The Rookery

Growing Up with Special People

One of our visitors to Special Person's Day remarked, "This is my last Special Person's Day!  I'm really sad."  I was sad, too.  This was a family I've known for years.  She'd watched her granddaughter perform as a kindergartener -- so excited to be on "the big stage" but a little lost in that way of kindergarteners.  She'd gotten a (very) extensive tour two years ago when her grand daughter was a greeter as a 2/3 and now, this final year, she was able to see an confident kid up on stage (who had earlier very ably served coffee and cookies to the assembled.)

Each grade level contributes to Special Person's Day.  Like many aspects of school life, students' responsibilities growing as they do.  In fourth and fifth grade, we hand write invitations (some of us using our new-fangled cursive skills) and deliver them to community members.  We practice how to greet people we don't know and how to extend the invitation to them.  The fourth and fifth graders can also volunteer to be servers.  We hold a training session during recess during which they learn how to offer coffee and cookies, how to pour safely and gracefully, how to problem solve, how to watch for cues that people need more, when to approach a table to offer more (i.e. not every 30 seconds -- 4th and 5th graders are naturally very attentive servers) and much more.  They take their responsibility very seriously and I was thrilled to be told by a grandpa who is in the service industry that our students had done a very good job.

Even though it is the last Special Person's Day for some, I know they'll be a part of many of the student's special days in the future.  How lucky our students are to have so many folks celebrating their growing up.

 

 

New Voices - New Knowledge

We had such an amazing week in the Herons.  On Tuesday, we were able to teach the rest of the school what we had learned during our pre-Revolutionary America theme.  And then, on Wednesday and Thursday, we were able to learn from new teachers.

Susan Percy joined us for Forest School on Wednesday.  She is a naturalist from Arizona and joined us on our ramble.  We practiced our "dear ears" and our "owl eyes" and then we went for a walk where we practiced our forensic skills - puzzling out the tracks we were finding everywhere in the snow.  We found vole holes and mice tracks and many, many rabbit tracks.  We also found dear tracks that had filled in over time.  We are still watching out for the mink tracks that we found last year.  Nothing so far.  Have they left the area?  Will they come back?

Susan also brought us a treasure trove of flora and fauna from Arizona. (I can't even imagine the conversation she had with TSA.)  The Herons were amazed by the desert oak she brought -- so different from our oak trees.  We also loved comparing the different kinds of prickly pear -- the rabbit ear being our favorite by a long way.  The Herons had great insights about the adaptations that enabled these plants to survive in the desert.  Thank you, Susan, for starting this conversation that is sure to continue.  It was a perfect morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Herons finished their flag (2 years in the making) with an
annatto dyed section.

On Thursday, the Herons were able to learn from another guest teacher, Constanza Ocampo-Raeder, an environmental anthropologist from Carleton.  Constanza brought 13 different textile samples and invite the Herons to inspect.  They were asked to assign a value to each one. The Herons took their work very seriously and I was pleased to see how much this year's handwork informed their work.  They carefully examined the backs of the textiles to see if they were machine made.  They were fascinated by the different techniques used by the craftspeople.

Constanza shared the story of each textile with us.  One was created by hand with tiny stitches and dye made out of insects.  Another was created almost a hundred years ago by a woman who was one of the last five people to speak her language.  One of the students' favorites turned out to be a machine made blanket that had all artificial pigments (but was beautiful, all the same). And, by the way, what is "beautiful" and how do different cultures conceive of beauty?

Whew!  We followed that heady discussion with some good old fashioned pounding.  Constanza brought annatto seeds and cochineal bugs for us to pound into powder and then use as dye.  The Herons happily pounded and dyed away for the remainder of the day.  It was a perfect afternoon.

Both Susan and Constanza commented on the way the Herons asked questions and were so engaged with what they were learning.  How could we not when given such amazing opportunities.

