Page 50 - Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students 4th Edition

22 Powerful Social Studies for Elementary Students
overarching goals to be achieved, the planned field trips and visits by resource people, and so on. It also has communicated high expectations for all learners. Most importantly, it has addressed the “hidden” curriculum—Mrs. Paul’s expectations concerning the overall class- room climate and students’ orientations toward learning, their teacher, and one another. Celebrating differences, fairness, rights and responsibilities, caring, and sharing, it offers a vision that her new students will find compelling and curious. They think Room 104 sounds special but they wonder, “Will we really play a role in making all of that happen?”
Anxiety, optimism, and uncertainty are written on the students’ faces as they come to Room 104 on the first day of school. Unlike in previous years, this day greets students with a welcome doormat, soft music, a partially decorated room that includes a special bulletin board depicting the personal history of the teacher, and other trappings that reflect the communal voice that is about to be introduced and allowed to grow.
Introductions and organizational matters are soon followed by reference to the learn- ing community that was promised in the letter. Mrs. Paul begins with a description, accompanied by visuals, of her ideal learning community. She is quick to say that this is her “sketch,” her “vision,” and that she wants to hear about the children’s. A lengthy conversation ensues. References are made to real communities, to gardens, and to other natural places where there are plans for building something special with common goals, hopes, and dreams and where diversity is appreciated. The teacher’s storyline is inspir- ing, authentic, and presented with direction and purpose, yet it contains room for allow- ances that children would view as important and engaging.
Mrs. Paul goes on to explain herself as the teacher who receives a paycheck for assuming the role of head educator who orchestrates learning opportunities for all students. She makes no apologies for being the designated leader in charge, but she likens her role to that of the president of the United States, who needs a lot of help to be an effective leader of our country. She explains that a teacher needs cooperation and assistance from everyone in the class in order to promote democratic life in the classroom.
The president has a cabinet, and Mrs. Paul plans to have one too. Health, education, welfare, and social are among the communal functions that she draws upon for organi- zation, attachment, and action. Initially she assigns a committee chair and appoints members to each area. Over the next two or three weeks, the committees will engage in dialogue about their roles, rights, responsibilities, how they will function, and how they will monitor their performance. Individual committee meetings coupled with large-group discussions are the secret to effective planning and well-executed efforts. Individual com- mittee role and function descriptions, student rights and responsibilities, expectations, and so on are developed and posted around the room to ensure effective communication and encourage life applications.
During the course of Mrs. Paul’s storyline about learning community and cabinet member efforts from the past year, she shares that the welfare committee wanted to sup- port students with special needs. Consequently, they decided to offer lunch money on an emergency basis for students who had no lunch—either because they forgot to bring one or lacked the resources to purchase one. This group felt that these students should “work off” their loans, so the welfare committee found school building tasks that the students could get paid to do in order to reimburse the committee. This committee held fundrai- sers (e.g., used book sales, popcorn and bake sales) to generate resources. Last year’s wel- fare committee also created a supply trunk with hats, shoe laces, mittens, and other clothing, collected during a donation drive for the purpose of applying “good citizen” actions toward peers. [Note: We believe that elementary teachers should be willing to address socioeconomic and other family circumstance differences that impact their
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