Each year, science teachers Christie Carter and Anna Boucher team up with Wildwood’s 4th grade teachers and give students a chance to make some authentic discoveries in the spirit of Gold Rush prospectors.

Panning for gold

The goal: re-create that moment of discovery in California history when James. W. Marshall first struck gold at Sutter’s Mill, while reinforcing some of the essential principles of earth science that students study this year.

On the day of my visit, students from 4th grade teacher Colleen McGee’s class are searching for pay dirt: panning, sluicing, and looking through a magnifying scope as they try out different techniques to find gold in their own cup.

Examining sifted pay dirt

And this pay dirt is real. Wildwood 4th grade teacher Will Shaer has a passion for California history and started purchasing it for Wildwood several years ago from real miners up in California’s Gold Country, northeast of Sacramento.

“The trace amounts of gold in the dirt tested to a purity of 22 karats, which is pretty high,” Will tells me. Getting more California pay dirt from the miners has become more difficult, however, due to new and prohibitive dredging regulations. So, anything that the kids find today will be recycled back into the pay dirt, which will be re-used by future classes.

Science teacher Anna gives the students some brief demonstrations at each station, while her teaching partner Christie hands each student their own cup filled with the dirt. The kids work in small groups and try their hand at striking it rich.

Looking through the scope for gold

It turns out that there’s gold and silver in them thar cups. Soon, the science classroom resounds with shouts of “Eureka!” as students make their discoveries.

But it turns out that all that glitters is not gold (or silver). The pay dirt is also replete with pyrite, better known as fool’s gold—an eventuality for which Anna and Christie prepare their students. “If it looks like gold but it crumbles when you poke it with your tweezers, then it’s pyrite,” Anna tells her students.

The day’s haul

An occasional disappointment with finding fool’s gold is no match, however, for the pure joy that overwhelms students when they find the real thing (check out the videos below for a taste of their discoveries).

And what about the gold and silver that they find? Well, these students happily practice the Life Skill of Flexibility—they turn in anything they find to Anna and Christie for them to use for next year’s students.  And with gold prices at record highs, today’s student haul would fetch well over $100.

For Wildwood 4^th graders, this classroom experience is golden.

~ By Steve Barrett, Director of Outreach, Teaching, and Learning

This week I had the opportunity to play host to Angela Fasick, the Director of Studies at Laurel School, a 117-year-old independent day school for girls in Shaker Heights, Ohio.  She wanted to tour Wildwood’s middle/upper campus to see what was going on at a school nationally considered to be a leading innovator, with particular interest in our science and humanities programs. Pat Bassett, the outgoing President of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) had included Wildwood on a short list of innovative West Coast schools when Angela’s boss, Anne Klotz, the Head of School at Laurel, asked for suggestions.

Angela Fasick reflects on the takeaways from her visit to the middle school

We spent the afternoon in middle school science and team-taught humanities classes.  Before Angela left, I asked her for some feedback: What were her impressions, and, what was most impressive about what she saw?  Her takeaways: She found Wildwood students genuinely engaged in a wide variety of work, and their teachers fine-tuning their instruction to meet students’ varying needs.

***

Teacher Becca Hedgepath leads a discussion with her humanities students

In Alexis Lessans and Becca Hedgepath’s Division One (6th grade) humanities, Angela and I find students are deep into The Goldsmith’s Daughter, by Tanya Landman. This young adult novel is set in Mexico during the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs.  Angela comments on the sharpness of the students’ skills: she notices the post-it notes that students have used to annotate their reading, as well as the animated discussions that the book elicits. These are all signs of meaningful, engaged learning.

Later in the visit, in a Division Two (7th & 8th grade) humanities classroom we see students demonstrating their knowledge of Taoism through written answers, images, or even physical movements. It’s part of an elaborate simulation, designed to have students play up strengths as they learn about the ancient Chinese belief system. The teaching team in action—Sara Kaviar and Megen O’Keefe, know how to set up their classes flexibily and encourage students to make thoughtful choices about how to show what they know. Angela notes how team teaching at Wildwood promotes these opportunities.

