Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 16, 1990 TAG: 9006150141
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Kathie Dickenson
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It would be wrong, though, for any reader to get the impression that only a small private school can provide the kind of stimulating learning, differentiated instruction and parental involvement described in that article. Public schools, too, have absorbed the innovative teaching theories and techniques of the '60s and '70s.
Belview Elementary School, which my children attend, doesn't pretend to have a totally holistic curriculum, but through team teaching and creative lesson-planning, teachers go beyond state standards, make connections between subjects and bring spice to their pupils' learning.
My youngest son and his first-grade classmates have been writing and illustrating stories since last fall. They made up stories frequently in kindergarten. They dictated them to teachers or older children if they were unable to write by themselves.
Second-graders in Christy Wachob's class use ungraded journals to express their thoughts and to share experiences. In many classes, pupils work together to make books of original poems or stories. These children are not afraid of pencil and paper.
Betty Lynn Thompson's first-graders made their own "Reading Rainbow" video. Each pupil created a segment about a favorite book.
Jean Alfano's fourth-grade class developed and performed a silent film after studying about special effects in movies and on television.
Lynn Dickerson's and Glenna Jones' fifth-graders performed programs over the school intercom and wrote speeches that they gave in front of a camera.
Where else besides New School can a reading assignment turn into math, science, art and music lessons? Ask Tina Vaughn, a second-grade teacher whose recent "Ramona Quimby Day" culminated a study of Beverly Cleary novels.
One need only visit the yearly Montgomery County Festival of the Arts to see the encouragement and instruction that students receive from artists and musicians.
At Belview, pupils have frequent opportunities to show off their musical and artistic talents, including an annual talent show for which children develop, audition for and perform their own acts. Pupils display some of the year's best work in a yearly PTA art show.
Unlike the New School, Belview is divided into traditionally graded classes. Within each self-contained classroom, however, children work within groups by ability.
Children whose ability in math or reading exceeds that of classmates sometimes go to the next grade for work in those subjects. Chapter I teacher Sylvia Wright and other specialists are available to pupils who are having difficulty with a subject.
In addition, pupils can, from kindergarten on, work with others who are handicapped but who are "mainstreamed" into their classrooms. Some pupils get to help more severely disabled children in classes for the handicapped, and all pupils see them regularly in the halls and cafeteria.
The effect of all of this grouping and mainstreaming - along with compassionate guidance from teachers - is an atmosphere in which acceptance of differences is the norm.
Although parents are not responsible for the physical upkeep of the school - unless assembling and installing PTA-donated sandboxes and jungle gyms counts - many are involved in Belview's day-to-day activities. A school visitor is almost as likely to see a parent as a teacher in the office, hall or in class on any given day.
Volunteers might be found working with younger children on computers, tutoring children who need extra help, working with advanced pupils on projects, copying materials for teachers or taking library inventory.
Once during each of the past two years, many parents - and teachers - spent a night in the school with more than 70 fourth- and fifth-graders in the Prime Time reading program, an experience that neither adults nor children will likely forget.
Public schools - including even Belview - are not perfect, and it's good to have alternatives. But public schools do offer high-quality instruction, and they offer it freely to all.
by CNB