Bo's+Reflections


 * //Reflection from Bo Hoppin, Young Achievers Experiential Education Curriculum Coordinator//**



Currently, the No Child Left Behind education reform model relies on an accountability system that provides data through students taking a test one time per year. This law and testing system has moved us to make our education decisions, define our priorities and determine where to invest society’s resources based on a single test that may or may not be relevant to the lives of the student who it is assessing.

The teachers, students, administrators and community partners for the Young Achievers Science and Math Pilot School in Jamaica Plain MA are working to change this paradigm of educational thinking. They are doing so by crafting a K-8 curriculum that asks students to perform well on tests and demonstrate how they are going to apply their knowledge to make a difference in their local communities. The Young Achievers curriculum expects students to become part of enacting social justice.

Our challenge is to find a way to do this with younger students in a way that is developmentally appropriate. The 2nd grade at Young Achievers has developed a curriculum, which integrates Social Studies, Literacy and Science through focused study of their own Boston neighborhoods. The product they have created to improve the community is a radio show that helps young and old alike understand our identity and challenges as community. It also defines a path through the eyes of a 2nd grader for building a society that is socially just and environmentally healthy.

The process of creating this curriculum in a way that is academically rich demands the resources of community partners, administrative support and help with implementation from school staff beyond the classroom teacher. If we want to meaningfully engage students in an investigation about what makes their neighborhoods tick, they need to be out gathering data and transforming that data into educational products that connects to the formal academic curriculum. To sort this out, teachers need a facilitator to help clarify ideas, an administration that says “go do it” and a “doer” to arrange all of the visits students will make. Most importantly, they need a community partner that works effectively with the teachers and students to define a product that benefits the community.

At Young Achievers, the conceptualization, implementation, reflection and revision process for the 2nd grade Boston Neighborhoods curriculum has been going on for years. Each cycle of the development process has made it better. The 2007-08 school year has continued that cycle of curriculum improvement with an exceptional blend of academic integrity, community partner involvement and engaging students in a rich process of investigating how neighborhoods work.

The 2nd grade students embarked on field investigations to many Boston neighborhoods and they identified core topics or issues they wanted to write about. With information in hand, they broke into study groups of 5-7 kids that were grouped so students from all academic ability levels would be successful. Each student wrote one segment of a radio program to be recorded at the local public radio station WBUR. Among many topics, students discussed the struggles of people who live in China Town, voiced their concerns about asthma rates and air quality, explained why public art murals are important for the health of a neighborhood and even advocated for their own need for more academic learning space at the school to accommodate a growing population.

Later in the semester the students, their families and school staff boarded a bus for the short trip to the WBUR radio station head quarters. WBUR hosted a delicious dinner and did tours of the station for the families.

The kids had more urgent business. Each study group went into the studio and recorded their piece of the program. They sat at the big table with all the microphones and did it like the pros do it. The tangible outcome was a completed radio program recorded on a CD they can take home and share with friends and family. Their voices were also part of WBUR’s weekly Saturday night radio program Con Salsa.

The academic outcomes are more important. The entire initiative held the 2nd grade students to a very high standard. It asked them to apply, understand and use the power of proficient literacy skills to explain their findings from the neighborhood investigations. The program demanded the use of formal oral language. There is not a casual word on their broadcast. You can distinguish the kids who read above grade level and below grade level but because they worked with a professional sound technician from WBUR all students sound professional in their speaking and reading skills. Each student has the opportunity to reflect on their own literacy skills by listening to their professionally recorded voice. The whole process sends the message "you are all expected to read proficiently and speak to sound important". The boosting of self-esteem for lower level readers is profound. The use of this audio recording next year will set a high bar for the incoming 2nd grade students to surpass.

At the conclusion of this initiative one of the teachers aptly tied the success of this initiative to the core challenge of teacher attrition that urban schools face. She noted that through this project she saw the learning come alive in the eyes of her children. It is that spark that will keep her in this profession she says. An emphasis on high stakes testing provides us with necessary data to make necessary strategic decisions. However, no decisions can be effectively implemented if we do not have highly qualified, motivated and passionate teachers. Innovations such as this Boston Neighborhoods curriculum provide teachers with the resources, partnerships and institutional support to kindle a flame for learning that leads to academic achievement for kids and a better community for all.