Teacher Katie Boye goes over the rules of a game on natural selection

Angela’s interest in Wildwood’s science classes is steeped in her school’s interdisciplinary approach to the sciences. She finds Katie Boye’s 6th grade and Deborah Orlik’s 7th grade sciences classes provide strong examples to take back to Ohio.

In Katie’s class, we slip in just as her students are playing a game that incorporates the scientific principle of natural selection with mathematical probability.  Each student has chosen the role of a plant or animal species for the game, with the goal of successfully adapting to various changes in the ecosystem. Katie rolls a die, simulating random events that each student’s species either adapts to or not, based on the species’ characteristics.  Every time Katie calls out the numbers rolled, I sneak a peak at Angela—she’s smiling in response to the students’ shouts of joy or groans of anguish as the die determines their species’ fates, lost in the moment of a game that entertains while they learn.

Angela is especially impressed by the cross-disciplinary student engagement at our final stop for the day, Deborah Orlik’s 7th grade life-sciences class.  Here we see students absorbed in one of three projects—working with various animal skulls to study their diets; studying fish anatomy as part of a project that integrates ceramics; or training classroom rats to perform various tasks on wooden apparatuses the students are constructing for them (Check out the video below! Pretty cool.).  Deborah explains to us that the variety today reflects the fact that students work at different paces, and that she differentiates the classroom experience to meet each student’s needs. Angela tells me later that she is impressed by both the class’s ability to work on a variety of projects at once, and that the students’ engagement speaks volumes about the interest and joy with which they approach their learning.

When she left, Angela said that Wildwood had certainly lived up to its billing. Her positive feedback, I’m happy to report, is fairly typical of visitors to Wildwood’s two campuses. Knowing what the takeaways are for our visitors is a great reflection on our program, teachers, and students, and provides valuable feedback to help our teachers know what works so well here—from a visitor’s point of view.

~ By Steve Barrett, Director of Outreach, Teaching, and Learning

So during the 1st semester, students worked on small skill-building assignments including texturing, glazing, and pottery wheel work. Then, once they mastered the essential skills, Sue offered her students a menu of project choices in the 2nd semester. “I let students figure out what techniques would best suit the projects they chose to do,” Sue says.

… and her technique

11th grader Jennifer E. shows off a work in progress…

The day I visit Sue’s ceramics class, her students are deeply engaged in applying these skills on their projects.

I notice 11th grader, Jennifer E., working on a piece of un-fired clay, which she’s shaping with a sculpting tool; it looks like a hollow section of a tree trunk that she tells me will become a pencil holder.  She walks me through her creative process and the texturing techniques that she’s applying to this project. “First, I researched vases and other kinds of ceramic containers,” Jennifer says. “Then I studied various wood grains and practiced carving and incising to get the right look.”

Jennifer’s lantern

Jennifer has worked on several projects over the past few months, practicing the various techniques she’s learned. She offers to show me some of them, and leads me out of the ceramics studio and into the school’s main hallway where a few dozen pieces of student work from Sue’s class are on display. A lantern she designed and built catches my eye. “I was inspired by the Japanese lanterns that we studied,” Jennifer explains. “It was really challenging to design and make. First semester, I’d learned how to use ceramic molds, so I thought I’d try it out by making a lantern. I crafted these hollow half-spheres and then put them together.” She also shows me her other work which she applied her skills to create—a ceramic box and a drinking cup.

Spencer G. and Cat P. press a slab of clay for their projects

Later, Sue shares with me her own inspiration for this change in her classroom practice. She was motivated by a book that every Wildwood teacher read this past summer—Tony Wagner’s Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World.  Wagner, a professor at Harvard, believes three essential teaching characteristics that encourage innovative thinking: giving students work that taps into their interests and passions, provides them a purpose, and encourages play.

