issue 6winter 2009

Innovations in Italy:A Conversation with

Lella Gandini and Susan Etheredge

Creating Intentional Spaces

The Year in Song

The Early Elementary

Literature Circles

p 16p 2 p 12

Sticky Curriculum

2 Literature Circles in the Early Elementary

People Who Inspire Us

8 Innovations in Italy: A Conversation with Lella Gandini and Susan Etheredge

Creative Fusion

12 The Year in Song: A Musical Collaboration in the Early Elementary

What Works

16 Creating Intentional Spaces

In Each Issue

1 Greetings from Paula20 Spark Plugs22 UCDS Mission Statement

Can intelligence be developed?

Volumes have been written by experts who have provided evidence to support both answers to this question. So who’s right? In her book Mindset, Carol Dweck sums up the current scientific view. “Today, most experts agree that it’s not either – or. It is not nature or nurture, genes or the environment. From conception on there is a constant give and take between the two. In fact, as Gilbert Gottlieb, an eminent neuroscientist, put it, not only do genes and the environment cooperate as we develop, but genes require input from the environment to work properly.”

Many of us in the United States today believe that success equates with intelligence. According to popular American folklore, some people are born with exceptional talent, personality, character, and brilliance that result in their rise to success. While the “exceptional person” story sells books and movies, research over the past several decades has shown that this “fixed ability mindset” actually profoundly limits a person’s motivation to learn. (Mindset)

What do you tell yourself when you meet a challenge? Research indicates that if you believe that individual traits are carved in stone, you are not as likely to take a risk and fall short, thereby proving that your ability is lacking. On the other hand, Dwesk asserts that if “basic qualities can be cultivated through effort, you acknowledge that it is impossible to see what can be accomplished with years of passion, toil and training.” Those of us holding this “growth mindset” actually thrive on challenges and are more likely to see a setback or mistake as an opportunity to learn. Robert Sternberg, the present-day guru of intelligence, writes that the major factor in whether people achieve expertise “is not some fixed prior ability, but purposeful engagement.”

This research has obvious implications for education. If children are more engaged and perform better when they believe that they can “learn to be smarter,” then it is incumbent on schools to set up classrooms as if this were the case. Teaching children how to develop their potential through effort is a very different kind of classroom than one designed to deliver knowledge and measure a child’s ability to produce “the answer.” For many schools in the U.S., this will require some fairly fundamental changes in the way instruction is delivered.

Fortunately, young children typically arrive at school assuming that they can learn and are excited to be offered a challenge. Learning is like breathing for a young child, who has spent the first years of his or her life learning a native language, or several languages if given the opportunity, with no formal instruction to do so. “By three the little child’s brain is actually twice as active as an adult brain and remains at that level until the child reaches the age of nine or ten.” (The Scientist in the Crib)

No one knows this better than a teacher in one of our Early Elementary classrooms at UCDS where our 3, 4 and 5 year old students are joyfully engaged in serious investigation, without regard to the arbitrary adult categories of work and play. Our teachers believe that these children are capable problem solvers who thrive when given meaningful challenges. Every aspect of the classroom is designed to convey our confidence in the child, from the way we set up the space to the way we recognize a student’s hard work and perseverance. Teachers are not only covering curriculum but also, by providing the time, space, materials and support to figure things out, are teaching young children how to learn. We believe that children can learn to develop their full potential and our students don’t doubt for a moment that they will achieve it.

In this Issue

BY TEACHERS FOR TEACHERS™Spark is published by University Child Development School.

Head of SchoolPaula Smith

Assistant Head of SchoolTeacher Education Center Director Melissa Chittenden

Editor & Publication DesignJack Forman

Contributing StaffLeanne Bunas, Diane Chickadel, Melissa Chittenden, Ellen Cottrell, Susan Foley, Ginger Goble, Rebecca Henry, Drew Holloway, Julie Kalmus, Brooke Leinberger, Angie Manning Goodwill, Kai Toh, Charles Kapner, Cory Goldhaber, Natasha Rodgers, Matt Swanson, Jennifer Vary

PhotographyUCDS Faculty and Staff

For submission information, please contact Brooke Leinberger atbrookel@ucds.org.The editor reserves the right to edit and select all materials.

© 2008 University Child Development School. All rights reserved.

Sticky Curriculum

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A group of six Early Elementary students meets with a teacher eager to share a book they’ve all read at home. A boy excitedly moves his hands as he talks while kids listen intently. Later, a girl flips animatedly to a page that she marked with a sticky note at home and talks about her favorite part of the story. Their teacher quickly writes down their observations...You are witnessing Literature Circle, a core component of UCDS’s reading program through the ages.

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I n t h e E a r l y E l e m e n t a r y

b yJ e n n i f e r Va r yR e b e c c a H e n r yS u s a n F o l e yU C D S F a c u l t y

In the Early Elementary, students are encouraged to make a personal connection with great books, regardless of their reading level. Each year’s reading list changes along with the school-wide Theme, exposing students to a diverse collection of stories from multiple cultures, times and perspectives. Meanwhile, Early Elementary students learn how to contribute their ideas and hear others’.For the Early Elementary issue of Spark, we invite you to read what follows, the story behind the story of Literature Circles.

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Long after the school day has ended,the entire Early Elementary teaching team sits waist deep in a sea of colorful picture books. Exclamations echo throughout the room, ranging from, “Oh, this is perfect!” to “Wait, have you read this yet?” to “Amazing!” Many hours past 3PM, the enthusiasm in the room remains palpable. It seems there is no place these teachers would rather be as they each take turns holding up books, reading passages aloud and passionately advocating for favorite titles. Why such passion? Today marks the beginning of the beloved tradition and dynamic process of selecting a year’s worth of Literature Circle books for our youngest students.

This year’s concept study theme, QUEST, couldn’t be more fitting. As teachers contemplated the theme over the summer, the quest was certainly on to find great picture books for Literature Circles. Judging from the vast collection of books up for discussion at the first meeting, the quest was more than successful. Contained in this collection are worn old favorites from teachers’ shelves, new books discovered in bookstores and through online searches and books borrowed from well-stocked libraries. The aim is to pick 18 books that can be divided into six sub-groups, each relevant in a different way to the year’s Theme (see box at right). With so many excellent choices, the mission can seem impossible.

