‘Two Rivers University Series’ Part 2: Parents as Learners

By: Elaine Hou

In continuing the ‘Two Rivers University’ Series, this piece explores parents as active learners in a school environment like Two Rivers. Parents actively engage in learning rhythms through participating in back-to-school nights, family conferences, parent education workshops, celebrating learning at our end-of-semester expedition showcases, as well as engaging in informal learning conversations with teachers and fellow parents. Through both the culture and structures we have, parents, like teachers, have opportunities to learn and grow so that they can better partner with the school to help their children thrive toward our mission of life-long learning.

Why is parent learning so important?

In Learning By Heart, Eric Hoffer’s quote emphasizes the importance of life-long learning:"In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists." The world that parents experienced school in is very different than the one in which their children are currently learning to navigate.

At the heart of this change is a dilemma that parents find themselves in as they support their children’s success in school: The definitions and measurements for success in the 20th century, which is the familiar educational world parents know, have unfortunately not caught up to the outcomes that are necessary to measure and cultivate in the 21st century. As students, many parents grew up with rigor that was defined and measured by the teaching of basic skills, practice with using formulas, and broad coverage of content assessed by standardized testing. Many of us associate rigor with the hefty textbooks of our childhoods, full of dense text and practice problems, coupled by hours of studying to replicate success on the same types of problems taught in class. Project-based learning, problem-based task teaching, and creative problem-solving was considered more of an enrichment, rather than what rigor needed to be for every student. However, in the 21st century, what was an enriching add-on for those considered advanced is now an urgent redefinition of rigor for all, in which every student must not only build a set of basic skills and knowledge but also be able to flexibly use their skills to solve increasingly complex problems. Memorizing long strings of facts, regurgitating content in the same types of assessments or contexts, and learning in homogeneous, tracked systems-the hallmarks of 20th century school success-are not enough for our students anymore to compete for rich and varied options in a globally connected 21st century.

Parents who are learners are willing to seek out knowledge, resources, and experiences to adapt to this evolving definition of rigor. They are open to engaging with models of rigor that characterize the great schools that the 21st century world demands-ones like Two Rivers in which depth over breadth is valued. Parents who are learners value collaboration with diverse individuals in settings and experiences that mirror our increasingly diverse, integrated world.

How do parents learn at Two Rivers?

Back-to-School Night and Conferences

At Two Rivers, every classroom hosts a Back-to-School Night at the end of the first month of school. At this event, families have an opportunity to both actively participate in and learn about their children’s classroom community, goals for the year, structures for learning, and on-going ways to communicate and partner with the school. Parents experience a day in the life of their child, as well as explore the full scope of what is to come for their child in that new grade level. Throughout the rest of the year, parents refer back to this night as an anchor and lens for understanding future learning experiences, having experienced a slice of the world their child engages in every day.

Following Back-to-School Night in September, parents participate in three important parent-teacher conferences throughout the year. The first conference in November is the critical beginning conversation about how their child is acclimating to the classroom environment, participating in learning expectations, and what strengths, affinities, and learning needs have emerged for the student. The parent learns the full “data story” for their child, in which teachers share the multiple snapshots that Two Rivers provides about every student in the core content areas of math, literacy, science and social studies inquiry in expeditions, and social-emotional development. Parents learn not only how students are developing in basic skills and knowledge in core areas, but also how students are cultivating the transferable skills of flexible problem-solving and healthy risk-taking to solve any type of problem. They also learn how students are specifically doing in relationship to their grade-level peers, and actively participate with teachers to create an action plan for progress in the next months before the January conference. It is also important to highlight that the first November conference builds the foundation for a positive parent-teacher relationship, which will foster on-going communication and partnership throughout the rest of the year. The next two conferences in January and June are both timed intentionally to provide important follow-up to action plans created, evaluate what progress the student has made in all core areas, and have crucial dialogue about the student’s readiness for the next grade level. In these conferences, parents and teachers learn from one another how to best support the child’s learning and development. This learning ensures that no matter where the child is at the beginning of the year, there is intentional dialogue and partnership throughout the year to support the growth of every child.

Parent Education Nights

At Two Rivers, parent education provides an important means to achieving the mission for every student at Two Rivers. We know that our parents are our students’ first teachers. Our parent education nights are intended to educate and empower parents, inviting them into essential partnership for every child’s life-long learning.

Every year, Two Rivers hosts four parent education nights around the following core areas: Expeditionary learning, culture and Responsive Classroom, math, and literacy. This year, our Expeditionary learning night focused on the model of rigor we provide for every student through our expeditions and problem-based task teaching. On that night, parents had the opportunity to participate in a slice of a rigorous sixth grade expedition on the economics of food. Just like our middle school students, the parents investigated multiple perspectives of the problem of healthy eating in the face of environmental, economic, and personal factors. The parent night provided a window into the rich learning and complex problem-solving that our sixth graders engage in throughout the 12 weeks of their expedition. For our parents who attended this night, they walked away with a more complete understanding of the expeditionary learning model, as well as the outcomes we work for in our students that extend beyond factual knowledge into expert thinking and complex communication. Parent nights like Expeditionary Learning night also enable parents to begin asking more informed questions around their students’ learning, so they can better understand and partner with the school in reaching common, powerful outcomes for their children.

Following our parent night on Expeditionary learning, our parents participated in a culture parent education night in which they learned about parenting using the growth versus fixed mindset. This workshop gave parents the opportunity to dialogue with and learn from one another through a common framework of mindsets. Parents who participated in this night walked away with tools and new questions about using the language of descriptive feedback versus general praise, connecting the hopes and dreams they have for their child’s life-long success to what they can actively do here and now.

Coming up in the spring semester, families will have the opportunity to participate in our math festival night in January and literacy festival night in March. Unlike the Expeditionary learning and culture parent nights, parents can bring their children to math and literacy festival nights and are highly encouraged to engage in learning together! These two festival nights give families the opportunity to participate in fun, simple, and interactive learning experiences that foster mathematical inquiry and a love for reading and writing in both parent and child alike. There is more of a center approach and room for engaging in informal learning conversations with your child, with staff, and with other parents. At Math Night, parents also have an opportunity to try an array of exciting, mind-boggling ‘Mathemagical Wizardry’ problems with their children, learning how to approach open-ended problems that invite multiple, creative solution paths. In fact, through whole-school community meeting celebrations, parents get to participate in the ‘Mathemagical Wizadry’ experience every week beyond Math Festival Night. Through solving each problem as a family and turning in the solution together, parents learn how to love math, love tackling challenges, and model that love and perseverance for their children.

In each of our parent nights and our weekly math celebrations, there is always a thoughtfulness that characterizes the learning conversations we have as a parent community, reflecting the on-going learning that parents engage in about themselves, their children, the school’s mission, and their imperative role in helping their child achieve that mission.