11th grader Jessica A. at the pottery wheel

The results among Sue’s students beautifully illustrate Wagner’s point: the work is beautiful, whimsical, and technically sound.  “The best part,” Sue says, “is that I’ve been able to be much more of an artistic ‘coach’ than the teacher; it’s inspired some students to explore techniques beyond those that were presented during the 1st semester, and has also resulted in greater success and pride in the final products.”

I test this observation as I check in with two other 11th graders, Sarah R. who is sculpting the underside of an unfired clay bowl, and Sophia R. who is at the beginning of her process in making a plate. I ask them what they’ve gotten better at doing since the start of the year. “I couldn’t even make a cup back in September,” Sophia says, “and I just finished making my own sushi serving set!”  Sushi, it turns out, is one of Sophia’s personal passions.  Sarah describes how regular practice at the pottery wheel has helped her to more efficiently craft bowls like the one she’s working on now.  I ask her what she plans to do with her finished products from this year’s class. “I’m going to use them,” she says without hesitation. “I’m really proud of these.”

Pride in work, skill development, and feelings of accomplishment—all because a teacher coached her students, then trusted them to apply their skills in a meaningful way.  With gentle guidance, and then, left to their own devices, Wildwood students think, experiment, and innovate. That’s the most invaluable outcome our community can claim.

~ By Steve Barrett, Director of Outreach, Teaching, and Learning

My visit to Monique Marshall and Jessica Collins’s 2nd grade class this week reminded me to think about what I’m seeing, and what I can’t see in a single visit.

In today’s social studies lesson, Monique’s students are thinking about the concepts of food “deserts” and “oases” – urban places where healthy food sources are either scarce, or plentiful. Their task: design and construct 3D models depicting each. Monique tells me that the vast majority of her students live in areas of relative abundance—the food oases—and for them the alternative is hard to conceive.

2nd graders mix colors to paint tree trunks for their 3D models

“But their reality was really challenged,” Monique tells me, “when we did an activity a few months ago with our Central High buddies.” For the past several years, Monique’s classes have had a unique friendship with students from Central High School, a public continuation high school in Culver City. These older students, along with their teacher, spend time with Monique’s students both at Wildwood and on joint field trips. “During one of our Central High visits,” Monique continues, “we did an activity called ‘Agree or Disagree.’”

2nd graders build cars for their models out of recycled materials (l. to r., Toby M., Nnenne B., Truman L., Gibson P., and Will M.)

She asked everyone to respond to this prompt: ‘Agree or Disagree: In my neighborhood, I have access to plenty of fresh, organic produce.’  “All of the Wildwood kids agreed with the statement, while all of their Central High buddies, who live in food deserts, disagreed.”  That disconnect, Monique says, naturally led her students to wonder why, and added to today’s lesson’s deeper context.

Throughout the classroom I see Monique’s students working at five different stations busily creating vehicles, trees, signs, people, and gates for their models. Monique and I ask the students in the latter group to discuss their work. One boy says, “We learned that there are a lot of gates in front of the small stores they have in food deserts because the owners think that people are going to steal.” Monique asks how this might make the people in food deserts feel. “Really bad,” says a girl in the group, “like no one trusts them.” I ask them whether any of them feel that way at the stores in their neighborhoods. “No!” the students loudly exclaim in unison.

When social studies time ends, students put away their projects knowing that they’ll finish their 3D models next week; but their multi-layered work doesn’t end even then. “Our ultimate goal isn’t just to learn about food deserts and feel bad that they exist,” Monique says. “We want kids to know how they can take action.”

Students showing off their “gates” for the 3D models (l. to r., Vincent S., Ruby B., Louisa R., and Henry J.)

As a class, Monique’s students have agreed that they want to help inform people—in both their neighborhood, as well as the food deserts—what they can do to ensure equal access to healthy nutritious foods. “We’ve looked at who the community heroes are working to green Los Angeles, and alleviate the impact of food deserts—people like Ron Finley and his organization, LA Green Grounds.”

Next for Monique’s students? They plan to produce informational cards for the community around the elementary campus, informing neighbors about how people can seek out fresh, nutritious foods, and organizations dedicated to eradicating food deserts.  Then with the help of some parent volunteers, they may produce a public service video on how individuals and groups can work to alleviate the effects of food deserts in Los Angeles.

