Short of overhauling the factory model of our public middle and high schools, what options are open to teachers and administrators that will give students a sense that they are valued as unique individuals, not as cookie-cutter products?
We should treat all students as though they are “gifted.” I realized this during teacher training at Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology, a magnet school in Alexandria. Teachers were introduced to activities designed for gifted minds and temperaments so we could adjust our teaching to accommodate their special needs.
In “carouseling,” named because groups moved in clockwise circles, students moved around the room with magic markers, brainstorming topics on butcher-block paper hung from walls. Because each group wrote with a different color, we could see how ideas built as groups arrived at a new “station.” We learned from the groups who’d previously written with their designated color, and had to stretch our minds to avoid repeating obvious ideas and facts.
This worked equally well for a thematic novel session before a test and a fact-checking history review. At TJ, even science teachers used the method. It got students on their feet, jogged their memories, made them reach for answers and ideas, and encouraged learning from one group to another.
At Oakton High School, I found this technique worked just as well for regular students who were not among the “chosen.” I imported other ideas from my gifted training, too. Allowing students to share, in writing or orally, before a discussion always increases participation and gives students’ comments a depth and breadth they would otherwise lack. Ben Stein, the history teacher in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” would not have had to intone, “Anyone? … Anyone?” if he’d first asked students to share ideas in pairs or groups.
At TJ, I learned that gifted students like a variety of activities, like to take charge of their own learning when appropriate, like working with others, and like frequent feedback on how they’re doing. These precepts for the gifted work equally well in all classrooms — yet they don’t fit into the “quiet,” assembly line model. Interactive activities produce noisy classrooms.
Schools lauded for success in difficult circumstances have this in common: Every student is made to feel unique and appreciated. One of Fairfax’s principals of the year used to greet every student in his elementary school by name as they entered the front door each morning. In Knowledge Is Power Program, schools and teachers speak frequently by phone to parents. My students were always more involved if I invited parents to a simulation of one of our “Senior Seminars,” forging a unique connection.
Teachers can also plan a year-end assembly where parents see projects by their children and their classmates. It might be a “fair” with booths, or a performance, with PowerPoint and videotaped presentations. Working toward that “performance” has the effect of making students feel “on display” — which, of course, they are.
Encouraging these activities should ideally come from the principal, yet lacking that support, teachers can still change the classroom dynamic — and many teachers have. Anything we can do to make the assembly line less stultifying will improve our children’s educations. Anyone? … Anyone?
What kids are reading
This weekly column will look at lists of books kids are reading in various categories, including grade level, book genre and data from booksellers. Information on the books below came from Amazon.com’s list of children’s books. They are listed in order of popularity.
Books about school (no conveyor belts here!)
1. “A Fine, Fine School” by Sharon Creech and Harry Bliss (ages 4-8)
2. “Wow! School!” by Robert Neubecker (ages 4-8)
3. “Froggy Goes to School” by Jonathan London and Frank Remkiewicz (ages 4-8)
4. “My First Day at Nursery School” by Becky Edwards and Anthony Flintoft (baby-preschool)
5. “The Best School Year Ever” by Barbara Robinson (ages 9-12)
6. “Sideways Stories From Wayside School” by Louis Sachar and Julie Brinckloe (ages 9-12)
7. “My Teacher Sleeps in School” by Leatie Weiss (ages 4-8)
8. “On My Very First Day of School I Met …” by Norman Stiles (ages 4-8)
9. “The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body” by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen (ages 4-8)
10. “My Weird School Daze #4: Coach Hyatt Is a Riot!” by Dan Gutman and Jim Paillot (ages 9-12)
