My name is Doug Crosby, and I teach first grade at Cherry Valley Elementary School in Polson, Montana. Many of the visitors who come to my classroom are surprised by what they see. The comments I often hear sound much like this: "What do you use for discipline?" "How do the kids know what to do?" "This is really different."
What I do in the classroom is no different from what I've done since starting my teaching career in New Zealand in the early 1980s. In my room, you will not find desks arranged in straight rows isolating kids from one another. Instead, you will see tables where kids can work together and support each other. Stacks of ditto sheets give way to authentic children's writing in draft and published forms. And complicated discipline plans are unnecessary when students are actively engaged in their learning.
To some, my room may appear to be disorganized and occupied by a bunch of talkative kids. I like to think of it as a self-motivated class of engaged learners. My basic teaching phil - os o phies are rather simple, particularly when talking about the language arts field. I begin with the notion that all reading and writing must have a valid purpose. Then, I teach reading by getting the kids to read, and I teach writing by getting the kids to write. With that, you have my program.
Everything I do in my classroom is centered around the child, and wherever that child is on her developmental journey. I believe that seeing and teaching each child individually is an important step in creating a developmentally appropriate practice. All too often I have seen curricula in primary classrooms driven by a textbook notion of where the "average" first-grader should be at some arbitrary point during the school year. If we are realistic, we know that we always have students at all points of a literacy continuum. In my classroom, I identify, through assessment, where each student is on that continuum, and help move him forward from that point.
This year I teach 22 first-graders who cover a wide range of developmental levels. I have developed a number of teaching strategies to meet the needs of each individual student.
Organization is the key
In order to identify needs in reading, I use "running records," a technique developed by Marie Clay and used extensively in Reading Recovery. The running record will tell me what reading behaviors and strategies a child is using, and what level books I need to have available to that child. Since I have several students who are at similar developmental levels, I can provide independent book boxes to meet the individual needs of students.
I introduce new text of slightly higher difficulty and facilitate support in guided silent reading sessions that allow students to experience success. In this way, I am helping each student advance to the next level of understanding.
Writing works much the same way. Since I need to know what each student can already do, I always begin with an assessment. What is the point of teaching the whole class about using a period when half of them are routinely using it in their writing? I know from experience that if I teach something already understood by some children, I run the risk of boring students, fostering discipline problems, and turning kids off to learning.
Next, I list their accomplishments in the back of their draft writing books under the heading, "I can." I hold the students accountable for what they already know in each of our meetings.
I then identify a learning path for the student and write this under a heading, "I am learning to." Identifying the next learning step creates a center for discussion the next time I meet with the child in conference. This technique has been tremendously successful. I don't have to remind students about the direction of their learning; they know it and work on it independently.
I approach spelling in much the same way. I look in children's draft writing books for close approximations, those words that the student is almost spelling correctly. During the week, each student receives three to five new spelling words that were close approximations for them. They practice spelling these words at school and at home. However, I do not assess their spelling in a test each week. Instead, I look for the particular words to be spelled correctly in future draft writings.
Schoolwide, we use a list of 230 essential words for writing. Each student has a list of these words on file, and each teacher highlights fluent words. Our expectation is that by the end of third grade, all students will be able to spell all of the 230 essential words, at least.
Fitting It All In
It takes a shift in scheduling in order to integrate a child-centered, individual-learning approach in your classroom. For example, I have a language arts block that lasts for about two hours instead of teaching spelling for 10 minutes, reading for 20 minutes, and writing for 20 minutes. During the language arts block, students make choices that are based on a daily plan that they set for themselves.
I determine a group of set activities that students need to be engaged in during this time: silent reading, handwriting, spelling, draft writing and publishing, and selection of take-home reading material. All students participate in these activities, but they choose the order in which to complete them. While students work on these language arts activities, I work on reading, writing, and spelling with other students individually or in small groups.
This approach takes a lot of planning, demonstration, and modeling. At this stage of the year, we are still doing many activities together. I have found that if I have not modeled and demonstrated each activity well, the students will not be able to work well on their own. Once this student planning time is introduced, it is one of the most relaxing times of the day. My students are working independently on each facet of their plan, and I visit with them when I feel it necessary to do so.
What about my expectations at the end of the year? First, I expect that I will have a group of first-graders who can work very well on their own. When they are faced with a problem, they will first try to solve it themselves, but they also know that I will assist them if necessary. Most of the children will be able to write independently and have anywhere from 40 to 80 fluent words. They will be reading fluently at a wide range of levels and be employing a number of reading strategies.
This is a tremendously challenging way of teaching, but without a doubt it is also the most rewarding.
Doug Crosby can be reached at Cherry Valley School, 111 Fourth Avenue East, Polson, Montana 59860, e-mail cherry@digisys.net
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