Lucas in the role of Abraham Lincoln
Students in February worked on a project called “Mind mapping Totalitarianism”.
Mindmap poster created by Dhara, Teodora, Cody, John and Claire
Recess is a historical staple of elementary education in America and it is still not uncommon to see children granted small amounts of time for “free play” or educational games in the primary grades. Unfortunately, this practice is under fire in recent years. Some critics of public education or politicians would prefer to see that time devoted to increased amounts of formal, skill-drill exercises; but aside from the fact that test-prep activities quickly hit the point of 
diminishing returns in terms raising a school district’s aggregate mean test scores ( a little is good, a lot is not) the so-called ” wasted free time”, is actually neurologically vital for the optimum cognitive development of children’s brains. It’s good for us older folks too but that’s a topic for another day.
A report from the excellent Eide Neurolearning Blog:
“Several recent articles remind us of the importance of play. From NPR, Old-fashioned play builds serious skills, and NYT, Taking Play Seriously.Also from the American Academy of Pediatrics (The Importance of Play for Health Child Development pdf : “Play allows children to use their creativity while developing their imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and emotional strength. Play is important to health brain development…Undirected play allows children to learn how to work in groups, to share, to negotiate, to resolve conflicts, an to learn self-advocacy skills.” An increased in hurried lifestyles and school-based academic performance may leave a child with little unstructured time. In one survey by the National Association of Elementary School Principals, 30% of kindergarten classes no longer had recess periods
….An additional point made in the NYT article, was the importance of play for the development of the cerebellum. For kids with sensory processing disorders, this is a big one. Sometimes the earliest indication that something isn’t “quite right” is when a child avoids the normal rough-and-tumble play on the playground. That’s why without intervention, a child may accumulate even fewer play experiences and fall even farther behind their classmates with time.”
Read the rest and find additional brain-learning resources here.
While older students do not have “recess”, time for creative, exploratory and imaginative learning activities should be a regular aspect of core academic classses! !!
The chance to “play” with concepts, solve puzzling scenarios, smash ideas up in a synthesis, articulate new or unorthodox solutions to old problems is a teaching strategy for students to arrive at a deeper understanding of the subject at hand. It trains them to create and evaluate analogies, test the logical soundness of each other’s ideas, debate and experiment. Less structured but goal-directed time is a valuable investment as independent thinking cannot be cultivated in a classroom where every moment is direct instruction and rigidly scripted. At some point, the training wheels have to come off if we are to discover which students can ride on their own and which ones need additional guided practice.
Furthermore, in relation to “play”, music, the arts, sports and drama play a critical role in brain growth and do not represent “frills” but a central modality for integration of concepts, application of learning and generation of insight. As subjects, they are the brain’s “Right” side exercises to the ” Left” side’s analytical-logical reasoning provided by mathematics instruction and science classes.
As a society, we have gone berserk on overscheduling children into formal activities, academic as well as extracurricular, to the point where some elementary age kids show signs of anxiety, burn-out and depession or have time with their families that is not devoted to some kind of structured, formal, event. I find that many students lack any real cognitive independence, normal childhood creativity or the ability to negotiate social interactions with peers without hands-on, adult, supervision. A kind of well-meaning, suburban, shelteredness that produces a vaguely “institutional” passivity in many children.
Our students need both structured learning as well as some degree of “space” or “freedom” in order to maximize their intellectual and emotional growth, not either-or.
ADDITIONAL LINKS on RECESS:
“Time out: Is recess in danger?” - Center for Public Education
“The Importance of Play… ” – American Association of Pediatrics
“Taking Play Seriously” - The New York Times
“Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills” – NPR
“Recess Makes Better Students” - The Washington Post
The students are working on 8th grade worldview projects that will culminate in the construction of a poster or a 3-D object ( geometric shape like a cube, dodecahedron etc., a mobile, a model – anything not flat) due on Friday. This is an “in-class” project except for those groups who have not used time effectively or opted to build something more elaborate than the project criteria required; those exceptions might possibly need to finish at home.
File these under “food for thought” as to how teachers, parents and communities should consider education for the 21st century. I liked both of them though the first really holds interest primarily for administrators and classroom instructors and the second show is broadly cultural beyond the sphere of public education.
# 1 D.M. Hallowell ” Cognitive Approaches to Learning”
Note: This presentation is displayed on an application known as “Scribd” which may require that your computer has an up to date version of Shockwave installed.
# 2 – David Armano’s ” The Fuzzy Tail”
Many LJHS students participate in one of the bands or choir or play an instrument outside of school. Given the high level of interest in things musical, I thought I would share something unusual: a Japanese orchestra playing traditional Japanese and Western instruments doing a rendition of Deep Purple’s classic hit ” Smoke on the Water“
Banzai !
