Learning through Books, Media and Technology

ARTICLES THIS ISSUE:

1993 Administrative Leadership Awards

Accentuating the positive

1993 President's Award Winner

The energy of synergy

This is my country --- an my school

We are the world: our success is yours

Social sciences and technology --- a natural combination

No question of relevance

Inspiring students to speak out

Big ideas prepare students for the future

Open doors, open minds

Good Ideas! Home Page

Good Ideas! is published by CSLA

1499 Old Bayshore Hwy.

Burlingame

California

94010

(415) 692-2350

Big ideas prepare students for the future

Charles Wright School

History/social science has been a top area of emphasis at Charles Wright School. The unifying theme, or "big idea" last year was that some people have been willing to risk all to find a better life. This provocative concept was used in all grades, in many different ways. Venn diagrams of folk tales were analyzed to show how we're different and yet the same in our aspirations. Immigration studies involved map skills, literature, a consideration of national pride in America, and construction of a time line. Simulation games gave fourth graders a feeling of what it was like to participate in the gold rush. Letters to Boston helped students to compare the Boston of the revolutionary period to the Boston of today Students devised their own Declaration of Independence and interviewed an actor who arrived as Ben Franklin.

Charles Wright fifth graders reporting in 3-D their research findings about events leading up to the American Revolution.

How does all this happen? Not without a great deal of staff cooperation. Judith Salzberg (library media teacher) and other staff members at Wright plan and teach collaboratively and imaginatively An information skills plan, specific to this site, was developed at grade level meetings --- one that belongs to them and meets their needs. Technology certainly helps, and the fact that there is also a full-time clerk in the library center is, says Judith, one of the key ingredients.

Here are a few statistics that make the programs at Charles Wright seem even more remarkable:

• Of the 638 K-5 students, 48 percent are Southeast Asian. 22 percent Caucasian, 22 percent Hispanic, and 8 percent African American.
• The school is 85 percent Chapter 1, with 92 percent of the students oo AFDC.
• Among languages spoken are English, Spanish, Hmong, Leo, and Mien.
• 80 percent of the students have public library cards!
• Charles Wright School (Grade K-3, enrollment 638)
  900 E. 20th Street, Merced 95340; (209) 385-6615
  Sylvia F. Fuller, Principal
  Judith Salzberg, Library Media Teacher
  Merced City School District