Small Planet, Part 3
In the Mainstream

When Anita Chase's second-graders arrive on that wet morning in May, their classroom is no longer just plain-old Room 10. A colorful sign on the door tells them they're entering Anita's Adventure Tours, offering "scientific excursions" to exotic places around the globe. Every kid's a scientist, equipped with a "duffel bag" (a khaki-colored paper folder for storing stories and reports) and a travel journal (to log the day's activities). The room bursts with ocean imagery: Cut-out sea creatures swim across the walls—squid and eels, sharks and turtles, puffins and murres. Books and magazines on sea life spill out of shelves and bins—everything from lighthearted picture books like Humphrey, the Wrong-Way Whale to serious reference books like Whales: The Nomads of the Sea. Oceanic vocabulary words are chalked on the board: Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, Indian. There's a poem about a seashell. A Japanese print of a breaking wave. Real sand dollars and chunks of coral. You can almost feel the ocean swells under your feet.

Splitting into groups with names like Tiger Sharks and Killer Whales, students team up for ocean-related activities as they travel the world on imaginary ships. Some kids use rubber stamps of starfish and sea horses to create an underwater scene, and then write a story to go with it. Other kids research incredible creatures like puffer fish and bandit pipefish, then try to stump their classmates with riddles ("I'm spiky; I blow up; what am I?" or "I'm skinny; I'm red, black, and yellow; I'm poisonous; what am I?") Still others write original verses to "Down by the Bay," and then type them into the computer. As they work, they move through the classic divisions of the curriculum—science, geography, reading, writing, music, art, technology—like a dolphin slices through saltwater.

Chase, in a white captain's hat, circulates among the groups, keeping kids on task, moderating disputes, pulling in wayward students.

The groups flow out of the classroom, spreading their art supplies and reference books into the common area that adjoins the six classrooms of the Blue Wing. Everyone's engrossed.

So no one notices when a staff assistant gently taps two Russian girls on the shoulder and leads them to a nearby cubbyhole for a half-hour preview of an upcoming lesson. Or when another aide motions to a Hispanic boy, who gets some one-on-one reading practice at a table just outside the classroom. When the students finish their separate lessons, they glide back into the group activity with scarcely a ripple.

Wrapping the curriculum around a broad theme (in this case, Environmental Wonders) and splitting kids into groups for projects creates a fluid setting, full of motion and flexibility. Students can come and go without missing other important lessons or disrupting other students—two of the big criticisms of the traditional pullout. And with lots of nooks and niches within feet of the classroom, kids remain closely tied to mainstream activities even while they're getting individual help. Since staff assistants stroll around the room, helping any child who needs a boost, there's no stigma to being singled out.

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