Page Four

 

Dramatics Help
Slow Readers

To start the Symposium on School-"
teaching last Saturday, Mrs. Sara Park

Scattergood ’36 presented a teaching pro-
gram she had developed to help weak
readers. The purpose of the Symposium
was to acquaint students with some un-
usual aspects of teaching and with some
teachers who went to Bryn Mawr.

Providing a live demonstration of an
introduction to early Cretan civilization,
which was written as a short»play for
fourth to tenth graders in a conventional
school curriculum, Mrs. Scattergood used
five fourth-graders from Germantown
Friends School. The basic idea behind her
program is that it helps slow readers
while keeping the interest of the rest of
the class.

‘‘Teachers are artists. We have given
them the widest possible scope to be
artists’? explained Mrs. Scattergood,
noting that the basic pattern of her unit

can be-altered according to the specific

needs of each class.

‘‘This program takes the slow reader
and makes him the most important person
in the class. It’s good for his ego.’

Mrs. Scattergood uses a map of the
area being studied, and a table covered by
about a hundred books, ranging from
fourth grade to adult level. At the start of
the unit, each child except the readers
picks a book, and in it he finds some as-
pect of the topic which interests him. At
first the children pick easy books, but
each progresses until he becomes an expert
in his specific aspect, as his reading level
in that subject goes up.

Since the vocabulary of the play is beyond
fourth-grade level, the teacher explains it
to the readers, using a dictionary only asa
last resort. During this period of prepara-
tion, each child makes a Greek robe, a
device particularly helpful in ghetto
schools, where children rarely have new
clothes. After the reading of the play, the
teacher asks questions about it which are
answered by the experts.

The play presented on Saturday was the
story of the birth of Zeus. There were two
narrators, Chronos, Rhea, and a nurse.
Chronos, it turns out, has been eating all
of his babies so that no one can take his
power. Rhea objects, ‘‘The idle talk of
gossips turns you into a monster so
terrible not even the servants can look you
in the face.’.. Let others share the power
and you will be even stronger, because
people will respect you.” But Chronos re-
turns, ‘‘I leave you and your sniveling.
Learn to act like a queen!??

The nurse provides the solution. Rhea

 

Mrs. Sara Scattergood, '36 brought some

School for a dramatic presentation.

will have her next baby on Crete, where
the nurse, a she-goat, and the nymphs will
care for it.

Sample questions after the reading asked
about Chronos’ fear and what virtues
he had, ..

At the end of the presentation, Mrs.
Scattergood assigns creative homework,
such as pictures or poems..

The next speaker was Mrs. Barbara
Rebmann Coates °46, who teaches at a

(Continued on page 7)

~_THE COLLEGE NEWS

Alumnae, Curriculum

  

Friday, November 10, 1967

Committee ;

i

 

 

photo by Bill Harris

Mrs. Paula Smith, '64 presents her views on heterogeneous classes in the panel discussion in the Music Room.
_With her on the panel are (from left) Miss Bonnie Allen’38, Mrs. Marshall and Miss Barbara Schieffelin, 62.

Bryn Mawr Graduates Discuss Dynamic
Programs In Education At Symposium

The panel discussion led by Mrs.
Marshall introduced three Bryn Mawr
graduates (Paula Pace Smith (’64), Bonnie
Allen (?38) and Barbara Jay Schieffelin
(62) with different experiences in public
school education.

Paula Pace~ Smith spoke first about her
current work in an experimental Inter-
mediate School in New York City. Mrs.
Smith took her Master’s degree in edu-
cation at New York University. While at
Bryn Mawr, she helped to found the Bryn
Mawr-Haverford tutorial program.

Mrs. Smith said that the most valuable
part of her preparation for teaching under
the MAT program at NYU was the student
teaching. Too often, she said, there is a
gap between what you are toldabout teach-
ing and the kinds of problems you have to
face in a public school classroom,

photo by Bill Harris
of her pupils from Germantown Friends

At her present school, several new atti-
tudes toward educational problems are
being expressed in programs, Mrs. Smith
said., One two year old program involves
heterogenous groupings for social sutdies
classes. These groups include both bright
kids and children who can’t read at all.
Children who are capable and eager are
given extra work to do, while those who
have trouble with social studies receive
special attention. In thes: mixed groups,

_ kids of different backgrounds can learn

from each other, A heterogenous class-
room also demands that the teacher in-
dividualize teaching and treat each child
as having special features and difficulties.