 

To Culminate

The energy leading up to a culminating event is palpable and consuming.  One of the ironies of documenting the work of a classroom is that our very busiest moments when the most is going on are the hardest to capture.  In the lead up to a culminating event, every child is independently moving through their work -- and I am relegated to the busy gofer: finding the hole punch for someone, OKing the spelling for another, crafting a search string for a third.

To culminate, according to Webster, is to reach a point of highest development especially after a long time.  It originates from "culmen" Latin for "to summit."  I find that much of the learning of a theme occurs during the preparation to teach in a culmination.  The ideas that were just forming have to solidify.  The information that was a little hazy must come into focus.

In this theme, we learned a lot...on our first day getting ready for the culmination, we filled the board with what we knew:  the geography and economics of the colonies, the escalation of taxes, the lives of indentured servants and slaves...Students then chose what they wanted to teach and how they wanted to teach it.  They filled out a planner to share their ideas -- and then the real work began.

Often students would have something like "I'll teach about children's games" or "I'll teach about trade" on their planners.  But what about those things?  We role played being at the event and having a "customer" come up to learn.  The Herons learned that there were a lot of specifics they were unsure about. "Why weren't they allowed to trade with other countries?" "How would you be punished if you didn't pay?" "Was it against the law to be in the Sons of Liberty?" A second round of research commenced and we filled in a lot of blanks.

But how to say the things we know?  How to engage with someone who walks up to you?  Finding the words to express what you know is the final step.  Nothing can be left indistinct (and, on top of that, we're trying to stay in character!)

The play was put together with lines from our discussions, journals and homework reacting to what was happening.  As we've practiced, the diversity of viewpoints and the chronology of the events leading up to the Revolution have solidified.  They really know it -- and now they're ready to share it.

Tuesday will indeed be our "highest point of development;" I hope to see you there from 12:30-2:00 (the play will be at 1:45).  If you aren't able to come, don't worry -- I'll video tape the play and practicing with your child this weekend will be a great way to get a sense of what they will share!

P.S.  I couldn't get the caption function to work on the blog (they just changed it).  But the top picture is one of my favorite pictures of the Herons ever.  They are standing in daguerreotype seriousness with Daniel Lessin, a Revolutionary re-enactor who taught us about his character and how he developed his character.  They were inspired.  The bottom right picture is the board filled with everything we could remember from the theme.

Celebrating our Work!

 

The open mic at our coffee house.

   On Friday, the Herons celebrated the publication of our literary magazine, The Heron.  Every student

Would you want to share a park bench with this bear?

successfully published a piece of writing.  This is quite an accomplishment.  Students selected a piece and revised it based on their peers' feedback.  Then they edited the piece, considering paragraphing, punctuation, capitalization and spelling.  Students (and adult typists -- thank you volunteers!) type the work in and edit one more time.  I then provided a teacher edit.  I use Google Drive's tools to do this, often supplying grammatical mini lessons about commas, quotation marks and run-on sentences as I comment. Students review and learn from my edits.  Then they choose their fonts and illustrate their work.

    Whew!  On Friday we enjoyed tea, cookies and clementines as we read our work on the open mic.  Simon and Colleen stopped by to enjoy the festivities, too. Hopefully you had a chance to check out the literary magazine, too.

   On Thursday, we celebrated GiveMN by dressing up in fall colors.  The Herons had a lot of fun -- and I especially enjoyed the antics during an especially creative round of one of our favorite games, "Park Bench."  Ask your Heron for more details.

