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Paragraph Six - Pelicans
I’m asking myself two questions in this last blog of the school year. How many students are celebrating the ideas that have inspired them throughout the year, along with the skills they’ve developed? Conversely, how many are feeling the sting or the exhilaration (or, worse, the indifference) of their standardized test scores?
I suspect the latter number is far higher. John Dewey, who I mentioned in an earlier post for his concern about...
Paragraph Six - Let Us Now Continue to Praise Freewriting
Last week I was politely interrupted by my word monitor Gina while giving evidence for the benefits of freewriting. I promised to move beyond the dry research to hear the more liquid anecdotes this week. And so I will deliver.
First a spanking fresh one, from a workshop last week. I had planned a session to introduce the International Baccalaureate’s Primary Years Programme to the staff of PS 201 in Queens. My task was to promote questioning, inquiry, connections – all hallmarks of the...
Paragraph Six - An Art and A Talent
I was facilitating a session at a retreat for the staff and a sprinkling of students from a Bronx high school. I was modeling the process of “open freewriting.” A teacher timed me while I wrote, for one minute, what came to my mind:
Go. What will I write? Blackbird. I saw one this morning. Blackbird, fly! And how many ways are...
Paragraph Six - On Making First the Scholar Speak
Here’s a quote on our recent theme of seeing, which I stumbled on since my last blog post: “The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution.” It was uttered by impressionist impresario Paul Cezanne. One of his methods was to look with both eyes, as it were. Instead of painting objects as resolved by the brain into one picture, he superimposed the two slightly varying perspectives of each eye, thus kicking off his own carotene revolution. Picasso and Matisse agreed with his innovator’s stature when they...
Elmore in the Bronx
“The best indicator of how strong a new teacher will be in 5 years is determined by what the other teachers in the building” said Dr. Elmore, when stressing how important professionalism, consistency and collaboration are to school culture and quality teachers. On May 20th, over 60 principals and assistant principals gathered at Manhattan College to see Richard Elmore speak on school improvement and his...
Paragraph Six - The Golden Thread to the Teenage Brain
Here is the story of the wolf boy, who I will call TS for the purposes of this blog, continued from last week:
Having resolved that he wanted to go to college, earn money, buy a house on Long Island and work with wolves, he needed an action plan. His goals were shimmering in the far distance like a desert mirage. He needed to work on something short term, something smarter. (We all know about “SMART” goals, don’t we? Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely.) So I conjured up from the magic lantern of my computer a...
Paragraph Six - Students' Questions and Planning for Surprises
Update on “The Question that Fed My Writing Unit.” You noticed the title change, didn’t you? From “The Question that Ate My Writing Unit” to “The Question that Fed My Writing Unit?” I may be jumping the gun, but my hope is only growing that teacher Tom McMurrer’s second grade writing unit on letter writing is becoming more meaningful in response to the students’ unexpected questions: (“Where do you get a stamp?” “What happens...
Paragraph Six - Living with Questions
Promised update on The Question that Ate My Writing Unit: Tom McMurrer, the second grade teacher at PS 124 whose unit was in peril, has decided to contact the United States Postal Service to see if he can organize a class trip to answer the students’ questions. We have trepidation. What if the recession has caused the USPS to cut back its...
