County educators adjust to changing times
DATE 4/29/90
NEWSPAPER THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
SECTION NEWS
EDITION EVENING
PAGE a01
STORY LENGTH 29 INCHES
HEADLINE County educators adjust to changing times
BYLINE/CREDIT Dan Froomkin:The Register
SUBJECT TERMS SCHOOLS:EDUCATION:OC
KEYWORD-HIT
Science teacher Laura Westermeier doesn't speak a word of
Spanish, but her students at Lathrop Intermediate School in Santa Ana
speak little else. So she relies on simple language, plenty of visuals
and a bilingual resource: a laser video disc that plays lessons in
Spanish.
Marilyn Reeves at La Madera Elementary School in El Toro has her
fifth- and sixth-graders working in groups to share information about
their pets and acid rain with a worldwide network of students linked by
computer and telephone lines.
And in her first-grade class at Crescent Primary School in Orange,
Ruby Penner has shelved the standard-issue textbooks and work sheets in
favor of readings from anthologies, hands-on experiments and frequent
writing assignments.
For Orange County schoolteachers, the 1990s are bringing new
challenges, new opportunities and dramatically changed assumptions
about how students learn.
The result is a cornucopia of new teaching strategies that -- in the
hands of excited and motivated teachers, both veterans and newcomers --
are radically transforming the classroom.
Experts note that the traditional "chalk and talk" teaching method
has lost favor, replaced by new approaches such as cooperative learning
and hands-on projects. When educators talk about the future, they focus
on:
New challenges: Foremost among the hurdles facing teachers in the '90s
is the rising number of students who don't speak English, and a
teaching force ill-equipped to deal with the change. Orange County, for
instance, has one bilingual teacher for every 164 students whose
command of English is limited.
New opportunities: A new generation of sophisticated software allows
students to use school computers creatively, designing their own
high-tech class presentations and working through lesson plans that
adjust to their comprehension level as they go along.
In addition, new hardware is flowing into classrooms, including
modems that let children communicate with students around the world and
laser video discs capable of holding thousands of images and millions
of bits of information in a variety of languages.
New thinking: The increasingly demanding California job market and
what many educators say are students' shorter attention spans have led
educators to embrace new basic assumptions about learning, the most
sweeping of which already are having a revolutionary effect in many
classrooms.
Statewide, the push is on to teach children how to use information
rather than just memorize it -- in short, to teach children how to
think.
In English classes, that has meant a move away from textbooks and
work sheets toward literature that students are asked to discuss and
journals they are asked to keep. In math, it's meant a move away from
memorizing formulas toward learning how to solve problems.
"Cooperative learning" -- formerly called working in groups -- has
spread through schools like wildfire. It is seen both as a way to
motivate students and to teach them skills needed to work with others.
The best teachers know that the best way to teach is to get children
excited about learning.
Part of that battle is simply getting students to pay attention.
Although some observers say television has been shortening students'
attention spans for decades, many teachers say that the combination of
video games, television and the pervasive influence of MTV has made the
problem even worse in recent years.
Schools have found that computers are sure-fire attention-grabbers.
Simple word processing makes student essays look professional and often
motivates even the grumpiest pencil-and-paper writers to wax prolific.
"One of the greatest things about using a computer in writing is that
it takes away a lot of the stigmas," said Mike Politiski, a computer
teacher at Rancho San Joaquin Intermediate School in Irvine.
Reeves, at La Madera, said that in five years of using computers
she's never had a student who wasn't fascinated. And now that she has
introduced desk-top publishing software, which lets students jazz up
their written reports with colorful computer graphics, still pictures,
sound effects and recordings of their own voices, she says she can't
pry them from the machines.
Many teachers say the increased use of literature pleases children
simply because stories and essays are more interesting than the
old-fashioned textbooks.
That's true even in the first grade, said Penner of Crescent Primary.
"Kids are much more motivated by being able to read what they consider
library books rather than readers."
Cooperative learning is widely seen by teachers as being more fun for
children than just sitting there listening to a teacher lecture. And it
also cuts down on a sure-fire motivation sapper: anxiety.
"It takes the burden off the child who is sometimes less capable --
he doesn't feel quite so much on his own," Penner said.
That can be a particular help among students with limited English
skills. "Rather than freezing up, they get excited and help each
other," said Robin Scarcella, a professor at the University of
California, Irvine, who teaches bilingual teaching strategies.
Experts generally agree that nothing works as well as teaching
students in their own language. But in the absence of that luxury, a
new method called "Sheltered English" has been designed.
The goal is for teachers to speak and teach at a level the students
understand. In Sheltered English programs, teachers use lots of visual
aids and present the lesson in clear, simple language and a controlled
vocabulary with frequent reviews to check comprehension.
None of these new strategies is without its critics. In fact, some of
the greatest advocates of new teaching strategies are also the ones
most realistic about its failings.
Joan Bissell, for instance, a UCI professor who is a great proponent
of computers in education, warns that just having a computer in a
classroom means nothing.
"The computer in the hands of teachers is as varied as the teachers
are themselves," she said.
Working in groups on projects, presentations or plays can be a
wonderful strategy, but it's useless if the students have no
information worth cooperating about, said Ric Stephenson, a teacher in
the Capistrano Unified School District.
"You can do all the plays that you want," he said, "but if a student
hasn't read all the material, it's a farce."
Penner said that incorporating literature, experiments and writing
into class is now the teacher's job, and one that many of them relish.
But, she noted, it also "keeps you a lot busier."
Scarcella, who advocates Sheltered English over the "total immersion"
strategy, warns that for limited-English speakers, it is not an
adequate substitute for bilingual education. "The concepts are
necessarily going to be diluted," she said.
Mike Condiff, principal of Brea Junior High School, says he is
delighted with the way cooperative learning and the new emphasis on
literature are affecting his school. But he's also acutely aware that a
reasonable person could look askance at the speed with which educators
run toward a new trend.
If educators were wealthy shoppers, Condiff said, "they'd love us in
the fashion industry. Because every time they changed a hemline, we'd
run out and buy the new skirt."
Help wanted finding innovative educators
Is your teacher trying new and exciting ways to help you learn? Here's
your chance to tell us.
We're looking for elementary and secondary level teachers who are
creative and innovative.
We will review nominations and profile some of the teachers and
methods.
Mail letters to Teaching in the '90s, Education Editor, Orange County
Register, 625 N. Grand Ave., Santa Ana, Calif. 92701.