The opportunity to visit classrooms and report back to you on what goes on here is my privilege. But it’s good to remember that context and community drive this kind of learning. We bring the world in, to stimulate thinking—and re-thinking—in Wildwood classrooms.

~ By Steve Barrett, Director of Outreach, Teaching, and Learning

At the invitation Dan Morrissey, a Phillips Exeter admissions officer (and former Dean of Students), I had the opportunity to visit the Exeter campus last month. What I found was that the very obvious differences between our schools are surprisingly insignificant, actually, compared to the values and approach Wildwood and Exeter share. Yes, Exeter exudes establishment East Coast tradition, while Wildwood epitomizes West Coast progressive education. But what we offer our students is not so very different.

Dan and I met through our schools’ common commitment to advisory. He recently published his own handbook for advisors, Teaching Clarity, Purpose and Motivation: A Secondary School Adviser’s Handbook, and when researching other titles on Advisory programs he came upon Wildwood’s own, The Advisory Toolkit— now an industry standard for schools seeking to start or strengthen their advisory programs.  As so much of my work as Wildwood’s Director of Outreach, Teaching, and Learning revolves around advisory, we had a natural connection. Since then Dan and I have collaborated on a number of projects, from webinars to workshop proposals, keeping in touch via Skype and Twitter.

When I told Dan that I was planning a trip to New England to visit a handful of public and private schools, he insisted that I come up to Exeter for a visit.

Exeter students at a Harkness table (photo courtesy of exeter.edu)

We spent part of an afternoon visiting classes and one similarity I noticed resonated deeply:  Both schools honor a commitment to helping students to use their minds well in daily ways. In each room I saw about 16 students, along with their teacher, seated around giant wooden tables.  Discussion is at the heart of deep learning at Exeter, which follows an eponymous instructional method called Harkness teaching, after an Exeter benefactor, Edward Harkness.  My mind immediately jumped to Wildwood’s upper school, where students seated with their teachers engage in deep Socratic Seminars and “fishbowl” conversations—the intention, to deepen each member’s understanding not only of subject matter, but of each other as well. Teaching and learning at both Wildwood and Phillips Exeter emphasizes understanding the meaning behind the material—an essential for tomorrow’s thought leaders in a complex and changing world.

Just like at Wildwood, advisors at Phillips Exeter play central roles in attending to each student’s academic progress and social-emotional well-being. Advisors meet with their small group of advisees throughout the course of each week, assisting their charges with making adjustments to the demands of high school work and boarding school life. Just like their Wildwood counterparts, advisors at Phillips Exeter get to know each advisee well, help students cultivate their strengths, and maintain strong communication with each student’s parent or parents.  At Phillips Exeter, Dan is the advisory expert, the one that his colleagues look to for guidance and support.

Of course, there are differences. The school’s nearly $1 billion endowment makes Phillips Exeter Academy resource rich in ways that most schools can only aspire to. The endowment enriches learning. But it’s the kind of teaching and learning that happens at Exeter that matters most. That’s what’s critical for students, and it’s the unyielding attention to each student’s academic progress and social-emotional well-being that links venerable Exeter with avant garde Wildwood in meaningful ways.

~ By Steve Barrett, Director of Outreach, Teaching, and Learning

Visiting Japanese educators with Director of Elementary School, Katie Rios, and noted educator, Barbara Polland

Not just kids. But other kinds of learners, and, lots of them. At least twice a month, Wildwood hosts educators curious about what we’ve got going on here. As the director of the Wildwood Outreach Center, I play host to these visitors, who come from public and private schools all over the world. Some of our visitors are from as nearby as neighboring schools on LA’s Westside. Others come from as far away as New England and New Zealand, Singapore and Brazil.

Each of these visits is an opportunity to showcase the Wildwood approach. That’s valuable, as Wildwood is deeply committed to exporting what works here—from advisory to project based learning. But each of these visits is also a kind of exchange, as we gain insights from a huge range of teachers and education leaders from all over who face many challenges and come to us looking for ways to do it better.