Selection and Rationale:

What books make the cut? Experience informs this decision. We quickly learned, for example, that simple stories often lead to predictable and short discussions. Most importantly, we learned that our youngest students have more insight and sophisticated opinions about books than those simple, short texts inspire or conventional wisdom dictates. In one particularly memorable Literature Circle, children discussed the picture book, Henry Climbs a Mountain by D.B. Johnson, which is based on the day Henry David Thoreau was jailed for refusing to pay unfair taxes. Two students adamantly echoed each other’s rather literal, not quite accurate interpretation that the main character, Henry, broke out of jail and climbed a mountain. Another child listened carefully before voicing her dissenting opinion: “Well, actually, I feel that he was in jail in that part. But he just used his imagination to climb the mountain. Your imagination can take you on big adventures.” Notably, that child was the youngest student in the Early Elementary program at the time, a

child who was only beginning to make the connections between letters and sounds. Even more significantly, during Literature Circles, such a statement from such a young child is the norm, not the exception! Literature Circles allow all children, regardless of their independent reading skills, to enjoy the same books, to share their thoughts and opinions and to discuss many of the “big” ideas and questions that books can cultivate.

Thus, our expectations for Literature Circles are very high. Indeed, at the Early Elementary level, Literature Circles often provide the text for our Social Studies, History and Social-Emotional curriculum. Teachers search for books that encourage complex discussion. Sometimes this discussion is fueled by disagreement as children contemplate a difficult decision faced by a character. Other discussions are enhanced by learning about a particular period in history or culture that was unknown to many students. Respect for different opinions and a value for diversity are central themes in discussions. A teacher sits in each group to encourage active listening, to model open-ended questions and to ensure individual members are treated respectfully. Over time, the children become increasingly

comfortable sharing ideas and driving discussions. The experience of Early Elementary Literature Circles sets the stage for lifelong habits as children grow comfortable and confident sharing ideas and passion for great literature.

More About Selection:

Clearly, the task of selecting books is an arduous, albeit ardent job, and this year has proven no exception. As proponents begin discussing how a particular book fits the year’s Theme, QUEST, many subthemes emerge. With the Presidential Election looming at the time of this meeting, “Quest to be Elected” is one subtheme under consideration. There are four books “on the table” including America Votes: How Our President is Elected by Linda Granfield and Steve Bjorkman (a non-fiction book explaining the

presidential election process) and A Woman For President: The Story of Victoria Woodhull by Kathleen Krull and Jane Dyer. However, it is Grace for President by Kelly Dipucchio and Leuyen Pham that catches the attention of the group. The heroine of this book, Grace, discovers that no women have ever been president, and she decides that she will be president one day. The teacher in the book uses a school election to teach students about the electoral process, and Grace finds herself running for President. The book has many elements we look for in a Literature Circle book. Grace is a character the kids will easily relate to and care about.

Quest Theme BooksTo consider the yearly theme “QUEST” from several perspectives, the Early Elementary faculty constructed six “pods” of sub-themed books for students to explore over the course of the entire school year. These eighteen books are the end result of literally hundreds of suggestions from faculty members, each carefully read, re-read and discussed by the Early Elementary team. For more ideas of how books can support a theme, including lists from other school years, visit Spark on the web: www.ucds.org/spark

Lend a Questing Hand:Getting help on your quest The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger

The Eagle and the Wren by Jane Goodall and Alexander Reichstein

Jane and the Dragon by Martin Baynton

Quest for Identity:Accepting what is unique about yourselfWings by Christopher Myers

Boy Who Grew Flowers by Jennifer Wojtowicz and Steve Adams

Max’s Words by Kate Banks and Boris Kulikov

Quest to Better the World:Seeking ways to take care of the environmentJust a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg

The Flower by John Light and Lisa Evans

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

Quest for a Dream:Setting goals to reach a dreamA Band of Angels by Deborah Hopkinson and Raul Colon

Grace for President by Kelly DiPucchio and LeUyen Pham

Moonpowder by John Rocco

It is about the journey not the QUESTination:Taking time to appreciate the processZen Shorts by Jon J Muth

Eggbert: The Slightly Cracked Egg by Tom Ross and Rex Barron

Henry Hikes to Fitchberg by D.B. Johnson

Migratory Quest:Animals that migrateSalmon Creek by Annette LeBox and Karen Reczuch

Baby Whale’s Journey by Jonathan London and Jon Van Zyle

Welcome, Brown Bird by Mary Lyn Ray and Peter Sylvada

Continued >

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and comprehension skills to complimenting Theme-related studies in science, social studies or literature to introducing a variety of cultures. The teachers in the K-1 classes were inspired by this practice of sending home required reading as a way of easing their kids into the world of HOMEWORK! After trying a few different methods, they settled on having 5 or 6 kids meet together to discuss a story that was read to them at home. The requirement that an adult read the assigned book was an important one as it helped shift the focus of the assignment from a reading activity to a discussion activity. Because the story was read aloud, all students were

coming to class with a level playing field in terms of reading ability. Also, because the story was read by someone else, discussions were beginning at home. By the time kids met with their groups, they already had important practice thinking about the book and explaining their ideas.

The project was going so well that the teachers decided to use it to address an important issue that had come up in class. Circle times and play times were increasingly dominated by a strikingly vocal and assertive group of boys. The teachers were looking for ways to encourage some of the quietest girls to speak up for their own ideas. They carefully collected books that they hoped would serve the girls’ needs. Dubbing the collection, The Brave Girl Series, the teachers had the kids rotate through the books. The series included Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman, Brave Irene by William Steig, Eleanor by Barbara Cooney, Swamp Angel by Anne Isaacs and Flossy and the Fox by Patricia McKissack and Rachel Isadora. In addition to discussions about the books, each had a variety of projects (art, drama, writing, etc) to go with it. Girls were inspired enough by such characters as Amazing Grace to insist, “A girl can be Spider Man if she wants to!”