Mrs. Smith described community parti-
cipation in the policies and programs of the
school as another new idea. A group of

teachers from her school, some of whom.

are Spanish speaking, have started dis-
cussion groups with black and Puerto Rican
parents as well as with the white middle
class pare~ts who usually come to school
meeting”. ‘rs. Smith disagreed with the
theory ' ....*ne school is the sole solution
to the community’s ills. Children are only
in school for six hours, she explained, and
the amount of attention each can be given
is slight. Many of the children have been
pushed out on their own by their families.
Others have parents who are alcoholics or
prostitutes. The kids don’t just drop these
problems at home, said Mrs. Smith. If edu-
cation is to be meaningful to children, the
community they live in must be part of and
involved in the educational process. _
‘¢How to stay in the public school class-
room,’’? was discussed by Bonnie Allen
(38). Miss Allen spent 14 years teaching
modern dance at an independent school in

New York. She received a Master’sinedu- -

cation at Harvard, and is now teaching
English at Newton South High School, as
well as supervising Harvard’s student
teachers at the school.

Miss Allen spoke of three innovations
she believes necessary to keep good teach-
ers with the students who need them. Power
is one focus of change. Teachers don’t
participate enough in decisions about
school policy, Miss Allen stated. They don’t
have the power to direct the relationship
between the school and the community. She
claimed that teachers must affect the in-
novations student needs require by shar-
ing in the power of the school board and
by reforming school administration.

Prestige is another aspect of teaching
demanding change. Salary rates rank
school officials in the sequence of adminis-
trators, guidance counselors, janitors, and
finally teachers, The teacher must liberate
herself and have the courage to take first
place by virtue of her responsibility,
according to Miss Allen. She must demand
judgments by results, that is, by how the
child is educated. She must learn to talk
frankly about money, ask for an end to
tenure, and put pressure on the university

“to undertake the role of training fine new
teachers,

The satisfaction of teachers should
undergo changes. A new variety and activ-
ity in the classroom can be sparked by

introducing team teaching, by abandoning
fadism about methods and doing what
works, and by individual, rather than rigid
discipline: The door of the classroom is
open today, claimed Miss Allen, and the
teacher is no longer shut in tradition and
oblivion.

Barbara Jay Schieffelin (’62) explained
why she went into teaching, why she got
out, and what she is doing now. After

 

This page and a half cover the
Alumnae Schoolteaching Sympos-
ium last Saturday. Mrs. Scafter-
good spoke at a morning session
in Goodhart. Then the audience
broke up into two groups to hear
two separate panel discussions.
The symposium ended with a
lunch in Rhoads for 130 guests,
.and-a speech by Miss McBride.

 

 

 

graduation from Bryn Mawr, Miss Schief-—
felin spent a year teaching in Africa during
which, she said, she didn’t know what she
was doing. She decided to return to the
United States to take her Master’s at
Harvard, and hopefully gain a better idea
about teaching.

She began teaching in a Boston public
school with her degree. Again, she became
frustrated and felt helpless about the situa-
tion in the school. She realized the need
for reflection, for questioning how children
learn, how best to deal with individual
problems. .She wondered if one person
standing up before thirty others in a box-
like room is the best answer to these
questions. When you are caught up in the
immediate problems and demands of
‘teaching, reflection about the nature of
‘earning is very difficult, Miss Schieffelin.
concluded. And when you are bound in a
fixed student-teacher relationship, close-
ness between adult and child often can’t

OW.
er Schieffelin began to think about the
need for powér to do away with many of
the restrictive rules and_ traditional
patterns appendaged to education. - She
wanted time to thoughtfully consider alter-
natives to the public school system. She
also recognized the need to recruit good
people to teaching. For these reasons she
returned to Harvard to get her doctorate.
‘She is now pursuing further study. She is
also working on new programs in Boston

“ schools, such as bringing together children

from the suburbs and children from poor,
urban areas to share and learn from the

ay. - Kathy Murphey