Teaching The Children A Lesson

Filed under: School | By DrHGuy | March 20, 2008 at 5:45 pm

Introduction By DrHGuy

In addition to wielding superior culinary skills, fulfilling leadership roles in her social, neighborhood, and professional communities, and demonstrating a superlative understanding of and appreciation for college basketball, Lady Lawanda has earned a reputation as an inspired, effective, and creative teacher.

Nonetheless, I would have wagered a significant portion of my kids’ inheritance against the proposition that I would ever ask her or any other instructor to write up a teaching project for posting on the Heck of a Guy blog.

Yes, I’ve foisted posts about broom corn on hitherto trusting readers, I’ve repeatedly served up pieces about the nuances of patient compliance, and I’ve sunk at times to publishing explications of the comparative workings of different web site statistics packages, but I do have my standards.

After all, the prospect of examining a lesson plan for second graders is not known as a gold standard means of igniting limbic systems into spasms of excitement. And, not once have I observed “Wanna check out my lesson plan?” successfully used as a pick-up line - even when the bar was closing down.

Yet, that is exactly what has happened (the ask Lady Lawanda to compose a post thing, not the limbic system thing or the pick-up line thing) - and all because Lady Lawanda, in the course of one of those tangent to tangent conversations friends construct for mutual entertainment, told me about her favorite teaching project. I was, in a word, impressed - especially with how she got the students invested in the lesson. I think you will be as well.

_______________________

Lady Lawanda’s Ocean Cruise Project

Teaching Vs Test Preparation

Before the burdens of state standards, annual yearly progress assessments, state test prep, and - who can forget - The No Child Left Behind Act, were loaded on the backs of teachers, teaching was, goofy as it sounds, fun, exciting, and rewarding. Teachers were able to devote their instructional time to the implementation of best practices in teaching to educate kids rather than best practices in test preparation to improve the scores on whatever exam the state decided to mandate that year.

In that Golden Age, say 1994-1995, educational research indicated that enhancing the application of skills, i.e., enabling students to grasp how learning one thing applies to the understanding of another, could best be accomplished by integrating the curriculum.¹ Integrating the curriculum was and continues to be an effective means by which to engage students in the process of learning.

And, all research aside, integrating the curriculum is the way this teacher thinks.

I am a “big picture” kind of girl.

Present At Creation

And Lady Lawanda said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” So Lady Lawanda’s second graders made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. Lady Lawanda called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. And Lady Lawanda said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. Lady Lawanda called the dry ground “the beach,” and the gathered waters she called “the ocean.” And Lady Lawanda saw that it was good.

A modest revision of Genesis 1:6-10 - DrHGuy

So when it came to deciding how best to teach “interdependency of species in the environment”² to second graders, an epiphany befell me: the only possible solution - obviously - was to study the ocean.

And, being a visual, hands-on sort of teacher, I needed to do it in a big way.

How big? Well, the first post-epiphany hurdle was convincing my teaching partner, who had developed an unsettling involuntary flinch that erupted whenever I approached her with another idea for project. After several hours of planning, her initial doubts were allayed, and she was on board.

So out came the butcher paper, paints, sponges, brushes, tape and sand. (Yes sand, keep reading.)

By The Sea [Click on image to expand]

Over the next four weeks, a series of cataclysmic events took place, including changing an entire wall from ceiling to floor to “ocean” and the four feet of floor next to the wall into “beach.” Against this backdrop, the students studied everything from types of life in an ocean to ocean habitats to the food chain.

They created a life-like ocean mural complete with sea anemone, deep sea fish, schools of sergeant major fish, and crustaceans crawling on the 240 lbs. of sand along the ocean floor.³ (See photo below)

On The Beach [Click on image to expand]

The Premise

The premise of the project was that the students were on a cruise where they would study all the components of the ocean.

Each week they sent home a large postcard describing their ocean discoveries, including key facts they learned. They also wrote creative messages that were placed in a bottle which was set adrift in a water-filled wading pool (verisimilitude is everything).⁴

Every unit needs a culminating activity and what better event to mark the end of the cruise than a beach party?

On a Friday afternoon in 1995, Room 106 became Cumberland Beach. Desks were pushed aside and replaced with beach towels. Fifty-four seven- and eight-year olds who were parka-clad students on Thursday transformed into barefooted sun-worshipers in shorts and tank tops on Friday.

Accouterments such as sunscreen and sunglasses were in good supply as well. As the sounds of the ocean played softly on the boom box, the kids played ocean bingo while parent volunteers busily put together a beach-side snack bar featuring hot dogs, goldfish, blue Jello with floating gummy fish, fish shaped sugar cookies, and tropical punch.

The students left that Friday excited about all their accomplishments and their refreshed tans.

Once they were out the door however, my teaching partner and I prepared for the next unit - environment awareness and pollution. Yes, we played captain of the Valdez and poured oil on patches of the sand and “floated” plastic pop six-pack rings, candy wrappers, and plastic bags in the ocean.

Monday morning those smiling, happy children came through the door, still talking about Friday’s events, and stopped dead in their tracks when they saw their ocean had become a mess. “Outrage” was the vocabulary word of the day.

And the next unit began.

The sense of ownership the students shared about their ocean became the impetus to aggressively attack the information shared about protecting our environment. They learned consequences of careless human behavior - sometimes grand and sometimes minor - but always a negative consequence. They researched information, made posters, and wrote letters to the President of the United States. Most importantly, they took responsibility for their world. Those children are now young adults, soon to be graduating from college.

Denouement

I had the good fortune of spending a week at the Heartland Spa in Gilman, Illinois last March. At the introductory meeting I noticed a woman and her daughter who looked familiar. It was one of those “I know you from somewhere” moments. Afterwards, I approached her and, lo and behold, it was Katie and her mom. Katie was in that second grade class in 1995. And the first words out of her mouth were those every teacher craves hearing, “You were my all time favorite teacher,” which were followed without a pause by “Do you remember when we built the ocean?”⁵

Thinking back to that last day before Spring Break in March of 1995, my teaching partner and I just having re-bagged 240 lbs. of sand, torn down the ocean mural, and poured out the water in the wading pool, I guess there was good reason for that feeling of satisfaction of a job well done. Fifty-four students had just walked out of school feeling a sense of power and responsibility to the world. How exciting!

Within the ocean and ecology studies we covered the state standards, but not in isolation. We did it by engaging children in their learning. You can teach children the facts or you can teach students how to discover and use those facts. With today’s politics and the push to score well one tests, teachers don’t have the same latitude I did in 1995. What a shame.

Footnotes

Pop Quiz: In what area of academic performance are U.S. students least competent? You guessed it, application of skills. By segmenting concepts into little learning packets so students can pass a test we we miss the opportunity to to help students apply their knowledge. ~back~
”Interdependency of species in the environment” lacks the consummate pomposity and impenetrability of “internalized parental imagoes,” DrHGuy’s fallback phrase, but nonetheless has its own perverse academia-speak charm ~back~
The sand was courtesy of the school custodian. As long as I promised to re-bag it and return it, my custodian was agreeable. He helped me load it up on a cart and sneak it past the principal. My motto - Don’t ask, just do and then smile and beg for forgiveness. I knew once the project was in bloom my using 240 lbs. of sand would be understood. Asking someone to visualize what that would look like was a little too much to ask. ~back~
Being able to put your message in a bottle, seal it, and float it in the pool was great motivation to get to the final draft. ~back~
I’m sure this is just coincidence, but Katie’s mom now runs a decorating business that uses only renewable resources and focuses on being green and toxin free. ~back~