This is What Teaching Looks Like

Today, the Herons were asked to brainstorm how we might teach our families and the rest of the school about our theme.  In the picture above, you can see what the conversation grew in to.  In about an hour, every single student added to the plans (a partial speaker's list is on the side of the board -- I started it when I couldn't keep up.):

We could dress up and build a town (or a model of a town).  We could be in a tavern where our guests could move from table to table to discuss things.  There should be several churches where you could learn about the religious beliefs. We could use the upstairs as New England, the 2/3s as the middle colonies and the K/1s as the southern colonies.  There could be a giant Declaration of Independence that people could sign...and the signers could be there in costume to de-code what different parts mean...and maybe we could add other groups that should be included, too.  We could re-enact a battle or the Boston Massacre ("INCIDENT ON KING STREET!" a vocal group called out).  We should have a trial of the soldiers.  There could be Town Criers (on the intercom!) that could announce events that are happening.  Our guests should be trained -- they should get a name and learn how to speak like a colonist.  The could do chores at people's houses to learn about life and then earn Pieces of Eight to trade at the shops and tavern.  There could be a map with the different people -- we could use our portraits on the map -- there could be trivia questions on the map for people to find the answers to.  Kids could make paper pockets like the ones we sewed from flannel to keep their things in.  We could have a congress where people can hear the debates of the day.  There should be a doctor to diagnose you and tell you what the "cure" was.  King George should be trying to convince people (and punish them).  There should be a school where you can write with a quill, play children's games and wear a dunce cap.  Kids could collect pieces of eight that will come together at the end...or a map puzzle pieces that will be the Declaration of Independence when they're put together in each classroom afterwards...

It went on -- big ideas and small ones -- but all creative and interesting and, importantly, powerful. 

They want to teach this way because this is how they've learned at Prairie Creek.  They've learned through arts residencies where they've written their own operas.  They've learned through field trips where the walls of the classroom fell away.  They've learned in small classes where they can really be known and where they've come to see learning as something that is deeply meaningful to them.  They've learned through personal projects that they are both consumers and providers of ideas.  They've learned to make and do in art and music and in the woods.  In rich themes they've seen how learning can be immersive and engrossing.  They've learned to learn from each other.

As teachers, many of us cannot imagine being anywhere else.  We are able to extend our learning every week through two hours of professional development.  We are encouraged to seek out learning beyond the school.  We are able to create new curriculum all of the time! And, amazingly, we are able to buy the books and materials we need to create vibrant experiences in our classroom.  We are expected and encouraged to push ourselves into new places in our practice.  We teach in a beautiful space -- inside and out.

All of this has been made possible by your support and that of families who have come before -- countless volunteer hours, blogs and newsletters read with care, conversations with children that deepen their learning, and financial gifts.

This is the season when our inbox fills up with requests from GiveMN -- I am always in awe of the amazing work of organizations on in our community and our state.  Prairie Creek also uses GiveMN as a center piece of our fundraising.  We all wished that we lived in a society in which public schools for all kids were generously funded...but the truth of the matter is that the state's funding doesn't cover the cost of the type of education we believe all children deserve.  And so we have to ask for the rest -- in time and money -- from our community.

Please donate what you are able to Prairie Creek this week.  Spread the word, everything helps -- especially with the $15,000 matching gift that is offered.  You can donate at GiveMN or you can send a check to the school (both count toward the matching gift and will get tracked on the GiveMN website.) 

Thank you for supporting our work in so many ways -- we are truly grateful.

A Closer Look

Close Reading

This week we read the last newspaper in our Pre-Revolutionary America theme.  The Battle of Lexington and Concord shifted the debate in the colonies and the rag-tag underground Sons of Liberty made way for Washington's Continental army and open rebellion.  Together, we read the first part of the Declaration of Independence.  The language is challenging and the syntax is dense so I modeled close reading, a technique in which you move word by word through a text and parse the meaning piece by piece.  On the overhead projector (yes, an overhead projector) I marked up my original and they followed my lead:

The students then split into pairs and tried their hand at a close reading of the grievances that the writers of the Declaration felt "impelled" to list.  They did an amazing job.  Wading through the complex text, they recognized many of the outrages they had read about in our role play:  quartering soldiers, lack of fair trials, excessive taxes, having no say in government, being controlled by the military.  They even figured out some new grievances - such as forced conscription.  I was very impressed with their willingness and ability to wrestle with the words and puzzle out their meaning.