Recess is a historical staple of elementary education in America and it is not uncommon to see children granted small amounts of time for “free play” or educational games in the primary grades. Some critics of public education or politicians would prefer to see that time devoted to increased amounts of formal, skill-drill exercises; but aside from the fact that test-prep activities quickly hit the point of diminishing returns in terms raising a school district’s aggregate mean test scores, the so-called ” wasted free time” is actually neurologically vital for the optimum cognitive development of children’s brains ( and it’s good for us older folks too!).
A report from the excellent Eide Neurolearning Blog, run by a pair of medcal doctors and research neuroscientists:
“Several recent articles remind us of the importance of play. From NPR, Old-fashioned play builds serious skills, and NYT, Taking Play Seriously.Also from the American Academy of Pediatrics (The Importance of Play for Health Child Development pdf : “Play allows children to use their creativity while developing their imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and emotional strength. Play is important to health brain development…Undirected play allows children to learn how to work in groups, to share, to negotiate, to resolve conflicts, an to learn self-advocacy skills.” An increased in hurried lifestyles and school-based academic performance may leave a child with little unstructured time. In one survey by the National Association of Elementary School Principals, 30% of kindergarten classes no longer had recess periods
….An additional point made in the NYT article, was the importance of play for the development of the cerebellum. For kids with sensory processing disorders, this is a big one. Sometimes the earliest indication that something isn’t “quite right” is when a child avoids the normal rough-and-tumble play on the playground. That’s why without intervention, a child may accumulate even fewer play experiences and fall even farther behind their classmates with time.”
Read the rest and find additional brain-learning resources here.
While older students do not have “recess”, time for creative, exploratory and imaginative learning activities should be a regular aspect of core academic classses. Furthermore, music, the arts, sports and drama play a critical role in brain growth and do not represent “frills” but a central modality for integration of concepts, application of learning and generation of insight. As subjects, they are the brain’s ”Right” side exercises to the ” Left” side’s analytical-logical reasoning provided by mathematics and science classes.
Our students need both, not either-or.
The great research project of the first trimester has drawn to a close in 8th grade Social Studies and the students emerged alive, with new or refreshed research skills designed to meet the challenges ahead in 8th grade and then freshman year of high school. I am pleased to report that this year, however it may have seemed to the students at the time, the project went far more smoothly than in previous years. The number of students unable to meet project deadlines or amass enough information relevant to their topics were the fewest ever. Your students worked hard and did a great job!
The presentations came in many formats, powerpoint, live plays, videotaped game shows and poster and chart lectures. I would like to share, from time to time, over the next few weeks, some examples of the visuals created by LJHS students for their political spectrum project.
First installment ” Conservatism”:
Students in Social Studies are creating posters* that will display the worldview of a Lakeview Jr. High 8th grader. This is intended as an in-class project though a few groups with more elaborate designs or an unusually slow work tempo may end up taking them home to finish on Friday.
* Some students volunteered to make other kinds of presentations with different media (objects, power point) in lieu of a poster.
I divide each Social Studies unit into content and conceptual mastery, analysis and creative interpretation because public education, has three core objectives:
1. To impart a body of knowledge and academic skills deemed valuable by society.
2. To teach the students to think analytically, critically and independently.
3. To render the students capable of discovering original insights and pursuing the discovery of new knowledge or invention.
The first goal has been delved into depth by educational researchers and gurus like E.D. Hirsh of “Cultural Literacy” fame, Chester Finn, William Bennett, Diane Ravitch and others, and is reflected in such legislation as NCLB, which has put tremendous pressure on school districts to focus on test scores in a few basic subjects and expanding the amount of content in the curriculum by increasing the time spent on rote memorization exercises and skill-based drills. Breadth but not depth.
The second goal is reflected in what used to be termed ” liberal education” or “Great Books” programs or the upper tiers of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Schools do this less effectively across the nation but there is still a fair emphasis on eliciting critical thinking in public education, most of all in Honors and AP classes, gifted and talented classes and special programs like and Paideia and International Baccalaureate. Colleges and universities, of course, are also intended to focus on liberal education but the degree to which this is true in practice has declined since the 1960’s.
The final objective, made possible by the teaching of creative thinking and synthesis to students, public education does not do well at all at present, here or in any industrialized nation, where measurable declines in the creativity and problem-solving abilities of k-12 students appear across the board. Some people even consider creative thinking to be inimical to mastering content or logical analysis; this is untrue. One cannot think creatively or engage in analysis without content knowledge and content is itself meaningless unless the student can effectively put it to use in the real world. Content knowledge, critical thinking and creativity are like the three legs of a stool – our students need them all.
Ken Robinson, noted educational expert, giving a lively talk on creativity and public education ( 20 minute video clip):
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