The discussions were so successful that teachers of the youngest students (PreK-K) decided to try it the next year. Using the theme Balance, the teachers collected piles and piles of rich picture books. As the books were shared, subthemes began to unfold. It was clear a new UCDS tradition was emerging. It is a tradition that continues to grow and evolve, and with it, our understanding of young children’s keen ability to connect with books continues to grow and evolve.

Twelve years after the Brave Girl Series, a new group of children head home with books that support the new passions, needs and themes. With enthusiasm, students race home eager to read with a grown-up. The stage is now set for kid-driven discussions, brave conversations and exciting discoveries. s

The inclusion of historical facts about elections in our country makes this a strong contender for this year’s Literature Circles. The Election subtheme, however, is losing steam as proposals are made to move Grace for President to other subtheme groups. The book would make a wonderful addition to the Dream Quest or Lending a QUESTing hand sub-themes.

As the meeting draws to an end, the process is far from complete. Notes taken during the meeting and the books under consideration are stored in the faculty room. Armed with information from this discussion, the quest continues as teachers keep gathering books that complement each other and add depth to the subthemes. Over the next few weeks, more books are added to the collection. Shameless lobbying occurs as books are highlighted and discussed in lunch meetings between bites of sandwiches. Zealous notes in favor of one book over another are left on the staff table, generating enthusiasm for favorite authors or subthemes. Grace continues to remain a strong favorite as we discuss and debate the characters and books over lunch and after school.

HistoryThe character of Grace in Grace for President is

reminiscent of another Grace from a series of books used twelve years ago at UCDS. The book Amazing Grace, by Alice Hoffman, was included in the collection of books that inspired Early Elementary Literature Circles as we know them today. At the time, UCDS teachers were providing kids with many opportunities to discuss literature. The first floor of our elementary building housed two classes of K-1 students and four classes of 1-2 grade students. In the K-1 classes, like all classes, there were a wide range of readers, from children who were still solidifying letter sounds to the readers devouring Magic Tree House books as fast as Ms. Pope could write them. In addition to having each child read and discuss books at an individualized reading level, teachers were interested in providing kids with the opportunity to discuss literature with a group of kids that was not solely based on reading level. As the entire class gathered to listen to the latest Read Aloud story, it was apparent that inspired conversation and clever insights were not the exclusive property of the strong readers; beginning readers had much to share! In the spirit of UCDS, it was important that kids with big ideas have an opportunity to shine regardless of individual reading levels.

In the upper grades, chapter books were assigned as homework to serve many purposes, from building decoding

Literature Circles are a weekly event in the Early Elementary. Each week, students take a new Literature Circle book home and read it several times with a parent.

Students are encouraged to record their favorite passages, pages and observations on sticky notes, which they share with peers back at school. Conversations are exciting and unpredictable! Each week’s meeting is culminated with an artistic exploration that can take many forms.

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People WhoInspire Us

SUSAN ETHEREDGE Ed.D.is Associate Professor of Education and Child Study and Director of First Year Seminars at Smith College. She is co-author of Introducing Students to Scientific Inquiry: How Do We Know What We Know? and co-editor (with Lella Gandini) of Insights and Inspirations from Reggio Emilia. Susan works with teachers in public and independent schools in areas related to professional development and teacher education, served as president of the New England Educational Research Organization, and co-directs the Coral Reef Ed-Ventures Program for children in San Pedro, Belize. During the 2007-08 academic year, she spent a sabbatical year observing and studying the early childhood schools in Pistoia, Italy.

In the spring of 2006, a small team of UCDS teachers crossed the Atlantic to spend a week experiencing the Reggio Emilia approach first hand in the Italian city of Pistoia. They were led through several schools in this small town in Northern Italy by Smith College’s dynamic duo of Reggio experts: Lella Gandini and Susan Etheredge. Regaling their colleagues with stories of their experience, the UCDS cohort encouraged the school to invite Lella and Susan to spend a few days at UCDS last winter. What follows are excerpts from a lunch conversation between several UCDS faculty and our acclaimed Italian ambassadors during their visit here:

LELLA GANDINI Ed.D.is a Lesley University Visiting Scholar in 2007-09 and is the United States Liaison for the Dissemination of the Reggio Emilia Approach and Associate Editor of Innovations in Early Education: The International Reggio Exchange. She is co-editor and co-author of The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Approach to Early Childhood Education; Beautiful Stuff: Learning with Found Materials; Bambini: The Italian Approach to Infant/toddler Care and Insights and Inspirations from Reggio Emilia. Lella has published on parenting, children’s fears, and the use and text of traditional nursery rhymes in Italy. She is the author of several books in Italian for children, as well as books about parenting and early education in Italy, where she has been a frequent contributor to the magazine for teachers, Bambini.

UCDS parent, John Neilson loved ideas; those he found in literature and those he gained through a deep appreciation of world culture, math, science, art, music, philosophy, and physical excellence.

In 1999, at the age of thirty-eight, John lost a hard fought battle against non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In honor of John’s life, The Neilson Endowment Fund was created. Through the Teacher Education Center at UCDS, we use this endowment to create and share programs that offer children access to big ideas.

John was an inspiration to us in life and we dedicate this, ‘People Who Inspire Us’ section to him.

SPARK: What brought you together as educators and how did you find this partnership between the two of you?

Lella Gandini: I was teaching Italian at Smith and Susan was a student there so she took the Italian class. She was my student! She already was very good but she wanted to practice, so I asked her to come babysit for my two sons who were, at that point, five and nine. Susan would practice with them, and they would play difficult games with her.

Susan Etheredge: They were great teachers! And they’re both now college professors themselves. It was a long time ago, but I remember how we would play Mastermind. Both of Lella’s sons are very gifted thinkers, very deep. They would tutor me with the Italian language, but at the same time, they were teaching me logic through the game of Mastermind. When I reflect back on it now, it was one of my first experiences in considering young children as philosophical thinkers. They were both philosophers - at ages five and nine!

LG: And then, you see, Susan went to Italy for her junior year.

SE: I had Lella for my Italian elementary language course my first year at Smith. I had studied French all the way though my education, but I was eager to learn Italian, mostly because of my Italian heritage. And, I loved the language. I went junior year abroad to Smith’s program in Florence where we now have students who intern in the schools in Pistoia, a program that Lella started 15 years ago at Smith which I now have the pleasure of co-directing with a colleague in the Italian department.

