12 Steps to Beautiful Work
Steven Levy
Editor’s Note: This project was the project mentioned in Ron Berger’s Interview.
The fourth-grade crew at Palouse Prairie Charter School hosted an evening of art, poetry, and inspiration to benefit the Humane Society of the Palouse (HSOP). At this Celebration of Learning, students presented their final product for the EL Education curriculum “Poetry, Poets, and Becoming Writers” (ELA, Grade 4, Module1). For this module, students read Sharon Creech’s free verse novel Love That Dog and studied the art of poetry along with Jack, the main character who is inspired to write poetry about the dog that he adopts from an animal shelter. As a crew, they were inspired to “adopt” animals from their local Humane Society, make coloured pencil sketches of them, and write poems in their voices to inspire others to adopt animals.
Students engaged in fieldwork at the HSOP to learn about the organisation’s mission, meet all of the animals in need of adoption, choose an animal to “adopt” for their project, and hear stories about the animals’ lives to inspire their work. Several experts helped students study and practice the arts of poetic writing, coloured pencil sketching, and poetic reading. Experts helped students develop a poetry and artist’s toolbox, both of which we turned into co-created criteria lists for high-quality work. This work clearly reflects students’ attention to craftsmanship and responsibility for their learning.
At the fundraising event, students read their poems, displayed their art, and sold posters and greeting cards showcasing their work. The crew raised $942 for the Humane Society of the Palouse and was awarded a “Humane Society Hero Award” for their extraordinary work of service and compassion to promote our local organisation and inspire the adoption of animals who dearly need a home.
Teacher Reflection
- Beautiful high-quality drawings that draw the reader in
- Shows a project that could be replicated at different grade levels in both rural and urban settings
- Inspirational model of a project that involves service work
- Excellent idea for a fundraiser for a nonprofit organisation.
With thanks to High Tech High for allowing us to share their student’s beautiful work.
As a collaborative project between the Chula Vista and North County campuses, students created and published a children’s book detailing their chosen endangered species challenged with the impacts of climate change. Students created a watercolor illustration of their endangered species which was included in the children’s book. Our created children’s book is now being used to help educate other students and the public, on how human impact has become problematic for our wildlife. This project was aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards.
Teacher Reflection
This was such an impactful project dealing with a very important issue, not only in our country, but worldwide. Students were able to be scientists, researchers, artists all in one through this project. To have the students create their own learning around this issue by exploring this phenomena really allowed for them to want to become activists. Also, the cross-school collaboration allowed for our schools to come together. We feel literacy is very important and we wanted to find a fun way to incorporate it in a math and science classroom. We saw students step out of their comfort zone, and we teachers did too. We had no experience using watercolors, and it was great learning experience, which we shared with our students.
Student Reflection
I feel good about helping the earth, because now I know ways to save the environment in the future.
—Rishi
I didn’t know I could paint. My animal looks really cool!
—Leo
The best part was seeing my book on a website. People can buy it and my name is there.
—Illeana
To see or purchase the book, visit http://www.blurb.com/b/7640975-here-now-gone-tomorrow
With thanks to High Tech High for allowing us to share their student’s beautiful work.
In the Toy Story project, second graders explored the essential question, “What is the magic of toys?” To investigate this idea deeply, our students visited a local preschool and became buddies with these young children. They surveyed their new friends to learn about the types of toys they like, their favorite colors, favorite characters and so much more. After finding trends in the data collected, the students used this information to design the perfect toy for their preschool buddy. After many drafts, critiques, revisions and prototypes the students took their designs to MakerPlace (a DIY workshop in San Diego) in order to professionally create the toys. Students also studied story elements by reading a variety of stories that have a toy as the main character. They incorporated the elements they learned into a story about the toy they created for the preschooler. And then they learned the writing process in order to publish their story in a board book for their buddies. Finally, our second graders returned to the preschool to give both the toy and the book to the preschoolers.
