Planning, Organizing, Prioritizing
My Kind of Mind
"Who can tell me when we might use visual processing during the school day?" Ten
fifth-grade students shoot their hands into the air. The students have been learning
about neurological concepts as part of their yearlong study of the human body. Using
Mel Levine's book, The Mind that's Mine, they begin to see that there are all kinds
of minds and all kinds of learning styles. Suddenly it is no longer a stigma to
confess to some struggles in memorizing the multiplication tables or in organizing
notes for a research project. "We all have strengths and challenges," the students
declare. "What is important is understanding them and figuring out how we learn best."
Discovering Historical Foundations
Such experiences set the scene for probing complex themes in social studies,
science, mathematics, and language arts classes. Fifth graders study American
history from pre-Columbian times to the Civil War. They take on the roles
of early Colonial settlers and write journals of their imagined adventures.
They learn research techniques, write frequently, and engage in countless
role-playing activities.
In sixth grade students continue their role-playing adventures, stepping back
to Ancient Rome to solve a Roman mystery constructed by their social studies
teacher and traveling through time to the middle ages, where they celebrate
their studies with a medieval banquet. They travel to the Middle East, where
they learn about Islam, and into the Renaissance for extensive research projects.
They study number theory and hone their computation skills, they spend considerable
time in the science lab exploring magnetism and atomic theory and astronomy, and
they continue their study of French or Spanish, their chosen world language.
In order to help students meet the increasing academic demands of fifth and sixth grades,
teachers work closely with them on organizing information, setting priorities, and
developing strategies for reaching their academic goals.
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