When I discovered Reggio, it was the year that Lella had brought the exhibit to the University of Massachusetts. I went to see the exhibit and cried tears of joy all day long because I realized that I had just found this professional and personal nexus: a merging of my undergraduate academic study of Italian language and literature with my professional work as a teacher who was very much focused on children’s thinking and learning. And here was this amazing opportunity to learn more about it and get back to Italy; so that’s how my exploration of Reggio-inspired practices began.

LG: When I came to the United States, I had been reading child development research, and I realized that all the research that had been done in the States did not correspond to good places for young children. In ’72-73, there were very few good places for young children: most were in basements of churches, marginal places. I was astounded that a country so rich and so rich also in research about child development, could invest so little in

the very young children. I took it upon myself to become a sort-of ambassador, as we say in Italy, “ambassador without billfold.” My first article was in 1984, and the exhibit from Reggio Emilia was soon after. I was writing articles in an Italian magazine for teachers, with names that you know, like Howard Gardner. He became very interested, so he accompanied me to see the schools.

The programs in Pistoia continue to thrive, but have you seen changes in how they’re presented to the rest of the world?

SE: My first trip to Reggio was with the Banks Street College delegation in 1992.

LG: Back then, the trips were very relaxed, say 15 or 16 people at a time, but there are much bigger delegations now. People could take photographs and it was very relaxed, but now it’s hundreds and hundreds.

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Continued >

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SE: In ‘92 I traveled in not that small of delegation. They invited us to take photographs and even to talk to children and teachers; it was quite a privilege. At the time, I remember thinking that it felt a little intrusive to be taking photographs of children. As much as I wanted to snap that camera. it didn’t feel quite right to walk into a classroom and shoot pictures of children and teachers without knowing very much about the place and the space. Eventually Reggio developed a wonderful documentation of slides of their schools that one could purchase, once it was no longer possible for delegations to take photographs.

LG: Nowadays there are many more videos and books.

SE: I started reading everything that I could get my hands on because the Reggio approach spoke so deeply to everything that I believed in. It was a whole way of thinking about children: using metaphor in teaching and learning, using a language of learning with children. It is a very philosophical approach. Studying the Reggio approach opened up all kinds of possibilities for me in my own classroom work with children.

Then, as I made the transition to teaching college age students, my practice changed and it continues to change, inspired by the philosophy in Reggio and Pistoia. I always thought of myself as a constructivist teacher -- not someone who takes out the lecture script and reads from it verbatim. However, Reggio inspired me to think a lot more about the importance of relationship in learning and teaching -- reciprocal learning, really -- and ways to trust my students differently. As long as I was giving them good material to read and ponder and making space in the classroom for deep reflection and discussion, I could trust that together we would construct meaningful understandings. I didn’t always need to be scaffolding so closely and intensely that next step.

I’ve experienced a similar thing and I parallel that in my mind with beginning teaching. Beginning teachers worry a lot about–

SE: Classroom management?

Right! How to control the room. But you learn to worry less about classroom management and that you have to have enough to say and enough to do, and you move into the role of giving them provocations and standing back. It seems that there’s such a parallel between what’s happening with 3 and 4 year olds and what’s happening with graduate students. You enrich the environment, encourage free communication and collaboration, then in many ways stand back and just encourage great conversations to happen.

SE: And listen hard while those conversations are happening! Because that’s where you can be most valuable as a teacher, constructing that next step.

The first night that we were in Pistoia, we went to what was essentially the superintendent’s office, where people go to enroll their children in the schools. I remember walking through and discovering, in an administrative office, these elaborate spaces for imaginative play. I think they had things like Goldilocks - even three sizes of beds. It was incredible! Kids go on

field trips to the central office of early childhood education in Pistoia! It’s so encompassing of

the whole philosophy of embracing the children everywhere in the community,

the family. Are there any other cities that have impressed you?

LG: There are many cities that have good programs, but the style is different in each place.

SE: Our colleagues in Pistoia travel to different cities in Italy as well as

throughout the European Union to talk about their work. There’s a very

high level of awareness around early childhood education in the EU. When I

gave a presentation about my first research experience in Pistoia this fall, the director of services

said there would be, at my presentation, a television crew from France, commissioned by the French Senate to do a film on high quality early childhood programs throughout the EU. Our Pistoian colleagues were very proud that Pistoia was one of the first to be profiled in this series, particularly showing a visiting scholar from the US coming to understand it all.

LG: There is an International group that has partnered with Reggio, representing all of the European States that invest a lot in each child.

Can you talk about how the early childhood philosophy that you bring is very different than the elementary schools in Italy. Are you seeing over the years more and more of this child-centered or constructivist philosophy in the elementary schools?

LG: In a way the elementary schools in Italy are less strictly academic. They do have a curriculum, but there are no grades. There was an evolution there: a few things happened. One, for sure, is the dialogue with the early childhood education system. Also, programs in Pistoia that are organized as extra curricular activities are there for elementary as well. It’s the same philosophy. There is experimentation with levels of documentation at the elementary level as well, but it’s not as easy to document in this setting. It’s impossible to ignore what’s happening in the younger ages. The programs are driven from below, rather than from above.

It was a whole way of thinking about

children: learning as metaphor, the language of learning

and the way they talk about it philosophically. It opened all kinds

of possibilities for me in my own classroom work with children.

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SE: I think early elementary teachers in the US adopt the Reggio approach more readily than the middle and upper elementary grades do. But when you think about it and when you strip away the layers, it’s fundamentally a philosophy of inquiry-based learning and engaged discourse communities. There’s an emphasis on thinking about thinking, documenting one’s learning, using a portfolio approach. We actually saw lots of evidence of those principles here at UCDS. For example, you’ve thought about your Continua as being fluid and organic but also being very helpful as a framework not only for teachers’ thinking, but for understanding individual children’s learning as well.

When people come into our school from other schools to talk about a particular curriculum, what they nearly always want to talk about instead is the way that we were working together as a faculty. Do you find that people want to know more about the Reggio curriculum itself or more about the working model?