Showcase Nights

There is an excited buzz in the air around mid-December and mid-May, when families attend showcase learning nights at Two Rivers. Showcases are culminating celebrations of learning, in which every class presents the story of their learning process and authentic learning products within expeditions. Parents have heard pieces of expeditionary learning throughout the semester, and have perhaps even participated in field studies related to the expedition. Showcase night is where all the pieces come together and parents learn the full picture of how students investigated and solved the problem-based task at the heart of their expeditions. Parents learn both the content and process of learning that students engaged in. This includes not only the fund of knowledge at the core of the science or social studies discipline, but also the big ideas and expert thinking involved in tackling the rich problem that drove the entire expedition adventure. Parents also experience first-hand how the arts are integrated into content learning through the dramatic and musical expedition performances. They see how our arts program gives students creative avenues to both learn and communicate their learning. Over the past seven years, Two Rivers is proud of a consistently high parent attendance rate for every showcase night. This strong representation of parents reflects the parent culture of commitment and excitement we have in celebrating student learning.

Through each of these school-wide experiences, parents are evolving learners as they work hard to support their children’s learning. As a learning community, families are committed to learning and using common language and experiences between home and school to support both academic and social-emotional success for our students. Moreover, Two Rivers strives to foster a culture of respect and trust in our parent community, in which parents have formal and informal opportunities to reflect on their personal journeys, find connections, and learn from the wonderfully diverse community we have. This powerful adult learning translates directly into expanding the possibilities of what our children can learn, achieve, and become.

Parents and Teachers as Learners: Closing Thoughts

What distinguishes a good school from a great school? It is one in which every adult member of the learning community works in service of the child, engaging in personal and collective learning so that children can become active learners and participants in their own education. Parents, teachers, and school leaders all participate in this learning so that our children can learn better and achieve fuller visions of themselves. At ‘Two Rivers University’, everyone is a student no matter how old you are or what role you play. The degree received is an ever-evolving one of life-long learner.

A New Vision for Proficiency: A Call for Expanded Outcomes for Education

by Jeff Heyck-Williams

Anyone who has had a conversation with me about education or has taken time to read any of my previous posts on this blog knows that I am passionate about what I have come to describe as expanded outcomes for education. This idea is at the heart of the mission of Two Rivers and of what we believe defines innovative education for the 21st century. My earlier writings on our mission, on the nature of curriculum, and about the types of tasks and experiences that we need to provide for our students are founded on this idea.

So what is this idea?

To explain, I’ll share my reactions to a report that I recently finished reading on the state of math education in the United States and recommendations for improvement. Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics is a report written by the Mathematics Learning Study Committee of the National Research Council published in 2001. As I read, I was struck that this report both reaffirmed my commitment to expanded outcomes and disheartened me as I considered how little has changed in the 10 years since this report was published. Both reactions are part of my own response to the state of education in the US and where we need to go. Together they illustrate what I mean by a new vision for proficiency as the outcomes for education.

Ironically the same year that the National Research Council published Adding It Up, Congress passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). I say ironically because as Adding It Up laid a firm rationale for an expanded vision for what it means to be mathematically proficient, Congress passed a well intentioned law that ultimately reinforced and calcified an existing reductionist view of the outcomes for math education. To be fair, NCLB does not dictate what it means to be mathematically proficient. It leaves that up to the states. However, NCLB did force states to create state standards in two areas, math and reading that raised these two subjects over all others in the curriculum. On their own initiative, states created standards and aligned assessments that too often reinforced a limited view of what it means to be mathematically proficient. Namely that most of what students needed to develop was rote procedural fluency in mathematics (i.e. quick arithmetic). Thus over the ten years since the publication of Adding It Up and the enactment of NCLB, we find ourselves nationally with possibly a more limited view of educational outcomes than when we started.

However, Adding It Up is a clarion call for a broader vision for what it means to be mathematically proficient. In the report, the authors argue that mathematical proficiency is defined by five interwoven strands. They include conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, strategic competence, adaptive reasoning, and a productive disposition. While proficiency does include the ability to solve standard computational problems efficiently, procedural fluency is encompassed in only one aspect of what it means to be proficient. Unfortunately most state assessments only test students procedural fluency in a multitude of strands of mathematics. However, students also need to be able to make sense of what they are doing when computing or solving a problem and demonstrate understanding of the underlying concepts. They need strategies for solving non-routine problems and an ability to reason effectively about both their methods and solutions. Finally the report argues that an equally important outcome is productive disposition. In other words, students need to love math or at very least see it as a useful worthwhile discipline in which to engage.

As Adding It Up addresses what it means to be well educated in mathematics, works like Frank Levy and Richard Murnane’s The New Division of Labor: How Computers are Creating the Next Job Market and Bernie Trilling and Charles Fadel’s 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times address what it means to be proficient more generally across disciplines. Two Rivers has taken the terms expert thinking and complex communication from Levy and Murnane’s work to describe what these expanded learning outcomes look like. However, regardless of the terms we use, the point is the same. To fully realize the potential for all of our students and to provide each of them with rich and varied options for their futures, we must see beyond providing proficiency on any single test. We must have a new vision of proficiency that encompasses the cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal skills of life-long learning. To do anything less is truly leaving our children behind.

Five Things Families Can Do To Support Their Children in Math

By: Jeff Heyck-Williams

Math can be one of the most challenging areas of school for children, and many parents don’t have an idea about where to begin to help their kids be successful within the discipline. A lot of websites, video games, and materials are produced that are designed to help kids develop procedural fluency with computation, but they sap the pleasure out of a subject that can be as fun as it is difficult. Helping our children be successful in math we need to recognize the full breadth and depth of mathematics learning. This means we need to take into account what kids understand about all of the domains of math, how they problem solve, their attitudes towards the subject, and of course their ability to calculate accurately as well. So what could this look like for a parent working and playing with their child at home. Here are five things that I share with parents that can have a huge positive impact on their child’s mathematical life.

1. Be Positive

Some of us had awesome experiences with school mathematics or despite our experience with school mathematics have come to love the subject anyway. Unfortunately that isn’t the norm. Most adults (parents and teachers included) are indifferent to mathematics at best if they don’t downright despise the subject. These attitudes have been passed down from generation to generation both through the way that we talk about math with friends and family as well as math programs in school that emphasize a lock-step algorithmic approach to mathematics. These programs place computational fluency above any other form of mathematical proficiency. Math is portrayed as a subject in which you must follow these exact steps and your answer is always right or wrong. There is little room for creativity or fun. Thus math becomes the required hoop to jump through and not a joyful end in and of itself. This is a distorted view of a vibrant exciting subject with a rich history.

