Educational standards

By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
Berna Austin of Solomon Elementary applies her Hawaii Content
and Performance Standards charts to the school's Core
Knowledge curriculum.

Solomon
Elementary students
learning specifics

The Schofield Barracks school
focuses on details using
Core Knowledge

Kailua kids meet expectations

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

Kris Morikawa's first-graders at Solomon Elementary responded in awe when they visited the IMAX theater and recognized by name the things they had learned in studies about Egypt.

"Wow, there's the Sphinx, there's King Tut, a sarcophagus," Morikawa said, recalling her students' reaction, "They knew all those words."

Solomon Elementary, located at Schofield Barracks, has completed its second school year of using Core Knowledge to help the school bring specificity to the original Hawaii Content and Performance Standards.

Core Knowledge is a reform model based on University of Virginia professor E.D. Hirsch Jr.'s book "Cultural Literacy."

"Dr. Hirsch found that there are certain things that all of us need to know and understand," Solomon Principal Bjarne Kaer said. "What core does, it's very specific. There's no question in your mind. You know what to teach. It tells you what grade level you should address it at."

For example, a first-grade class's world history lesson would include early civilizations such as ancient Egypt. Students would learn about the importance of the Nile River, pharaohs, pyramids, mummies, animal gods and hieroglyphics.

The idea is that kids need to know a certain amount of background information, Kaer said.

"You want kids to acquire this kind of content early on because they're going to be hearing about Egypt," Kaer said. "This then ... becomes like a Velcro. You've got a bit of information that you can tie new information to so it's not hanging on in midair."

The school has aligned math and science standards and was working this year on social studies standards.

"We asked each grade level to go through ... the Hawaii Content and Performance Standards. Where in the Core manual is this? If it's not covered, it comes up blank and then what we do is make a master chart and then we'll see where the pukas are. And then that's where local stuff comes in," Kaer said. "Core covers about 70 to 80 percent of the Hawaii Content and Performance Standards."

Bernadine Austin, Solomon curriculum specialist, labored over large charts trying to bring Core in line with the original Hawaii Content and Performance Standards. She had to resort to cutting and pasting to make sure the standards lined up.

Under the original Hawaii Content and Performance Standards, schools were scrambling to try to second-guess what to teach children, Kaer said.

Parent Julie Maine said her children come home enthusiastic about learning and school. "They're making connections in how history impacts the future."

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By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
Bryson Quijano completes a picture-word work sheet in Charlotte
Izutsu's kindergarten class at Kailua Elementary School.

Kids meeting
expectations at Kailua
Elementary

The school's principal likens
standards to a target
to shoot for

Taking it to the classroom

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

STUDENTS in Jule Saracco's third-grade class at Kailua Elementary each waited their turn to report on their progress toward polishing their essays.

Displayed on the wall in Saracco's class, the essays sound like they were written by seasoned writers.

What you can't tell from reading the works is that the authors have learning capabilities ranging from special education to gifted and talented.

"People bash public education, but the fact is that we take all kids. They all come from different places," Principal Michael Harano said. "We're trying to reach every child and that's what makes teaching that much more complex."

But standards are a good way of keeping everyone on the same track.

"That helps," Harano said. "Because the teacher has that in mind and the kids have that in mind. Even though there are different things going on, it's a standard. There is a rock, there is an anchor, a foundation. There is a target to shoot at."

In Saracco's class, students sat on the floor and each told her where they were in their writing and how much more work his or her essay needed before it got on the wall.

The students know ahead of time what's expected and what their paper should include because they have a checklist that tells them that.

Students check for correct capitalization, punctuation and paragraphing and whether the entire piece has cohesiveness. "After that they give it to me and I go through it," the teacher said.

Saracco, who retired at the end of last school year but will return to campus in the fall to help with writing classes, said she once had a special education student who completed just one polished piece for the entire year, but it showed that he was able to meet the same expectations for the assignment that his peers did.

Kindergarten teacher Charlotte Izutsu said standards provide focus not only for the teacher or classroom but the entire school.

"They're ready or they're not ready, and the parents are informed along the way," Izutsu said. "You know exactly where they are and what they need to do."

Here's how it works in learning the alphabet:

"First they identify the letter name and then they identify the sounds, and if they do it, they get a happy face," Izutsu said. "Flash cards go home every day. ... So when the student brings back the card and gets it correct, he gets a sticker. So they can tell by the number of stickers on a card if they performed well."

Teachers also know what's expected in the next grade and what students coming up to them should already know, said Izutsu, standing a few feet from her classroom-sized reproduction of a rain forest.

Fifth-grade teacher Linda Sakamoto, who has taught for 33 years, said standards may not be a drastic change for some teachers.

"Personally, what I found was it's what we were doing anyway, but we just gave it a name. It verified what we already knew by making sure that we're doing what needs to be done to accomplish those goals," Sakamoto said. "I think it has made us all aware to be sure that in our lessons we're telling the kids ahead of time" what is expected.

Sakamoto's students in one lesson are Pilgrims traveling to America on the Mayflower.

The students receive a printout ahead of time that spells out the expectations of the assignment.

The students are supposed to write in a log in the voice of a young Pilgrim child. They are graded on spelling and on how well they write in the proper perspective.

"If you have no more than three errors, you get an excellent and your ship gets to move," said Sakamoto.

Because the students are in "competition" with the original Pilgrims, the occupants of each "ship" also have to learn to cooperate.

If they don't, they suffer the same consequences that the Pilgrims did, and they get crossed out of existence.

"They know that their goal at the end is to end up with more Pilgrims alive, with more food and more cabins than the original Pilgrims. It's based on their writing, their cooperativeness, their problem-solving skills," she said.

Taking it to the classroom Here's an example of how one school, Solomon Elementary, embarked on standards-based education by taking the goals of the original Hawaii Content and Performance Standards and translating them into lesson plans by using a content specific model called Core Knowledge: STATE STANDARDS Political Science, Citizenship for kindergarten to grade 3 Content standards: Ideals, principles and practices of citizenship in a democratic republic. Performance standards: Explain the purposes of rules and laws in our community/nation/world. Identify fundamental principles of the American democratic republic as expressed in documents, songs, stories and speeches. CORE KNOWLEDGE American History and Geography The 13 Colonies: Life & times before the Revolution Teachers: Discuss with children the definition of "colony" and why countries establish colonies. Help children see that the 13 English colonies were not alike. Different groups of people came to America with different motivations (hoping to get rich, looking for religious freedom, etc.), and the 13 colonies developed in different ways. A. Geography The 13 colonies by region: New England, Middle Atlantic, Southern. Differences in climate from north to south: corresponding differences in agriculture. Important cities in development of trade and government: Philadelphia, Boston, New York and Charleston. B. Southern Colonies C. New England Colonies D. Middle Atlantic Colonies (Important people, places and events are listed for each colony under each region) CLASSROOM LESSON Objective and goal: Students will: Define colony and explain why countries establish colonies. Explain the similarities and differences of the three regions. Identify the 13 colonies by regions. Identify important dates on a time line. Procedures, activities: Introduce the 13 colonies by using a map. Discuss what a colony is and why they were first established. Discuss the similarities and differences of the three regions. Provide each student with a map of the three regions. The students will color each region using three different crayons. Students will begin to create a class time line by labeling important dates on it.