Teacher Reflection
When designing this project, it was important for us to have a product that was minds on, hands on, and hearts on. Since every second grader loves toys we thought that would be the perfect fit. This project felt like a great blend of allowing the students to have choice and be creative while learning many essential math, reading, and writing skills. Throughout the project, we wondered if our students would be upset to give away a toy and story they had worked so hard on but we were pleasantly surprised at their eagerness to give a gift to another child. We felt like the authentic audience in the project was also another driving force in its success.
Student Reflection
“The magic of toys is they can come to life. They encourage kids. They’re adventurous. They help kids imagine.”
—Joshua
“The magic of toys is that they have feelings too. They can talk!”
—Zuri
To learn more visit:
http://jsteffan9.wix.com/digitalportfolio#!toy-story/c5ic
With thanks to High Tech High for allowing us to share their student’s beautiful work.
High Tech Elementary Explorer had a run-down grassy area as a part of its playground, and a real shortage of options for creative outdoor play. Patricia Lim and Stacey Stevenson decided to create an inquiry-based project about the nature of play, in the hopes it could ultimately transform the underused space into a nature playground.
They began their project by asking some open-ended questions: Why do children like to play? How do they like to play? What allows children to be creative, to pretend, to build, to be active?
Stacey and Patricia launched the project with a trip to a nature playground, where their classes played for hours and also reflected on how they played, and how the materials they encountered encouraged them to play. In the following days, when they were back at school, they observed other students playing. Finally, based on their observations and field work, they began a process of re-designing the run-down play area. Children made sketches of their ideas, and gave and received critique from classmates as well as older students and adults in the school. They voted on final ideas for various areas of the playground, which ultimately included a sand house for pretend play, sticks and rocks for building, stumps for balancing, a water wall, a music/sound wall; and a giant tire for climbing.
The final weeks of the project were spent building. Each group also created safety rules for each play area, and wrote how-to books to teach other children how to use the new play area.
Project Learning Goals
This project met many standards for kindergarten learning, including counting; measuring; data collection; observation; reflection; persuasive speaking; drawing a model of a proposed solution; giving and receiving critique; and writing informational how-to manuals. Social and emotional learning goals included collaboration; negotiating over final products; analysing what makes playtime fun; and understanding and creating rules for play spaces.
With thanks to High Tech High for allowing us to share their student’s beautiful work.
In this project we discussed the issue of homelessness and poverty to encourage students to develop empathy and to see the world from different perspectives. Students took a closer look at the underlying issues of homelessness. We examined the issues of resource availability, equity, and access. We grappled with questions about over represented populations. Students took a hard look at their own biases and misconceptions and developed a better understanding through community service. Students created change with public service announcements, demonstrations holding cardboard signs with facts and statistics, and the creation and implementation of community food pantries.
Teacher’s Reflection
“We saw a tremendous shift in our students’ thinking and perceptions about what it means to be homeless. Throughout the process it was evident that students were growing as empathetic individuals who wanted to create change in their local community. Each student worked to help the homeless population in our community gain access to much needed resources.”
Student Reflection
This project was based on empathy and helped us see how the other half of the world lives, and that we can do so much to change the world if only we try.
— Emersyn
The campout made me realise that the homeless live in harsh conditions, like cold, rain, and hard places to sleep. Having to build our own shelters helped me understand because ours fell down in the middle of the night.
— Ashby
I had seen some homeless people in the park in Escondido but it was drastically different to see the camps downtown.
— Bree
To learn more visit: Mrvisser.weebly.com, Mrscasciato.weebly. com, or Charleyjacob.weebly.com
Issue 02 Articles
Issue 01 Articles
by Ali Durban, Co-Founder Gesher School.
