B.O.S. English K-6 Syllabus

Q3.

I went to the Scope and Sequence of Grammar page. This gave suggestions for the level of grammar that students are expected to learn in certain stages.It had useful comments about the variety of achievable levels within each stage.

The programming section also mentioned flexibility in student learning levels and gave suggestions for quality input into lessons eg Aboriginal perspectives. It is suitable for focussing teachers on their objectives and reminding them of all the points they need to cover.
The Assessment section had lots of information about the variety of ways assessing can be done apart from tests and marks.

A good lesson plan is much more than just covering the outcomes. a good lesson plan takes into consideration the students, what they know, who they are, what they need to know and why. The content should be relevant, rich and fulfilling. The students should participate in a variety of activities to do with that content- Listening to the story, writing, singing, speaking,painting, moving - however or whatever is practical. Part of the lesson should be given over to quiet individual work which gives the students time to think about what they are doing. And always before they leave the room, a quick review of the lesson.

Piaget and Vygotsky

"To understand is to discover, or reconstruct by rediscovery, and such conditions must be complied with if in the future individuals are to be formed who are capable of production and creativity and not simply repetition."

Jean Piaget

Piaget found that children have 4 stages of development where they learn about the world around them. He said that they have different understandings about their world according to their cognitive stage of development. He felt that play was not aimless but vitally important for the development of their understanding of the reality of their world. He said that repeated experiences helped the child to construct his own knowledge of the world, that learning should be made from within rather than be forced in from outside. Therefore curriculum should be developed to take into consideration the stage of development of the student and that teachers become facilitators who provide the students with the opportunity to construct their own knowledge - hence Constructivism.

Vygotsky argued that the child’s social culture is the basis for learning, that they learn through social interaction with peers and adults and that language is a vital part of development. He came up with the theory of the Zone of Proximal Development, the difference between what a child can do without help and what they can achieve with help from a friend or adult. Scaffolding, the support given to a child as it learns, needs to be constantly adjusted to accommodate the progress of ability. Curriculum should be developed to allow for careful progress of knowledge and every effort should be made for learning to be collaborative.

Both theories go hand in hand with good education. In this huge world teeming with people it is vital that students learn to work together and appreciate each other’s gifts and differences. How could we have school without peer influence? Students can affect each other's learning in positive ways. The careful scaffolding of new information geared for the individual’s stage of development ensures that students feel confident with their ability. Combine this with an understanding of age development , different intelligences and the possibility of students collaborating to construct new understandings together and we have a model of education that produces creative individuals who will have a lot to offer the world.

Qualities of a teacher

There is a saying that you can’t be all things to all people and yet as teachers that is what we have to be to our students. In a Steiner school we are often asked the question “what if the child doesn’t like you, he has you for 7 years?” The reply usually is that as the adult in the situation it is up to us to find the key to that child and make ourselves likeable. Some teachers may say that teaching is not a popularity quest, but it helps if our students actually like us and it makes it easier for them to learn if they like the person imparting information.

Rudolf Steiner gave these indications about what makes a good teacher:

: “Firstly the teacher must see to it that he influences and works upon his pupils – in a wider sense - by letting the spirit flow through his whole being as a teacher, and also in the details of his work, how he utters each single word, or develops each individual concept or feeling. The teacher must be a man of initiative. He must never be careless or lazy; at every moment he must stand in full consciousness of what he is doing in the school and how he behaves to the children. This is the first principle. The teacher must be a man of initiative in everything that he does, great and small.

Secondly, we as teachers must be interested in everything that is going on in the world and in all that concerns mankind. All that is happening in the outside world and in the life of men must arouse our interest. We should also be able to enter into all the concerns of every individual child in our care. The teacher should be one who is interested in the being of the whole world and of humanity.

Thirdly, the teacher must be one who never makes a compromise in his heart and mind with what is untrue. The teacher must be one who is true in the depths of his being. He must never compromise with untruth, for if he did so we should see how through many channels untruth would find its way into our teaching, especially in the way we present our subjects.

And now something that is more easily said than done; the teacher must never get stale or grow sour. Cherish a mood of soul which is fresh and healthy!

