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 …
In a beautiful place such as “Colorland” teachers have noticed, for many years now, that children’s imaginations take an especially lofty flight. At Opal School, such observations always lead us to wonder how we can support and sustain this kind of energy, engagement and joy in the service of the other kinds of learning we …
Halloween came and went, as it always does, and with it so did the lovely pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns that help define and symbolize this exciting and spooky holiday. We kept our pumpkins around for a few days longer, but when we returned from the weekend break both of our jack-o-lanterns were showing extreme signs of …
At Opal School, we have spent years asking ourselves– What is the relationship between play and language? In Reggio Emilia a decade ago I heard Jerome Bruner state that we learn the syntax of our language to tell stories. I’m sure we are born driven to do this: to connect, express, relate, inquire, research, discover, …
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?”
What is Literacy Studio? Literacy Studio is an approach to developing increasingly sophisticated reading and writing skills and attitudes through the application of the arts, lived experience, and mentor texts. Examining the course of study over the last month in the Opal 4 classroom provides insight into this methodology. Mentor Texts In Literacy Studio, we write under the influence …
With all of our talk with Opal 2 students in this first month of school about intentions, some questions have come up about the process of being intentional and thinking about our thinking. Together with the children we’ve wondered: How do you have intentions but still stay open to possibilities? Are there chances to be surprised and …
Unanswerable questions should be a source of comfort. They ensure that you will always have something to think about! But why do puzzlements provide satisfaction? Because they invite the most precious of human abilities to take wing. I speak of imagination, the neglected stepchild of American education. -Eliot Eisner My Colorland has trees, birds, …
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. …