Inventive teaching methods benefit students

Photos by Jennifer Stadnik

TEACHERS AT HEDDEN ELEMENTARY PUT MUCH EFFORT INTO MAKING SURE THEIR LESSONS ARE AUTHENTIC TO THEIR STUDENTS’ LIVES. Here young learners Grant Cox and Jordan Anderson complete a math activity for which they are supposed to spend $50 at Safeway. They had real advertisement flyers from the store, and couldn’t exceed the $50 limit.

In the Fife School District teachers do not instruct their students simply by standing in front of the classroom lecturing from conventional textbooks. Rather, teachers reach out to one another, to their students and to the community at large to create oftentimes-ingenious methods to engage students in high quality, challenging lessons the young learners will find interesting and persist in even when the work gets difficult.

Through Fife Schools’ WOW Academies, where WOW means “working on the work,” teachers and certain staff members gather regularly and put their heads together in intense brainstorming sessions to come up with fresh ideas on what to teach and how to teach it. Fife educators utilize design quality guidelines developed by the nationally renowned Schlechty Center for guidance during WOW Academies in how to structure lessons. The teachers pose questions like, “Is this work authentic to the students’ world? Do they get to work with their peers? Is there novelty and variety in it? What is the teacher’s objective for this lesson?”

At Alice V. Hedden Elementary School, for example, various methods are used to make the most out of every school day. One novel technique is student-to-student cross-age tutoring in which fifth-graders buddy up with second- and third-graders. Hedden Principal Julia Grubiak said this offers many benefits such as helping students get to know each other. The younger students seem most comfortable working with their peers, she noted, and such an arrangement helps provide protection from adverse consequences for learning students. That is, by working one on one, students feel more at ease speaking up if they do not understand whereas in a typical classroom setting they may feel intimidated to take such risks in front of the whole class.

“There is a lot of evidence in the research that the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else,” Grubiak said. She noted how peer tutoring boosts students’ self-esteem. “It plays into students’ talents. We know each child is talented differently…and how wonderful it is that they can share their skills with another child.”

“Book Buddies” help with reading; students learn active listening skills and how to partner read, thus improving their comprehension and fluency. In science classes, fifth-graders teach their younger peers what they have already learned, such as the parts of a microscope, how to collect pond water samples, and what all those microscopic critters are in the water. They work together to design and build cars with propellers and test them by racing them down the hallways, and in June they get to share together the joy of shooting off rockets they had built over the previous months.

Outside the Hedden campus learning opportunities abound. Fifth-grade students contribute to their community by participating in a buddies program with Mill Ridge Village retirement community. Started three years ago at Hedden under the direction of teacher Terra Lea Allen, the Senior Buddies program connects young students with Mill Ridge residents for mentoring, friendship and great times together. They often work on projects, like making Valentine’s Day cards to send to troops overseas. The benefits are many for both child and adult. By contributing to the quality of life of their elders the students feel important, learn about compassion and enjoy a sense of accomplishment. The seniors find great satisfaction in passing wisdom to the youngsters and making a difference in their lives.

“I can’t say enough about our relationship with Hedden,” said Mill Ridge Activities Manager Karen Lee. “Each year they bring more joy to our hearts.”

Mill Ridge resident Verna Bendorf said, “We elderly people have a lot to teach these children. The conversations between us are wonderful for both of us.”

Visiting her Senior Buddy is the highlight of student Kaylin Faranda’s day. “I feel happy and warm inside when I see their smiles. I wish we could go there every day.”

Another way Hedden Elementary keeps young minds interested and challenged is by cross-connecting areas of study. A Creative Arts Team at Hedden is comprised of four teachers from various fields of arts study. They team teach a creative arts class in which two arts disciplines are combined into one session so that students experience and understand connections among the various arts: movement, music, literature and visual art.

To get more information about Hedden’s teaching programs and to see many photos of students in action, visit http://www.fifeschools.com/hedden.

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