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| Please share these reading with other creative teachers |
By Allan Alach
I welcome suggested articles, so if you come
across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz
Losing our grip: More students
entering school without fine motor skills
This problem has appeared in New
Zealand schools as well, and I suspect the same will the case all over.
“Local teachers and occupational
therapists say an increasing number of children are showing up for kindergarten
without the fine motor skills needed to grip a marker, hold their paper still
while coloring or cut and glue shapes.”
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| Children at play - busy learning |
Powerful play: Continuity and inquiry
for children starting school
On a similar theme:
“By allowing children space and time
to play they will show you what they know, what they are capable of, and what
they want to learn about. Through play they explore and express their ideas,
interests, and passions — but you need to listen to these carefully to know
what to pick up on.”
Seven is the age of wonder, not the
age for formal testing
A story from England but its
applicable all over.
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| Why all this testing? |
“How can we foster a love for
life-long learning when, before the tooth fairy has even collected a full set
of gnashers, children are expected to get down and give their teacher 20? It is
bad enough that their final year of primary school is riddled with a strict
diet of test, drill, repeat twice every half term for the entire year. But to
re-introduce yet more testing for children who can barely get themselves
dressed, is a regression.”
Philip Pullman decries 'terrible
state' of children's education in the arts
“The author of the His Dark Materials
trilogy urged the government to make theatre visits for schools “a firmly established part of the
curriculum”, saying he was concerned about falling numbers of children being
taken to plays and concerts.
“I
do worry what happens to children when they’re deprived of these things by
these blasted league tables and this crazy assumption that we’ve got to test
everything,” he said.”
'It's time to take a hard look at how
we teach reading’
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| The magic of reading |
Enticing collections of literature—interesting
books written at levels they can decode with accuracy and comprehend with ease—are
key to children becoming skilled, thoughtful, avid readers.”
Like it or not, schools are being
converted into academies – that’s anti-democratic
‘Academies’ is an English term for
charter schools. Readers all over will appreciate the points made here.
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| Parents against academies! |
This week’s contributions from Bruce
Hammonds:
Curriculums,
Collaboration, And Reinventing The Classroom
“Riverpoint
Academy in Spokane, WA is an innovative public high school to say the least.
Students
are given autonomy to pursue the projects that they are most
passionate about and create real-world solutions to problems by incorporating
the latest technology into a collaborative learning environment that is fueled
by community professionals and an inspiring staff.”
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| Riverpoint High School |
What are
"tests that are worth taking”?
Annie Murphy
Paul:
“Over the
weekend, President Obama declared that "our kids should only take tests
that are worth taking." But what would such tests look like? I have a few
ideas. Here is my Affirmative Testing Manifesto:”
Confessions of
a Business Artist
“Unfortunately
our public schools are far too focused on indoctrination than education, on
repetition over discovery. Our educational system specializes in creating
trivia masters and kids that hate school, instead of building a new generation
of creative problem solvers that love to learn and explore new approaches
instead of defending status conferred based on mastery of current truths (which
may be tomorrow’s fallacies). We are far too obsessed with STEM (Science
Technology Engineering and Math) when we should be focused on STEAM (Science
Technology Engineering Art and Music.”
Ten reasons
why teaching the arts is critical in a 21st century world
“The arts have
a powerful impact on learning and are important in their own right. Here are
ten reasons why, in a 21st century world, we should strengthen and expand arts
education, not reduce or eliminate it.”
From Bruce’s ‘goldie oldies’ file:
What’s wrong with Ability Grouping?
“Today there is an understanding of the
relationship between socio economic background and school achievement and the
cultural background of students. Ability grouping is unfair if it doesn’t take
into account young people’s prior experiences and opportunities to learn.”
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| Mixed ability doing science |
Self managing learners
“If teachers want to develop personalised
learning environment students need to have developed the habit of working
independently. Self managing is a 'key competency' both for the smooth running
of a inquiry based classroom and to develop vital life long learning
capabilities. As such it is highly related to future success. When students are
'self managing' it allows teachers the time to work with students who need
help. What independent learning attributes do students in your class exhibit?”
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