I thought you’d be interested to know that often we open our classrooms for observations. Last week, for example, three middle school humanities teachers from City Charter School in LA’s Pico-Robertson neighborhood visited with their 6th grade counterparts, Wildwood Humanities teachers Alexis Lessans and Becca Hedgepath. We’ve also hosted a group of math teachers from LA’s Camino Nuevo Charter Academy who came to watch and learn from two of our teachers, Lori Reardon and Arlën Vidal-Castro.

This fall I was honored when Asra Ahmed, an assistant High School Principal at the University of Chicago Lab Schools paid Wildwood a visit. Her school — which famously launched the progressive education movement in the early 20^th Century—sent her to glean insights from Wildwood’s 21^st century interpretation of ideas and practice. We talked about how Wildwood integrates Habits of Mind and Heart into the curriculum and our multicultural programming.

Others come looking for teacher professional development ideas. Michele Shannon is a doctoral candidate at Harvard on a year-long fellowship as an administrator in the Los Angeles Unified School District. She told me she’d heard about Wildwood’s reputation, and came to explore what we have to offer the LAUSD administrator corps to boost and focus best educational practices in schools throughout the city.

Both of the last two years the Outreach Center has hosted a contingent of teachers and administrators from Singapore American School, here to learn from, what they consider to be, one of the most innovative schools in the world—Wildwood. Other international educators seek out Wildwood as a laboratory, where they can see best practices at work. We’ve hosted such delegations of Japanese elementary school educators, and Heads of international schools, like Medbury School in Christchurch, New Zealand, or the progressive High Scope Schools in Indonesia.

All of these visits make for engaging conversation about what we do at Wildwood, why, and how. These visits are also an occasion to remind myself: our school is founded on meaningful conversations, both internally and externally. Last month I was fortunate to spend some time with Tom Little, the Head at Park Day School in Oakland, CA. His school is a like-minded progressive, independent school similarly situated to Wildwood. Tom spent time in several elementary classrooms and then sat down with me and Director of Elementary School, Katie Rios, to ask us some questions for a book he’s writing on progressive schools.

These visits are all part of a day’s work for me, but I’m not sure many people in our Wildwood community know about this constant flow of visitors who know and care about what we are doing. Thanks to our outstanding teachers and a genuine commitment to great teaching and learning, the buzz about Wildwood is real, and growing.

~ By Steve Barrett, Director of Outreach, Teaching, and Learning

The visit illuminated ways that Wildwood students learn from each other, in a variety of contexts throughout the year.

6th grader Maxwell H. (left) and 3rd grade buddy Carter F. dissect a lilly

On this day, students first explored a few icebreaking questions, focused largely on favorite foods and family, before moving swiftly on to the harder science.

Inside the labs, the students rotated among four learning stations:

• The science of sound waves under the guidance of upper school physics teachers Levi Simons and Andrew Lappin,
• How to make “snow” out of a polymer and water with upper school biology teachers Carolyne Yu and Joma Jenkins,
• Instruction in creating “oobleck,” a slithery, viscous mix of cornstarch and water that has properties of both a liquid and a solid with middle school science teacher Jane Kaufman, and
• Buddy pairs of 3^rd and 6th graders cut up and examine a large lily bloom on a wax-coated dissection tray under the guidance of middle school science teachers Katie Boye and Deborah Orlik.

6th grader Alfie W. (right) and 3rd grader Kayden M. make “oobleck” out of corn starch and water

At that last station, the 6th graders thoughtfully showcase the various parts of the plant, gently quizzing their younger companions on the purpose of each part. “And what do the veins in the leaves do for the plant?” Reid B. asks his buddy, 3rd grader Jacob G., who responds: “They carry nutrients through the plant.” Reid compliments Jacob brightly, “That’s right!” (See Reid and Jacob’s interaction in the video below.)

