Your attention, please! I daresay I have found Mr. Imagine himself. Truthfully, though… I think the point … that the following video makes abundantly clear… is that any of us who live with children are surrounded by the authentic Ms. and Mr. Imagine every moment. There are a few other points that this video makes …
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, …
Last week, the students celebrated and completed the writing that emerged from the year’s first genre study (previously discussed here and here and related to the outing at Camp Collins discussed here.) The celebration was rich and layered – just like the writing itself. The festivities began with a long conversation about the writing process with Charles Finn, the author …
Read more “Continued explorations and discoveries in writing”
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, …