Author-But I was only making a limerick. C-That's poetic license-that's all right. It's really very good. Chorus-Yes! T-She showed his humble birth, poverty, and frustration. Now let's turn to our play. Will the props committee go ahead? (Several went out.) Here are the pirates' boots. Will the pirates come here? (She showed them some patterns and said she would cut them to fit and send them home for their mothers to sew.) Those children not participating in committees worked alone or in small groups on assignments. A boy asked the teacher why they were using a printed play and prescribed costumes, and why they couldn't do it as they wanted to. The teacher replied, "But this is a well-known play. The audience will expect it to be done a certain way and the audience must be comfortable. They must recognize the characters." He turned away, apparently not entirely convinced. The teacher told the observer that this group had written and produced on closed-circuit television several scenes from David Copperfield, using the murals now in the room. She said the school tried to have all children take part in activities. A child was sent to the library to ask for Ride With the Sun, by Harold Courlander, and another similar book, with the idea that the children who had not yet performed would produce one or two stories from these books. Later that day, a local newspaper column appeared on a bulletin board commending two boys of these sixth grades for their out-ofschool venture in inventing and selling "Oatsie" products: cereal, perfume, and a few other things. As an incentive to purchase, they had given out "credit cards" worth five cents each. French. The teacher gave a 10-minute oral review to this group of fifth- and sixth-graders who read French fluently. The entire lesson was in French. The teacher dictated questions and children were expected to write the questions and answers in full sentences. Words in English (on board) were to be written in French: salt, cake, milk, pie, meat, store, grocery store, to buy bread, to go to the bakery. Social studies.-The children were working individually on the following assignments: (1) to write a report of something from a newspaper or periodical, looking up the background as well as the article. (This was a weekly assignment.) (2) "To help define what we mean by a 'civilization,' choose five words from our Egyptian identification list which you think are necessary in order to have an Egyptian (or any other) civilization. Write a paragraph about each, explaining your choice." Around the room were table models of the Java man, Peking man, Heidelberg man, Neanderthal man, Cro-magnan man, and Neolithic man. All three sections of the sixth grade had been writing three-part stories-Knowledge, Art, Economics-about life in ancient times. Harpers, Saturday Review of Literature, National Geographic, Life, and other magazines were stacked high, and maps, travel posters, and other resources were in abundance. The silent, individual work was interrupted only by a stirring of paper, grinding of chair legs on the wood floor, tramp of feet to the teacher's desk or shelf of books, or the subdued voice of the young man teacher in conference, and the mumble of voices which inspired his sibilant "sh-sh." At one point, the teacher remarked, "A dictionary's over there," and a child went to find it. At another point, the teacher went to help a child who was not being successful in his endeavors. Science. Each child was conducting five experiments to determine the presence of sugar or starch. Four teams had sets of test tubes, burners, and tongs. Whenever a child finished, he would go to the board and fill in on a paper hanging there: Social studies. The children were studying famous people, and the names, which they had suggested, were on the board. Each child was making a choice for his individual study: The children settled to work, each wanting to work alone. They were using many books of an adult nature and many encyclopedias. They were encouraged to use "at least three books," and were required to make a detailed outline preparatory to giving a report. One child (said to be gifted in every area of work), having read three accounts of the life of Bach, was now writing fluently about him; several others were doing as well. Others needed help from the teacher in order to get underway. Music. The children formed into three groups to go for instrumental music practice. Horns, clarinets, and strings were offered optionally. Almost all the children were taking advantage of the opportunity. The teacher said some were very talented in music, and some not at all. Art. In a room adjoining the classroom the children's art projects were on display: collages made of dried grains, cereals, seeds, commercial soup noodles, pine needles, ferns, sea shells, nut shells, milkweed fluff, and other materials. Here, too, various degrees of superiority showed up in organization, originality and daring, orderliness, and color sensitivity. Science. On the walls hung outlines covering an extensive study of trees and a somewhat lesser study of peanuts. The following paragraphs give the substance of these outlines: TREES Problems and questions.