The science exchange visit was conceived by Katie Boye and her elementary science colleagues, Anna Boucher and Christie Carter.  “We realized that our kids both study units on plants,” said Katie,  “so we planned to have these lessons coincide in the middle of this year. It just seemed natural for us to then bring our kids together to have them share what they’d learned.”

6th grader Ali B. (right) and 3rd grade buddy Sydney K. look together at a lilly’s inner workings

As they left their rotation making “oobleck,” Reid B. echoes Katie’s plan for the visit: “We’ve taught them a lot today,” he says. For 3rd grader Carter F. the day was also about having fun: “We got so messy! Just look at my hands!” he says as he shows off the small globs of cornstarch and water still caked on his fingernails.

6th grader Niki L. (left) and 3rd grade buddy Ian N.

On this day, the science mattered, but for Wildwood’s 6th graders, the day also offered an important range of opportunities to practice and gain fluency in learning, and teaching. As the explainers-in-charge, the 6th graders actively reinforced their own learning while introducing some cool new science to their 3rd grade peers.  The lab results really were positive.

~ By Steve Barrett, Director of Outreach, Teaching, and Learning

(Below) 6th grader Reid B. shares his knowledge of plants with 3rd grade buddy Jacob G.

(Below) 3rd and 6th grade buddies make and play with “snow” made from sodium polyacrylate and water

(Below) 9th grade physics teacher, Andrew Lappin, explains the physics of sound waves

(Below) Sound waves vibrate reflected laser lights, creating a visual delight

In Ariane White and Annie Barnes’s Division Three humanities class, students engaged in the initial phase of a cooperative research project on 19th and 20th Century revolutions and seemed to be seizing every opportunity to acquire knowledge. Prior to my visit this week, each group had selected a topic, making choices ranging from well known overthrows, like the French and Chinese Revolutions, to more obscure uprisings, including the Zapatista and Algerian Revolutions.

One the day I drop in, the groups have a specific goal: assemble a variety of general secondary sources, vet them, and choose one as the basis for deeper research. Students will share these sources, research notes, and annotations using a secure, online collaboration platform called, NoodleTools.

Annie gets the groups started by asking students to brainstorm about where they might find valuable secondary sources. A variety of go-to sources are mentioned, including many which are part of Wildwood’s library databases—Britannica, Gale, and the New York Times.

9th and 10th graders find online resources during humanities class

The discussion starts to really get interesting when 9th grader David O. suggests a less conventional source:  “What about Wikipedia?” he asks. Annie, wanting to encourage discussion, thoughtfully responds. “What we’re asking you to do,” she begins, “is to go through the process to vet all of your potential sources, like you’ve done before in class. After that, if your group assesses that Wikipedia is the best one—then use it.”

As students get to work, I circulate around the room, watching and listening. Through their conversations, I gain some insights into how the students collaborate, and their attitudes toward Wikipedia’s relative value in this stage of their research. It turns out that when given a choice and a thoughtful process to vet their sources, the students tend to believe their research goals can be best met by, shall we say, less ‘revolutionary’ online content.

“I’m having a hard time finding a source with a general timeline,” 10^th grader Owen L. says to his group. Aaron K., another 9^th grader, offers advice. “This one’s good,” he tells Owen, “I looked up ‘Indian Independence Movement’ on the BBC’s history website.”

In another group I see 9th graders Kaiya K., Asia G., David O. and Eddie K. sort through a wide variety of online sources for their topic: the Cuban Revolution. Suddenly Eddie finds something interesting and says, “Check this out, Asia. It’s really juicy!” I’m excited to hear such genuine enthusiasm as I see Eddie’s found a source from Gale’s Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture—now one of our juiciest databases!

9th grader Kayia K. (center) shows a potential research source to fellow 9th grader Eddie K. (left)

This week the group is in the early stages of its work, but this joint research will be vital as each student shapes the material to craft an individual presentation, an historical monologue channeling an actual historical figure or creating one who lived during the revolution of choice.

The project is essentially collaborative in nature, but personal interpretation drives the crowning work. At Wildwood, we intentionally encourage these dual capacities.

