Drinking Gourd Elementary School

Creating experienced critical thinkers

Empowered by academic success and social acceptance, and experienced at critical thinking, children can become change makers.

North Star Class

Levels: Grades 3-5

Individualized programs for each student

Each student’s program is individualized. Students move ahead in each area as they are ready. All North Star students take part in forming their learning goals and evaluating their progress toward these goals. Students are participants during formal conferences with parents.

Multi-faceted Classroom

North Star students learn through cooperative small group projects as well as whole group and individual activities and instruction. The classroom design includes both table and carpeted areas where the whole class can meet and an overhead loft, computer corner, and many nooks and crannies perfect for 2 or 3 students to work together. In addition, the class has access to the stage, soft reading area and tables located in the Library/Gathering Room next door.

Mathematical concepts

In Mathematics, focus continues to be on understanding concepts rather than on memorization alone. Students gain a keen “number sense” and develop mental images for mathematical operations through challenging problem-solving, using the new math skills they have developed. Concepts at this level focus on multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, probability, and geometry.

Computer skills

North Star students have daily practice in computer skills on one of the classroom's six computers. Every student learns touch typing, word processing, Internet skills, desktop publishing, and how to create Powerpoint presentations.

Reading and writing projects

Students read for enjoyment and analysis, responding to fiction and non-fiction in a variety of creative ways. Response journals, essays, reviews for classmates, dioramas, watercolor paintings, poetry, activism projects, drama and puppet shows are all methods students use to respond to their reading.

Writing and reading feed each other as students learn about literary elements in their own stories and writing techniques in the works of professional authors. Learning to analyze the authors’ purpose and to understand how point of view is used in the books they read leads them to learn how to write for a specific purpose. Students learn to express themselves in many styles of writing: persuasive, creative, expository, poetic, dramatic.

Scientific investigations

In science, students investigate specific questions through research and hands-on projects, and then practice communicating their findings, theories, and further questions through writing, drawing, statistical representations, and discussions. The emphasis on communication shows the students that science is a social process in which they can be full participants.

Making connections through social studies

In social studies, children gain a sense that we live in a diverse community with many resources and challenges and to see themselves as active, able participants in that community. Their projects highlight the connections between individual choices, social movements, scientific developments, and diverse cultures and values as they learn about particular times and places. They come to understand how differing perspectives affect our understanding of historical events. We also emphasize the strengths of communities and cultures and the ways that human resilience is expressed through art, music, and liberation movements for survival and dignity.

Theme unit activities on social studies and science topics include reading literature and non-fiction books on the subject, research and writing, public speaking, interviewing, participating in simulations, analyzing original documents, and experimenting. The program uses literature by people from different viewpoints, to enable students to see each topic from many perspectives. This also teaches the children to respect and include all people in their understanding of the world.

For instance, during a study of immigration, students read "Streets of Gold" about an Irish family emigrating to New York City in the 1800's, and "In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson" about a Chinese-American family moving to California in 1947. Comparing and contrasting the experiences of these two families starts the students thinking. The topic springs to life when students live through a simulated journey on an immigrant ship, including choosing the few items they are allowed to take with them. Researching and writing about their own family’s immigration history brings the issue to a personal level, and hearing each student’s oral presentation about these histories gives students an appreciation for the diversity to be found in our own school. Interviewing community members who have immigrated to the U.S. leads students to a discussion of how immigrants adapt to their new country while maintaining their home-country culture.

Creating experienced critical thinkers

The North Star class builds on the foundations of self-confidence and competence established in the Quail class. The program is both visionary and practical. We create a just society in the classroom within which the children can blossom and learn, and also equip them with skills they will need to build that society in the greater community. Empowered by academic success and social acceptance, and experienced at critical thinking, children can become change makers.

North Star students learn advanced facilitation, conflict resolution, and consensus decision-making skills. In class meetings, usually facilitated by the students themselves, they design class projects, settle disagreements, and evaluate and change classroom policies. Students help each other to mediate conflicts on an everyday basis.

The teacher provides a guiding structure which ensures that both boys and girls are empowered in the class, and supports every child in seeing themselves as a leader and an active, able learner in all areas. The program encourages boys and girls to see each other as friends, and to see themselves as individuals, free of gender stereotypes. Students also learn to recognize and stand up against bias for themselves, each other, and in the larger community.