With the constant merry-go-round of Education Ministers and no appointment of a SEND minister since Kelly Tolhurst, we have been looking at what has progressed with the Green Paper since its submission in July. The answer is not much – other than an exchange in the form of a letter to current Minister of Education MP Robert Halfon, (and former Chair of the Education Select committee) from former Minister of Education, Kit Malthouse who writes:
‘We are proposing to establish local SEND and AP partnerships. These partnerships would be responsible for delivering a local inclusion plan which sets out the provision that will be made available in line with the national standards.’
To be clear, the Children and Families Act 2014 is the national standard (as opposed to a local inclusion plan), it already sets out a legal duty on LAs to secure and maintain Special Educational Provision through an EHCP. If provision is specified and quantified properly in an EHCP and the general principles of section 19 upheld (the need for the LA to have regard for what will help the child or young person to achieve the best possible educational and other outcomes), then an inclusion plan is not necessary.
What does need to be established is a clear accountability framework. Local Authorities need to be held to account when they do not uphold the legal standard (namely the Children and Families Act). At present the only setting for this is tribunal. It can take parents years to reach tribunal level, and the journey to get there is arduous, exhausting and often quite traumatic. Shockingly, around 95% of tribunals are upheld. This stark figure reflects that one of the biggest weaknesses of the system is in fact Local Authorities not doing what they should do legally. Establishing ‘new partnerships’ to deliver what is already written in statute will without doubt add another layer of delay to families trying to achieve the appropriate provision and outcomes for their child.
Tragically the human cost in all of this is the child or young person, who is at this point often in crisis.
Kit Malthouse goes on to write ‘The local inclusion plan will inform the tailored list of settings from which parents and carers are able to choose provision where their child requires an education, health and care plan (EHCP). The expectation is that all schools on the list will be settings that can meet the child’s special educational needs as identified in their EHC needs assessments. This aims to give parents and carers clarity on what is available locally which may still include mainstream, special, independent, or out of borough provision. Our intention is that this will lead to greater transparency about what is available for children and young people in their local school and greater clarity about how it can be provided. We also aim for this to improve the choice offered to parents and carers by suggesting options they may not have otherwise considered’.
This ambiguous statement shows a deep lack of knowledge of the SEND system. It infers freedom of choice.
However, choice is something that many families of children with SEND have never had.
The tailored list that Mr Malthouse refers to already exists in the form of a local offer. This list is drawn up by the Local Authority and typically based on cost. It does not and could not list a school to meet each and every need because:
● There is a lack of provision across the UK and the quality can differ hugely between LAs. Figures obtained by the newspaper ‘Schools Week’ show that over half of special schools had more pupils on roll than the number commissioned by their council. This was a 15% rise from 2017-18. There simply isn’t enough provision in-borough or nationally to meet need.
● Much of the provision comes out of the independent sector. In order to make the local offer list, a school must agree to section 41 – reciprocal duty to co-operate with the local authority on arrangements (admissions); this means that LA’s loosely control admissions and could see a school end up with a very mixed and challenging cohort of children. For this reason, many independent schools choose not to be part of the local offer.
There is no indication of what will happen if there isn’t an appropriate school on the list. Will parent’s once again need to battle to reach a tribunal to access the provision they need, whilst, once again, (same story here…) the child is left in crisis?
There is no mention in Kit Malthouse’s letter of placing the child and their needs at the centre of decision-making. A true local inclusion plan would see a timely and thorough multi-disciplinary assessment, followed by the family and LA working together to find the right placement with the child’s needs at the centre of all decision-making.
The reality is a 2-3 year wait for a full assessment, which is often not accurate because there is a vested interest to keep ‘need’ to a minimum (if at all) in order that there is less of a requirement to procure an EHCP and LA spend. When it comes to placement, the LA’s decision-making is based on budget and very often they will write “mainstream school” or the next cheapest placement in Section I.
Kit Malthouse’s letter highlights the disparity between what the central Government thinks inclusion is, versus the reality of what children, young people and their families face.
We know the system is broken. Report after report after report has evidenced that children with SEND and their families are being consistently damaged and failed by the system. Much of it might be legally questionable. The proposed changes in the Green Paper continue to raise significant concerns as to the future of SEND provision.