How do these compare with Hattie’s definitions of a good or expert teacher? They can:

Identify essential representations of their subject

Guide learning through classroom interactions,

Monitor learning and provide feedback,

Attend to affective attributes (how they relate to the students and how they feel about teaching, passionate it is hoped)

Influence student outcomes.

While Steiner’s indications are very broad they manage to encompass all of Hattie’s points. Both are saying the same thing, that teachers have a huge responsibility towards their students and they should be attentive to everything they do with their students on every level, both academic and personal. If a teacher strives to achieve the indication given by Steiner in the first point alone he would be encompassing all of Hattie's details at the same time. If the teacher is part of a continually learning community he would find it hard to grow "stale" or "sour".

There are so many qualities a teacher needs that it is hard to put them in order, so only the first one is meant to be first, the others are parallel with each other.

1. Love and appreciation of children and an ability to relate to them and see things through their eyes. It is marvellous when a child shows us something that they find amazing and the adults in their life can show genuine appreciation of the object or picture. To experience wonder through the eyes of a child is a sure-fire way of never growing stale.
2. Fascination with what makes people tick and a desire to learn how to deal with it and influence it in a positive way. I found Glasser’s Choice Theory to be an interesting and relevant way of looking at some of the children in my class and agree with the theory that a lot of behaviour problems are a struggle for power. Having said that though I can also say that there are a few children in the class who have too much power at home and are regular tyrants there.
3. Love of teaching and an interest in the world go hand in hand to me. By teaching the children well they are learning about the world through someone who also finds it stimulating and thought provoking.
   
4. A sense of humour. You have to laugh and so do the children, often.
5. Honesty or being able to admit when you’re wrong. In most cases children appreciate a teacher who apologises for a mistake and rarely make fun of them, as long as the teacher is not apologising all the time - one tries not to make too many mistakes.
6. Truthfulness, not telling your students stories that have no foundation in truth. Each story needs to be researched carefully before being told and the teacher himself needs to believe from his inmost heart that what he is saying is the truth.
7. An even temper even in the face of a student's really annoying melt-downs.
   
8. An open mind to try new approaches, the internet can be a marvellous place to go for suggestions as we don’t all have libraries fully stocked with teaching material.
9. A really strong work ethic as this teaching business is all-pervading and demanding.
10. Excellent organisational skills of time, work, students, home.
11. Good communication skills, how to get the message across without offending anyone.
12. The ability to know what to do all the time, every time.
13. Knowing when to retreat to that lonely mountain top to find one's own centre.
    

I should also add that a good relationship with fellow team-mates is of vital importance.

Everyone has a view point that deserves the courtesy of being heard even if you don’t follow the advice.

Good working relationships can be fostered when people are put in the position of learning something new together. In our school this is a regular occurrence with regular classes in speech, eurythmy, painting, and now university. We also have regular seminars where teachers are asked to do the talks and activities. This is valuable on many different levels. The teachers have to learn in order to teach their colleagues, there are new and varied viewpoints offered, we all come away feeling listened to and appreciated for our offering and it can highlight the talents of someone that we may not have known about. Above all we come together in a harmonious life-filled and creative way.

Reflections of a learning community

Every day the community of teachers at our school arrive at about 8am. People head off to speech and eurythmy classes or to the coffee room to touch base. Then its off to the classrooms where the students are greeted. In our school we take our classes through for 7 years so we teachers become a “special place” ourselves.

Their room has been warmly decorated with curtains and collections of their artworks on the wall. They know where their desks are and what to expect from their neighbours on either side. They know where I’ve hidden the Marble Run and help themselves at morning tea. They know that I know them and their interests and after a series of home visits there is now an even stronger link between home and school.

Each day follows a predictable and safe routine but is varied enough to maintain interest. Good behaviour is acknowledged and praised, really bad behaviour has consequences. All this creates a sense of security and belonging. The children love to arrive at school to hear the latest episode of the main lesson story, or to participate in some Aboriginal dance. Another child might have finished weaving their cushion cover and will be excited about displaying it, yet another child has brought her duck to school because we have a cage for visiting animals. School can be such fun!