We also had a chance to wrestle with some of the paradoxes of the Declaration.  "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men [emphasis mine] are created equal..."  The Herons knew that even at the time, people knew this statement wasn't inclusive.  We had read a letter by Abigail Adams in which she implored her husband to, "remember the ladies" as he helped to write the documents that would become the foundation of a new country.  Other delegates wanted to include Anti-slavery language which was ultimately taken out so that all of the nascent states would sign on to the rebellion.

Our history is not simple.  The founding documents are riddled with language and systems that de-humanized people ("merciless Indian Savages" in the Declaration, for example) and yet the vision for a government of, by and for the people was, truly, revolutionary and continues to inspire oppressed people everywhere -- even here.  Indeed, the Declaration was used as the basis of the Declaration of Sentiments the founding document of the U.S. women's suffrage movement.  The Herons proved themselves ready to consider that duality.

Just this weekend, I heard an interview with Filipino author and teacher, Gina Apostol in which she talks about this more eloquently than I:

You hold these tensions in your country, and it is good for you. It is good for you to recognize the liberatory aspects of the "saving principles," as Frederick Douglass called them, and it is good for you to recognize that there was inhumanity in our original Constitution — that there was a three-fifths clause, that there was a normalizing of genocide against Native Americans. And to hold those together, and to confront that daily — it's really very difficult — but to hold those tensions together is a way to be a healthy American...

 

So I teach these things to my students, and I think that we should use these liberatory aspects of the founding documents to counteract the inhumanity that is also part of this history

I am proud of the Herons and their work to hold these truths together.  It bodes well.

 

Close Inspection

 

Checking out the hole

What might not bode so well was the Herons' eagerness to check out a giant hole during our Forest School ramble.  In the

The hole.

end, it was their teacher who put her hand (and phone) down the hole to get a closer look (after discouraging a child from sticking his head in the hole).  The whole was about 25 cm (10 inches) across and had a wide dirt field "porch" in front of it.  It was dug in sandy soil at the top of a hill in a farm field.  It went down about 70 cm (an armslength) where it seemed to branch in two directions.  Thoughts?  Our guess was ground hog or badger but we haven't yet found a definitive answer.

 

Running Cross Country

The Herons' newest PE unit is cross country running.  We have a set course that we return to every day and each day we share techniques that help us be stronger runners.  Students have suggested such things as "when you feel like stopping, pick a nearby goal and run to that,"  "if you feel like you need to stop, jog or walk fast instead," "run with a friend who has a similar pace and encourage each other," "don't sprint at the start - try to run at the same pace,"  "use friendly competition to motivate you," "I try to run a little farther than I did the last time."

On our very first day I was impressed by the Herons.  Every single child ran across the finish line -- some of them had walked for a bit of the trail but, as soon as they were able, they had run again.  Every single kid had committed to giving it a try and approaching the challenge positively.  That's very unusual and I think the Herons took pride in being a group that is willing to tackle something new, even when it's difficult.

The next day there was not a single grumble when it was time to head out to the course again.  Each child wanted to see if they could go a little faster than the day before.  The Chickadees are also working on running and came over to watch us run and cheer us on.  I wish I had a camera!

Here's a picture of our course.  It's about .4 miles long:
The image is from a great Dakota county website where you can draw and measure distances.

Typically, we focus on an activity in gym for a week and then we move to a new skill or game.  I watch students carefully during gym and choose activities that will build needed skills.  So far we've worked on throwing and catching with a modified game of handball.  A week of rock climbing focused on upper body strength.  We have also worked on strategy skills and anticipation of ball location through a game called monarch.  I do direct teaching of skills for those who haven't had as much experience and structure games so that players of multiple skill levels can participate, practice and have fun.  The weather doesn't look like it will cooperate for more cross country right now -- but I know the Herons will want to return to it soon.

