A few posts back, I told you all about a book I was reading by Rafe Esquith. I have about a quarter of the book to go before I finish it, and I tell you, I will be reading more by this teacher/author. You can find out more about him and his teaching at http://www.hobartshakespeareans.org/.
Simply put, I like the way this guy operates. Granted, I may not have all of the resources and time needed to do all of the things with my second graders that he does with his fifth graders (and some of them are not appropriate for children that young), but there are some really good ideas.
Mr. Esquith (or Rafe, as his students call him. I don't know him so I'll call him Mr. Esquith.) does what all teachers are expected to do: he teaches skills with practical application to life. Not just the "required-by-the-curriculum-and-used-by-such-and-such-method-because-administration-says-you-have-to" sort of teaching, but the teaching that adds in the "this-is-how-to-apply-what-you've-learned-to-other-areas-of-your-life-in-order-to-SURVIVE" kind of teaching.
Even with my second graders, I always relate how what they are learning will be useful to them in the future. Not in the sense of knowing it for a quiz or test, but for the practical application to things. From math skills to science, from social studies to writing in a complete sentence (that actually has a subject and predicate and makes sense!), my students know why and how these skills will help them in their everyday lives. I challenge my students to challenge their parents through homework assignments from time to time, especially if we've had a particularly interesting (and sometimes animated!) discussion on a topic. I see it as a growing experience for everyone.
One thing I can say I am a bit envious of is Mr. Esquith's permission(?) to teach for teaching's sake. Not that he doesn't have requirements through his district like we all do, but for the way he is permitted to meet and exceed those requirements. Let me explain:
In my current district, there is this idea to "teach the basics" and "Stick with the quarterly guidelines! You MUST cover this and that in THIS time period! Stay away from things that detract from learning." (In some buildings, this includes informative academic assemblies!) "Focus on math and language arts, and, if you find the time, cover science and social studies. But-! If you don't get to science and social studies, that's okay; the kids will get it later." WHAT????? My students cover every subject, every day. There's no excuse not to cover them. Yes, it may be a little harried some days, but we do it. Yet I know I work with others in my district who don't get to those subjects on a regular basis, if at all. And this is education?
In my former district/school, we really tried to have the children experience as much as possible through their learning. We had the flexibility to move around units to mirror skills. (Ex.: We had a unit in our science series that covered dinosaurs. We also had a unit in our language arts series that covered dinosaurs. We moved the science unit (by a whole quarter) so we could teach it during the dinosaur unit in language arts. For math, we had measurement around that time, so we took dinosaur lengths from our science text and other supporting texts and measured them in the main hallway. We wrote reports. We made fossils. We made models. We learned and had FUN while doing it!) My second graders (yes, even there!) learned so much about dinosaurs. But they also learned processes, how to gather and organize data, teamwork, planning and organization, and a host of other skills. My colleagues and I did this type of thing for every skill/unit we taught. This kind of teaching was ENCOURAGED.
Sad to say that with my current district, this type of thing is not permitted. Stay on the timeline, no matter when the holiday falls or the skill makes sense. Don't show a video and have a discussion about what you've seen. (I get around that one by tying a United Streaming segment with other projects...) Don't move around the curriculum components so they follow a logical order and/or can be best received by the students. (This especially for Everyday Math!) Add in this (new/improved/better-than-ever) model/strategy/program to use (even though we're going to change it in the next few years). It's like the children are being set up to fail.
Even with these roadblocks, there are ways to be creative with your students and help them along. I use a lot of examples, projects, video clips, stories...basically anything I can get my hands on to help my students grasp the information I am sharing with them. I know you all do, too.
Mr. Esquith said he often has teachers from other areas come and observe his classroom. I think it would be an interesting experience to watch him and his class "in action," so to speak. I say we should petition our Powers That Be for field trips (teachers only) to visit Room 56 (his classroom). We might learn something to take back and help the Powers That Be actually help the children in our districts, instead of hindering them.
Ah well. For the time being, we can only work within the confines of our district expectations (most of the time! wink wink). So to you, I say, "Go on with your bad self and teach those children!" Be creative! Have fun! Be brilliant!
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