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Sophia Institute online Art of Teaching Waldorf Program

Art of Teaching Waldorf Grade 8

Lesson 3

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 8
Lesson 1 / Waldorf Curriculum / Introduction
Lesson 2 / Waldorf Curriculum / Grades 7 and 8 (Part 1)
Lesson 3 / Waldorf Curriculum / Grades 7 and 8 (Part 2)
Lesson 4 / Waldorf Methods / Reading and Math / Introduction
Lesson 5 / Waldorf Methods / Reading and Math / Reading / Grade 7 and 8
Lesson 6 / Waldorf Methods / Reading and Math / Math / Grade 7 and 8
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
Lesson 13 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Technology
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Tasks and Assignments for Art of Teaching Waldorf Grade 8 /AoT83

Please study and work with the study material provided for this lesson. Use additional study material as wanted/needed. Then please turn to the following tasks and assignments listed below.

Summarize the study material in your own words and add comments and questions. Create curriculum examples that address the developmental profile, and aims and objectives for grade 8. Create 1 week of sample Waldorf Main Lesson curriculum plans using the info and template provided, applying the following format:

1.A. Class 8/Developmental Profile
1.B. Class 8/Aims and Objectives


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

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Study Material for this Lesson

The Lower School: Classes 7 and 8​

Curriculum in Classes 7 to 8

The children have now reached a critical period  in their development that may be experienced  negatively as a crisis and is often described as such  in many publications on puberty. It is important,  however, for educators to treat this challenge  more as an opportunity than a crisis. Between  the ages of twelve and fourteen, the pupils have  indeed come into quite a new relationship with the  world. Physically they undergo a second change of  shape, often growing much taller, but their 'inner  shape' also changes noticeably. Hitherto, habit and  upbringing have governed their behaviour more  than their own choices and inclinations. Now their  soul life erupts into the world outside them.

The human being works his way through  via the breathing system and the circulatory  system right into the part where the muscles  are attached to the bones. He works right  to the edge of being human and at puberty  breaks out into the outside world. Not until  this moment does he arrive fully in the  outside world"

Steiner's choice of words here shows the  drama of this situation. Often the sheer force of  the children's inner tumult shocks those around  them so much that they forget that the children  are equally shocked. But the children do not want  their alarm, which is very deep and disturbing, to  be noticed by those around them. They don't want  to reveal their individuality in this 'new territory'  until they have gained some sense of security. Until  they have achieved this they hide in many ways  behind masks and 'difficult' behaviour.

The pedagogical task for the middle of  childhood is to understand that the children  enter in their own time into the rhythm of a  past that can be thought and a future that  can be sensed.'

There is even something of an existential feel  about this future that can be sensed. The young  people feel they are both solitary and a part of  humanity as a whole. Sexual maturity makes this  even clearer. Having become fully a part of the  human race in their ability to reproduce, they  also long for an extension of their own individual  responsibility towards the world. Steiner described  this as follows:

One of the principles in the Waldorf School  is to educate young people so that, on the one hand, they can bring to the fore in the right  way the whole of their human potential, and,  on the other hand, what they need to enable  them to take their proper place in the world.

What is referred to as a 'lack of discipline' or  descriptions of the pupils 'just hanging around'  can also be seen as a sign that these young people  are searching to find their way within a new  psychological situation and thus also within the  new sense they have of the physical world.

In addition to the changes of physical and  psychological 'shape', there is now also a change  in the young people's consciousness. Conceptual  thinking comes more to the fore as they endeavour  to make links between isolated phenomena and  thus leave their isolation behind them to take hold  of a new totality. Whatever they experience must  be transformed into original thinking, otherwise  it will make them insensitive and merely a prey to  sensationalism. At this age, it is not models and/  or the data of specialist science they need, but the  basic attitude of scientific work, which is: thinking  integrates the world of phenomena.

Chemistry, a new subject introduced in Class 7,  provides the right kinds of challenges and  opportunities in the above sense. Here the young  people get to know the world of substances and  explore their characteristics. In addition, what  they perceive can be used to form concepts, thus  bringing them into the research process and  helping them meet the world anew in a deeper  way. Reality is not contained in an abstract  concept but in thoughtful observation which  does not look exclusively either at the one-sided  concept or at the perception, but sees how the two  are linked together.

Inorganic chemistry offers impressive possibilities for dramatic experiments that illustrate this. The main-lesson block often begins with fire  and the process of combustion (an experience the  youngsters are well acquainted with!), and proceeds via the burning of limestone to acids, alkalis  and metals. The historical and cultural aspects of  the various technologies are always included in the  lessons.

Chemistry in Class 8 turns to other questions.

Organic processes in nature are more complicated  and therefore much harder to understand. The  human being, in whom all these processes take  place, is the starting point and focus for these  lessons. Understanding organic life processes,  the creation and metamorphosis of substances,  requires an active, imaginative kind of thinking to  conceive of such processes. Concepts need to be  formed that also relate to a sense of responsibility.