SE: There was a delegation recently in Pistoia from Scotland and Great Britain interested in understanding better how our Pistoian colleagues construct and sustain a creative environment for working and learning together. They wanted to know more about how the teachers collaborate there. Certainly our teachers in the Smith College lab schools ask that question a lot too: how does the structure allow time for teachers to have deep collaboration? Time is of course always an issue. How do you find time to document the process and use it as a tool for learning?

When our group went to Pistoia, there was, for some, a disbelief at first that it was possible, even the attention to aesthetics at the school, that the children would not only respect the aesthetics but that they’d actually help build it! It feels very different to some people looking in.

SE: I’ve learned not to talk about this work in a comparative way. For example, in the past, although I didn’t intentionally mean to set up a comparison between these programs in Italy and what we do here in the States, when I would talk to American colleagues or heads of schools, I would hear variations on “this makes me feel bad” or “we can’t do that here.” But of course, that’s not the intent! The intent is to think about possibilities: How do these innovative Italian approaches inspire you to think differently about your teaching beliefs and practices? I find that I’m more explicit now when I talk about the Italian approaches: I emphasize that this is not about comparing the nitty gritty, the “nuts and bolts,” but rather, it’s about thinking about possibility and potential in our classrooms and schools.

LG: It’s interesting to watch teachers who have tried this approach. Instead of filling children’s heads with information, try instead to listen to them and construct knowledge with them. Teachers say to me “we cannot go back to the way we were teaching before.” It is really possible to change.

Teachers and students in Pistoia’s Early Elementary schools put tremendous emphasis on artistic expression, from displaying thought-provoking materials (top) to the creation process itself (middle) to formal display and documentation (bottom).s

The

Year

Creative Fusion

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In Son

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In the Early Elementary, our yearlong theme drives more than just curricula. It encourages us to investigate deeper connections between ideas and disciplines. In the fall of 2006, brainstorming ideas for that year’s theme (FORM), Music Specialist Matt and Early Elementary classroom teacher Drew contemplated a bold collaboration. Both musicians outside of school, they wanted to give Early Elementary students the opportunity to FORM original songs and perform them at monthly sing-along events. The following is a chronicle of their year-long collaboration in music, a journey of creativity and discovery in UCDS’s Labyrinth.

Flying in FORMation

(September)

During the first week of school, Labyrinth students

filled grocery bags with a variety of natural and factory-

made objects. As bags were emptied in a communal space,

children worked in small groups to weave branches, ribbon,

pipe cleaners and leaves through the rungs of a discarded

chair. Once the weft and warp were intertwined, students

placed papier-mache eggs inside of the nest. Before sealing

their eggs and placing them into the nest, students wrote or

dictated a goal for the year, rolled it up and tucked it inside.

In celebration of our new theme and our first week of “nest-

building” at school, Drew wrote a song entitled “Let’s Build

a Nest”. We sang the song together at our “nest-raising”

ceremony and a number of our Milk and Cookie sing-alongs.

While inspired by daily Labyrinth life and a great theme song

for the year, it was written entirely by a teacher after school.

Transformation in Action(October)

Buoyed by our spontaneous songwriting success “Peter

Peter Pumpkin”, we mined the Labyrinth consciousness for

the next big thing. December and January were littered with

rain, wind, snow and ice! We missed a fair amount of school

and it was obvious we were knee deep in a snow day craze.

“What can you FORM out of snow?” was the question we

posed to the second songwriting group.

Working in pairs, students made lists by drawing and

writing. We came back together to share ideas and create

a structure for the song “Snow Day”. In the end, we were

missing a bit of the student spark that we had in the first

group and that, coupled with our desire to work in some

actions for the kids and audience to do during performances,

weighed the song down. It seemed the longer it took to

work the song out, the more the kids (and the teachers) lost

enthusiasm for the tune.

Lessons number one and two:

1. Listen to the kids… and …

2. Make it as fast and fun as a sled ride!

Wanting to share with the students the creative process that is so important to us as musicians, we discussed how we could take Labyrinth songwriting to the next level. With five “Milk and Cookies” (our traditional afternoon family sing-along event) scheduled throughout the year and with five Early Elementary classes, we quickly realized we could give each class an opportunity to let their creative juices flow and shine. While in the past each class would select a favorite pre-recorded song to share at Milk and Cookies, we wanted classes to form their own songs and perform them live for friends and family.

We immediately set about crafting ideas to tie the year in song together. Landing on “Songs of Transformation” as a guide for working with classes, we generated a list of possible song titles like “Bobby the Butterfly”.

In what would become the real theme of the year, “listening to the kids,” our plans were quickly tossed aside! While we were excited as teachers to try our ideas and techniques, the first group of songwriters, on the way to music class no less, began chatting and singing about pumpkins. They were doing what they always do, and we were lucky enough to be paying attention! Of course it was pumpkins they really wanted to sing about, they were mere days away from their annual trip to The Farm! With a bit of musical inspiration from a student, “Peter Peter Pumpkin I love you!” and the structure of a transforming pumpkin to guide the lyrics, a song was born!

An October trip to the pumpkin patch and the mountains led Early Elementary students to set their experiences to music.

Tubing at a nearby snowpark excited students and inspired “Snow Day,” another step in the artistic journey of songwriting.

Early Elementary students created an elaborate hanging nest and filled it with personal goal papier-mache eggs: inspiration for music!

Snow Daze! (December)

Continued >

After raising salmon and releasing them into the wild, Early Elementary students wrote “What Does a Coho Know?”

May and Bob, two chickens raised from eggs in the Labyrinth’s Discovery Area inspired one class to write “Chickens on My Mind.”

Early Elementary students performed their songs in “Milk and Cookies” community singalongs.

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It just so happened that the next Milk and Cookie sing along was scheduled for

Groundhog Day, and we were not about to miss an opportunity to create an anthem for

this bizarre and underappreciated holiday. We presented students with a picture of a

cute but pensive groundhog and asked what Punxsutawney Phil might be feeling on the

morning of his big day. Through drawings and writings, students empathized with their

subterranean hero: “Excited!” “Scared.” “Happy!” “Nervous.” This swirl of emotions

brought Phil to life and fueled a sort of musical monologue in which he conveyed his

ambivalence about carrying such responsibility.