What we need is a long-term plan for education, designed with those who bring their lived experience to a collaborative and inclusive process. We need to take the 7000+ responses from the Green paper review, analyse and publish the responses, as Tania Tiororro of Special Needs Jungle recommends. She also writes:
‘DELAY further plans for improvement, DITCH the Green Paper in its current form and PUBLISH a straight analysis of the consultation as soon as possible
And perhaps most importantly, we need someone bold and brave who is willing to make real change and for once, put this group of children and young people and their needs first.
by Ali Durban, Gesher Co-Founder
Gesher School started life almost 10 years ago. An idea driven by a difficult lived experience of the education system for our own children and a vision and desire to create something better for many other children. The first couple of years were intense. Sarah, my co-founder, and I met in a school playground, at the time we had children in the same class at the school. We both had full time jobs, young families and, although we were educated, neither of us had a background in education.
It was an ambitious project.
And so, we educated ourselves, researching data, visiting schools across the UK and understanding the daily struggles of the unmet needs of what we discovered to be thousands of children and young people with mild to moderate learning differences.
We knew there was a desperate need for change, something transformative. We began a dialogue with our local Jewish community in North London, and advocated that, with the right start in life, this marginalised group of children and young people, who were typically under-served and failed by the current education system, could have different outcomes in life.
We surrounded ourselves with experts and poured the very best of our shared knowledge into our collective vision. However, translating an idea into a reality needs more than passion, purpose, and knowledge, it needs funding.
So, at the same time we learnt to fundraise and to share our vision with people who cared about this group of children and their outcomes in life as deeply as we did. They too believed that real change was possible. We call them Gesher Champions and together we raised £2m to kickstart Gesher.
In 2017, Gesher opened as a primary special school in Cricklewood with seven children who were differently able and who had learning differences. Seven families who had taken that leap of faith with us. These children were going to have a different educational experience. The feeling on the first day of seeing those children was immense. A year later OfSTED visited and judged Gesher to be Outstanding in all Areas and, as the inspector shared his views, we all cried tears of joy.
The school continued to develop and grow until eventually our site was full, with waiting lists and our primary children who were graduating had no specialist secondary schools to progress onto. Then the pandemic hit, and amidst the challenges of supporting our children and families we were desperately looking for premises to expand and once again the funds to support our growth.
The universe tilted in our direction and in 2020, Gesher relocated to Pinner and opened as an all-through school, at full capacity it will be a school for 120 students aged 5 to 16. To date we have raised over £5m with our Gesher Champions to support this second phase of growth. Our vision remains the same, to build upon the success of the primary school and deliver an exceptional learning environment for children and young people who are differently able.
We have been working hard over the last two years to create a new evidence-based model of teaching and learning for students with SEN that is academically rigorous with the long-term ambition of sharing our practice with other schools and learning communities. Joining the dots and creating system change from the ground upwards.
This September, Ofsted visited a second time and, under the new inspection framework judged Gesher to be Outstanding in all Areas again. Given that we were expecting a ‘Good’ under the new framework, once again we were floored and in tears. In particular, the inspectors noted:
Pupils receive an exceptional quality of provision. Leaders have designed an ambitious curriculum which is taught by the school’s expert staff.
Together, the curriculum and therapies encourage pupils’ independent living skills and emotional well-being very successfully.
Therapists, teachers and teaching assistants work together seamlessly as one team. They truly understand how to meet pupils’ varied special educational needs. While staff are nurturing, they also have high expectations of all pupils. As a result, pupils work hard and learn well.
We are all immensely proud of this.
Gesher is a learning community filled with agency, purpose and passion which puts children and young people at the heart of school life and this achievement is more than an endorsement.
This is a signal of hope for thousands of differently-abled children and young people and perhaps most importantly – an offering of what is possible in education.
-ends-
