Moss Teaches

Viewing: January, 2018

Jan 25

January 25, 2018

Number the Stars – Day 4

Good afternoon! Tomorrow is the last day that Sara from the Hartford Stage will be with fourth grade classes teaching lessons about Number the Stars, and I wanted to give you an update on how those activities have been going. She has been doing a wonderful job helping the kids to understand what takes place in Number the Stars. Her activities focus much more on the events in the book than they do on specific details about the Holocaust in general, which helps to keep the activities appropriate for kids.

Monday’s lesson focused primarily on dramatic terms and activities to help the kids to get prepared for the rest of the week. On Tuesday, students learned more about the character of Ellen Rosen, a young Jewish girl living in Copenhagen, whose life has changed because of the Nazi presence. The kids learned a bit about what was happening during the Holocaust, and particularly how it affected Ellen’s relationship with her non-Jewish friend, Annemarie. These programs tend to progress through key parts of the book, so Wednesday’s activity focused on a section that took place later on in the novel, where Ellen’s family learned that they must leave in order to avoid being captured by the Nazi soldiers. The kids learned that Annemarie’s family willingly accepted Ellen to stay with them, in hopes of protecting her, while Ellen’s parents sought protection in some other way (that we don’t yet know about). As they had in previous days, the kids participated in some dramatic activities to act out some of the conversations and situations that the young girls found themselves in.

Today’s activities were the most dramatic and revealing. This morning, the kids were invited to role-play what it would be like for them, playing the role of Ellen’s parents, to say goodbye to their daughter who was staying with another family for her own protection. This was a very dramatic activity for the kids, as they had to explain to Sara, who was playing the role of Ellen, their daughter, why they could not stay with her, and why it was not safe for her to come with them. They did a wonderful job thinking about what the parents would actually say to their daughter in that situation, and they showed their understanding of what they had been taught on previous days.

The final activity from today, however, was the most emotional, and, I think, eye-opening for the kids. By moving desks and chairs, our class was transformed into a train traveling out of Denmark. A Nazi soldier, again played by Sara (the theater educator), boarded the train and began to interview the passengers (the kids in our class). The kids were all assigned different roles, such as being a member of a Jewish family, being a member of a group of non-Jewish colleagues who were traveling for business, and other various roles. As they were questioned by the Nazi soldier, the kids did a very impressive job sticking to their characters as they tried to prove that they should not be targets of the soldier’s investigations. As really happened in history, the soldier identified many people, Jews and non-Jews, that she thought needed to be taken off the train. Passengers (the kids) were forced to quickly think on their feet and to come up with explanations to try and save themselves and their companions. This sparked a rich discussion later on as we discussed what the kids were thinking about during the activity.

There is no doubting that this is a very realistic activity. One of the challenges in teaching kids about the Holocaust is helping kids to develop a frame of reference. Here, fortunately, the kids in our class do not generally have any basis for understanding the concepts of hatred and Anti-Semitism. We work very hard to give the kids an understanding of what happened, and an ability to relate to the experiences of people who lived during that time, while not putting the kids under undue stress.  To reiterate a point from an earlier post, however, we discuss the feelings and challenges that people faced during this time, without delving into the more graphic parts of the Holocaust.  If you’re feeling worried about this unit, please understand that the alarming concepts that you’re probably imagining in your head (which I won’t list here in case students are reading this) are most likely not being discussed or even mentioned in class.

Following these activities, the kids and I always have follow-up conversations, and I encourage kids to share their feelings and their concerns. I always reassure the students that these are events that happened long ago, and that they are safe here in their homes, in Connecticut. When the kids share how sad it is to learn about this, I remind them about the importance of learning about these historical events, among other reasons, so that we can make absolutely sure that nothing like this ever happens again.  We had a wonderful conversation about the challenges that people in Europe (Jews and non-Jews) faced in the 1930’s and 1940’s, and I was really impressed by the kids’ mature contributions to the discussion.

Some of the kids may  come home and start discussions about these activities. I encourage you to continue to have these discussions with your children, as I try to avoid going into some of the more graphic details with kids. (How far you take the conversation is, of course, a family decision.)  Students are explicitly asked to avoid discussing these topics during lunch and recess so that they can benefit from having an adult to facilitate the conversations.

If your son and daughter seems concerned or stressed by what they’ve learned, I encourage you to remind them, first and foremost, that their feelings are understandable and valid! I never tell kids “not to be upset” because the material we are learning about is, in fact, unpleasant. It’s understandable for kids to feel upset and saddened by the events, but if they are afraid, I remind them that these are events from long ago, and that they are safe in their own communities. I also remind them that the police in their community are very different from the Nazi soldiers who patrolled the streets in Copenhagen, and that the police officers in their community are trustworthy, safe people who really are there to help and protect them.

Tomorrow will be the last day of the role playing activities. They will learn about some of the later events in the text, and at the end, the students will receive copies of the novel, which we will read in school together. This week’s activities will serve as a framework for when we read the novel together.  I ask that you continue to discourage your kids from reading or learning about the book until we read it in class together.

Please continue to be in touch with me if you have any questions as we continue this important unit.

