New elementary humanities program presents opportunities for Ann Arbor teachers and students
A first-grade special education student at Haisley Elementary in Ann Arbor had a goal of learning the names of the months of the year.
She succeeded, but not by using flash cards or any other traditional method. She learned the names of the months in gym class doing the Macarena.
The girl's accomplishment is a success story for the new elementary humanities program put in place by Ann Arbor Public Schools this year. The program will reinforce learning by integrating science and social studies lessons into art, music and physical education classes, said LeeAnn Dickinson-Kelley, the district's interim deputy superintendent for instruction.
“The thinking is we’re recognizing our kids benefit the most when they’re given opportunities through project development,” Dickinson-Kelley said. “And, teachers teach better when doing so in a collaborative fashion. We’re a better unit if that collaboration is going on all the while.”
The new program was developed during the summer. Administrators, department heads and teachers went through the grade level content expectations for science and social studies looking for elements of the curriculum that could be incorporated into the new humanities program.
The new program allows 78 additional teachers to contribute to classroom teachers’ lessons in a more specific, deliberate way than before.
Robin Bailey, the district's curriculum coordinator, said despite the difficulties in finding time to meet and discuss lessons, teachers have been staying connected. Teachers have set up Google Doc files to collaborate on editing and revise lesson plans and ideas, she said.
“Everyone is very excited about this. There’s been a great energy and enthusiasm. There’s just this incredible buzz,” she said. “It’s a lot of work but it’s so rewarding, and teachers are so committed to it.”
Bailey gave the example of a class learning about a Native American tribe during a social studies lesson. Through the new humanities program, the students could learn about the tribe’s music, the art they made and how they danced.
While the classes might not seem terribly different from ordinary lessons in social studies and science, behind the scenes the teachers are working to find time to communicate with each other to coordinate their teaching.
Rosalie Koenig, the vocal and instrumental music teacher at Mitchell Elementary School, said getting ready to teach her classes is a whole new experience.
“(I’m) finding out what they are specifically teaching in science and social studies and creating humanities lessons,” she said, “which touch on the same subject matter but with a musical approach.”
Teaching the humanities classes often involves lesson planning strategies that may seem foreign to teachers at first, said Sarah Winter, art teacher at Mitchell. Instead of using the traditional art goals to inspire a curriculum, she said she’ll go to classroom teachers and see what part of their lessons can be reinforced by the humanities lesson.
She pointed to the example of the study of light by third graders at the school.
“From studies of light and shadow to discussions of impressionism, from studies of the relative opacity of various art media to stained glass projects, students are able to delve more deeply into their science knowledge by applying it in the art room,” she said.
Teachers said the program is consistent with what many instructors have been doing for years, but is now becoming a regular practice across the district’s elementary schools.
Lisa Cope, who heads up the district's physical education and health curriculum for elementary schools, teaches at Carpenter Elementary School. She said she’s been working with classroom teachers previously and was excited to see her colleagues join in.
“Teachers who have been teaching 30 or 40 years are still willing to try and do new things,” she said. “Change is difficult and it’s something some people have always been doing, but they realize the need to tweak it a little bit and teach smarter.”
Cope said one the most important things the humanities program can do is reinforce many topics, such as lessons about the human body, which are tested a few years after they are taught. Recalling those lessons will be easier for students if they can remember the multitude of ways they were taught, she said.
Although instructors have noticed breakthroughs in learning they attribute to the new humanities practices, for the most part students haven’t noticed too many changes.
Which is exactly what Dickinson-Kelley expects.
“It’s so integrated it might not feel like a different class, but it’s the thought process about what you teach and how you teach,” she said.
Kyle Feldscher covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com.
Comments
AK2
Fri, Dec 3, 2010 : 9:55 p.m.
It appears that the humanities program has a lot of potential for the children. However, I was very disappointed this fall when I learned that the librarian at my kids' school would be split between buildings and would not be teaching any humanities classes. The art, music, and PE teachers teach all the humanities classes for the school. I have spent time volunteering in the school library over the years and have had the privilege of seeing the librarian teach. She has so much to offer the students. I have been very impressed with what I have seen students learning and doing in her class. They are gaining valuable technology and research skills, tied into what they are learning in class. Also, very importantly, their librarian teaches them about literature and instills in them a love for reading.
aamom
Fri, Dec 3, 2010 : 11:16 a.m.
I have a first grader at one of the elementaries and this all sounded great on paper but it is underwhelming in practice. His humanities teacher is the gym teacher. He goes to gym 4 times a week this year. Three times it is a regular gym class and the fourth time it is humanities where basically they sit on the floor and she does the calendar (again because they already did it in class) or she does a phonics lesson. As far as I can tell this should be called remedial studies. It's bad enough that there is no program for accelerated students but now they are stuck in remedial classes as well!
JP2
Thu, Dec 2, 2010 : 10:42 p.m.
