Meaningful methods in Social Studies
Kapka Family Groups | 10/23/2008 | 1.5 hours field work | Present: Kapka students, teachers and myself
Background
I visited Kapka K-2 school to observe their Family Groups. Kapka is a progressive school that implements an emergent, integrated curriculum based on honoring children for who they are and what they want to learn. The three Family Groups at Kapka include children close in age with each group exploring a topic under the larger theme of People. The theme has been determined by the teachers whereas the individual topics came from a combination of student and teacher interest.
One group is exploring the Human Body, another is exploring Families and Family Trees and a third is exploring Native American people. Their explorations in the particular topics will last as long as the students have interest at which point they will pick another topic in the theme. The larger theme of People will be explored for the entire school year.
Key Observations and Methods seen
Topic, not subject exploration: It was evident that the family groups were focused on exploring the particular topic, not the subject it is under, i.e. they were keen on understanding people, families, the human body and so on, not 'social studies'. This made it possible for them to absorb the norms, concepts and thinking processes of the subject implicitly through their application to a topic that is interesting to them. While they may not be able to name the specific social studies concept they have learnt, their learning is likely to be well internalized and personalized in a manner that ensures its applicability in their own lives.
Storytelling: I witnessed the group exploring Native Americans listening to a story. This was a way for them to come together on the same page as they got ready to explore the specific Native American topic for the day. I appreciated this way of 'gathering' before diving into the topic of study.
Art: Both the group focused on the Human Body and the one focused on Native Americans worked on an art project as part of their study.
The Human Body group had each student creating a Red Blood Cell (RBC) that was being invaded by viruses and bacteria. The teacher explored the project together with the group before the students got to work on their own RBCs. She walked them through the ideas of a cell being infected and what that might look like and how they might represent it in the cells they would create. I saw her help students make the ideas their own. For example, she would ask a student how they might show a White Blood Cell (WBC) protecting a RBC. Students had various responses like showing a WBC eating a virus or covering a bacterium. She accepted all ideas embellishing them with factual information only when needed. In this way, she helped the students think about what they were going to be doing when they got around to working on their own RBCs.
The group studying Native Americans was making magic pouches out of felt. They sat around a table, working away individually, chatting with each other and periodically asking the teacher for help. Sitting at a single table, working with their hands allowed for the emergence of interesting dialog. At one point, the group got into a discussion on families and whether a couple had to be married to have children. This I thought was very pertinent to the theme they were studying even though it wasn't directly related to Native Americans. Sitting in a circle, they also sang songs as they sewed their magic pouches. This was almost magical to see. One student would start humming and then the rest would join in and before you know it, the whole group was singing a song. More than anything else, they were bonding as 'People' while creating the magic pouches. This kind of bonding creates trust that is so critical for an open and active learning space.
Talking: The group focused on Families was talking about what they think a family is. The teacher had chosen a very interesting format for this. A student would say what they thought about families and then pass on their talking stick to another student who would have to say what they heard the previous student say. The next student would then say what they thought of families and then pass on the talking stick. This way, each student was making sure to listen to what another was saying. The students did most of the talking, offering all kinds of definitions and ideas on what families are. They were formulating clearer concepts in their own minds about the topic as they each spoke. The absence of teacher or text authority allowed the learning to really emerge from the students. Periodically you would hear a little debate, like whether people had to be married to have children and so on. The teachers offered clarifications only when needed and helped maintain decorum when the group digressed too far. The teachers were also very non-judgemental of the ideas that were emerging, allowing the students to determine right from wrong rather than offering their own opinions.