For our children to reach their potential, we must break a cycle of negativity. If we truly are dedicated to providing rich and varied options for our children’s futures, we must give our students a positive disposition towards this amazing subject. This means never saying “I hate math” or “I don’t like math,” phrases which are unfortunately all too common. When applied to other core skills like reading and writing, these phrases would be considered taboo. For some reason they are expected in regards to math.

So even if math is not your favorite subject (and everyone has a least favorite subject), don’t make it out to be a distasteful requirement by the way you talk about it. There are plenty of nasty things to be negative about doing and that you want your children to think of in a negative light. However school subjects and math in particular shouldn’t be one of them.

2. Have High Expectations and Communicate Effort Matters

All students can develop a conceptual understanding of mathematics and solve complex problems using math. However, not all students learn in the same way or at the same rate. With this in mind, it is worth acknowledging that math can be difficult. However, it is this very nature that makes, mathematics so enjoyable. After all, consider the level of satisfaction one achieves when accomplishing a task that initially seems impossible.

Thus we need to expect our children to work difficult problems without giving them the answers or insisting on a single particular path to a solution. This means allowing them to use the mathematics that they do know to solve problems, and allowing them to make sense of the solution paths that we might show them. It also means we need to show them that we will support them and that they will be successful as they take classes that require high levels of mathematical proficiency. Ultimately, we expect them to take statistics and calculus whether in high school or college and that they will understand it.

Connecting this idea to the previous one, we shouldn’t ever tell our children “I can’t do math” or “I can’t do this or that problem.” Instead we should communicate to them honestly that a problem may be difficult and we might not find an answer immediately, however with effort, support, and persistence then we can succeed. Carol Dweck outlines the research that supports this point of view in her work Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. She argues that with effort and a growth mindset we can improve our performance. It is when we have a fixed mindset and are convinced that we won’t succeed that we don’t.

All of our children can learn to love mathematics, enrich their understanding of the world through a greater appreciation of the mathematical structures in everything around them, and can ultimately be successful in doing high-level mathematical work. Few of us as parents have all the tools to help our children reach their full mathematical potential. However, we have one of the most powerful tools available for setting them on the right path. That is we can help shape our children’s attitudes and beliefs about math. Help them to see it in a positive light and that with persistence, effort, and support they will reach the high expectations we set for them.

3. Recognize the Math Around You

Mathematics is all around us. We just need to stop to recognize it and point it out tour children. Whether it is having young children sort the laundry, or helping an older child create and maintain a budget, we are showing our children that there is mathematics all around them. From measuring for cooking to statistics in sports, mathematics permeates our lives.

Building off of my previous two recommendations seeing the mathematics around us, provides for students an opportunity to see the importance of understanding concepts that are formalized in their mathematics classrooms. It provides for them a motivation to understand this math and to use it to help explain the world around them.

4. Play with Math

Math is fun. To really believe this, we need to play with math. This can include tons of things you already do like building with blocks, stringing beads to make jewelry, completing jigsaw puzzles, or playing board games. It means looking for the math imbedded in each of these activities. Look for opportunities for counting, making patterns, sorting, and problem solving. All of these illustrate mathematical concepts that provide real world experience for how math is fun.

Another amazing way to play with math, is to work math puzzles or solve math riddles like the Mathemagical Wizardry Prize at Two Rivers. Each week I provide a problem for the whole school to work. A couple of features about these problems make them ideal for playing with math. First, questions typically have lots of different pathways to solutions and occasionally they have multiple solutions. This allows for a wide variety of children and adults to engage in the problems. In addition, it reinforces the conceptual understanding of the problem as it can be approached from multiple perspectives. Second, they are designed to allow for children to work on with their families, with their classmates, or alone. So they can become a regular tradition that allows everyone an opportunity to dig into the problems.

Regardless of how we approach it, we need to learn to find pleasure in math, and help our children enjoy it as well.

5. Support Math Homework through Engagement with Your Child and the Math

Last, but not least, I would be remiss if I didn’t make a recommendation about the one area of school mathematics that parents have some hand in: homework. The purpose of math homework at Two Rivers is twofold. First, homework is a mechanism for teaching children skills of independence. Specifically, homework teaches students responsibility for their work, perseverance when the work is challenging, and self-advocacy skills in the upper grades as they talk to their teachers about the level of difficulty of the work: whether it was too easy or too difficult. Secondly, we intend for math homework to provide an opportunity for students to reinforce procedural fluency. In other words, homework is a place to practice the foundational basic skills and knowledge of mathematics.

With all of that said, homework, does not communicate the whole of our curriculum. Students are not tackling the most challenging open-ended tasks that we give to them while in school through homework. More importantly, homework addresses two goals that are important for mathematical proficiency, namely independence and procedural fluency. However, as outlined the National Research Council’s 2001 report, Adding it Up, they recognize that proficiency is not defined solely by procedural fluency, but also by strategic competence, adaptive reasoning, conceptual understanding, and productive disposition as well. Goals that are not well suited for homework assignments. That is to say we believe that mathematics is more then developing efficient methods of computation, but also include understanding the mathematical structure behind problems, solving problems, reasoning effectively about problems, and having a positive outlook towards math in general. Keeping in mind that homework only addresses two of our larger goals for mathematical proficiency, there are several considerations that go into homework. The first one is around the level of difficulty. If the homework is very easy for your child, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It is an opportunity for them to practice independence. If it is too difficult for them, similarly you should encourage them to work the problems the best they can, and for your child talk to the teacher the next day to gain understanding.

Secondly, consider the amount of time homework takes. Homework shouldn’t be a battle that ruins an entire evening at home. We use the national PTA’s recommendations for the amount of time a child should spend on homework each night which amount to 10 minutes per grade level. So a 1st grader should have about 10 minutes of homework and a 6th grader should have about an hour of homework each night. For families where homework becomes a nightly fight to get done and it seems to stretch on forever, I recommend setting a timer for the number of minutes that is appropriate for the grade level, and then having the parent write a note at the top of the assignment saying the child took that amount of time to work on their homework to whatever degree of completion.

Finally, in considering homework, many parents worry that their children are working problems in ways that are totally unfamiliar to them. Many parents say to me that they don’t understand how their child is working a problem and thus don’t know how to help them. This simply reflects that children are learning different algorithms or steps to solving problems, and shouldn’t be viewed as a roadblock but as opportunity. When a child comes home with a solution method to a problem that you haven’t seen before, use this as a place to have a discussion. If you have a different solution method that you learned in school, use that method and see if you get the same answer as your child. You should. If you don’t, then there is probably something faulty with one of the methods. Regardless if you get the same or different answers, explore how your child is working the problem. Have them explain it to you. Explain your method to you. Find similarities and differences. All of this will build both you and your child’s understanding.

