Aliyya Swaby Photo
As other students read through their own worksheets, Natenen Conde sprang from her seat and rushed up to her principal with a declaration: “I finished everything.”
On her own, she had finished four humanities and science lessons throughout the day’s block of “self-directed learning,” part of a quest by the charter organization Achievement First (AF) to create a model, dubbed “Greenfield,” for the future of its schools.
That model is the basis for a controversial proposed school called Elm City Imagine, suggested as the first financial partnership between the New Haven Board of Education and AF on a charter school. (The Board of Education will discuss the proposal at earliest Feb. 9., according to schools Superintendent Garth Harries, and will vote at a later date.)
AF has enlisted the help of the inventor of the computer mouse to design that school of the future.
While preparing to launch the new K‑1 Imagine school, AF has been testing out the underlying concepts for the past three weeks with fifth-graders at its Elm City College Prep Middle School on Dixwell Avenue in Newhallville. Next year’s fifth graders will also learn under the Greenfield model, as part of a separate AF effort to create a Greenfield middle school.
The Greenfield model encompasses a variety of experimental teaching and learning methods, many of which AF staff incorporated after seeing them work at existing schools, said AF CEO Dacia Toll. At a recent parent informational session, Toll and Elm City Imagine principal Katherine Baker unveiled details on those methods, which include an extended school year with a calendar alternating eight weeks of regular classes with two weeks of career “expeditions”; longer school days with staggered teacher schedules; long blocks of “self-directed learning” time; and small-group reading, writing and math.
The three-week fifth-grade mini-“Greenfield” at Elm City Prep Middle tested out small group reading, small group writing and self-directed learning. (Because of the snow days early in the week, the pilot ended Thursday with fewer days than expected.)
At Their Own Pace
Robert Hawke will be the principal of the middle-school pilot, which starts next year with just fifth grade and is set to expand every year through eighth. Now an AF principal-in-residence, he has worked as an academic dean coaching math, humanities and science teachers for the last two and a half years.
Conversations with teachers, AF alumni and parents showed demand for “kids to be more independent,” Hawke said. For the past three weeks, students in the pilot have had an hour and 45 minutes total every day to go through a set of tasks at their own pace. With the help of instructors, they complete programs in various subjects on their Google Chromebook computers and take notes on correlating sheets.
If a student wants to spend that time accelerating his or her science studies, he or she can do that, “but don’t neglect the humanities,” he said. Every morning, kids check in with advisers who would help them to correct that educational imbalance.
After Conde “finished everything” in humanities and science, Hawke encouraged her to move onto learning vocabulary. She pulled out a packet of worksheets and got to writing. “The words are kind of easy,” she confided and listed a few: distract, obstacle, concept.
All 60 students in the school’s fifth grade participated in the pilot program, split into two cohorts supported by a team of seven total teachers — four of whom were also teaching sixth grade using the traditional AF model. “It’s a lot of work for them,” which is why the pilot was no longer than three weeks, he said.
AF has tweaked the Greenfield model slightly after hearing feedback from parents, teachers and students, Hawke said.
“We’re trying to build the school we want for our kids,” he said. When parents told him that afternoon exercise made their children sleepy, they replaced it with recess, which is going over a lot better, he said. Ultimately, Greenfield kids will shuttle through a long school day, from 7:15 a.m. to 5 p.m. — an hour longer than the average day at an AF school. The three-week pilot did not extend the day that hour.
“Intimate” “Seminars”
Besides self-directed learning, AF staff was testing small-group reading and writing using the epic of Gilgamesh, adapted for grades five and up. Humanities teacher Danielle Charlemagne led two groups of six students back-to-back in the discussion of a short passage — in which the hero Gilgamesh unexpectedly turns down the beautiful goddess of Love.
The small groups are more “intimate,” like college seminars, Charlemagne said. As the instruction, she has a “tight locus of control” and can give everyone in-depth feedback on the quality of their writing assignments, instead of more superficial commentary. There are more “peer distractions” in a larger classroom, she said.
The groups are formed of students at different skill levels, so they can learn from each other’s strategies, Hawke said. They “can fly” during self-directed learning.
Charlemagne said she is “strategic about who [she’s] asking what,” playing to individual students’ strengths. In Thursday morning’s discussion, one student can make discussion points using basic terms of literature analysis, while others “think in a more abstract way” and may be able to add context. Others can add in “a literal take on the text,” and some can reiterate those points, showing they are at least engaged in the discussion, she said.
Two separate groups of six worked on Gilgamesh in a large classroom Thursday afternoon. After reading the chapter aloud, Charlemagne asked the six kids around her table to throw out one word describing Gilgamesh at the beginning of the story: “Cruel,” “Desperate,” “…Cruel,” “Brave,” “Angry,” “Selfish.” She alternated between questions that were analytical — how does the author characterize Gilgamesh? — and ones that were more literal — Where did he defeat the monster Humbaba?
Charlemagne chose one student to read the third paragraph aloud. A minute later, the same passage was echoed by a child at the table across the room. And the process of “Imagin”-ing the school of the future proceeded.
For previous coverage:
• Teachers Union Prez Pens “Imagine” Critique
•Charter Plans Detailed; Parents Weigh In
•Elm City Imagine Sparks Debate
•NHPS, AF Team Up On Experimental School
•Elm City Charter Eyed For Futuristic “Conversion”