After the experience of being bogged down in choreography with “Snow Day,” we

decided to instead try out props for this effort. Students mounted colorful drawings

and cut-outs on sticks, which could be held up at certain moments during the

song. There were enough for half the class to hold, while the other half would play

instruments such as castanets and sand blocks. This approach was a success in

the performance. Though the verses were hard for students to remember, the song

was driven by the call and response chorus, hysterical prop puppetry and dazzling

instrumental ‘solos.’

One prop remained, raised high, at the end—a giant paper flower—signifying no

shadow for Phil and an early spring for us!

This installment of our ongoing collaboration opened the door to new teacher-

student collaborations as well. Each year, UCDS’ fifth grade students create “Service

Learning Projects” to identify a particular need in the school program and then

proactively contribute time and creative energy to address it. We were thrilled to have

an intrepid fifth grade student join in the still unfolding process and reflect about how

to make it even better!

Props for Punxsutawney

(February)

The subject-matter that needed to be addressed in this edition of Milk and Cookies could not have been more clear: A fish tank had been placed in the communal area of the Early Elementary full of coho salmon eggs—students had salmon coming out their ears and a song was waiting to hatch! Students were a wealth of knowledge on the different stages in a salmon’s life, and we jumped right into creating artistic representations of these stages. So after our first class out of two we already had fantastic props of redds, alevins, frys and smolts…but no song yet and no real inspiration for one either. Students would routinely ask “what are we going to do for our song?” The response was that something would certainly hatch at our next meeting. Well, the salmon really hit the pan when that next meeting was canceled! Matt was faced with a seemingly impossible task. In the brief few days before the Milk and Cookies performance a song needed to be presented that would “catch” the students interest and give them at least some sense of ownership.

Thoughts drifted to the catchiest music around: Hip-Hop. No wait…Hip-Hop?...In an elementary school?...Why not? Thus “How does a Coho know where to go-oo-woah” was born, and did that ‘hook’ ever catch on quickly! Since there was no time for memorization, Matt utilized the call and response technique for the verses and handed out ‘F” boomwackers and one fish-shaped tambourine to lay the groove along with a djembe drum. The song was a hit, and students could be heard singing it in the halls for the rest of the year!

Flip Flop and You Don’t Stop (March)

To culminate this year-long songwriting process, classes recorded

their songs and produced a ‘Labyrinth’s Greatest Hits’ CD. We also held an

accompanying ‘CD release’ concert where each class got to perform the songs

they had written. Students were clearly proud of all of their work in creating

the songs, and it was a joyous occasion to see them so invested in the music.

There is so much that we can take away from this process. First and

foremost, we’re constantly reminded of the importance of listening to our

students! The biggest successes came from their inspiration, and as a result

these songs have become relevant to their experience at school. This is the

process that leads to great, emotionally authentic songwriting, no matter

what the age. Involving students in the many stages of the process proved

invaluable: The greater their involvement was in the process, the greater their

investment became in the final product.

This is an exciting road to venture down as a teacher. There are no pre-

written formulas, no static curricula and no certainty about where things are

headed, and this is precisely what makes it so exhilarating! You have the

opportunity to take risks, have fun, think outside of the box and learn right

alongside the students. Working in true collaboration, ideas multiply and

enthusiasm spreads exponentially. And in the end, you realize that you and

the students have created a soundtrack for the school year!

Labyrinth’s Greatest Hits(June)

Hatching a tank full of salmon wasn’t enough for one year! Suddenly

an incubator full of chicken eggs appeared in the Discovery Area. Needless

to say, students quickly became obsessed with feathered fowl. After the

success of such a surprising genre choice the month before, we decided to

turn it over to students to pick what kind of song we were going to create. The

answer came back a resounding “Jazz!” Somehow the combination of Jazz

and chickens made Matt think of Cuba, and after playing a catchy montuno

on the piano, the students were instantly sold.So this time we found our musical accompaniment before anything

else—there just isn’t any kind of formula for this process, is there!?

Each Early Elementary class was divided into Dog Chickens and Fluffy

White Chickens, (based on students’ descriptions of pictures they had seen

earlier in the year), and we were fascinated with this idea of Dog Chickens. If

there could be a Dog Chicken, why couldn’t there be a Monkey Chicken? We

drew cartoons of these absurdist birds on the whiteboard, and students ran

with the idea. Soon we had Square Chickens, Fish Chickens, Shovel Chickens

and Snake Chickens, and the possibilities seemed endless! We let these

lyrics loose with guiros, a good deal of “bock bock bocking” and even a guest

appearance by a mystery adult in a chicken costume. Soon, everyone in the

Early Elementary had “Chickens on their Minds!”

Chickens on our Minds(April)

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What Works

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To create exciting, inspiring and functioning spaces in our Early Elementary classrooms, it takes a commitment from both our faculty members and the school administration. What follows is a point-counterpoint discussion of the many facets of creating child-centered, creative places in our school.

Melissa Chittenden, UCDS’ Assistant Head of School and Early Elementary Division Head, emphasizes the importance of building structures for success at the administrative level.

Then, Ellen Cottrell, Early Elementary Faculty member, considers the importance of intentional space from a faculty member’s perspective.

Above: The Labyrinth building’s Discovery Area was designed to be an extremely malleable space where longer term discoveries can unfold over time. The explorations that unfold require administrative and faculty support, from the planning phase all the way to clean up.

Building Spaces From the Ground Upby Melissa ChittendenUCDS Assistant Head of School

Form follows function at UCDS. Whether we’re talking about schedules, events or space configuration, all our discussions center around this initial question: what do we want the experience to be? As you can imagine, the answer to that question also

depends on who is responding—teachers, administrators, parents or students. Remarkably, at the essence of each response is the same goal: to nurture and expand students’ perspectives and understandings. This shared perspective is an important hallmark of our work together as a community. We have come to realize that when planning our spaces, intentional collaboration between the faculty and administration members yields meaningful learning while strengthening overall program continuity throughout the school.