As an “Expert Teacher To Be One Day Maybe"

I need to hone my ability to ensure that each student sees our classroom as a safe place to learn and work in. I should make myself more conscious of every action, word, thought and feeling that I convey to my class. Each minute should be accounted for in a lesson, perhaps by over-preparing material. An unrealistic dream is that my rowdy class sit quietly and expectantly at their desks, their eyes wide open as they wait for the pearls of wisdom to fall from my lips. Fat chance!

community

The strongest bond of human sympathy outside the family relation should be one uniting working people of all nations and tongues and kindreds.

Abraham Lincoln

The scientific search for the basic building blocks of life has revealed a startling fact: there are none. The deeper that physicists peer into the nature of reality, the only thing they find is relationships. Even sub-atomic particles do not exist alone. One physicist described neutrons, electrons, etc. as “. . .a set of relationships that reach outward to other things.” Although physicists still name them as separate, these particles aren’t ever visible until they’re in relationship with other particles. Everything in the Universe is composed of these “bundles of potentiality” that only manifest their potential in relationship…

A simple means to support and develop relationships is to create time to think together as staff. Time to think together has disappeared in most organizations. This loss has devastated relationships and led to increasing distrust and disengagement. Yet when a regular forum exists where staff can share their work challenges, everything improves. People learn from each other, find support, create solutions, and gradually discover new capabilities from this web of trusting relationships. This is no surprise. We’re all “bundles of potentiality” that only manifest in relationship.

Margaret Wheatley

Communities come in many sizes, from family size to global. Each part of a community is linked by strands as delicate as a spider’s web and can be easily broken by insensitive words or actions. Even though communities should be mutually supportive among the members, each member has a huge degree of self-responsibility to act when needed. However they should also temper this with a strong awareness of their nominal role within that community. While it is important that everyone be supportive and active, communities can come to grief when there is a conflict of basic ideology and when people trespass beyond their nominal roles. Some communities appear to function well as long as everyone remembers who is ‘”boss” and act accordingly. This goes against everyone feeling that they have as much say as the next person.

As an “Expert Teacher some time down the track," I would like to make sure that my students are part of a creative learning community in the classroom where no-one feels silly if they make a mistake and no-one makes anyone feel a fool. I would like to imbue the children with the feeling that they all have responsibilities towards each other, that they can work together in a constructive way.

Reflection.

Critical reflection is something that a lot of teachers do unconsciously but as a will and mind strengthening exercise, should do consciously. An exercise given by Rudolf Steiner involves the teacher calling to mind each evening every child in their class and asking themselves did they reach that child that day. To do the best job that we can in our teaching we need to constantly check ourselves and our performances. We can make use of our teaching community and ask our colleagues for their viewpoints, we can research educational literature in books or on-line, it is really important to maintain a fresh outlook and keep learning. I have taught numerous class ones in Steiner Schools, I’ve taught the damn alphabet 8 times! (I know it now). What made it interesting was the flexibility allowed me by Steiner education to find fresh images for the letters and the different groups of children before me. Still, I think I’ve had enough now.

To become that elusive “Expert Teacher” not only is it important to critically reflect about one’s performance, one has to act on one’s findings. Something else I really need to work on is those last vital minutes of each lesson because – shock, horror – I forget to round the lesson off properly with the class by reflecting on what we have learnt. I need to develop a stronger end of lesson routine.

Deep Learning

Deep learning is achieved by not only regurgitating the knowledge in a superficial way, but by asking the students relevant questions that engage their imaginations in creative and practical ways.

New information should be given in a succession of carefully constructed stages, starting with the familiar and each leading carefully onto the next. The students should be given immediate feedback on their progress, thus encouraging some of the more unmotivated children to try. Once the students feel they have a grasp of the information they can then be asked to start applying their own thoughts and opinions. This would enhance their feeling of power in their education - something that they do rather than something that is done for or to them. The more that the students apply themselves in a variety of activities that highlight their intelligences, the more they have the freedom to make their learning their own.

As a struggling not-yet Expert Teacher I assess deep-learning taking place largely through observation of my year 1 students. I observe when the children take the lesson content into the playground and take note of extra questions that are asked as they deepen their understanding. As part of our end of year reports each child will create a main lesson book which will be a reflection on the year's main lessons.