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Jan 24

January 24, 2018

Number the Stars (Day 2)

Yesterday, Sara from The Hartford Stage came for our second day of learning about Number the Stars.  The kids began by pantomiming several scenes, such as acting in a school play, blowing out the candles on a birthday cake, etc.  The kids really enjoyed figuring out how to act out those scenes, especially since these moments were so familiar to them. Following these tableaux, Sara led the students in a safe discussion about what was happening in and around Copenhagen (the setting of the story) in the 1930s.  She introduced the concept of the Holocaust, and I was surprised by how much many students already knew.  She explained that Hilter looked for someone to blame for the problems happening in Germany and that the Jews were made into scapegoats.  She shared that, eventually, many of the Jews were rounded up and sent to camps where many worked and many perished.  The kids took this topic seriously, and I admire their maturity during the discussion.  I should say that there are times when students have additional prior knowledge and may start to share more sensitive information than what we’d normally choose to include.  Sara and I both redirect the conversation when this happens, and we remind kids that some things are best discussed with families at home.  This hasn’t happened yet this week.  In the event that something particularly sensitive is shared by a student in front of the whole class, I’ll, of course, give you a heads-up so you can be prepared for questions at home.

Toward the end of the activity, students thought about what sounds they’d hear in a war zone.  Ideas included explosions, gun shots, car engines roaring, people shouting, etc.  Students made a “sound circle” where they created a cacophony of the sounds they’d expect to hear during a time of war.  Finally, one group of four students recreated the previous tableaux of those familiar moments, but this time, with the “soundtrack” of the sound circle.  This helped the kids to imagine how so many of these familiar moments would be different during wartime.  Kids shared how they’d feel if they had to live during these situations, and their comments were deep.  As I said in a previous message, these students don’t have much understanding of ideas like war, persecution, or hatred, and activities like these help them to understand these concepts a bit better.

Following these activities, I always remind students of a few things:  (1) They are completely safe.  We’re studying events from our world’s history, and by learning about them, we can work to ensure that they never happen again.  But they are absolutely safe in their homes, school, and community.  (2) These topics should be discussed when there’s an adult there to facilitate the conversation.  So this isn’t appropriate conversation for the lunchroom, playground, bus, etc.  (3) There are some things that might be upsetting or alarming.  Kids can always come to me if they’re feeling worried or anxious, and they can talk to their grownups at home as well.

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Jan 19

January 19, 2018

Diversity and Civil Rights – Part 2

Pictured: Martin Luther King (2nd from left) and Abraham Joshua Heschel (right)

Yesterday, we finished reading As Good As Anybody.  You may remember that the first half of the book introduced us to Martin Luther King, Jr., starting from when he was a young boy.  The second half of the book taught us about Abraham Joshua Heschel, a Jewish man who fought for the rights of Jews who were being persecuted, much as Dr. King did for African Americans.  The two men teamed up and worked together to accomplish their shared goal of earning equal civil rights and fair treatment for ALL.

While the kids were, of course, familiar with Dr. King, Abraham Joshua Heschel was a new name to them.  The book hints at how Jews were treated unjustly in Europe during World War II, and it lets us add to our previous understanding of discrimination by race or gender by understanding the idea of discrimination by religion.  This transitions beautifully to an activity we’re starting on Monday.

On Monday, fourth graders at PGS will start a unit of study about a wonderful novel.  Throughout the week, theater educators from the Hartford Stage will join our class to teach the kids about the novel Number the Stars, which tells the story of a fictional family in Denmark that helps to hide a Jewish family that tries to escape from the Nazis during the Holocaust.  Following the Hartford Stage residency, we will begin reading this novel as a class.
This will be an advanced unit that covers mature content matter.  Fourth graders at PGS have had this unit for many years, and I’m always impressed by how maturely students are able to participate in the lessons.
When we teach this unit, our focus is more on characters and situations in the novel, with general background information provided to students.  We do NOT discuss any of the graphic or gory details, and we always work very hard to make the unit “kid-friendly” and age-appropriate for fourth graders.  We focus more on challenges that characters faced and understanding the feelings they had, rather than the facts of what took place during the time period (although some general ideas are introduced during the unit).  Think of it as a book that takes place during the Holocaust, not a book about the Holocaust itself.
As the unit progresses, I will be in contact with you to keep you informed about class discussions and content so that you can be prepared for follow-up discussions at home.  And as always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me.

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Jan 16

January 16, 2018

Diversity and Civil Rights (Part 1)

Martin Luther King Day is such an important day in our country, and in our class, it kicks off our informal unit about Civil Rights.  Last week, we read the first half of a wonderful book called As Good As Anybody.  This book tells the story of Martin Luther King Jr., starting from his life as a young boy.  It gave us a wonderful opportunity to talk about the concepts of discrimination, segregation, separate-but-equal (and the inherent flaw in that idea) and more.  I’m always glad to see how confused kids are by this – The idea of treating someone unkindly because of their skin color was totally alien to the kids, and they couldn’t fathom how someone would do this to another person.  To better illustrate this, we discuss the idea of gender-based discrimination: Are boys better at math than girls?  A lot of people think so, so what happens when a male and female are applying for a job at an architectural firm? We discussed how some people might make an unfair decision, and we extended this to form a concept about racial discrimination.  Helping kids to build a frame of reference better enables them to understand these ideas.  This will launch us into our continuing study of diversity and civil rights.  Later this week, we’ll read the second half of this book.  Stay tuned for the second half of this message, coming in the coming days.