Regardless of how you engage in math homework with your child, there are a couple of key points to keep in mind. First, homework is intended to foster independence. So don’t do the homework for your child. They should be able to accomplish the homework on their own. If they can't complete it independently, this is an important piece of data for the teacher. Also, only engage in a conversation about the work if you have the time, energy, and a positive outlook on it. Otherwise you may both go away from the experience frustrated and it undermines the goals of the homework. Second, always communicate with the classroom teacher about homework. If you have questions about time. level of difficulty, or solution methods, he or she is the best person to answer those questions.

We have an amazing opportunity to broaden the opportunities for our children. Mathematics is a brilliant subject that can open doors for both you and your child. Supporting them with a positive attitude towards math, high expectations, pointing out the math around us, time to play with math, and supportive engagement around homework can make the difference.

For additional resources check out the family resources page at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics at: http://www.nctm.org/resources/families.aspx.

‘Two Rivers University’ Series: Teachers and Parents as Learners

By: Elaine Hou

Introduction

“Ms. Elaine, what do teachers do after we leave early on Wednesdays?” one of my students asked me curiously. It dawned on me then that students and parents at Two Rivers probably did not know what the teaching staff participated in every Wednesday when students were dismissed early. In response to this question, I simply shared: “Well, the teachers become the students!” My third graders found this statement to be fascinating. The fact that teachers are always learning at Two Rivers is both fascinating to students and essential to who we are as a learning community. Teaching teams at Two Rivers participate in weekly formal professional development workshops around core practices, quarterly professional goal-setting structures, and daily informal learning conversations which all support our mission and goal: To nurture a diverse group of students to become life-long learners, who are positioned to have rich and varied options for their future. At the heart of this work is the belief that teacher learning and development works in service of every student’s learning and development toward rich and varied options for their futures.

On a parallel and connected learning path, parents are also committed learners in the Two Rivers community. Once again, the students are struck by the fact that the adults in their world still have learning and growing to do. While facilitating a task around students writing Back-to-School Night letters to their parents, I told a group of second graders that their parents would become second grade students on Back-to-School Night, where they would engage with different centers on literacy, math, and Responsive Classroom practices. Their parents would also be participating in an “evening meeting” modeled after the daily morning meetings that students start their day with to establish a welcoming and nurturing climate in which to learn. The second graders’ eyes lit up at the idea of their parents becoming students again. At Two Rivers, parent learning is core to who we are as a school. Parents participate in formal parent nights around expeditions, math, literacy, and school culture and discipline, attend parent-teacher conferences and student-support team meetings, and engage in informal learning conversations with teachers, school leadership, and fellow parents. Through all these experiences, parents have opportunities to learn and grow so that they can better partner with the school to help their children thrive toward the mission and goal.

Learning Together Through the Growth Mindset

A good school is comprised of teachers who want students to be successful in the time that students are with them, supported by parents who reinforce learning at home. A great school is created by teachers and parents who work together to help students become the type of learners that can solve any problem, creating a lifetime of success during the school years and beyond. At Two Rivers, parents and teachers strive to make a great school. They help develop students into the type of learners who have the mindset to persevere through any challenge, toward self-discovery and enduring understandings about the world. Carol Dweck calls this type of mindset a ‘growth mindset’ in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.

Mindsets are beliefs that individuals have about themselves that determine the way they perceive success and achievement. An individual with a ‘fixed mindset’ believes that intelligence, talent, and success is a fixed and innate trait. Because of this rigidity in self-perception, individuals with a ‘fixed mindset’ will spend most of life trying to prove success and avoiding situations in which new learning requires taking risks. On the other hand, an individual with a ‘growth mindset’ believes that intelligence, talent, and success are malleable results of hard work and intentional practice. Because of this openness and commitment to learning and stretching oneself, individuals with a ‘growth mindset’ spend life taking healthy risks toward new learning, persevering through challenges, and thriving on both successes and failures toward constant improvement.

If teachers and parents want students to develop ‘growth mindsets’ that enable life-long learning, then they need to evaluate their own mindsets. They need to ask: “Are we using a ‘fixed’ or ‘growth’ mindset when talking with our students about achievement and success?” In taking the time to ask this question of themselves, teachers and parents begin to view teaching and parenting not through the black and white lens of “success” versus “failure”, but rather through a lens that Dweck describes as being a “learner” or “non-learner.” This new way of seeing themselves, their students, and the world enables parents and teachers to cultivate success as a dynamic, on-going process, rather than sole points of achievement that you either reach or do not reach. At Two Rivers, both teachers and parents are developing their own ‘growth mindsets’, so they can be the types of learners that nurture students toward a ‘growth mindset’ in the 21st century.

PART 1 of The Two Rivers University Series: Teachers as Learners

Why is teacher learning so important?

In a meta-study of what makes the most difference in student learning, John Hattie talks about the power of “visible learning.” In looking at teacher impact, he says: “Teachers who are students of their own effects are teachers who are most influential in raising students’ achievement.” As Hattie states, teachers need to become students in order for their students to learn and achieve. They specifically need to study how their practice impacts students’ progress, and continuously demonstrate clarity around what outcomes their students are making progress towards.

At Two Rivers, teachers are committed to creating and facilitating tasks that help all students make progress not solely toward basic skills and knowledge as measured by standardized testing, but toward developing rigorous 21st century cognitive and social skills. In The New Division of Labor: How Computers Are Creating the Next Job Market, Frank Levy and Richard Murnane call these skills expert thinking and complex communication. Expert thinking involves the cognitive ability to apply a strong fund of knowledge, construct relationships and patterns between disparate sets of knowledge, and be meta-cognitive about one’s problem-solving process to approach any type of problem and create multiple solutions. Complex communication involves the social ability to collaborate with diverse groups of people through exchanging vast amounts of information, build understanding and cultivate trust among very different perspectives, and negotiate outcomes to create multiple solutions. Teachers at Two Rivers need to continuously learn about what achievement in the 21st century needs to look like for students, with expert thinking and complex communication at the heart of how we define student success. With this larger goal in mind, teachers build and sharpen their practice with effective instructional strategies that support this type of achievement for all students.

How do teachers learn at Two Rivers?

In order to actualize the mission for every student in the 21st century, Two Rivers prioritizes teacher learning around the core practices of data-driven instruction, modeling, reflection, and collaboration.

Data-Driven Instruction and Differentiation

At Two Rivers, teachers take the ‘all’ part of our mission very seriously. Our daily work is driven by the understanding that our students come to us with very different needs, and the core belief that every student needs and deserves the same opportunities to access rich and varied options for their futures. Teachers continuously learn about how to differentiate in the classroom, so that instruction creates different pathways for students of different starting places to all access the same larger conceptual understandings.