While each student’s creative choices draw on the collectively gathered sources, each presentation will be unique. And when students see what their peers present and have a chance to reflect and offer feedback, more learning happens.

We want our students to be aware that individuals approach the same intellectual challenges in a range of ways. From start to finish, every step presents an opportunity to learn more, and might even spark some revolutionary thinking.

~ By Steve Barrett, Director of Outreach, Teaching, and Learning

Screaming with delight to the amplified sounds of kid-friendly dance music, our 3rd graders were having fun and practicing essential PE and life skills.

“The main point of the obstacle course,” says Tyler, “is to improve agility, balance and strength. It also provides an opportunity to revisit throwing techniques.”  Tyler says he and his colleagues carefully designed the course to require crawling and rolling, because “Crawling is a great full body strength building exercise, while rolling is a wonderful way for students to work on their balance.” While they’re having fun, this activity also gives students ample opportunities to practice the Life Skill of Cooperation, as the game requires one group of student retrievers to collect the fluff balls that were thrown on the course back into the buckets of their peers who were throwing them.

It’s not the same as being there, but check out the video clips below, and have some fun!

Special thanks to Tyler Williams for the great footage.

~ By Steve Barrett, Director of Outreach, Teaching, and Learning.

This week I spend time with a group of Wildwood 5th graders as they finalized their projects with visual arts teachers, Kendra Elstad, Kusum Nairi, and Michael Fujikawa. I also discover that these students’ work is all about blending; both the literal blending of colors, as well as the blending of two curricula—5th grade visual arts and language arts.

A 5th grade student tries out her skin tone color blend
(photo courtesy of Kendra Elstad)

For years, the visual arts teachers have collaborated with 5th grade language arts teachers Sandi Crozier and Leslie Troy to incorporate her curriculum’s theme of identity into student work. With Sandi and Leslie, students explore the theme through creative writing—both prose and poetry. In visual arts the students study and practice a variety of painting techniques, including color blending, tinting, and shading. The result: the students create a variety of pieces that represent their individual identities—what people can see on the outside, as well as what they can’t see on the inside.

“One of the first challenges we give the kids for this project,” Kendra explains, “is to blend colors to match what they see as their skin tone.” She says that there’s a science to color blending that really engages her students. “Some kids test their blend by putting a little on their hands until they create a match.” Then they paint a small canvas with their color blend.

5th grader Toochi B.

… with his mask of green

A few days earlier, in language arts class, students get a head start on another piece for their exhibition, responding to a writing prompt: If you were to choose a color(s) that expressed you and/or how you feel on the inside, what would it(they) be? Why?  When they get to visual arts class, the students build masks out of cardboard or paper mache and paint them the colors they chose to write about. First, they paint with a base color and then, using their new color blending skills, add lighter colors to create a tint and darker colors to create a shade of their base.

… with his baby blue mask

5th grader Henry C.

During my visit, 5th grader Toochi B. shows me his mask; “green,” he tells, “with hints of gold.”  Toochi chose green as his base color because, he tells me, “it brightens up my world when I’m not feeling great.” Fellow 5th grader Henry C.’s mask is baby blue. Why?  “It represents peaceful, happy and fun all at the same time,” he shares. “I remember it from when I was little; it’s always been very soothing.”

Jude M.’s mask, skin tone canvas, and color writing

Jude M.’s color writing

While 5th grade classes have been doing this cross-disciplinary project for a few years, Sandi says “we like to take it in a different direction every year.”  For this year’s twist, Sandi shared with her visual arts colleagues the idea of having students write their responses to the color writing prompt on a clear transparency, which they then overlay on their skin tone canvas. “The idea,” Sandi explains, “is that if you could see through to the inside of a heart and mind, or see the color of emotions and feelings, what might you see?”

The answers, for this year’s 5th graders, are not only visually appealing, but also a very personal reflection of what makes our students unique—both inside and out.

~ By Steve Barrett, Director of Outreach, Teaching, and Learning