Page 36 - Quintile_37 web

36 • • • Issue 37 • QSI Quintile

TUrKmeniSTAn

Ashgabat International School

movie making— either a digit, the number shown on a ten frame, Student led Success
turkmenistan Style only or the number being represented by base-10 blocks. Orientation Assemblies
By Scott Adamski, 13-Year-Old Class Teacher The students then had to run around the field to
match their card with the appropriate number. The For more than two decades, QSI has been
My 13-year-old literature students were variety of formats of the cards allowed the teachers emphasizing the importance of personal traits,
assigned a short story, and needed to create their to easily differentiate the activity for each student. which are as important as academic success in
own movie to show their understanding of various Students also engaged in social problem-solving, school—or even more so. Ashgabat International
elements and parts of a short story. Well, did they and the “concern for others” success orientation, School has made the Success Orientations (SOs) an
ever! The stories were: The Telltale Heart; Out of because many of them chose to help their friends if integral part of daily instruction and dealings with
Bounds; and, The Lady, or the Tiger. they were having trouble finding the number they students. Students are expected to demonstrate
were looking for. these traits when they interact with their peers and
They wrote the scripts, and each had a character adults. The SOs are so important that Responsibility,
to play. They really liked being in charge and Learning opportunities such as these provide Trustworthiness, Concern for Others, Group
making their own movie. It was a real pleasure to students with unique and creative ways to approach Interaction, Kindness and Politeness, Independent
watch their movies in class together. The students the desired content material. No matter child’s Endeavor, and Aesthetic Appreciation are evaluated
were already asking, “When can we make another preferred learning style, using hands-on methods at the end of each Quintile and reported on the
movie?” Middle school students really enjoy a allows everyone to be successful while having students’ Status Reports.
variety of assessments, and these kinds of learning fun. The opportunities for teachers to incorporate
experiences are unforgettable! hands-on learning are endless and are limited only Over the years, teachers have been creative in
by our imagination! coming up with ideas on how to teach SOs, and
ways to present the song, the skit, the poster, etc. to
a larger audience. When asked to present one of the
Hands-on learning SOs during an assembly, consider that students are
By Shannon Raybold, 5-Year-Old Class Teacher learning through music in charge of the presentation. Have students come
By Kay Hitchcock, 9-Year-Old Class Teacher up with ideas for the script, making props, assign
Early childhood teachers know a secret that duties, etc. By having students in charge, it becomes
teachers at all levels should know. Children learn Music is fundamental to being human. an actual practical implementation of all success
quickly and deeply when play is involved. When Brains are wired for music, and every culture has orientations in preparation for the assembly.
children, especially at the elementary level, are developed its own form of music. Consequently,
able to engage actively in their learning using all of this ‘innateness’ makes music an enjoyable activity, So, are the teachers completely out of the
their senses. It activates prior knowledge, deepens and anything enjoyable facilitates learning. picture? Maybe, they wish, but . . . no, they are still
their existing schemas, and engages them fully to very involved with the entire process of getting
maximize learning outcomes. Learning through When learning new things, information goes ready for the big day. Teachers help in many
hands-on activities and play can bridge the gap for into the brain into a kind of ‘filing’ system, but different ways to make assemblies worthwhile
students who are learning new languages. Students the trouble is remembering or retrieving that and enjoyable. They provide clear direction, and
also work on developing social problem-solving skills information. The more pathways we have to get to all adults throughout the school—administrators,
and success orientations in meaningful contexts. that ‘file’ the better chance we have of remembering. teachers, and other staff, must work together.
Trying to remember information in isolation is a They work to develop a seating chart, set content
difficult and painful way to learn, whereas putting guidelines, create a calendar and designate a time
information into meaningful contexts, and linking slot, organize arrival and dismissal, decide which
to existing information already in our brains, behaviors to model during assemblies, think about
provides more pathways for remembering. Music audio–visual or other technical needs—just to
provides yet another pathway, and songs once name a few.
learned are not easily forgotten.
It is highly recommended that parents and the
Have you ever started to sing a song you haven’t school community are aware of these assemblies,
heard for ages and the words just come tumbling out so that parents can come and see their children
and you didn’t even realize you’d remembered those on stage. It is amazing to see Intensive English
words? They are still stored in your ‘file,’ and the students bring their parents almost to tears, when
music was a path your brain used to access the file. they demonstrate their growth in attaining another
language, making new friends, and settling down
in a new school community.

At Ashgabat International School, in the 5-year- Give it a try . . . you might be surprised.
olds classes the teachers work hard to ensure that
learning through play is incorporated throughout
the day. For example, we recently spent a week
doing “apple science,” in which we worked on using
scientific methods to predict, observe, and record
our observations of various apple experiments. We
measured, weighed, tasted, and dissected our apples.
For one activity, we read the book 10 Apples Up on
Top! and made predictions about how many apples
we could stack. Our 5-year-olds did an amazing job,
working together and coming up with very creative
solutions when the apples wouldn’t stack very high— In my class we sing songs every day. Some of
including ideas such as slicing them in half, cutting them are topic specific (there are lots on the internet
off the stems, and using the sticky insides to “glue” the to use) to reinforce our learning, and some are just
next apple on top. Our students were incorporating fun songs that we enjoy singing.
many learning domains—such as math, physics,
social problem-solving, and language/vocabulary Here are some comments about learning
skills, yet to them, it was just fun to see how many through music from the 9-Year-Old Class.
apples we could stack on top of each other. And “fun things are easy to remember and singing is
the best part is that when we were done, we made fun”—Jinseok
apple sauce together! This was another activity that “It’s easy for me to remember songs”—Noah
included mathematics, writing, reading, and science “all kids like to sing”—Dani
learning objectives. “Singing makes you a little bit happy”—Wasif
“When you sing a song and you like it, you won’t
When educating young children, it is important forget it”—Melike
to provide opportunities for physical activity within “We sing and sing and sing and then we learn the
academic time. Students learn more quickly, and song”—Mammet
retain information better, when it is stored using Mammet’s comment reminds us of the
multiple pathways to the brain. For one of our importance of repetition in learning—and what
mathematics activities, we planted numbers all over better way to repeat ideas and information than to
the field. The students were then given cards with sing!