To develop their habits of using data to drive instruction toward expert thinking and complex communication, teachers have focused on using a broader definition of data (not just standardized assessments but also on-going data from performance tasks in math, reading, writing, social studies, and science). Teachers at Two Rivers participate in a structure called “data-analysis-strategy” loop, in which they go through multiple cycles of assessing, collecting and analyzing data, planning for differentiation and next steps of teaching, and implementing changes in instruction to create growth for all students. They are committed to teaching toward expert thinking and complex communication outcomes, using a broader ranger of student data, and a focus on the instructional strategy of using data to create and implement differentiation through flexible groups. With this commitment, teachers continue to learn how to better articulate, respond to, and shape the learning stories of their students in the 21st century.

Modeling

Last year, teachers at Two Rivers participated in monthly math professional development workshops on Wednesday afternoons. While the main purpose of the math workshops was to build staff love and capacity for math, teachers also had the opportunity to become learners and be meta-cognitive about their learning. They watched an effective model from our instructional guide, Jeff Heyck-Williams, of facilitating problem-based tasks around representing and communicating mathematical thinking. Through becoming students themselves, teachers were able to develop a more acute understanding and empathy for their own students when given open-ended tasks that required openness to learning and perseverance on the student’s part, and skillful teaching, questioning, and coaching on the teacher’s part. They were able to use both the content and process of the math professional development workshops to help them design rigorous learning experiences for their own students, in and outside of math.

In addition to professional development around math and problem-based task teaching, teachers at Two Rivers learn through modeling and inquiry in learning labs. Learning labs involve teams of teachers who are interested in researching a focused question of practice together. A host teacher turns his or her classroom into a learning lab and invites fellow teachers to watch a learning experience through the lens of a guiding question posed by the host teacher. Participants observe, take notes around the question of practice, raise their own questions, and debrief together with the host teacher after the observation. Rather than promoting a model of a ready made answer to the question of practice, learning labs give participants an opportunity to construct an answer together, achieving new insights that will inform everyone’s practice. In the past, Two Rivers teachers have participated in learning labs, facilitated by Jill Clark, our 8th grade social studies teacher, and Kathleen Kennedy, one of our first grade teachers and a teacher leader. The learning labs provided rich opportunities for teachers to investigate key practices such as collaboration in early childhood writing, meta-cognitive thinking in reading and math in the upper grades, and the impact of discourse in deepening discipline-specific conceptual understanding. Through each of these lab experiences, teachers not only learn active pedagogical strategies to take back to the classroom, but also develop an important growth mindset that drives their life-long learning as educators.

Reflection

Peter F. Drucker, American educator and writer, expressed this eloquent truth about reflection: “Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come more effective action.” At Two Rivers, teachers are constantly engaged in the rhythms of dynamic action and ‘balcony’ reflection time, in which we carve out formal space to zoom out and take stock of the larger picture. While every individual reflects in different and personal ways, teachers at Two Rivers reflect collectively on where we have been in our practice and where we are headed. As life-long learners themselves, they continue to evolve in their practice and deepen their commitment to mission-driven teaching.

Within the rhythms of every school year, the dance between reflection and effective action starts before students step through the doors for their first day of school. Two Rivers has a rigorous three week orientation for staff in August, in which teachers across grade-levels and disciplines build a culture of learning together, build collective understanding around key instructional practices that support our mission and goal for every student, plan scopes and sequences in collaborative teams, and reflect on the essential take-aways of their learning before students arrive. At the end of every orientation, teachers reflect on their personal learning through a collective gallery walk experience. The gallery walk is comprised of all the documents of learning created over the course of orientation.

In this past summer’s gallery walk, teachers reflected on professional development orientation documents related to our school-wide data story, unit planning and problem-based task teaching, culture and Responsive Classroom core practices, and pillars of collaboration such as the growth mindset and using difficult conversations as learning opportunities. As they often have their students do, the teachers synthesized their reflections into the “big rocks” they wanted to remember during the busy school year in a representation of their choice. They either chose to create a visual representation that would be housed somewhere visible and accessible in their classrooms, or write letters to their future selves that would be given back to them in February, a typically stressful time of the school year. This intentional reflection drives the pulse of instructional decisions and significant shifts in thinking and planning throughout the year, as well as traction around practices that make the most difference in students’ learning. At the end of the school year in June, teachers at Two Rivers close out the year the way they started-with a synthesis of how their mindsets and practices have changed. Teachers wrote their own “change stories”, which articulated how a change in their pedagogy impacted the learning experiences they created for students. In the rhythms of reflection and action, teachers at Two Rivers learn how to be meta-cognitive about their own practice and share in the leadership of our work.


Collaboration

At Two Rivers, the staff practices 8 key habits that help us work toward the mission and goal for every student. These habits are trust, respect, creativity, flexibility, kindness, caring, commitment, and collaboration. Out of these habits, effective collaboration becomes the result of practicing the other habits consistently, especially in challenging circumstances. Collaboration is the heartbeat of the Two Rivers community. Since it is so essential to how we learn and work together, Two Rivers teachers spend intentional time learning about the process of collaboration itself.

There are also many structures built into each day and the school year, that formalize collaboration as an on-going, focused process that produces results for our students. For example, teachers in each grade-level team participate in common planning time once a week with an administrative partner. This time enables both the lead and special education teachers of the same grade level to collaboratively plan units, lessons, and assessments, analyze data together and determine next steps, as well as problem-solve toward shared solutions. Common planning time gives teachers sanctioned time to ensure that all students access to the same learning opportunities across classes, specifically bringing together the perspectives of the special educator and the general educator. It connects one teaching partner who is passionate and skilled in a certain aspect of the mission to another teaching partner who is committed to a different but complementary aspect of the mission. Together, the teaching team creates a deeper understanding and more effective implementation of practices that best serve our students--much greater than any one individual could have achieved if teaching on an island.

While common planning time provides teachers a collective learning and planning structure, our six week goal setting structure gives teachers a way to grow their individual practice over the course of an instructional year and in service of long-term development. Each lead teacher meets with our principals, Maggie Bello and Dave Philhower, to collaboratively determine what his or her personal professional goals should be in six week cycles. In this supervision and evaluation structure, teachers learn how to set focused goals for themselves, work toward accountability through collecting and bringing back data as evidence of goal mastery, and use the Two Rivers effective teacher rubric to continuously self-assess and work toward improvements in practice. This type of collaborative goal-setting cultivates a habit of mind for teachers to continuously evolve as they better understand the needs of their diverse student populations. Between goal-setting meetings and within the 6 week periods, teachers connect with resources such as working with instructional guides, participating in off-site professional development, and/or connecting with fellow teachers who have expertise in their specific goal area. Teachers not only learn new instructional strategies and approaches to planning, assessing, and differentiating, but also learn how to continuously set goals for themselves that build traction in essential pedagogy which serves all students.

Closing

During interviews with prospective teachers, we often liken our professional development to an on-going university approach, fondly calling it ‘Two Rivers University.’ When we stop and consider all the ways that teachers learn here, the name actually captures who we are and what we do quite aptly! In our ‘Two Rivers University,’ the threads of theory and practice constantly meet, weaving a beautiful tapestry of learning for every teacher and student. We work to create an exceptional school, one in which teachers and students travel together on an on-going journey of meaningful, joyful, and rigorous learning.