Reliving the Boston Trial

In March of 1770, five colonists were killed by a group of nine British soldiers outside the custom house.  Some of the papers at the time reported it as the "Boston Massacre"...others called it the "Incident on King Street."  About six months after it happened, the soldiers were put on trial (Governor Hutchenson decided it would be a good idea to let tempers cool down before the trial and sent the British regiment involved out of town for a while.)

On Friday, the Herons re-inacted a transcript of the trial.  Simon played the part of Captain Thomas Preston, the commander of the troops involved.  I was John Adams (yes, the one who eventually became a rebel and the second president) who, although no fan of the British presence in Boston, volunteered to represent the British soldiers because he believed they had the right to a fair trial and good representation.  Some Herons read aloud the depositions of various members of the Boston citizenry and Private Hugh Montgomery and Matthew Kilroy - the first two soldiers to shoot.  The rest formed the jury.

It was a fascinating trial (both at the time and during our re-enactment).  Several of the Herons asked if they should decide about the soldiers guilt as a Heron or as the character they were portraying in our theme.  When I asked if their character's perspective would make a difference in how they voted, almost all agreed that it would.  "You would believe the people who were like you" one Heron shared.  "I hate the British...it would be hard for me to find them innocent.) This was a great opportunity to talk about bias and, indeed, how it is human nature to be more receptive to people who are like you.

The Herons noticed echoes in the case with the recent trials of police in the deaths of  Philando Castile and Laquan McDonald.  Indeed,Adams's summation could almost have been a quote from one of those trials (except the jury he was speaking to was much more aligned with the prosecution than the defense.):

I will enlarge no more on the evidence, but submit it to you.-Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence: nor is the law less stable than the fact; if an assault was made to endanger their lives, the law is clear, they had a right to kill in their own defence; if it was not so severe as to endanger their lives, yet if they were assaulted at all, struck and abused by blows of any sort, by snow-balls, oyster-shells, cinders, clubs, or sticks of any kind; this was a provocation, for which the law reduces the offence of killing, down to manslaughter, in consideration of those passions in our nature, which cannot be eradicated. To your candour and justice I submit the prisoners and their cause.

 

Tallying the decisions

In the end, the Herons' decision aligned exactly with that of the jury in 1770.  Preston was acquitted while Kilroy and Montgomery were found guilty of manslaughter.  While both were condemned to death, they were given the chance to mitigate the charge if they were able to read a psalm from the Christian bible.  Both men did so (well, Killroy was illiterate so he got to squeak through on a technicality) so they only received brands on their thumbs.

The one thing that was clear was that the trial has done little to calm things.  While some colonists sympathize with the Bostonians and their struggles with larger numbers of British troops, others are hoping that cooler heads prevail and they can continue as they have been.  We shall see.

 

 

 

Forest School Updates

The Herons have settled into our Forest School routine.  Two weeks ago, we graphed a data set from the first junco sighting of the fall from 1952 to 1990 as recorded by Orwin Rustad, a naturalist in Rice County.  We found the latest, earliest and mode of our the set (and learned how to turn month/day formats into numerical day of the year from 1 to 365...no small feat.) 

It's hard to see here, but the Herons spontaneously inverted themselves on the plaza.

Using the plaza as a graph helps students visualize the data.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last week, we played with the Deca Tree puzzle in which a tree has 10 trunks each of which has 10 branches each of which has 10 twigs each of which has 10 leaves.  A forester cuts down one trunk, one branch, one twig and one leaf.  How many leaves are left on the tree?  This was a fun way to play with the base 10 system and the plaza afforded us room to sketch out possible solutions (no group ended up drawing all 10,000 leaves luckily!)

We also continued to practice our lashing skills, this time with sunflower stalks from Nat.  

