|
COPYRIGHT 2002 ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education
Abstract
A view of construction from the window of a first-grade classroom was the catalyst for a multigrade, multidisciplinary curriculum project at St. Patrick's Episcopal Day School in Washington, DC. The article has two sections. In the first section, one of the school's science teachers provides background information. In the second part, a first-grade teacher reflects on her classroom's project that gradually came to encompass teachers and children throughout the school. The teacher's colleagues in technology, science, art, religion, and music, as well as children in the nursery school, kindergarten, and grades 5 and 6, worked with her first-grade students on different portions of the project. The children and their work are documented in captioned pictures.
Background on "The Construction Project": Julia H. Berry
In a preschool or child development center, a project investigation can involve all of the children and the entire day as interest and involvement engage the class. Pursuing a project in an elementary classroom is a little different. A teacher of school-age children has a formal curriculum to implement that includes skills and knowledge that her children must master. For many elementary teachers, taking on a project can feel like an extraordinary burden added onto what is usually an overfilled daily schedule.
St. Patrick's Episcopal Day School is a nursery through grade 8 independent school in northwest Washington, DC, with an enrollment of about 460 students. In her reflections presented below, Elizabeth Allen, a first-grade teacher at St. Patrick's, describes how "The Construction Project" gradually became insinuated into her teaching despite her reluctance to add "one more thing" to her already busy lesson plans. How did this happen? Mrs. Allen knew from the children's persistent questions and lingering looks out the window that their interests and attention lay outside her classroom. The very best teachers are those who learn from years of teaching experience how to plant the seeds of their students' passions and nurture them into bloom between the cracks of the daily routine. Elizabeth Allen is one of those teachers.
The Construction Project, which grew out of a simple and unplanned activity, became a highly successful months-long learning experience not only because it came from the interests of the students but also because it fit in with their everyday learning. As you read about the evolution of the Construction Project in Mrs. Allen's classroom, you will see the project phases described in Helm and Katz's book Young Investigators: The Project Approach in the Early Childhood Classroom develop as the children and teachers conduct their investigations just as clearly as if Mrs. Allen had planned the project from beginning to end.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
In employing the Project Approach, as in all good teaching, one should never underestimate...
Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.
|
Bookmark this article
Print this article
Link to this article
Email this article
Digg It!
Add to del.icio.us
RSS