Stay tuned for parts 2 and 3 of the Two Rivers University Series: Parents as Learners and Parents and Teachers Learn Together

DEFINING TWO RIVERS CURRICULUM

By: Jeff Heyck-Williams

THE QUESTION:

What is Two Rivers’ curriculum?  

Earlier this winter a parent approached me with this seemingly simple (albeit essential) question.  A question that I should be able to answer quickly without much of a thought.  After all, creating and coordinating Two Rivers’ curriculum is a core component of my work.  However, as with many simple questions, the question gave me pause.  

It gave me pause for three major reasons.  First, it gave me pause because in the way that it was asked it begged for a quick sound byte response, but I realized there was too much complexity wrapped in the word “curriculum” to give a quick simple one to two sentence answer.  Secondly, I made an assumption (probably unfairly) that the parent was asking about a text book series which I patently would not describe as a curriculum.  Too often textbook series and/or standards are referred to as the whole of a curriculum.  However, I think of textbooks and the accompanying materials all as tools that help us define and deliver the curriculum.  They are not the curriculum itself.  Finally the question gave me pause because here was a word, curriculum, that sits at the heart of what I do everyday and that I use pretty freely in multiple ways, and yet I didn’t have a clear definition of the word.  In fact, because I use the word curriculum in so many different ways to mean often very different things,  I shouldn’t have been surprised that I didn’t have a clear definition.  However, if I wanted to have a chance of defining Two Rivers’ curriculum for this parent or for anyone for that matter, I needed to resolve the question of just what curriculum is first.  

SO WHAT IS CURRICULUM?

The single best definition of curriculum that I have found is from John Fairhurst Kerr’s seminal work Changing the Curriculum from 1968.  Kerr writes that curriculum is, “all the learning which is planned and guided by the school, whether it is carried on in groups or individually, inside or outside the school.”  What I love about this definition of curriculum is that it has three core ideas which I feel are essential to understanding exactly what curriculum is.  To begin, Kerr defines curriculum as “all of the learning.”  This is helpful in explaining why a list of standards can never be the curriculum with a capital “C” for a school.  Schools always teach and address learning that stretches beyond the bounds of a set of performance standards.  The second part of the definition, “which is planned and guided by the school,” can’t be over emphasized.  With that simple phrase, Kerr has highlighted the intentional nature of curriculum.  There are many definitions of curriculum floating around, but when I talk about curriculum I am not talking about learning that occurs unintentionally.  For example, students often come to school and learn the lyrics to the latest rap song from their friends.  This is learning, but we don’t seek to impart all of the learning that occurs in schools.  Rather, when I am thinking about curriculum, I am thinking about all the learning that as a school we intend to teach towards.  It is this intentionality of learning outcomes that I would want to convey in answering any questions about Two Rivers’ curriculum.  Finally, Kerr ends his definition with, “...whether it is carried out in groups or individually, inside or outside the school.”  Pairing this idea with the previous ideas of the intentional learning outcomes, we have a full vision for curriculum that includes but stretches beyond individual standardized test measures as well as the confines of any classroom.  That is to say, that with great intentionality we attempt to craft experiences for students that nurture their growth as life-long learners from the moment they are first greeted with eye-contact and a smile as they approach our doors on their first day of  school all the way through to the moment that they walk out of our doors for the last time as students when they graduate as eighth graders.  That is to say, we recognize in addition to the classrooms that the hallway, playground, community spaces, and lobbies are all equally places of learning.     

TWO RIVERS’ CURRICULUM

With that said, here is how I would answer the question of, “What is Two Rivers’ curriculum?”

Staying in line with our mission, our curriculum is defined by all of the knowledge, skills, and understandings that students must learn to be successful in and outside of school in the 21st century.  Using the definition of curriculum above, we approach planning and instruction based on the learning outcomes that our students will need.  We are intentional in providing experiences in and outside of class for students that will nurture them as lifelong learners and provide them with the knowledge, skills, and understandings to be successful.

EXPERT THINKING AND COMPLEX COMMUNICATION

With this in mind, our first priority in our curriculum is in developing our students’ expert thinking and complex communication skills.  In other words, all of our curriculum whether in math, language arts, social studies, science, Spanish, the arts, physical education, and social learning is in service of helping our students to become flexible thinkers and problem solvers that can work effectively and collaboratively in diverse groups.  Loosely defined, expert thinking includes the skills of critical thinking around a fund of knowledge, schema development, pattern recognition, and metacognition: skills necessary for solving complex problems that require multi-disciplinary expertise.  Complex communication is defined as those skills that are necessary in working in teams.  These interpersonal skills include the ability to communicate vast amounts of verbal and non-verbal information, cultivate trust with others, develop understanding, and negotiate different outcomes.  Although these communication skills are the foundation of the skills students will need to be successful in a 21st century economy that requires teams of people to solve complex novel tasks, they are often ignored in school curriculum.  These aspect of our curriculum are supported by the books: The New Division of Labor: How Computers are Creating the Next Job Market by Frank Levy and Richard Murnane and 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times by Bernie Trilling and Charles Fadel.  More information on 21st Century Skills can be found at http://www.p21.org/.  Building upon a foundation of expert thinking and complex communication, we consider how we infuse every experience of learning with these cognitive and interpersonal skills.  However, it is not possible to be an effective problem solver outside of any content or context.  

CORE DISCIPLINES

This brings us to the core disciplines.  I define these as core because they are the essential content and skills that schools and society have long recognized in the broadest terms to be the central curriculum for schools to impart.  Within the core disciplines, I include English language arts skills, mathematics, social studies, and science.

Standards

We begin our thinking about these disciplines with the standards.  Our school is standards-based in that standards give a framework and some definition to the content that we will cover each year.  Currently, we utilize the Washington DC standards http://dcps.dc.gov/portal/site/DCPS/menuitem.06de50edb2b17a932c69621014f62010/?vgnextoid=3e7d112f62c32210VgnVCM100000416f0201RCRD&vgnextchannel=22aba12cbf242210VgnVCM100000416f0201RCRD&vgnextfmt=default published by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education in DC.  (These standards will be replaced by the Common Core State Standards http://www.corestandards.org/ to be implemented in the 2014-2015 school year.)  As a defining document, standards list expectations for what our students should know and be able to do in each grade level.  However, as stated above, the standards as a list of basic skills and knowledge only act as a skeleton and do not define the full realm of skills, knowledge, and understandings that our students need to become successful life-long learners.  In addition, individual standards often identify very specific skills that do not carry the same weight or relevance to more general skills identified in other standards.  Thus as a document, teachers must make decisions about the resources of time and intensity of focus around any individual standard.  Thus the standards documents are not effective tools for being the sole or only central defining component of a curriculum.  That said, they do act as a framework foundation to begin our thinking about the core disciplines.  Building on these frameworks, I would like to focus for a bit on each of the core disciplines separately.   