-A. STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY: (1) What is the structure of the roots, stems, leaves? (2) How do trees multiply? (3) How do trees make their own food? (4) What do the rings of a tree tell us? (5) Why do leaves change color in the fall? (6) How is an evergreen formed from a seedling? (7) How do trees grow so big? (8) How do you graft branches? B. GEOGRAPHY: (1) Why do trees grow where they do? (2) Do the same kinds of trees grow in our State and in other States? C. HISTORY: (1) How did trees begin? (2) What climate did the first tree grown in? (3) What are the oldest and tallest trees in the world? D. PRODUCTS: (1) What do trees do for us? of trees? (3) What causes petrification? petrified wood? E. IDENTIFICATION OF TREES: kinds of trees? (2) How can we identify them? (3) What are the different fruits of trees? F. CONSERVATION: (1) What are the hazards to trees? (2) How do trees protect the soil? (4) (2) What are the products What uses do we have for (1) What are the different Resources.-References, biology books, films, field trips (to Saginaw Forest, National Science Building), microscopic slides. Means of sharing.-Film ("The Forest Grows"), reports, charts and maps, slides of structure of stem, leaves, and roots. New words.-Canopy, compound, deciduous, erode, evergreen, foliage, omit, parched, perennial, photosynthesis, timber, variation. PEANUTS What peanuts are made of.-Amino acids, fats, gums, oils, pectoses, pentosens, resin, sugar, water. Products of the peanut.-Meal, instant "coffee," chili sauce, mixed pickles, juices, milk, cream, cheese, evaporated milk, Worcestershire sauce, peanut butter, ice cream, flour, cereal, buttermilk. Soap, bleach, shampoo, shaving cream, rubbing oil, washing powder, wood stains, leather stains, sawdust, axle grease, ink, dyes, linoleum, plastics, synthetic rubber, metal polish, wood filler. Recess and physical education. The class had a 30-minute structured recess and a 30-minute free play period, daily. During the former, one or more of the following would occur: football, teamball, volleyball, indoor baseball, running games, soccer, trampoline. *Heterogeneous class. Teaching-Learning Situation No. 8* Current events and social studies.-The children reported on Baltimore in County Cork, Ireland ("place of the big castle"), Ireland's humor, Egypt, Cuba, Switzerland, Venezuela, Spain, Holland, Germany, France, Italy, Greece, Scotland, Greenland, and Iceland. In the process, the relative antiquity of China and Egypt, "William Tell" music, and the art, music, and literature of many countries were introduced by the children. The next step was to be a study of Christmas all over the world. Art. The children were using watercolors and crayons in a highly creative way. As they brought their paintings to the teacher, he said, "Does this please you? Well, maybe Bill can help you-all I want is for it to please you." Later, as the children wrote poems about winter, they used such words as starry, dark, cool, freezing, bitter, windy, moonlight, starless, rainy, and gloomy to describe the night. They closed the Arts period by singing Silent Night in German. Mathematics. As one child played the accompaniment, the teacher led the children in a humorous song they had written about arithmetic. T-We are Christmas shopping from catalogs. How else could we shop? C-We could go-could telephone-could window-shop. T-But we are shopping by mail. Remember we each have $50 from our Christmas savings fund. If we saved $1 a week, that's about what we'd have. If we saved 25 cents, how much would we have? C-About $12. T-How many people do you have to give presents to? Children-5, 11, 13. T-When there are that many, you have to cut down on the amount you spend on each one, don't you? Well, get out your order blanks and when you are ready, start your letter. What goes into the letter? C-Your first choice and second choice. C-Your order by number. C-Your check. You write it and sign your name. T-Yes; you endorse it. Where do we write the name? Of course, our checks won't be legal, but we'll sign them anyway, just for practice. A child turned to show the visitor her account book. It was labeled "Christmas Fund." One page showed "Deposited $50"; another, "Purchases" and "Checks written." The child had sketched in facsimiles of bank stubs and she explained that they had to be kept up to date. "Why?" asked the teacher, and a child answered, "So we won't spend more than $50." The children went to work. The teacher took half of them to the rear of the room and, working at the board, taught them how to balance by casting out 9's. The teacher then taught them subtraction the same way. T-These ways are useful for proving your work. C-Can you use it in multiplication and division? T-Let's see. (Tried several examples.) Now go on with your budgeting. The teacher took the next group and introduced shortcuts by using the magic number 9. They cast out 9's and added and multiplied mentally. Reviewing the short way to multiply by 100 by adding two O's to the number to be multiplied (35 × 100, for example), they learned to use a short way to multiply by 9. T-Multiply 9X81. (Child did so at the board and found the answer to be 729.) T-Instead, annex a zero to the 81, making it 810. Now subtract 81. T-Can you figure out how to do 98? The clue is 998. 97? The clue is 997. |