teaching pedagogy at sidwell and gds

[Anonymous]

Any insights you can share on how they teach?

[Anonymous]

I'm happy to talk about my kids' experiences, but I not sure I fully understand your question. My kids have learned a lot, and their teachers have been great. It would help me answer more specifically if you can be more specific about what you're asking.

Lower school or upper? Style of teaching, or subjects taught? Number of teachers? Something else?

I'm not trying to be difficult; I just need guidance.

[Anonymous]

Thanks PP. I'm mostly interested in lower school. What is the teaching style? Traditional curriculum, lecture, rote memorization, phonics, writing workshop? What is a typical day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks PP. I'm mostly interested in lower school. What is the teaching style? Traditional curriculum, lecture, rote memorization, phonics, writing workshop? What is a typical day?

OK, that helps. I'll try to answer. The teaching style is highly interactive. I've never seen or heard of teachers giving lectures or teaching by memorization. I imagine that would bore the young kids silly. What I see are lots of games and activities. The teachers will show the children how to play a math game, for example, and then split the children into small groups to play for a while. Then then teachers will change the rules to make it more challenging and let the kids play some more. For reading, the children will read stories collectively, in small groups, or individually, depending on the grade, and then will gather in a big group or small groups to discuss the story. The details vary on the day. Every child will be encouraged to talk about what is happening in the story, and how the writing leads to certain resolutions. For writing, the children will write sentences, paragraphs, or whole stories based on something the class is doing, and the teachers will help guide and correct them. There is some homework that requires knowledge of spelling words and math facts, but whether that's learned by memorization or more practice is really up to individual families. The whole approach seems to emphasize learning by doing. I suspect most schools teach that way now, but I'm not positive about that.

I'm not sure whether the curriculum is traditional or not. The school's website gives a good overview of the curriculum and the general types of things children are doing --> http://www.sidwell.edu/lower_school/academics/index.aspx -- so maybe that will help you decide.

I hope this helps you.

[Anonymous]

10:36 posting once more. I just read what I wrote, and I don't want there to be confusion. I worry my post might be read to suggest the teachers just assign a game or project, and then sit back while the children play. That would be an incorrect reading. They circulate around the room from child to child while the activity is in progress, and work with individual children or groups on specifics.

I cannot vouch for every teacher in the school, because I know only the teachers my children have had, but every teacher my children have had so far has been exceptional. Great place. I have high expectations and skepticism, and this place has exceeded them so far.

[Anonymous]

PP, very helpful, thank you. Are there themes? How are they selected? What about project and inquiry based learning?

[Anonymous]

I thought you were asking how they teach pedagogy.