English Language Arts

English Language Arts comprises the sets of knowledge, skills, and understandings that we use to communicate in English both verbally and in writing.  Long considered a cornerstone of American public education’s curriculum and defined by two of the three “R’s” (reading and writing), the study of English is essential for helping our students become effective members of society and lifelong learners, but what exactly is it that we are teaching when we say that we teach English Language Arts.  To define this component of our curriculum I further subdivided the discipline into three broad strands: reading, writing, and verbal skills.  

Reading

Reading has been the subject of much debate in professional literature and particularly schools’ approaches to early reading instruction.  Twenty years ago, the debate heated up between what participants of the debate termed the phonics approach versus the whole language approach.  The phonics approach can be characterized by direct instruction in the letter-sound associations that make up the mechanics of reading.  In contrast the whole language approach is often characterized by authentic experiences with reading for meaning.  Fortunately, we live in times that have seen these debates cool down and we benefit from the fruits of both of these approaches in a balanced literacy approach to reading instruction.  Thus our curriculum is defined by both teaching students the rules of the mechanics of reading as well as the comprehension strategies that good readers use to make sense of their reading.  Specifically, at Two Rivers we recognize that, as we have learned from the whole language approach, people should always read for a purpose and that students need to have authentic experiences with reading beginning in preschool.  Students read real quality literature with teachers and alone scaffolding the students towards independence.  We explicitly teach students to using reading comprehension strategies that strong readers use flexibly.  These comprehension strategies include: making connections between what they are reading and their previous experiences or knowledge, asking questions, developing inferences, creating sensory images, determining the importance or big ideas, and synthesizing ideas or plot elements into a meaningful whole.  In addition, we have learned from the phonics approach that students need explicit instruction in the mechanics of reading.  This means explicitly naming the rules utilized to construct the English language and exploring how those rules are used to construct first words and then sentences with meaning.  In defining our balanced approach to literacy, we utilize the work of Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell in a number of their books including Guided Reading, Guiding Readers and Writers, and Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency as well as their Phonics Lessons.  In addition to the works cited above from Fountas and Pinnell, teachers utilize a number of resources in planning and developing our reading curriculum including The Daily Five: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser, Strategies that Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis, and Literature Circles  by Harvey Daniels.  

Writing

Similar to reading, we believe that whenever a person writes, they should write with purpose.  Consequently, we emphasize in the teaching of writing the meaning behind creating written work.  Thus students develop their writing skills to tell their own stories as well as to communicate ideas about the content which they are learning.  As a process, they need to have explicit instruction in the process of creating written messages as well as the components of exemplary pieces of writing.  Consequently, we explicitly teach students a writing process that includes brainstorming, drafting, revising, editting, and pubishing to teach them how to shepherd a piece from beginning to end.  In addition, students need to have direct instruction the components of good writing which include developing ideas, organization, word choice, strong voice, sentence fluency, the conventions or mechanics of writing, and how to present aesthetically pleasing final work.  Our writing curriculum is heavily influenced by the work of Lucy Calkins and specifically her book The Art of Teaching Writing as well as Lucy Culham’s 6+1 Writing Traits.

Verbal Skills

Considerable research shows that verbal language development is closely related to written language development.  In addition, to become effective communicators students need explicit instruction in both speaking and listening skills.  Consequently, at Two Rivers we intentionally address students speaking and listening skills in diverse settings.  This includes working with students to develop their dialogue skills when working with partners or in small groups as well as how to make formal presentations.  For listening skills we work with students how to listen actively by engaging in comprehension strategies to understand auditory messages and to ask questions that drive their learning.  

In addition, to the recognition that students need explicit instruction in the processes of speaking and listening, they also must build both their receptive as well as expressive vocabularies.  Vocabulary learning correlates closely to future success in school, and the achievement gap is often found most explicitly between the number of words that children from affluent families know compared to the number of words that children from poor families know.  We address vocabulary with the intent of giving students multiple opportunities to hear rich vocabulary and to associate meaning and context with new terms.  This portion of our curriculum is supported by Isabel L. Beck, Margaret G. McKeown, and Linda Kucan’s book, Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction.  We also teach a core set of vocabulary each year to guarantee that every student is given a foundational set of terms.  For this purpose we utilize the Wordly Wise series from EPS publishing which can be found at www.wordlywise3000.com.

Mathematics

Traditionally math classes have been defined by teaching of step-by-step algorithms with the intention that students will memorize the steps through repetitive practice.  However this undermines the nature of mathematics.  Mathematics is the study of quantitative and spacial patterns.  Mathematics is not the rote repetition of procedural rules to generate answers to standardized problems.  Thus our curriculum in math is focused on teaching students how to recognize, analyze, and apply the patterns of mathematics to solve problems.  Specifically, this means that mathematics is far more than arithmetic.  Arithmetic is a component of math as a powerful tool used in explaining quantitative patterns, but it is only one essential tool in the arsenal of math skills that we want to cultivate in our students.   

With this more expansive view of mathematics, our curriculum in math emphasizes conceptual understanding and problem solving in addition to the computational and procedural skills emphasized in those traditional classrooms.  Thus as when we teach within any of the five major strands of elementary and middle school mathematics (number sense and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, and data analysis, statistics, and probability), we are also teaching students how to solve problems that are new and problematic to them.  This allows them to build their conceptual understanding and methods of approaching a problem before learning a step-by-step algorithm.  Only after the conceptual knowledge has been developed do students begin working on formulaic procedures for solving certain classes of problems.  In addition, to conceptual knowledge, this articulation of what students need to learn includes what the National Council of Mathematics Teachers call the processes of mathematics.  These process standards articulate the skills of expert thinking that people use in solving problems within mathematics and include: making connections within mathematics and between mathematics and their experience outside of the classroom, developing and understanding various representations of quantitative and spacial ideas, the skills associated with generalized problem solving, and providing reasoning and proof for solutions to problems, and communicating they work.

Our approach to teaching math is most influenced by the model described by John Van de Walle and LouAnn H. Louvin in their text Teaching Student-Centered Mathematics.  To support our curriculum, we utilize the University of Chicago School Mathematics Projects' textbook series in our middle school and beginning in the 2011-2012 school year enVisionMATH in our elementary school as well as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' Navigation Series across the grade levels.

