Engaging The High Achievers Transcript

Engaging the High Achievers Narrator: When educators in the Morongo school district noticed a high rate of
drop outs among their higher performing teenagers, they decided to address the problem at the grade school level. In 2008, Yucca Mesa Elementary began an experimental GATE cluster program to keep gifted and talented students engaged in learning. Its tremendous success has now spawned similar programs within the district, but what makes the Morongo GATE classes unique is the mixing of fourth, fifth and sixth graders within the same class. Teacher JoAnn Ehrke was initially skeptical. Ehrke (interview): Well, originally I felt that this is going to be very interesting, and that was probably my biggest concern because I was a sixth grade teacher, so I was very familiar with the sixth grade attitude and thinking about those sweet little nine year olds with those sixth graders was kind of a scary thought for me for them. Student: Thank you. (laughs) Ehrke (interview): I’ll never forget the day Dr. Turner said to me, “JoAnn, don’t worry. You will be amazed.” Turner (interview): I as an adult don’t think, oh, well you’re in grade fourteen and you’re in grade sixteen and I can’t associate with you because I’m in grade fifteen. You know, it doesn’t work that way. We all cooperate. It’s ungraded. Why do we not mirror that in our classrooms? Student: I’m still looking for something to support my answer. Student: You don’t have to support your answer. Can we start sharing? Who wants to go first? Student: Okay, I am a patriot. I don’t like the war because people get killed. Student: If people get killed, it would be devastating to their families. Student: I think war is good to fight for your freedom, but there are way too many people being killed and injured. Student: My supporting answer is the Americans felt tax should be illegal at the very least not fair. Student: That was a good answer. Student: Are you almost done, Seth? Seth: Yes! Ehrke (interview): We started off teaching each other and learning about the value of teamwork, because that was a really important part of the cohesiveness of this class; is being a team; learning to work cooperatively. Seth: I want to help fight. I want to help for freedom and bravery. Student: Okay, everybody. Let’s go on to sheet two. Ehrke (interview): And so as that cohesiveness began, they started to not look at each other at grade levels, but as classmates, and as soon as that started happening, then we were all one. Student: All right, guys. The problem with this is because it’s too flat. We need to bend it. Student: Bend it how you wanted it, and then I’ll tape it like that. Ehrke (interview): The goal of this class was to take children and say, you know what? We’re untying your strings. Go and fly. (pause) And my job was to providethe curriculum, be the facilitator and the coach. Ehrke: What do these lines represent? Ehrke (interview): ...To provide the expectations and hand them the wings and say “Go for it.” Student: How high are we going up? Student: Until we reach the end of the tube. Student: Hey, where are the scissors? Student (interview): I like the way we learn about stuff. It’s not boring. We do it in an exciting way. Student: Write your answer on the left-hand side of your mechanics log. Student (interview): We’re learning about gravity and power and stuff, but yet we get to do skateboard science at the same time. So it’s actually like an activity, and you’re learning at the same time. Student: Okay. We’re good. Ehrke (interview): There is a multitude of wonderful material out there for our advanced learners. It’s fun learning. Hands on, fun, interactive. (pause) We’re dealing with energy; potential, kinetic, laws of physics, but we’re applying it to skateboard parks. Student: This part right here needs to be down more! Student: We need another piece of duct tape. Student: Want to tilt it? Student: Yeah. Tilt it, just like that. Ehrke: Today what we’re going to do is we’re going to talk about friction. What is friction, Chris? Chris: Like, say that a skateboard is going across pavement. It’s like, the wheel is moving against the pavement. It’s sort of like, yeah, making it turn. That’s friction. Ehrke: Okay, so, two things coming together. Okay let’s do this! Everybody! Come on! Rub, rub, rub, rub, rub. What’s happening? What are you feeling? Stop. What did you create? Students: Heat. Ehrke: You created heat. This was the transferring of the kinetic energy; all those atoms moving. And what happened? Heat. Today what we’re going to do is we’re going to take it to the next step and you’re going to go ahead and use the shoots that you made and you’re going to make a quarter pipe. When we run our marble skater, we can take the roll up and the roll down measurements today. Ehrke (interview): We get into it much more deep than they would in, say, a regular fifth grade class which is the science standard for that grade level, and that is what really gets the kids because they love that. They love to find out more. Student: Ready? Students: (cheering). Student: It works really well! Ehrke: One person from each group be prepared to report your retained energy and your frictional loss and tell us what you all concluded. Student: Our retained energy for roll up was point sixty five. And then... for roll
down, it was... Student: Point two. And our big one, our average was... Student: Fifteen. The retained energy was one point eighty-seven. Student: The small marble, um...at first, its average was eighteen point four. Then we fixed it and we got twenty. That’s a perfect average. Ehrke: All right. So it looks like most of you were very successful today. Good job, guys. Very nice. (clapping) Ehrke (interview): One of the beautiful parts about this class is that we not only address the standards for grade level for each one, but we also can go above and beyond. We’re not limited to that. So we start off with all those standards and children can just rise to their ability. Student (interview): I remember when I was in fourth grade. Uh, you would just sit there and then the teacher would tell you to do something and you would already be done before anybody else and you would kind of just sit there and she’ll just have you sit there. But in this class, you have tons of stuff to do. Student (interview): When you’re doing your work and