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September 2, 2004
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September 2, 2004 |
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Exploring Lewis and Clark’s world
Each year at the Antioch School is defined by the interests and passions students bring to and take away from the broad, interconnected themes teachers introduce. This year, the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804, students will explore the worlds of history, science, literature, art, politics and religion through the study of those explorers’ difficult journey west. Antioch School teachers hope students get excited about discovering the way Native Americans lived in this country and interacted with immigrant Europeans to get to where we are today. Like Lewis and Clark’s 3,700-mile trek into unknown territory, the year will dip and bend in unexpected ways as students decide what things they want to understand more deeply and what issues they are driven to discover. Older Group teacher Chris Powell, who teaches the equivalent of fourth through sixth grade, said she is excited about introducing students to illustrated books on Tecumseh, collectors’ cards of characters from the expedition west, materials used to build boats and mapping tools that would allow them to imagine making their own journey into rough, uncharted territory. Powell will encourage students to keep a journal and illustrate the things they find outdoors in the dead of winter, as Meriwether Lewis and William Clark did. They will team with science and art teacher Brian Brogan to build canoes and a keel boat similar to the ones the explorers used. They will go on field trips to help them understand the period in which Lewis and Clark lived and the conflict between Native Americans and the early settlers of southern Ohio and Kentucky. “Ideally, we’d just follow the trail, but I don’t think their parents would let me have them that long,” Powell said. “So we’ll do our best from this angle and hope they get the picture of what living in Ohio was like during that period.” Once the Older Group has a good feel for the material, they will use what they’ve learned to develop a curriculum for the Younger Group, first through third grade. Students of Younger Group teachers Kit Crawford and Ren Smith will study the first people who came to America across the Bering Strait, and will take a trip to SunWatch Village to learn about to the earliest Native American cultures that developed in this area. The younger students will gain an understanding of the way Native Americans sustained Lewis and Clark on their journey. The Younger Group also will go beyond the expedition to study and experience Colonial America. In her classroom, Crawford has constructed a pioneer kitchen with a mock stone fireplace and kettle, antique dishes and period clothing for students to use. The life of Laura Ingalls Wilder will serve as a model for quilt making, tie-dyeing and story playing, which relate back to the activities in the art and science room. “We’ll be mindful of life before we had modern amenities and be able to distill what’s really important in life,” Crawford said. Powell said she likes to teach subjects across disciplines and ages because it reflects the way everything in the world is interrelated. In addition, she said, she likes being able to “bring in the perspective of the Native American viewpoint, which is not often part of the curriculum of the early explorers.” Brogan plans to integrate mapping exercises and work with fabrics, which means he has to learn more about methods of dying, batiking and painting on fabric. He hopes that some students will have knowledge to share with their classmates and through the process of teaching learn more about themselves as leaders, he said. Observing the moon through a full cycle is another Lewis and Clark-related exercise that Brogan hopes students will do at home. Journaling about the changes in the moon’s fullness, color, texture and position in the sky may constitute the only homework Antioch School students have to endure this year, but Brogan thinks it would help them develop observation skills through drawing, writing or riffing on what they see in the sky. Most students will also be involved in activities related to the presidential election in November. The Older Group will debate the issues from both sides, a difficult task for students who in general don’t want to say things they don’t believe, Powell said. The Younger Group will also participate in election activities, Crawford said. And there are always a few little Republicans whose views go against the majority and illustrate invaluable lessons about free speech, the democratic process and the strength that comes from true diversity, she said. The school’s very young children have a somewhat different curriculum, but one that allows regular connections with others in the school and encourages mentoring relationships. Jeanie Felker eases kindergarten students into the year by talking about the fall colors and the shapes of leaves. She then gets them to start noticing the colors and shapes of everything else they touch and eat. They build their own curriculum from there with a new set of questions every year, Felker said. |
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