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Sophia Institute online Art of Teaching Waldorf Program

Art of Teaching Waldorf Grade 2

Lesson 5

HELP

Waldorf Curriculum

Introduction

A curriculum could be compared to the list of ingredients for a recipe. However good the recipe, the quality of the ingredients is crucial but to make a start the components also need to be available. When they are to hand, the next question is whether the cook is skilled enough to combine and adjust flavors so that each item plays its part without overwhelming the others. An experienced cook may be able to substitute one ingredient for another, even to improvise in such a way that something new is created. But we should not forget that emotion, even love, goes into the preparation of food and this will influence how it is received. And, of course, the expectations, health and culinary experience of the diners also makes a difference.

A curriculum guides an entire learning process. It should not, like a dish into which a chef has thrown every possible taste, explode in an overwhelming, sensation-bursting blowout; it should bring to the table ingredients that are well- balanced, digestible and nutritious, that promote health and stimulate, not stupefy, the senses. Over time, as with diet, a curriculum can introduce items that may not be immediately appealing, stronger tastes or more subtle and complex ones: intellectual chillis, subjects initially sour or astringent, as well as flavors, textures and scents that help to educate the palate. A primary school curriculum, in particular, sets out ingredients for the hors d'oeuvres of lifelong learning.

Of course, many school curriculums share common ingredients, but the distinctive qualities of the Steiner-Waldorf curriculum framework are, we believe, unique:
  • The curriculum unfolds over time, is wide and richly experiential: not merely designed towards narrowly-defined 'achievement', but intended to promote capability for the art of living
  • The curriculum is really only a series of 'indications', as Steiner described them, pointers inviting interpretation and free rendering, i.e. it calls on and encourages the creativity ( or artistry) of teachers
  • The importance of content is fully recognized (young people need certain skills and useful knowledge), but as a creative framework, the Steiner- Waldorf curriculum is embedded within a developing practice and method. The curriculum outline takes its cue from the development of the child: subject, or content, provides a medium for a meeting and collaboration of teacher and learner. Thus, since meaning and knowledge are built over  time, this is co-constructive learning in which understanding unfolds as a process of learning to learn encompassing both students and teacher
  • Subject content and necessary competence are always relative to the child: the curriculum is midwife to the emerging individuality, rather than suit of clothes into which the child must be made to fit
  • The shaping principles of the curriculum are extraordinarily robust and resilient. Many independent educators recognize this fundamental coherence, which has stood the test of time and many generations of children
  • The creative freedom within the Waldorf curriculum framework enables it to be successfully adapted for a variety of settings, languages and cultures. Schools founded on the principles and example of the first Waldorf School (Stuttgart 1919), can be found around the world, including every inhabited continent. What started as a central European curriculum has been modified by applying its essential principles to the education of children in -the Americas, many parts of Africa, the Middle East, India and the Far East, as well as most of the rest of Europe.

Course Outline

Sophia Institute Waldorf Courses: The Art of Teaching Waldorf Grade 2
Lesson 1 / Waldorf Curriculum / Introduction
Lesson 2 / Waldorf Curriculum / Grades 1 - 3 (Part 1)
Lesson 3 / Waldorf Curriculum / Grades 1 - 3 (Part 2)
Lesson 4 / Waldorf Methods / Reading and Math / Introduction
Lesson 5 / Waldorf Methods / Reading and Math / Reading / Grade 2
Lesson 6 / Waldorf Methods / Reading and Math / Math / Grade 2
Lesson 7 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Chemistry / Introduction
Lesson 8 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Physics / Introduction
Lesson 9 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Life Sciences / Introduction
Lesson 10 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Geography / Introduction
Lesson 11 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Geography / Grades 1 - 8
Lesson 12 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Gardening and Sustainable Living
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Tasks and Assignments for Art of Teaching Waldorf Grade 2 /AoT25

Please study and work with the study material provided for this lesson. Then please turn to the following tasks and assignments listed below.

1. Study the material provided and look up other resources as needed and appropriate.
2. Create examples of curriculum that addresses the learning method and content appropriate for the grade 2 as follows. Curriculum examples should include outlines and goals, activities, circle/games, stories, and illustrations/drawings:
2.1. Create 2 examples that relate to "Speaking and Listening" for grade 2.
2.2. Create 2 example that relates to "Grammar" for grade 2.
2.3. Create 2 examples that relate to "Writing and Reading" for grade 2.

3. Additionally submit comments and questions, if any.

Please send your completed assignment via the online form or via email.

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Study Material for this Lesson

Introduction

Language is our most important means of mutual understanding and is therefore the primary medium of education. It is also a highly significant formative influence in the child’s psychological and spiritual development and its cultivation is central to the educational tasks of Steiner/Waldorf education. It is the aim of the curriculum to cultivate language skills and awareness in all subjects and teaching settings. Clearly the teaching of the mother tongue has a pivotal role within the whole education.

