I recently watched a BBC video about Finnish schools. People around the world are trying to find out why Finland schools produce the highest scoring students in the world.
At the end of the video, there was a short interview with Nokia, a major business in Finland. The business leaders want Finnish schools to continue to emphasize math and science in order to produce highly educated students for the workplace of the future.
I believe that would be the wish of U.S. companies - schools producing workers that can compete in today's world, find success in today's worksplaces.
I was thinking this: What if all of my 4th grade curriculum BEGAN with math and science. Technology is embedded into the day. Here's the radical part: Literacy is taught in service to the math and science. In other words, literacy is taught, integrated, and used as a tool or vehicle in which to reach the concepts of science and math.
Is this so radical? Yep...right now our district mandates 1 hr. of math and 45 minutes of science in a 6 1/2 hour day. Over three hours is dedicated to literacy, including writer's workshop and guided reading groups. So, now I'm thinking what if the schedule flip-flopped...my 4th graders spent 3 hours on math, science and technology. Use the 45 minutes of science and switch that to free-choice reading w/ individual reading conferences. The one hour of math becomes writer's workshop.
Three hours of science and math? Think about embedding current events, inquiry projects, collecting data, and teaching a mile deep. Imagine. Such a radical idea?
I think this would work well with 4th graders. I teach a Core Knowledge curriculum, and I frequently teach across the curriculum. I am currently teaching Medieval History, so we read non-fiction in reading groups. We read and write research reports. I have done some stuff with castles and geometry, but I don't incorporate math into it as much. I could though. Kids are interested in science and history because it's authentic and they know it's important. I think that would be true of math too, when they see that it is relevant. I wouldn't try to do it all at once though, I would suggest transitioning into it gradually, because it will be a lot of work for you. It concerns me that science and social studies are getting squeezed out of many elementary school curriculums. I'll be interested to hear more.
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