you’re already done, and you say you’re done, she says, no you’re not. I have tons and tons of these other papers I could give you. I can give you, like, all of these papers and you won’t see the sun. (laughter) Student (interview): You won’t see the light of day. Turner (interview): The high achievers, if their needs are not met, if they are not challenged, if they do not see the value in learning, what we see traditionally happening is A, they either get in trouble...okay? And they become some of our greatest behavior problems. Um...the other thing that happens is they drop out, because they already know this. They’re not feeling challenged. Why go on? Ehrke: Get ready for math. (pause) Excuse me! I didn’t like the bumping cars. It’s February. Okay, boys? We do this every day. Ehrke (interview): When I do the math, of course I have to group them according to their grade level because that has very specific standards that have to be covered. (pause) Ehrke: ...the radius of twenty-one... Ehrke (interview): What we do is we have an hour and a half. So the first half- hour, I’m teaching my sixth graders the lesson for the day. The second half- hour, I’m teaching my fifth graders their direct instructions for the day. The sixth graders now will work on the independent class work for the lesson I just taught them, and the fourth graders are wrapping up whatever independent work that I have given them. And then, for the last half-hour, I have my fourth graders. Ehrke: I know a lot of you were having a hard time when you did the independent practice. Student (interview): She gives us a choice to either work in a small group or independent, and I like that, because some work faster and slower than others and, um, she trusts us to be independent and not to be...all socialize at once. Narrator: Given the highly independent nature of JoAnn’s classroom, one of her most important goals across the curriculum is to teach her students effective
communication and conflict resolution skills. Ehrke: Without pointing fingers, what’s happening? Student: Phillip and... Ehrke: Okay, let’s not mention any names. What’s happening? Student: Um, they’re messing around and they’re talking about being one, and how they’re supporting their country and... Ehrke: Okay, so you feel like members are off task? Which is bringing the whole group off task? Okay, so we’re going to think about that, and if we’re thinking about that, we need to think, okay, am I helping my group or am I hurting them by going off task and trying to mess around? Let’s be thinking about that. What’s next? Ehrke (interview): In our class, on our closet, we have two large posters. One of them are called “effective communication skills” and it bullets about ten different effective skills to be a good communicator. We also have another posted called “conflict resolution skills.” Again, it bullets ten different ways for people to resolve conflicts. Student: Always target the issues, not the individual. Ehrke: Okay, okay. Always target the issues, not the individual. Are you doing that? Student: Um...we were talking about the individuals, like uh... Ehrke: Yeah, so is that a good idea? Student: No. Ehrke: We’re trying to solve a problem. Student: I’m telling them to stop messing around and they’re like “you shut up.” Ehrke: Is that working? Student: Well, they’re not listening. Ehrke: Well, is it working then? Student: No. Ehrke: Okay, well, we’re trying to figure out a better way. Ehrke (interview): A lot of these children sometimes are pretty hard-headed and they’re very...stubborn. You know. It’s...“I know the way!” and very hard for them to actually open up and learn that, well, maybe I don’t know it exactly, or, let me here what, you know, my classmate has to say. And they learn that in here. Student: Allow each person involved a chance to talk without interruption. Ehrke: Okay. Let’s do that. Okay, so everyone gets fifteen seconds. Say your piece. Student: We need to...uh...not talk about different things and not get off of task. Ehrke: Okay. Adrian? Adrian: Uh...we shouldn’t be off task, and just keep on working. Ehrke: Okay. That’s good. Student: Um...we need to not be finger-pointing and stuff. Student: I like what Phillip said. Ehrke: You like what Phillip says? You’re gonna ditto that? Okay. All right. Go ahead. Student: Stay calm and maintain a relaxed expression. Ehrke: Okay. Are you relaxed?
Student: Uh... Ehrke: Let me see. Oh he’s kicked back. Okay, we’re good. All right. Anthony, why don’t you go put that away. Let’s go ahead and start all over again... Ehrke (interview): I think when they take ownership of all of this is when it becomes really theirs, rather than me always reminding them, well, you should go look at the skills. They take the ownership and say, we need to go look at those skills and that’s when I know (snap) it’s happening. Narrator: Alongside their other activities, the children work on independent projects, which they present to the class each week. Student: Okay. My passion project is on barn owls and the reason I did this passion project is because I. Like. Barn owls. A lot. (pause) Okay. They are, um, commonly referred to as Tyto alba. They’re in the group Tyto. Like all owls, they can turn their head at least all the way around. I found out that not all regular barn owls have pure white faces. The females have a kind of sooty-colored face and the males have a regular white face. Ehrke (interview): Children of this ability, they love choices. You know. They love it challenging, they love it rigorous, and they love the choices to make those decisions and I can be trusting of their choices because I know they’re loving learning, and it’s a teacher’s dream. Student: The main owl in this is a barn owl. And, uh, he’s awesome. Ehrke: Let’s open up to some questions and comments. Student: Bailey. Bailey: I really liked your passion projects and you have a good drawing. Student: Brianna. Brianna: You weren’t reading a paper, you seem like you pretty [well] memorized the whole project. Student: Were barn owls ever at a point where they were extinct or were they always just...good? Student: At one point, they were close to being extinct. They’re still on the endangered animals list. Everyone see my drawing of a barn owl? Student (OS): Yes. Ehrke: Oh, I know we’ve got to go. All right. You guys did a great job this week. You were awesome.