English Language and Literature/Class 2

Speaking and Listening

In addition to reciting in chorus, more and more  of the children practise speaking poems solo in  front of the class. Short poems are enacted or  are accompanied by gesture. Those with a strong  rhythm and much repetition are especially suitable,  such as The Key of the Kingdom and This is the House  that Jack Built. To fit in with the story material of  this class, fables can be recited (alternating chorus  and solo recitation) or perhaps acted. The children  are encouraged to retell the stories they have  heard and the experiences they have had. Speech  and articulation exercises such as tongue-twisters  are practised and the different qualities of oral  expressions are explored which emphasise certain  elements, e.g. speaking in a fiery or watery way,  stressing verbs of action, being aware of descriptive  elements and names, in short experiencing the  qualities of word types and moods.  Fables, legends, folklore and nature stories  concerned mainly with animals and the local  environment are the story material for Class 2. In  their content these reveal a broad scale of human  activity and relate to the natural world. Animal and  other fables are about one-sided aspects of moral  qualities (greed, cunning, envy, etc.). Legends, and  in particular the lives of the Saints look at the other  side of human nature, the part where the hero  as holy man or woman brings harmony to onesidedness and by turning towards God gains the  strength to serve his or her fellow human beings.  There are many examples from a wide range of  cultures with the Celtic tradition offering many  appropriate stories. The fables of Aesop, Leonardo  da Vinci, Lafontaine, Lessing, as well as the animal  stories of the Native American traditions also  provide important examples. As far as the language  is concerned, such legends enable the children to  hear and speak in a way that differs greatly from  the fairy tale style. The brevity and simplicity of the  language of fables initially astonishes the children  (Ts that the end already?'). But then they notice  they are left with more to think about. The story  should be told and retold and listened to several  times before a conversation several days later  brings this to their attention. The relatively dry  tone of the fables is abundantly compensated for  in the warm style with which the life and deeds of  saints can be told.

​Grammar

The children should be made aware in an imaginative way of the character of activity words (verbs),  naming words (nouns) and describing words (adjectives and adverbs). 'This should be combined in  a simple and obvious way with a talk about the formation of sentences." Punctuation is taught on the  basis of the spoken rhythms which indicate when  the sentence starts, finishes or pauses.

Writing and Reading

Writing
The transition to lower case cursive script is  prepared by suitable form drawing exercises, especially running and rhythmical forms.  Lower case letters followed by cursive script are  introduced with appropriate writing materials.  This usually means changing from wax stick  crayons in Class 1 to coloured graphite pencils in  Class 2. Care and attention is paid to developing  a fluid style of handwriting. The children's effort  to orientate themselves on the page supports their  endeavours to make the page beautiful and gives  them an aesthetic interest in their writing. Steiner  considered this important since this activity  involves the writer more intensely in her work. 13  The content of written work is related to the  main-lesson themes and the children's own  experiences. As a general guideline, about a third  of writing is composed by the children, the other  two thirds comprising texts prepared by the teacher  and copied from the board and texts dictated by the  teacher. Steiner suggested that the children in Class  2 should be able to write down, 'little descriptions  of everything they are told and later what they  have learnt about animals, plants, meadows and  woods."  In Class 2 the children should be taught a good  beautiful, flowing, cursive script, and their pencil  hold and posture regularly checked. The letter  formation too should be checked time and time  again. The children use fat, soft pencils 2B, 3B or  equivalent, which will encourage flow.  

Free writing
Compared to mainstream schools, very little free  writing is done by the children in Steiner-Waldorf  schools. Instead, the children write about the  stories they have been having in their main -lesson.  By the middle of Class 2, most of the children will  be getting keen on writing. A good way to support  this is by encouraging them to write letters (at home  or in the writing lesson) to the class teacher and to  each other. This way the children are using writing  as an archetypal form of communication - spelling  the words as they think they sound - and the  teacher can pick out some of the spelling mistakes  and use them as part of the literacy programme.  The letters also have to be read, providing valueable  reading practise.  One suggestion is to make a letterbox for the  classroom. All the letters can be posted in the  letterbox and someone's job is to be the postman.  The postman sorts out the letters in alphabetical  order and delivers them to the appropriate address  (desks, i.e. third desk from the front, near the  window). The less able spellers can draw pictures  for the words they cannot spell (note: this activity  can be delayed to Class 3).  