Every school and classroom around the country has an existing footprint or floor plan in which teachers begin the school year. Like all teachers, UCDS faculty return to classrooms each fall, ready to re-organize materials, add welcoming color and possibly reconfigure their classroom furnishings and spaces. While UCDS teachers certainly have autonomy to organize their classrooms as they like, there is an additional element they consider—the other classrooms and common areas within their teaching level. For example, recently the teachers in our Early Elementary level (preschool through Kindergarten) returned to work and began discussing the current year’s all-school concept study of Layers. As they worked together building the curricula for that theme, they also planned intentional spaces where these experiences could occur. “What do we want the experience to be for the students? Do we want students traveling between classrooms

regularly and why? Do we want students to be able to build “layers” on existing structures and creations for extended periods and why? If so, does each classroom need the same kinds of activities and materials? For example, does every classroom need to have a block-building area or can we combine our resources and define a larger space for building that can remain “in use” for weeks at a time? If we do this, what large spaces could we use and how might this influence our classroom space and programmatic elements?”

Teaching teams at UCDS have the freedom to create and recreate classroom and community spaces based on what experiences they want for their students. Collaborating with administrators by sharing design-use plans allows all school departments to schedule events in a way that supports dynamic use of space. Additionally, by sharing these happenings with teachers at different teaching levels, everyone in the school is apprised of the educational planning in the Early Elementary level, thus strengthening our overall programmatic knowledge and continuity.

This collaboration played out in an Early Elementary exploration into volcanoes. Faculty incorporated this student interest into the All-School Theme of Layers by developing core subject area curricula around this topic. They also discussed ways for students to experience through many modalities the various layers of the earth found within a volcano. Looking at all the physical spaces around them, they noted a spot in the school that is, in essence, a two-story cone. This space was part of a hallway and, thus, had a high volume of foot traffic each day. Several weeks worth of meetings were spent generating ideas and problem-solving possible difficulties. Faculty began talking about how they could seal that space off from foot traffic as well as transform it to look like a volcano. Once they generated scenarios to solve those issues, the design and construction phase began to create the layers of earth inside and the brown, textured crust on the outside. At the same time, they investigated ways for each student to ascend this twenty-foot volcano, so as to simulate the journey of igneous rock from the magma chamber, through the conduit and out through the vent.

Simultaneously, teachers shared these ideas with me. I, in turn, worked as the liaison between teachers and the administrative team to bring this plan to fruition. The facilities department became involved regarding the structural use of that space and making adaptations, such as attaching pulleys to make ascending possible. The communications department worked on parent notification, permissions and detour routes for the foot traffic. The Admission department

Creating Intentional SpacesHow to Involve the Whole School Community in the Realization of Space

Continued >

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Tuning in to what kids are talking about(Integrating students’ ideas, energy and ownership into the transformation of a space)

by Ellen CottrellUCDS Faculty

Kids’ conversations are rich with information—their lives, their interests and importantly, their social and cognitive development. Sitting unobtrusively on the outskirts of a game or listening in on the conversations of imaginary play, our classroom’s teachers use laptops, small voice recorders or paper and pencil to keep running records of children’s conversations. Reviewing a collection of these together later on helps to reveal themes and opportunities for exploration.

At the playdough table:“Last night, me and my family had a pizza party for my dad’s birthday.” “I love cheese pizza!”“My family always goes to Zeek’s [Pizza] because we can walk there.”“I’m making pizza with pepperoni on top…do you want some?” [Pretends to take a big bite] “YUMMY!”

This particular exchange, when compiled with other students’ interactions at other points in the week revealed an interest in restaurants, both from the customers’ and proprietors’ points of view. With this information, our next step was to take these observations back to the children, sharing with them both the dialogue and themes we noticed.

The idea soon emerged from the students of converting our “house” space into a restaurant. We facilitated this conversation by posing questions…If we turn this space into a restaurant, what kinds of things would we need? How could we get them? Are there things in our classroom that we could use? The conversation was electric, with a brainstorm of everything from cooking supplies to a cash register to pizza and pasta ingredients. Many students offered to bring things from home, including one who was excited to ask his mom if

worked on their visit schedules and tour routes, and per legal council, the teachers hired professional climbing instructors to facilitate this activity. All this community excitement and meaningful learning happened by transforming a ‘hallway” into a magical and educational volcano, complete with sound effects, red heat lamps and an array of igneous rocks. The students continue to talk about this experience and easily recall the specific point to which they ascended.

Including the student voice in space planning:

As illustrated, collaborating with administrators and colleagues is valuable when constructing experiences for children. Yet, equally elemental to space design are the children and their ownership in the process. The ultimate goal is to provide the best possible experience for children—to help guide and nurture their understanding of the world around them in ways that facilitate explorations and let them “try on” roles and discover the expected in a novel way.

At UCDS, communal space is seen through a lens of continual renewal. There are a myriad of community spaces dedicated to bringing the students together for in-depth explorations. This philosophy is not limited to the communal spaces within the school. Such as with the aforementioned volcano, as well as many, large-scale, long-term investigations, there are spaces dedicated to bringing the community together for in-depth exploration. Flexible space is planned into classroom layout as well, providing students with further opportunities for shaping their own experiences. One classroom houses a small teacher-constructed platform that creates a stage for both improvisational shows and student-organized productions; it also doubles as a book nook. Another classroom’s “dress-up” area contains large cardboard boxes and panels that easily transform into houses, castles and whatever student imaginations allow.

In Ellen and Annie’s Early Elementary classroom, a large area is dedicated to kid-inspired space that changes continually throughout the year. For instance, during the theme year of Layers, this creative area started as what many would consider a typical “house” set up, with utensils and supplies purchased at Goodwill. It soon transformed into a restaurant, and later again became a space shuttle, humane society with veterinary clinic, performance venue, salmon hatchery and river and finally a technology shop. With each transformation, students were the driving force behind the generation of ideas, planning and creation. Meanwhile, some behind-the-scenes work at the administrative level helped this creative process continue.

he could borrow her chef hat. Many of the materials we used were recycled—either donated from families or gathered from the recycling bin at the end of the day. Kids signed up for committees to make the things that we needed: one to craft and laminate menus; another to make aprons using two donated white sheets, scissors and staplers; another to cut paper into rectangles and staple them together into pads for the wait staff to write down orders; and a last group to gather classroom supplies and to design and layout the restaurant.

