Literacy at Aspen Academy

The Mission and Vision of Aspen Academy calls for an emphasis on creating students who are literate and have a love of literature.  This emphasis is a key to building life long learners who participate in the global society in which we live.

Literacy is a big and broad topic for any one to wrap their head around, especially considering how fundamental it is to all that we do.  Over the next few weeks and months, I will take my blog through a journey of literacy to show that literature and reading is about more than just books and words on a page - it is an exciting adventure that engages students, no matter their age, ability or skill, in higher levels of thinking.  Literacy is not about progressing up a ladder of levels, but instead is a focus on understanding how reading is thinking.

For more on literacy in general and links to how literacy standards and skills are organized, please check out my webpage at Aspen's website.

I did get to see a great literacy lesson today in second grade.  Mrs. Abney was teaching her reading friends about the importance of words and pictures.  This is a skill commonly called 'visualization' and its why we love the book and hate its movie.  Every good reader, from small to big, makes pictures in their mind of what is happening in a story.  We pick out words and phrases to connect with ideas in our mind that paint fabulous pictures.

You can see Mrs. Abney reading and the students hanging on every word in the picture below.  She's created a demonstration of what to do on the SmartBoard and hidden any pictures from the book, especially the cover, from the students so that they make their own pictures.

Here two students discuss the words that made pictures for them.  They wrote down the important words that were so exciting in their minds and then added pictures to show what they saw in their mind's eye.

While these skills may help advance students up the 'levels' of reading, most importantly they are skills that will make them life-long readers and learners with a love of literacy. 

Tonight, take a moment to read with your son or daughter and ask them about the pictures they make in their head.

Visiting Fourth Grade

This week I stopped by Fourth grade to see what was happening.  Students were busy working on a really interesting project.  I had three ladies help fill me in on why there was tinfoil, toothpicks and playdough laying out on their table.

The trio instructed me in the fact that there are two hemispheres to our world - the northern and southern.  On their tinfoil, they had created two different circles with continent lines drawn in them.  They had labeled their toothpicks with the names of continents and oceans.  With help from two different pictures and a globe, they were placing their labels to match the outlines that had been drawn in to the playdough.

It is fascinating what we can make hands on and interesting for students here at Aspen!  Just think about what we can do to take the abstract idea of hemispheres and make it concrete with toothpicks, foil and playdough.

Tonight, be sure to ask a fourth grader to tell you all about the hemispheres they mapped out!

A Peek in to Aspen Academy - Day 2

Last week the teachers at Aspen Academy learned and now we are busy passing on our knowledge to the students who eagerly come through our doors.  Every day presents a new opportunity to think and learn and grow - whether you are a student or a teacher.  It is the best part of coming to Aspen Academy - hearing the sound of excited student and teacher voices, watching eyes eagerly follow instruction, testing out science theories, learning where we live and even just spending quality time learning to work together as a community.

What does learning look like this week?

In third grade, I stopped by to see a fun lesson on finding our place in the world.  Students discussed the city where they lived and how it might differ from where Aspen Academy is located.  They worked together to remember their state and country and more about where they can find themselves.  But more than that concrete knowledge, they began to understand the importance of listening and following directions so that learning can always occur.

In fifth grade, learning is quiet and individual.  Students explore through writing.  But they also learn that learning doesn't always have to happen at a desk, even as it might seem in this picture.  Throughout the room, I saw students scattered at different spots on the floor, each learning and working where they were comfortable.

In middle school Science, learning means taking a risk to be the first to try an experiment and demonstrate the understanding that it offers.  Students are learning that Science is more than just a  passive subject full of knowledge to absorb, but in reality is a hands on try and fail activities that require one to create, research and support hypotheses of all kinds.

Venturing over to middle school Social Studies, we see that learning needs some demonstration.  How can you know what to try if you don't have a model to work from?  Students absorb information, ponder answers to questions and attempt activities so that they too can learn to generate a map that shows all that they learned.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg!  Stay tuned to see what more is learned throughout this exciting year!