Reading
The children continue practising reading with texts  they have written themselves or provided by the  teacher. A differentiated approach is used including  whole class reading, child to adult, child to child  and solo reading. There is regular practice in the  recognition of auditory, visual and kinaesthetic  patterns through teacher-led exercises. Spelling is  based on a whole language approach reinforced by  contextual, phonic and kinesthetic methods.  In Class 2 the emphasis is on phonics - how  spoken sounds are encoded by written letters and  letter groups.  Class teachers must have a thorough knowledge  of phonics, but need to be flexible about which facts  to teach - and to whom. To insist pedantically on  teaching every detail to the whole class is a waste  of time, since many children will not need it. Other  children will need all the detailed teaching and  practice they can get.

Phonics  
Consonant digraphs: 
ng ch wh ck qu
Vowel digraphs: oo ee
Vowels + r: ar er or 
2 -letter cons. blends: tr gr gl cl st etc. 
Diphthong: oi oy 
Doubled consonants: e.g. - fu nn y  da dd y
Soft c rule: c followed by c, i or y says 'ss' 
'Magic' e and its effects on the preceding vowel  (making it say its name).
Practise listening for a given sound and locating  it at the beginning, middle or end of a word. 

Word building
- Making plurals by adding s or (after s, x, ss, ZZ,  ch, sh) es
- 
Adding -ing (when it does not involve changing  the root word)
- Adding -ly 

Various activities
Games can be used to practise identifying and  locating:  -* the first sound - or digraph - in a word; the last sound - or digraph - in a word; the vowel within a word

Other games
* Rhyming games 
* Alphabet games (incl. alphabetical order) 
* Learn to spell some essential irregularly spelled  words such as: 'was: 'are', 'have', 'said: 'they' 
* Spelling bees; words chosen by the class teacher  to conform to patterns already covered 
* Substituting letters to make new words 

As the second stage in the teaching of reading,  many teachers make a reading book for their class.  This is best done in the teacher's own handwriting  - the children are used to this - it can then be  reproduced on a photocopier or risograph. The  children can make their own covers and add  drawings to go with each story, thus individualising  the book.  The book should include stories the children are  familiar with such as fables, saint stories, poems,  tongue twisters etc. It is important to use reading  patterns that have been taught (and learnt!) -  ideally getting progressively more difficult. Simple  word games are also a good idea. These can go  alongside the reading text, for example on the left  page and then if the class is asked to read silently  the faster readers can then start on the word games.  For children who have a difficulty with reading it  is a good idea to put one simple summarising  sentence on the left hand page for them to read -  after the teacher or other better reader has read the  right hand page. This is a form of shared reading,  which is known to be one of the most effective ways  of building the bridge between being read to and  reading yourself. (Often parents are willing to help  with the reading lesson. Please prepare them before  hand so they understand about short vowel/long  vowel sounds; particular techniques you have used;  which children need special encouragement, etc.)  By now the children are almost ready for printed  books. First however, they need an introduction  to printed letters - the 'g' in particular, but also 'a'  and T - and the general layout of books: chapters,  introduction, index, etc.  At this stage the hardest task for the teacher is  to find and choose a good class reader and good  reading schemes for individual reading.  High standards of artistic presentation,  topic, story quality and age appropriateness are important criteria in the choice of reader. On top  of that it is important to find books that are not  too difficult and are graded so that the language  used is very simple - using mainly phonic words  - and gradually gets harder introducing more and  more spelling patterns. Some existing Waldorf  readers are too difficult and can seriously affect  the confidence of less able children. There may be  a social reason for a class reader - the children  hopefully learn to be patient, help each other,  etc. - but it is worth asking oneself what good it  does for a group of children with extraordinary  different reading abilities and reading styles to  read the same book out loud.
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Blackboard drawing: Saint Francis of Assisi

​​Stories of the Saints

Stories of the Saints are brought to children in Waldorf schools during the second grade because their meaning resonates with children during this stage of development. Children make a big leap, intellectually and behaviorally, when they go from first to second grade. While the first grader is intent on pleasing their teacher, the second grader tends to seize opportunities for mischief. In second grade, children hear fables, animal tales, and stories about the Saints that mirror their development. The stories of the Saints, in particular, are told so these children can identify with people who have done good deeds for others. Though second graders experience consequences for their new-found “naughty” or “mischievous” behavior, the children are reassured through these stories that they are inherently good people.

How are the stories brought to students? 

They are woven throughout the day’s lessons in song, instrumental music, literacy, movement, and art. The beauty of the Waldorf curriculum is that there is freedom for the teacher to shape each lesson in a way that will resonate the most with the temperament of their class. The teacher chooses which Saints’ stories to tell, based on the needs of their class.

The second grade teacher will first present a story in the oral form – usually with an illustration on a chalkboard to support and enliven the storytelling. St. Francis of Assisi, seen above in chalk, is a saint whose adventures are commonly told to second graders because of his gentle nature and heroism.

The stories will live in academic lessons, for days and sometimes for several weeks. The main lesson books made by the second grade children, will feature both drawings and writings about various saints.
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