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Jan 7

January 7, 2018

Supporting Students’ Choices

Hello, families!  One of my focuses this year has been helping students to make the best possible choices in class.  As a group, we’ve been working to curtail side conversations, increase direction following, and improve the amount of respect in the classroom.  In early December, I launched some new approaches, and I’m so happy to say that these have been very helpful in making our classroom a more focused, kind, and positive space for learning.  These new approaches include three parts:

Our Goals

Like every other class at PGS, we have a social contract that outlines how students and teachers want to be treated by one other.  While it has many important qualities included in it, I found that it lacked the specificity needed to give us precise goals.  For example, the idea of respect was included in our social contract, but it didn’t outline what respect is, what it looks like, how it makes us feel, etc.  So, through some discussions with students, I developed a new set of goals for our class.  Before you look at it, let me warn you:  It looks like a lot.  But in fact, it’s not as complicated as it seems.
Our new class goals, pictured left, focus on three different areas of our social contract that we (as a group) felt were challenges: respect, focus, and in-control.  Using those areas as starting points, we discussed what those qualities looked like and felt like.  For “How are our behaviors making others feel?” we use a rating scale that has been very helpful to us throughout the year.  Rather than rating the behaviors themselves, this scale focuses on how others feel about our behaviors.  Students are VERY familiar with this and can quickly identify whether a behavior is desirable (leading to a 1 or 2 feeling in others) or undesirable (resulting in a 3, 4, or 5 feeling in others).  This rating scale came from the game “Should I or Shouldn’t It?”, by Social Thinking, which poses social situations that students must respond to.  Some are black and white, like feeling hungry, and taking a snack off a friend’s desk. (A 4 or 5 for sure!) But others are quite a bit more gray, like hearing the doorbell ring and opening the door on your own because your mom didn’t hear it in the other room.  (Is it a 1 or 2 because you helped your mom by answering the door?  Is it a 5 because you aren’t allowed to open the door?  Somewhere in between?)

The second goal focuses on whole body listening.  While that may sound silly to you, it’s helpful in showing students exactly what’s expected of them.  (We have a dandy poster in class that lists these qualities in a more visually clear, approachable manner.)  Finally, the third goal focuses on following directions, which should be self-explanatory.

So while you may look at these goals and find yourself taken aback by all the wording, please understand that these ideas are very familiar to students, and they typically don’t NEED to review the detailed language.  Unified arts teachers have reported to me that their times with our class have also improved since we started using these goals. (They all have their own copies to use with our students.)

At the end of an activity, we reflect on how the activity went.  We discuss the choices students made (as a group) and how everyone felt based on the behaviors of those around them.  (Again, this may sound a bit cheesy, but it’s working!)  If we agree that the class fell into the green zone for all three questions, the class earns a point.

Points

Small goals help students to see the success of their choices on a more consistent basis.  When we started this, we identified the number of opportunities students have on a given day to earn points, and we estimated that the class can potentially earn as many as eight or nine points on a given day.  So, to start, we set a goal of 25 points for earning a pajama day!  Little did I know how quickly we’d reach our goal, and the kids earned their points right near our school-organized pajama day fundraiser for CCMC.  So we switched to popsicles.  (I confess, I’ve been dragging my heels on this.  It took me a few days to get the popsicles, and then after being out for a death in the family, vacation, and the snow days, we haven’t yet gotten to enjoy the treats.  This week for sure!)  Now, students are working to earn 50 points for a movie opportunity!  The speed at which the class earns points has slowed a bit as the novelty has worn off (and that’s entirely typical), but we’re getting there!

Blurt Blocks

Our class is a community, and in that spirit, I like to focus on class successes.  That’s why the group earns points for overall success.  But I recognize that it’s important for students to be individually accountable as well.  I continue to offer chance tickets to students who are making admirable choices in class, but I added in something new to support students when they’re not making appropriate choices:  Blurt Blocks.  If a student isn’t acting appropriately in class, I give him or her a Blurt Block.  They’re little plastic blocks, and if a student receives a Blurt Block, they have to hold them in their hand (or keep them close by, if they need their hands for a learning activity).  These aren’t intended to be an embarrassment for students.  Rather, they serve as a tangible reminder that the student needs to change his or her behavior.  If a student receives two Blurt Blocks during a single activity, he or she completed a letter home to his/her parent(s) about what happened and what needs to improve.  That letter must be signed and returned to school the next day. At the end of an activity, when we look at whether we met our goals, students return any Blurt Blocks they received and start fresh for the next activity.

Overall, these three new approaches have been very helpful in improving our class environment.  The overall mood in the classroom is more peaceful and focused, and we’ve been much more productive in recent weeks.

If you have any questions about our new approaches, please feel free to contact me.

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