We worked over the course of one week to bring our restaurant to fruition, with a grand opening at an all-Early Elementary investigation. Students from other classes became the customers and students in our class tried to negotiate how to work with others to operate the restaurant smoothly. The restaurant was a popular choice for nearly a month, with everyone getting to try out different roles within the space—customer, wait staff, chef, hostess, cashier, bus person, coat check. Over the course of our time with the restaurant, two things happened. Our students became fluent in how to work with others and share responsibility for creating a common good (in this case, how to serve their customers and keep them coming back for more). They also felt the power of ownership over their experience, that is, how to generate an idea, plan and follow all the steps to get there and revel in its fulfillment.

After the restaurant had run its course, one student shared during a group meeting that she was reading Midnight on the Moon with her mom and “wouldn’t it be fun if we built a space ship in our classroom?” “Yeah,” agreed another, “’cause we always like building space ships with Legos, and it’s something really interesting to us. We should build one so we can learn more about them!” So began our foray into creating a space shuttle, this time, with students at the controls of what, why and how to get there. By the end of the year, our kids’ ideas launched nearly a dozen inspired transformations of a space that at one time merely housed cubbies.

As we listened more closely to our students’ ideas, we began to look at all of our classroom spaces with a new perspective. The teachers at our level talked to each other, and we collectively asked ourselves, “what do we want our students to experience?” Once we agreed that our kids’ creative ownership really was one of our core values as teachers and as a level, we put a floor-wide emphasis on these kinds of creative spaces. Then, when we let the administration know our plans, they immediately got involved in the process, supporting our plans. Once again, the form in our school followed the function. When teachers voiced their passionate ideas, the administration supported our year of kid-driven discovery.

At right: a classroom space once used to house cubbies becomes a dynamic canvas for community-driven ideas. At various points in the year, this corner of the room was a dining room (top),

a restaurant (middle) and a theater (bottom). New student-driven ideas

lead to contant renewal.

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UCDS Programs

Alison Gopnik, Ph. D.Andrew N. Meltzoff, Ph. D.Patricia K. Kuhl, Ph. D.The Scientist in the CribWhat Early Learning Tells Us About the Mind

The Scientist in the Crib’s three authors were guests of the UCDS Teacher Education Center during the 2007-2008 school year. They presented to faculty, staff, parents and the larger community about their

groundbreaking research in the area of early cognition. The guiding metaphor is the similarity between scientists’ carefully postulated, tested and refined theories and infant and toddlers’ careful study of their surrounding world. One is left with an accessible and stunningly inspirational handbook for early brain development. Head of School Paula Smith references this book in this issue’s opening letter.

Carol S. Dweck, Ph. D.MindsetThe New Psychology of Success

Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck discusses the difference between fixed and growth mindsets. With a growth mindset, she argues, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view

creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment. This principal is teachable to all ages of thinkers, from Early Elementary students to their grandparents. UCDS Head of School Paula Smith references Mindset in her opening letter.

Drawing from the most current scientific research on early learning and brain development and inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education, the UCDS Studio program celebrates each child as unique, competent and ready to learn. The Studio provides a stimulating, secure environment for children to explore, question, discover and create. The arts are integrated as tools for cognitive, linguistic and social development and expression as children build understanding, make connections and foster relationships.

NEW!The UCDS Studio Programwww.ucds.org/studio

Space available for infants and toddlers!Contact joelleh@ucds.org for more information.

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Spark Plugs

Lella GandiniIn the Spirit of the StudioLearning from the Atelier of Reggio Emilia

Beautiful StuffLearning with Found Materials

Lella Gandini, the self proclaimed “ambassador without pocketbook” of the Reggio Emilia method found in Pistoia, is widely published. For this issue of Spark, we’ve selected two of her recent books that emphasize the tremendous attention to detailed aesthetics that members of our faculty found in their trip abroad. In the Spirit of the Studio concerns the connection between studio-based exploration and learning. Beautiful Stuff emphasizes balance between child-driven exploration and teacher-driven choices in such an environment. Both have been popular selections in our Teacher Education Center.

Susan EtheredgeInsights and Inspirations from Reggio Emilia

Introducing Students to Scientific Inquiry(How Do We Know What We Know?)

In addition to her close collaborations with Lella Gandini, Susan Etheredge taught several current UCDS faculty members when they studied at Smith College’s School of Education. Her book Introducing Students to Scientific Inquiry presents year-by-year suggestions for building an Elementary-based science curriculum. The forthcoming Insights and Inspirations from Reggio Emilia, co-edited with Lella Gandini, captures and celebrates 30 years of the Reggio Emilia innovative presence and inspiration in North American early childhood educational thought and practice. Release is set for March, 2009.

University ChildDevelopment School

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University Child Development School is centered around

the lives of children and is dedicated to the development of

their intellect and character. We actively encourage, and the

school everywhere reflects, the process of joyful discovery

that is central to meaningful and responsible learning.

Teaching is individualized and responsive to the talents of

each student, and the curriculum is rigorous and integrates

the concepts and skills embedded within the major

disciplines. Our students are chosen for their promise of

intellect and character and are selected from a cross-section

of the community. Our faculty members are leaders in their

fields, supported in advancing their studies and encouraged

to share their knowledge widely.

In pursuit of these ideals, and in recognition of obligations

beyond the school itself, we strive to be an innovative leader

in education, serving as a model for others.

The UCDS Mission

UCDS Board of Trustees

OfficersEric Fahlman, ChairBill Nicholson, Vice ChairJanet Donelson, TreasurerNan Garrison, Secretary Members at LargeDavid BolinEric SandersonGreg HeadrickJulie Petersen-DunningtonJulie West PrenticeKate MarksKelly WebsterMichelle GoldbergPeggy RinnePerry AtkinsRoger Page

Ex-Officio MembersMike RileyJoelle HarrisonPaula Smith