When given the choice, the environments students choose to work in does not look like the typical classroom. Mrs. D., our head of school, shared a link to this article about the Swedish Telefonplan School that’s designed with the students’ preferences in mind.
From inside the Telefonplan School. Image via Zilla Magazine (hat tip Edudemic).The inside of the Erika-Mann Elementary School. Photo by Jan Bitter.
It’s a lot like the Erika-Mann-Grundschule in Berlin, and the type of open-plan rooms that Montessori Middle Schools aim for. I particularly note the design gives lots of space for small group work. Adolescents tend to cluster, but seem to work most productively in smaller groups.
The group of Lamplighter Montessori students work in parallel but help each other out.
And given the choice, students often prefer the floor to the tables.
Fulton School students choose to sit in the window to work on their math.
We were discussing the rules about how students should act when they work in groups: work to find work to do; allow people to work; be respectful; be focused on the project at hand. As the discussion evolved into what we should do about enforcement, one student suggested that positive reinforcement would be better than negative, so maybe they should get points for good behavior. Being students raised on the Harry Potter series, it was perhaps inevitable that someone would come up with the idea of separating the class into houses that could compete to see who got the most marbles/points.
Support for an inter-house competition was unanimous — after a little more discussion and explanation — and they were able to persuade me to try it. Each group would be its own house — they got to choose the names — and would earn marbles as a group.
I dug up some marbles and a few old jars overnight. I realized, however, that I’d run out of marbles pretty quickly if I gave them out as liberally as I wanted to, so I whipped up a website to keep score long-term.
They chose names. The names all ended up being Harry Potter themed — over some opposition within the groups, however. No one wanted Hufflepuff, and one group flirted with Slytherin, but we finally ended up with Griffindor, Ravenclaw, Chudley Cannons, and S.P.E.W. (Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare). I think they may have, briefly, given each other individual names out of the books, but I was not privy to those deliberations.
How’s it working?
It’s working remarkably well so far. It was originally their idea, and they were forced to persuade me that it was worth trying, so I think they’re well invested in making it work. Our discussions have been much more organized, with fewer people speaking out of turn. And we’ve had much more discussion and questions among them since that’s one way to gain points.
I’ve made it a point to use the physical jars with marbles. They can hear the marbles clink when they fall in, so they get direct, unobtrusive positive feedback.
I’ve also made it a rule that they don’t get points if they ask for them — to reduce the lobbying — but they can still challenge if they did not get points they think they deserved; I always encourage them to think that they’re entitled to a reasonable response from me on any subject (its a good way of keeping me honest, and it helps them see the bigger picture).
The students were also able to change my mind about taking away points. I’d originally wanted to only give positive rewards, but they thought they could handle the negatives just fine, and were kind-of looking forward to them. And I have to admit they seem to work. Now, I’m not the only one trying to keep these adolescents in line. They’re getting pressure for good behavior from their peers; a much more potent source of influence for kids in a stage that features social development.
The inter-house rivalry is also healthy enough at the moment. They’re quite happy to see the other groups loose points, but seem to realize that openly advocating for it would not be a particularly advantageous move.
At the end of the quarter, the students want some sort of reward for the house with the most points. I told them that they should make proposals, because I had no good ideas.
In all, it has started quite promisingly. We’ll see how it goes.
Mrs. D. recommended this nice little article on “flipped teaching”, where students get lessons from videos (usually at home) and spend their time in class working on problems and getting help from peers and their teacher. Sounds a lot like Montessori. In middle school, for example, where you get a short lesson at the beginning of the week and spend the rest of the time working on projects and assignments.
Pushing the video out of the classroom can, potentially, be a useful step, especially for those students who can work independently. I’ve been trying it a little with the Khan Academy videos, but I need to organize it a bit more.
The Finnish and South Korean educational systems are ranked number one and two in the world, yet they’re at opposite ends of the homework assignment spectrum. Louis Menand elaborates:
Students [in Finland] are assigned virtually no homework; they don’t start school until age seven; and the school day is short.
[South Korean schools] are notorious for their backbreaking rigidity. Ninety per cent of primary-school students in South Korea study with private tutors after school, and South Korean teen-agers are reported to be the unhappiest in the developed world. Competition is so fierce that the government has cracked down on what are called private “crammer” schools, making it illegal for them to stay open after 10 P.M. (though some attempt to get around this by disguising themselves as libraries).
Observing my students figuring out how to canoe on the river this last outdoor education trip has reinforced my belief in the effectiveness of authentic team-building experiences over simulations and co-operative games.
Each morning, I assigned different pairs of students to each canoe. One of the main objectives of the outdoor ed trip is to help integrate the 7th and 8th graders, and the new 8th graders into a cohesive group. Good relationships among the students are necessary to achieve the benefits of the multi-age classroom.
Figuring out which way is upstream and which way is downstream.
It took them a while (sometimes up to an hour on the water), but they eventually figured out how to work together.
And when one of the canoes tipped over — more from overconfidence than from anything else — everyone pitched in to help recover the canoe.
Recovering the tipped canoe.
Then, when the storms came, they pulled together and all the practice paid off.
Paddling through the storm.
No simulation could have matched the experience.
Forging a team out of cold water, thunder, and lightening.
The middle school has been studying The Tempest over the last quarter. In order to give students a deeper connection with this Shakespearean play, we arranged for students to experience the titular meteorological phenomenon on our outdoor education trip last week. Since we’re located in the mid-continent, replicating the precise maritime conditions and acquiring the appropriate vessel would have been cost prohibitive. Instead, taking advantage of the local geography and socio-cultural predilections, we improvised by arranging for a series of thunderstorms during a canoe trip in the Ozarks.
In truth, the main purpose of our outdoor education trip was to integrate the upcoming 7th graders and new students into the middle school class. The key advantage of the multi-aged classroom is the opportunity for older students to mentor the younger students, and propagate the appropriate classroom culture and expectations from year to year. But for this to work well requires students to develop strong working relationships and communication skills. The isolation of the trip (no technology) and the coordination required for the tasks we perform (such as paddling a 2-person canoe) greatly facilitate this process.
Despite being drenched, chilled, and a little scared, the group’s performance was remarkable. They endured the worst of the storms, looking out for each other with encouraging words and heartening smiles. They found the strength within themselves as individuals and as a group to keep morale high while on the river. And, when we pulled over, were able to bask in the giddy relief that a good group feels after stressful situations. By the end, they had developed a genuine camaraderie forged by a shared, intense challenge.
P.S. We also did some rock climbing, caving, spent a night on a sandbar, journaled, and learned a bit about geology, hydrogeology, fish surveys, the rock cycle, and some vocabulary (“hubris” was a term, new to many, that was ably demonstrated by the pair who flipped their canoe).
Rock climbing.Spelunking.
P.P.S. Our excellent, invaluable guides on the trip were from Discovery Ministries, which is a religious organization, but they do non-religious programs for groups like ours.
