.) C-Russia. I don't like them because they don't allow any religion. I think of the freedoms they don't have freedom of the press, of arts. They put people in jail. (This was echoed by several children.) The poor live in slums and the rich in big houses. They have the most cruel and unwanted government anywhere. They do not keep their promises to other countries. They torture people in prison camps. People can't vote for the leader they want. The people live in fear. In East Germany, there is no freedom. There is no free will behind the Iron Curtain. The people work hard, but they have to give their money to the government. They put up a false front. The rulers are like giants: They say, "I like this house," and they take it. The people are like blind men in quicksand: drawn in by false ideas and can't get out. (This was from a cartoon and brought on a discussion of cartoons.) The teacher said, "It seems that most of us think about loss of freedoms-of one man ruling over another, and of people wanting to vote. The article is in three parts: Why Study Communism?, Where and How It Began, What Is Communism and Where? 1 The separate remarks were made by different children. "We'll divide into two groups. As we read, this group will watch for map references, and this one for pronunciation and meanings of words. Let us all watch to see if the ideas we have are true or false." All the children seemed interested and set to reading at once. Some finished long before the others and turned to other work while they waited. The discussion began. To focus it, the teacher asked: "Did you find anything that verified or contradicted your ideas?" 66 A child read the definition of "Communistic" from the dictionary: "... goods held in common." They talked about Marx and Lenin. "It isn't fair to have only one candidate on the ballot," said a girl, and there was hearty concurrence. Science. There was unusual pride among the children who, during a recreation period, called the observer's attention to a feeding experiment in process in the classroom. The children had made cages for two white mice, mixed food for them, and recorded changes in weight. "We even converted the amount into percentages," they said. "That's because we're studying percent. We're studying how their behavior changes, too." *Heterogeneous class. Teaching-Learning Situation No. 4* Social studies.-The room was full of artwork illustrating Where Our Civilization Came From, How Our Civilization Progressed, Using Fire, Making Tools, Building Homes, Raising Food, Making Clothing, Progress of the Wheel, Development of the Boat, Development of Tools, Government, Progress of Lighting, and Living in Our World Today. A world map, rolled down over a section of chalkboard, showed strings leading to certain localities on the map from brief notations on the chalkboard identifying certain recent happenings in those localities-happenings about which the children had been reporting. Nearby hung a poster to serve them as a reminder of what to put into a news report: "News Report: What? Who? How? Why? When? Where? Result?" *Homogeneous class. Teaching-Learning Situation No. 5* Social studies.-Ronny's father, a professor of political science, had come to give a talk entitled The Soviet Union in War. He began with a background which he called "Ideas in Communism." He told how design had been found in nature: the laws of gravity, movement of the heavenly bodies, circulation of the blood. Later, some people, particularly Karl Marx in the 19th Century, began to search for laws in the history of people. Marx asserted that he could explain the laws of the past, present, and future, and many believed him. The Communist Party came into being around Marx's ideas, with a promise of "perfect freedom" in the future. The Communist leaders claimed to know what is best for man even though man may not know what is best for himself. They imposed their ways, but said they intended to move toward "perfect freedom:” no laws, no government, no police. In 1917, there was a revolution in Russia. After that, although the rulers promised freedom, they took over power. There have been no free elections, because the leaders claim they know best who ought to rule. They organize people in order to lead them more readily. The children listened attentively, and when invited to contribute information, began to tell what they had read in newspapers and magazines and to relate experiences that friends had had in Russia. After that, they asked the speaker many questions. The following samples show the range of the children's interests: Do they really believe they can see the future, or is it a way of deceiving the people? Are schools different from ours? Could the United States buy from Japan and sell to Russia? What do the people think of science inventions? How are Nazis and Communists related? What would happen if a candidate for election lost? Do the secret police wear uniforms? The children were pursuing individual and group studies related to the theme, "The Industrial World in War and Peace." Seven major questions had appeared. The hum of work filled the room: the children were intent on their self-assignments. The teacher showed the observer a file of questions asked by the children at various stages of the study, together with criteria they had worked out from time to time: What Makes a Good Study? Something that everyone can help with. Something for which there are many good materials. Evaluation of Art Projects Have I done this before? What did I learn from it? How well did I follow through on the project? Did I use suggestions? Have I been self-sufficient? The teacher went the round of the committees and said, "No committee is ready to report. That means you have a half-hour more for your project, makeup work, or your report to parents— whatever has priority for you." Later, a make-believe television program called You Asked the Question was put on by a panel of six children, three "men" and three "women." The moderator introduced each as Professor guest speaker being the famed Professor the Stating the question, and the name and address of the sender, the moderator led the discussion in a lively, free manner. The questions and replies in brief follow: 1. Do wars affect colleges? The guest speaker said, "May I speak to that? There is a loss of teachers to industry and to the armed services, fewer textbooks are available, scientific instruments are hard to get, and students go to the army and to work to earn money." 2. Do students get enough education? Well, some leave school and go to war. Because teachers leave, too, education is not so good as in peace time. 3. Do civilians get paid enough to feed their families and provide shelter for them? Yes; if they are working. A soldier makes $40 a month. 4. Do people have enough clothing? In the United States, but not where the war is being fought. There, people are lucky to have any clothing. 5. Are food prices high? Yes; soldiers need food and much of it is sent to them. Then, too, there are no workers to ship food, and not so much is produced. There are also economic pressures: food is high because it is scarce. Some foods are rationed, such as meat, butter, sugar, and coffee. 6. Why don't we have a lot of food in wartime? That question is similar to the other one. It has to go to the army first, and workers are hard to find to raise food because industry takes them. |