“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Martin Luther King, Jr. In observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, we’ve had a long weekend. Much of Dr. King’s encouragement and inspiration ultimately challenges us all to speak up with, as our friend Vicki Vinton has written, with …
What happens when the children become the experts and they support each other in the creation of a special aritifact? And 28 children can work on their creation in a room at the same time knowing that they can turn to a peer for support with each step in the process yet do all of the …
Read more “Supporting each other to make faux leather historical journals”
Transitioning from reenacting King Philip’s War to understanding the colonial period in US History or How does a deep dive into a time, place and story give fourth and fifth graders the knowledge, understanding and experience to predict what European colonists and defeated Indians will do next? As I am sure anyone with any connection …
The Separatists from England, via Leiden, Holland, finally took their very well known journey on the Mayflower, which, by the way, was exactly this long (see photo above). It was an eventful journey, full of storms, broken beams on the ship, hunger, seasickness, and the birth of a baby, who was appropriately named, Oceanus. Landing (possibly) …
Re-reading this article tonight, after a particularly creative third grade Literacy Studio today, I was thrown against the cold reality of the mindset of those who really would have us believe that control, certainty, and the dehumanization of the students in our care is the way to a more robust economy and stable society. In Creativity …
Sometimes “Highlights” and “Ask Me About” just can’t capture the week. We need pictures! Historically Accurate Play in Opal 4 has moved – geographically and chronologically. We are now in the city of Boston in the year 1775. The first invitation into this new time and place was a map study of a few historical …
Observing, listening, asking questions, and documenting student growth and learning is all a part of what we do as teachers every day at Opal School. As we document the growth and learning of the children in our classroom, of course we pay attention to the academic skills that they are acquiring, but we look for …
A few months ago, it was hard to open a newspaper or turn on the radio without running into Paul Tough and his book, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character (see, for example, this episode of This American Life.) As the title suggests, the book highlights the fundamental relationship between …
As we discussed on Literacy Night at Opal School last week, the writing component of Literacy Studio in the upper grades at Opal School is inspired by what we call genre studies. In a genre study, students read many published examples within a chosen genre to figure out what the author of those pieces did …
Read more “What does a Genre-Based Writing Study look like in Opal 4?”
In second and third grade this year, the “big idea” we are studying is the concept of interdependence. This idea of each living thing having its place in a system that relies on it and that it relies on can be studied through almost anything. We have begun to study it through the world of insects. …