18+Sep+2011

18 Sep 2011

Dear 2-4 Parents, The last two weeks have been a very rewarding two weeks for Patricia and me because we have enjoyed getting to know the students and are very excited about the cutting edge learning that has been taking place. After working two years in public schools, where bureaucracy is endless and innovation and risk-taking often stifled, we are so happy to be doing the kinds of activities and experiential learning that cannot take place in public schools. There are three factors that have allowed us to implement a truly experiential and inquiry based program: a very small class size, close proximity to public transportation in the middle of the vibrant community (Berkeley and the East Bay), and the freedom to plan trips and experiential learning without layers and layers of bureaucracy. Reflection is very important for the entire learning community and as teachers we want to model reflection for our students. What has gone well these last two weeks has been solid and exemplary inquiry based learning grounded in well planned and on-point field trips, which have excited and inspired our students to understand and delve into the concept of migration. What has not gone so well has been the homework (see below for a new homework format). Our greatest strength is the students, who are very well behaved and highly intelligent (This is huge as we have seen during our time in public schools how just two or three unadjusted students can substantially hinder and slow the learning). Our greatest challenge is the range of learning levels in the classroom largely a result of the rather large span of ages within the classroom. In terms of the different learning levels we have been very successful in differentiating the learning during the school day by breaking the class into groups with a teacher for each group for most of the school day. Some parents have also helped in the classroom, in particular Jun Liang who has been helping in the class almost daily for the last two weeks. The homework has not been differentiated to the level needed largely because there are so many different levels many of which require teacher support and therefore represent a major challenge to offer such differentiated homework without the support of a teacher at home or without major parental support. My initial vision was to limit homework to drilling of basic skills such as spelling, grammar, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. This kind of homework is based on repetition and requires no parent or teacher support. We did not do this during the first two weeks because we wanted to challenge the students to continue their inquiry based and open-ended learning at home. This could have worked if the levels of the students were not so disparate, as some students do not yet have basic writing or even reading skills. We have reformatted the homework to better balance drilling and open-ended activities in light of the diverse needs of students in the class. The homework will therefore have a new structure beginning this week. There will be five basic components of the homework: Homework will be posted each week (on Monday’s by 3pm) to the wiki site at http://shuren234.wikispaces.com/Homework. The homework “packet” therefore is online and will not be printed as the assignment itself does not need to be printed out. The spelling from spelling city and reading at raz-kids are done online and do not require paper (please see login instructions on the wiki-site). Homework that needs to be written must be done in the homework journal. There will be two homework journals: Journal A and Journal B. This week Journal A will be sent home and it will be handed into next Monday (18 Sep 2011). The next Monday (26 Sep 2011) homework Journal B will be sent home and homework Journal A will be collected. This will rotate every week so that one set of journals can be marked and the other set can go home. The students can access the assignment on the wiki site and then complete it on the appropriate website and in their homework journals. We hope this will improve the homework, and will continue to review and monitor homework and homework progress. Please let us know how this new routine works in the coming weeks. All e-mail and correspondence from us will be posted on the wiki site at the address http://shuren234.wikispaces.com/Parent+Letters%2C+Notices%2C+Resources Please check this site regularly and refer to prior notices as necessary. Also please note that photos of learning activities including field trips can be accessed at our wiki site at http://shuren234.wikispaces.com/First+Unit+of+Inquiry+-+Where+we+are+in+place+and+time+-+Migration+%E8%BF%81%E5%BE%99
 * 1) English Spelling (using sequential spelling lists at [|www.spellingcity.com] )
 * 2) Chinese Writing (learning to write new characters, akin to spelling)
 * 3) Math (based on student level, soon to be done using Success Maker)
 * 4) Reading: Students will choose their own reading from our class library and work through the reading at their own pace (if a student finishes a book he/she can return it at any time in the week and select a new book). We will provide guidance for the students when they select their books. For English they can use Raz-kids [|www.raz-kids.com] and also soon they will be able to use Success Maker.
 * 5) Challenge (an optional open-ended writing assignment that can be done in English or Chinese).

Warm Regards,Nathan & Patricia