Weaving Reading In

Looking back over this year's communication, I realized that I've written often about math and theme but haven't yet shared much about our work in reading.  Reading is woven into our daily routine in a way that is not as flashy as some of the other work in the Herons but it is foundational and interesting and worth talking about.  So here we go:

Independent Reading

We start the year talking about reading stamina and picking "Just Right" books.  This isn't a new concept to students (or you.)  A just right book is one that has some new words and ideas but that is comfortable enough for us to visualize and understand without laboring.  Every day, the students read for thirty five or forty un-interupted minutes.  They immerse themselves in "book world."  But in the fourth and fifth grade, students aren't just reading for the plot.  They learn to slow down and appreciate the craft that brings the story (or the non-fiction) to life.  Characterization, metaphor, simile, personification, colloquial language, and other author's tools are treasures to discover in the text.  New words are discovered and celebrated.  We record some of these discoveries on our Think Marks which we share weekly with peers.

I conduct reading interviews regularly during our reading block.  Students share a summary of their book, read a short piece of the book aloud and then we talk about craft and inference.  Using our conversation as a guide, I teach each student about something new to watch for or think about and then we set a goal together.

Forest School Reading

The first year that the Herons did Forest School was rough on our books.  Snow and paperbacks don't mix.  Last year, I tried a different tact.  I had always wanted to read more non-fiction with students but struggled to hook them into books on an on-going basis.  A grant from Minnesota Conservation Volunteer sent a class set of their magazine to the Herons every other month and we used that during our Forest School work.  The "Young Naturalist" articles are compelling.  The teach the Herons a lot about the natural world and quality non-fiction writing.  We read them in a variety of ways - together, in partners and alone - always with an eye to how the author is writing as well as what the author is saying.  An excellent on-line archive gives me a chance to match content with our current science work.  This time for direct reading instruction is a boon -- I am able to share new learning and skills with the class and give them many days of focussed, uninterrupted independent reading, a key factor in reading growth.

During one of our recent Forest School reads, we talked about topic sentences, lead techniques, how to decipher pronunciation keys, different ways authors share definitions, metaphor and simile in non-fiction, the story of "the one" as a way to teach about a larger group in addition to the science content of the piece.  The conversation is often wide ranging.  We once read about a named forest and one of the students asked, "Who named it that?" and that opened up a much wider conversation about place naming and how the same place can be called many different things.  The students were especially interested in Bde Maka Ska, the "new" official name for the lake formerly called Lake Calhoun.  Good non-fiction is like that -- it takes one on a journey that often leads to in a lot of different directions.

Theme Reading

Today the class worked with primary source documents from the trial of British soldiers for shooting citizens in Boston.  They puzzled through new words and antiquated sentence structures.  I think we all felt like detectives trying to figure out the perspectives of the various stake holders.  Here was reading and analysis put to practical, authentic use.

We read a lot in theme, not always primary sources but always for authentic reasons.  We read to discover and flesh out the details. We read because we are curious and want to know more.  For some students, reading has always opened new worlds and they happily sit for hours devouring fiction.  For others, the fruits of their reading labors have been more elusive -- but theme gives them a new reason to see why this reading work is worth while.  In a well constructed theme, students want to know and reading becomes a tool for that work.

Read Aloud

The books I choose for read aloud are carefully chosen.  I stop often to share new craft or new language.  I think aloud to show students how I make inferences and use evidence from the text.  This is where I model reading behavior for them to emulate in their own work.  The books are often ones that would be difficult for many in the class to tackle independently either because of their complexity or their historical context.  I often choose them because I know that the story will give us opportunities to discuss important issues such as gender and racial inequities, disability, bias or class issues.  We've become increasingly aware of the importance of books as "mirrors and windows."  Students should read some books in which they can see themselves reflected and they should read other books in which they gain a window into an experience different from their own.  Both experiences are important.

The variety of reading experiences in the Herons (and in every classroom at Prairie Creek) ensures that students don't just learn how to read (and decode, and make inferences, and identify craft, and comprehend, and follow arguments...) but also why to read.  Both are important if one wants students to be life long, passionate readers.