"The program will reinforce learning by integrating science and social studies lessons into art, music and physical education classes, said LeeAnn Dickinson-Kelley, the district's interim deputy superintendent for instruction." and "A first-grade special education student at Haisley Elementary in Ann Arbor had a goal of learning the names of the months of the year. She succeeded, but not by using flash cards or any other traditional method. She learned the names of the months in gym class doing the Macarena." The beginning of this article reads as if the cross-disciplinary instruction actually is taking place during the music/art/gym classes too, not just the extra Humanities class. I was educated in the U-M Music and Ed schools in the early 90's and we were taught to do all of these things back then. I taught in NY in the mid-90's and we were encouraged to incorporate classroom concepts into our "specials" classes too (mine being music). It really is such a nice, "working-together," "we're all helping educate together" idea, but what really is the goal here? Do the majority of students really need an entirely new class (the new Humanities class) to dance out the months of the year or tap out notes on a glockenspiel to reinforce the latest science concepts? I don't know, but if I taught my students science and knew that I wasn't able to get my concept across to the kids so we need to pull in the art/music/gym teachers to solidify my material, I'd wonder what I could have done differently. Interesting too that the teachers of "academic" material are not asked to assist the art/music/gym teachers to "reinforce learning" of their material. Does that imply that their (art/etc...) material is not as important, thereby, they really can give up time and planning of their original subject matter to plan for "reinforcing" science, history, english lessons? Boy, I know this is going to sound like one of those "teachers who don't like change" but, when I was a music teacher did I love to be able to teach...MUSIC. I take teaching music just as seriously as a science teacher hopefully takes teaching science. Do you know how many musical concepts and objectives there are to cover at every stage of a child's music education? L.O.T.S! I loved planning for my music class just as I loved working with colleagues when approached with specific requests of cross-curricular support I could offer. But I contest that any real learning of the academic subjects takes place in the main classroom and adding on a lovely sounding, "we all work together" humanities class, or worse, taking time from the actual art/music/phys ed classes, does not have any REAL, quantifiable educational results. Yes, it might help a child or two grasp a concept or two a little better, but overall I think it's negligible to real academic growth for the majority of students...and why is that so wrong to consider the majority? But who am I? Certainly not a studied interim deputy superintendent of instruction, nor am I an administrator or a teacher with their pulse on the "latest" way to get material across to kids. Now, after having been a teacher that did all of this first hand almost 20 years ago, I am a parent of elementary school children in a very small school, without many extras in their day. They have to just learn. They don't get to dance out the different levels of the rainforest, they don't write a musical about the solar system, but the entire school consistently tests in the 97-99 percentile in math/science/english (and I know testing isn't everything...but in Ann Arbor...it secretly really is, isn't it?).
Deanna323
Wed, Dec 1, 2010 : 8:30 p.m.
Sorry, I mean they are losing 40 minutes per class every MONTH.
Deanna323
Wed, Dec 1, 2010 : 8:27 p.m.
*40 minutes less per class, per week.
Deanna323
Wed, Dec 1, 2010 : 8:25 p.m.
Kyle, this is not exactly true. Those classes still exist, but they cut 10 minutes per week from the PE and Music classes to get the Humanities classes to fit into their schedules. This may not seem like a lot, but in one month's time, the PE and Music teachers now have 40 minutes less to teach their subject area. They are still expected to teach their regular curriculum, plus the new Humanities classes. And the Humanities classes--which I agree are a great idea in theory--still do not really have a set curriculum. These teachers are having to make it up as they go along.
Loyd
Wed, Dec 1, 2010 : 5:19 p.m.
I would like to add my voice on the libraries' role in promoting teaching and learning. Due to their centrality and seamless nature of their integration, libraries are too easy to overlook. Yet, designers of this wonderful program can learn a lot from the libraries' model of integration and collaboration. Moreover, they can use libraries as the center of their collaborative endeavor.
Kyle Feldscher
Wed, Dec 1, 2010 : 1:02 p.m.
@kathryn There are still all of those classes as well, the humanities program is a separate class which all of those subject areas contribute to.
kathryn
Wed, Dec 1, 2010 : 12:55 p.m.
I'd like to know what happened to the curriculum that used to be taught in music, and art, gym, and library? Each of these areas has their own content to teach. Did that have to be cut back to make room for science and social studies?
CC99
Wed, Dec 1, 2010 : 9:19 a.m.
School librarians are indeed a HUGE part of this new program. That they're not mentioned at all in this article is just another sad example of how little the Ann Arbor Public Schools value them. School librarians are close to becoming an endangered species in our community; we need to celebrate them, not ignore their wonderful contributions!
A2Susie
Mon, Nov 29, 2010 : 6:14 p.m.
Great story, Kyle Feldscher. I love specifically the idea of learning by putting information like the names of the months to music. Music makes everything go better.... It's wonderful that the music and art and phys ed teachers are being included in reaching the overall academic goals of Ann Arbor schools' students.
InterestedReader
Mon, Nov 29, 2010 : 6:17 a.m.
I echo the comments by ctt and K. Maybe the library programs were not listed because this has always been the focus of their lessons and they did not need to be integrated.
K
Sun, Nov 28, 2010 : 8:23 p.m.
I echo CTT's question - I thought this program included librarians as well. This kind of integration has been happening in school libraries in Ann Arbor and nationwide for the past 20-25 years!
ctt
Sat, Nov 27, 2010 : 7:48 p.m.
"The new program allows 78 additional teachers to contribute to classroom teachers lessons in a more specific, deliberate way than before." Does that number include librarians? My 3rd grader has humanities with his librarian (who we love!). Is their humanities class different from the others?
sa
Sat, Nov 27, 2010 : 7:54 a.m.
Sounds like a great program.