Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 23, 1993 TAG: 9311230411
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By MELISSA DeVAUGHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The pupils from Prices Fork Elementary School are learning there's more to Thanksgiving than just turkey and dressing. At a celebration at the school last week, the children learned about all the aspects of Native American life and the role Native Americans played in the first Thanksgiving. They also experienced ``multi-age instruction'' for the first time.
Multi-age instruction is a simple concept that allows teachers to instruct children based on a child's learning ability rather than the child's age, said principal Larry Arrington.
``What we're looking for is developmentally appropriate learning,'' Arrington said. ``[The Native American Festival] gave us the opportunity to try it out.''
The Native American festival was appropriate, said Arrington, because it involved the entire school. It also was a fun event for the children, he added.
``The festival certainly teaches [the children] a lot about the Native American culture of those days,''Arrington said of the all-day event held last Friday. ``The younger kids and older kids are getting along. This has been a nice little experiment because the older kids enjoy being protective of the younger ones.''
Multi-age instruction is a national trend, Arrington said, because school systems are concentrating more on the child as an individual. Developmentally appropriate learning allows a child to get the most out of school.
For example, said Arrington,``You may have a kindergartner who is at grade one level in reading but still at the kindergarten level in math. With developmentally appropriate learning, the child can be grouped in the class that is more suited to him'' based on class and not grade level.
Fourth grader Tanya Kruger, 9, liked the multi-age experiment, although to her it was the Native American festival that seemed to be the most fun. Tanya asked to be paired with her 5-year old sister, Niki, who is in kindergarten.
``It's fun because we get to be together and we're sisters,''Tanya said. ``We don't get to be together too often.''
Chapter One Reading teacher Lori Wentworth was pleased with the experiment, but even more pleased to see the children having so much fun.
``At the end of the day, we will do an evaluation, and maybe have [multi-age instruction] on a smaller scale,'' she said. ``But it wasn't only done as multi-age. We wanted the children to do a different activity, and get the parents and community involved,'' she said.
Wentworth said she hopes the Native American festival would give the children a different perspective of Thanksgiving.
``I think it will give them an awareness and different aspect of Native American heritage,`` she said.
Friday's festival was complete with 23 stations representing many aspects of life for numerous Native American tribes. The pupils learned about Native American communication, made clay pots, created sand paintings and made corn (called maize by Native Americans) mosaics. Guest speakers demonstrated the use of a compound bow and played Native American music. Children in one classroom sampled cornmeal pancakes covered with homemade butter. Parents and community members volunteered their time to help out on the schoolwide event.
``[The children] are doing very well,'' third grade teacher Betty Kuhn said. ``The fourth graders are paired with a kindergartner and they've behaved very well. This is the first time we've done anything like this - hopefully it will be an annual event.''
Seven- year old Bobby Ferguson couldn't decide what part of the Native American festival he liked best. ``I liked making the clay pots, because we got to keep one,'' he said, ``but I like the totem poles because they're neat and they're funny looking.''
Third grader Robert Perfater ``didn't even know [Native Americans] still exist.
``I read it in my dad's book. They lived in mud houses and were called pueblos,'' he said.
Krystine Hall, 6, had the most politically correct comment of the day when she informed her classmates: ``The Indians are not called Indians. They're called Native Americans. And they got their turkeys with their bows and arrows.``
by CNB