Science, Social Studies, and Expeditions

Science and social studies are often given the least priority in elementary schools and only in middle school when students are given discipline specific subject teachers do we see an emergence of social studies (usually heavily focused on history) and science as core components of a schools’ curriculum.  However, expert thinking and complex communication must be practiced within a context.  When we read, write, or solve problems, we read, write, and solve problems about something.  Science and social studies learning provides us with the context students need.  Thus our social studies and science curriculum are defined by giving students a rich background of information and experiences upon which to draw in practicing expert thinking and complex communication.   

Unfortunately science and social studies standards both tend to be a mile wide and only an inch deep.  Students are often expected to learn large amounts of dates and vocabulary with little expectation that they leave with understanding how all of the pieces fit together to form a coherent whole whether in history or in science.  We take an explicit stance that depth of learning is more important than breadth and thus we focus on key moments of history rather than the sweep of history in our social studies curriculum, and we focus on core ideas about design and systems thinking rather than the broad range of scientific facts in our science curriculum.  For example our fourth graders study the founding of Jamestown, the three cultures that came together there in the early 17th century, and from whose perspective the story is told instead of covering all of American history from pre-history to the American Revolution as their standards outline.  In science, our second graders study the physics of flight to design flying machine toys that are fun to play with but also illustrate how forces interact to make flight possible.  In both of these examples, the learning experiences are built first and foremost around developing students’ conceptual knowledge around the discipline in which the expedition is situated.  Consequently the fourth graders focus on perspective in the retelling of history rather than the specific dates and facts of the founding of Jamestown.  Similarly the second graders focus on concepts of experimental design and innovation rather than the facts related to flight.  That is not to say that the facts are unimportant or are not taught.  Students actually come away from expeditions with a large background knowledge about the facts related to their problem.  But more importantly they understand why those facts are important and how they can be used to explain the big ideas, the depth of the discipline in which they study.  

Founded on the concept of teaching content in depth versus in breadth, our science and our social studies curriculum is primarily delivered through learning expeditions which are centered on problem-based tasks that require the development and utilization of expert thinking  and complex communication skills.  Learning expeditions are ten to twelve week learning experiences in which students study a problem in-depth to create novel solutions to the problem.  Our work with learning expeditions is founded in our partnership with Expeditionary Learning Schools, a organization developed to promote a whole school model developed based on experiential learning.   More information on Expeditionary Learning Schools can be found at http://elschools.org.  We have further refined our approach to expeditions through problem-based learning as it is outlined in Linda Torp and Sara Sage’s work, Problems as Possibilities: Problem-Based Learning for K-16 Education.

ENCORE DISCIPLINES

In addition to our core disciplines, Two Rivers recognizes the importance of a broader view of knowledge and skills with which students should become proficient.  Consequently, we offer to every student a set of specials classes the curriculum of which I will call here the encore disciplines.  I like this term, because although our specials classes are not part of the traditional core disciplines covered by schools, they are no less essential for our students to realize their potential and become life-long active participants in their own education, develop a sense of self and community, and to become responsible and compassionate members of society.  The encore disciplines which we teach are the arts, foreign language, and physical education and health.  Each of these form a pillar of the skills, we believe are essential in educating the whole child.  

The Arts
 
I begin with the arts, an area of particular emphasis for Two Rivers.  In thinking about the arts as a discipline, they serve a unique function in our society and thus in the lives of our students.  As a means of expression, the arts afford people with the ability to express ideas and emotions that written or spoken English alone does not afford.  Because of this ability to convey meaning uniquely, the arts have the potential to allow students to understand concepts more deeply and from a broader array of perspectives.  Furthermore, the arts open the possibilities for students to express their own ideas, understandings, and feelings in ways that are inaccessible in any other format.

With this in mind, starting in preschool and carrying all the way through 8th grade we provide instruction in the visual arts and the performing arts of drama and music to all of our students as well as occasional opportunities to explore dance and other art forms.  This instruction includes art appreciation in which students learn how to receive, interpret and interact with the messages conveyed in art.  However, the core of the program focuses on developing students’ skills for self expression whether through music, drama, or the visual arts.  When possible, each of these art forms inform the study of content within the classes as they give students opportunities to explore and express the core ideas embedded in their expedition work.  

Foreign Language

Building on the learning that comes from multiple perspectives, we recognize that we live in a global society in which the interconnections between people only become more complex over time.  With this realization, as well as the recognition, that there is a window of opportunity for young students to begin learning a foreign language, Two Rivers provides Spanish language instruction beginning in preschool to all students.  The curriculum of the program emphasizes communication.  Language acquisition and communication in a multi-lingual world act as authentic complex problems for students to solve.  Simultaneously working to communicate in Spanish environments, builds students basic language skills including vocabulary and speaking skills.

Physical Education and Health

The final area within the encore disciplines that we recognize within our curriculum is the development of knowledge and skills around physical health and fitness.  The health crisis in our country demands that we acknowledge that part of being responsible and compassionate members of society is cultivating the habits of a life long healthy life-style.  Consequently, students have direct instruction in physical education which includes the essential of how to engage successfully in vigorous physical exercise as well the importance of making healthy decisions in regards to diet and physical activity.

THE SOCIAL CURRICULUM

In addition to the cognitive and interpersonal skills and core and encore disciplines described above, we affirm that the social curriculum is equally as important as the academic curriculum.  With this in mind, we define our social curriculum as both the skills related to complex communication and the intrapersonal skills students need to be independent self-directed learners.  These skills include taking initiative, persisting through a task, managing impulsivity, regulating emotional responses, taking reasonable risks, and reflecting on our work.  All of which are related to utilizing metacognition within any situation.  We support both the interpersonal and intrapersonal goals within our curriculum through Responsive Classroom.  Responsive Classroom is an approach to education developed by the Northeast Foundation of Children in which a focus is placed on developing students abilities both to regulate their own behavior in a learning community as well as for them to learn to work collaboratively to solve problems.   The Responsive Classroom approach is well described on their website http://www.responsiveclassroom.org/ as well in Ruth Charney’s work Teaching Children to Care.

REALIZING TWO RIVERS MISSION THROUGH OUR CURRICULUM

Two Rivers Mission, to nurture a diverse group of students to become lifelong, active participants in their own education, develop a sense of self and community, and become responsible and compassionate members of society, is realized through our goal.  Our goal is stated:  When students graduate from Two Rivers, they should have the cognitive and social skills to succeed in high school and college so that they are positioned to have rich and varied options for their future.  The articulation of Two Rivers Curriculum above, is my attempt to define the cognitive and social skills that our students need to succeed in high school and college so that they are positioned to have rich and varied options for their future.  I believe that only through living this curriculum in its complete fullness provides the foundation our students will need to succeed.

I leave with a final caveat.  As I have worked to define our curriculum, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that we live a rapidly changing world.  Curriculum must be equally as flexible to help our students meet those needs.  Thus I hope everyone will come to see Two Rivers curriculum and any curriculum as a living adapting articulation of what we want our students to learn.  That is to say, that this articulation of a curriculum can and should change with time.