My most recent Humanities classroom visits took place this week at Dove Elementary. I was especially curious to see how Dove was implementing the new K-5 curriculum in light of their efforts to become an International Baccalaureate (IB) school. I knew that some very special things had been taking place at DES of late, but I was not sure how their teachers were going to be able to weave IB into our new ELA/SS curriculum model. Wow! They blew me away. It was amazing to see how seamlessly they are weaving the pieces together. This happens through TONS of collaboration and support by their leadership as well as determination on the part of teachers. Kudos!
During my visit, I got to see a brilliant example of how a new 3rd grade Humanities unit was introduced through "unpacking." This is the same language/process for unit introduction we use in grades 6-12, so these kiddos will be way ahead of the curve! I saw beautiful examples of self-contained 5th grade instruction with students working very intently in R/W workshop, meeting with teachers in small groups or 1:1, and owning their independent learning. I saw upper grade teachers taking running records with students and using this to help find "just right" texts, and I saw several classrooms in which students were engaged in the act of reading self-selected books. I got to experience the 2nd grade student presentations of the historic Grapevine landmarks they'd researched, and I learned many things about my new neighborhood (we just moved to downtown Grapevine last month!). Students took pride in their work, had done lots of research, had worked to edit their writing, and could speak articulately about their learning. I saw several examples of good word work - Words Their Way in action, interactive word walls, handwriting practice, and individual spelling dictionaries. And while I didn't get to spend lots of time in K-1 while kids were present, I did see some great classroom artifacts that showed me that workshop, technology, and cornerstone tasks are vibrant parts of the work they are doing.
Perhaps one of the most affirming aspects of these campus visits has been the way schools with such a wide variety of "personalities" are using the structure of our newly designed curriculum, adapting it to their contexts, and staying true to the key sequence and instructional elements. This was the vision of our curriculum steering committee last year, and it's a huge celebration that this vision is bearing fruit. Our students are now being educated in a more cohesive system of curriculum sequences and instructional frameworks, and as years go by, the cumulative benefits of this will pay dividends!
For a peek into a few of the classrooms I got to see at Dove last week, click here. Also see this awesome video they shared with me about a recent IB unit they completed. So cool! Enjoy!
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