As with inorganic chemistry, physics in Class 7  has an equally 'dead' emphasis: mechanics. There  are two aspects of this. On the one hand, the  subject fits in well with the youngsters' search  for practical ways of changing the world such  as can be found and are applied in industry and  transport. On the other hand, by practising and  'playing' with mechanical experiments they can  become acquainted with the systematic work  required by the scientific method while also  enabling them to bring order into their own  steps in thinking. Physics in Class 8 shows how  mechanics extends into and helps to explain the  other areas of physics (e.g. steam engine, Morse  telegraphy, hydrostatics and hydraulics). Fixed  concepts and reductionism are still avoided. But a  beginning is made in using quantitative formulae  based on the mechanics learnt in Class 7, such  as the 'golden rule of mechanics', calculating  the speed of sound, calculating pressure etc.  Here we encounter an interesting paradox. As  increasingly accurate observations are made with the help of measuring instruments - a process in  which our direct experience withdraws from the  phenomena - so, on the other hand, the human  being becomes newly involved in a practical way  by making apparatus, instruments and machines  on the basis of the laws of physics. Decisive  industrial changes take place as a result, which in  turn lead to grave social consequences. As direct  experience of nature fades, this is replaced by a  working knowledge of the laws of physics, which  forms the basis for an interventionist approach.  This stage in consciousness reflects the profound  shift in human consciousness from pre-industrial  societies to the modern condition in which nature  loses its identity as being and becomes an objective  world described by the pronoun 'it' rather than  'thou'.

In Class 6, geography presented an overview of  the globe as a whole. Now the focus is on individual  parts of the world not yet dealt with in detail. The  cultural aspects of unfamiliar regions provide  a focus for understanding the relationship of  human society to its geographical circumstances.  The way individual cultures arise as the result of  geographical context provides the pupils with  examples of individuation at the cultural level as  they themselves begin to become more aware of  their own cultural identity. Directing the lessons  towards cultural phenomena draws the youngsters'  attention away from egotistical everyday concerns  of gratifying needs towards more objective  examples of lifestyles as exemplified by the cultural  forms of other peoples, and especially non-  European or Western orientated societies.

Biology is similar in this respect. Steiner  suggested that Class 7 was the last chance to  introduce the subjects of health and nutrition while  the children are still relatively less self-preoccupied  than they will be in the depths of puberty, and can experience the nature of the human being in a  general way. These days, Class 7-age pupils are well  into puberty and therefore it is a question whether  the aspects of human biology usually dealt with in  Class 7 shouldn't appear earlier in the curriculum.  Nevertheless, if the topic is taken in Class 7, the  teacher will have to accommodate the increased  self-consciousness of the students.

Gardening has a role to play here in that it  teaches about food plants and the worldwide  origins of food resources. Class 8 then turns to the  human form as such. In the anatomy main-lesson  the skeleton is studied in detail, including the  mechanics of bones and muscles, and comparisons  are made with animal skeletons. Eye and ear are  here seen as instruments serving the inner being  of the individual.

The discovery of the human being is often preceded by history lessons in Class 7, when the (re)  discovery by Europeans, of new continents, and the  discovery by non-Europeans of the strange forces  emanating from Europe, is a major topic. Another  aspect of this whole theme, is the discovery of natural laws, and the discovery of laws in art. The beginnings of scientific thinking in the Renaissance,  as well as the emergence of a new individual self-  consciousness that began when long-held views  of the world and of faith came under scrutiny, are  clearly comparable to the developmental situation  of youngsters as puberty begins.

By studying the rise of industry, the industrial  revolution and the human being as the shaper  of social order right up to the present time, the  youngsters in Class 8 are led not out of but further  into the real world. In studying cultural history they  can experience how the world can be transformed  by human beings; they can investigate the causes of  events and thus more and more become citizens of  the world.

The Renaissance discovery of the vanishing  point in painting and architecture where everything  meets or from which everything emanates is now  the foundation for the themes in painting and  drawing. Exercises in perspective and studies of  works by the great masters Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Piero delIa Francesca and non-vanishing point  perspective (Van Eyck) , lend more substance to  art studies. Here the excitement of the discovery  can be conveyed through biographical anecdote.  The pupils are not yet mature enough to grasp the  deeper levels of meaning that concerned the great  artists of the Renaissance. This will be the theme  of Upper School art studies. Having arrived at  this structure in drawing they now have to begin  imbuing it with new life. Once the elements of  structure, perspective and composition have been  introduced, colour can be reintroduced to express  the feeling and mood element to painting.

English language studies in Class 7 could be a  way of preparing for this. One subject, among many  other parts of speech dealt with, is 'interjections'  which are, after all, simply expressions of feelings  and sensations given direct expression in language.  During this period young people tend to become  inarticulate in the presence of adults, yet they  develop fluency in the rich vocabulary of teenage  jargon. Both phenomena are aspects of the search  for their own individual ways of expressing  themselves and such stylistic exercises can be a  great help.

Solo and chorus recitation of poetry and prose  must be strongly cultivated. In Class 8, when  the students are searching to find their own new  language, a new beginning can be made in working  with the various types of clause and with texts that  characterise them. Lively interest can be generated  by exercises in which sentence structures are sought  to suit the different temperaments. As the pupils begin to notice the sanguine, melancholic, choleric  and phlegmatic temperaments they begin to see each  other in a new light, and often with considerable  insight. The transition can then be made to stylistic  studies and exercises, with particular attention to the  special qualities of epic, lyric and dramatic poetry,  whereby metaphor, simile, etc. are given individual  attention.

Drama is a most important theme of this  biographical period. It should involve not only  the reading or reciting of ballads but also a larger  theatrical project, the Class 8 play. One of the  important aspects of this is getting the youngsters  working together in a social way on a work of art  involving language.

Similar considerations apply to foreign language  lessons. Exercises in writing reports and stories can  relate to geography and social history, i.e. themes  of a universal nature.

What I have said with regard to the  characteristics of languages means that  it is necessary - if we want to educate in a  generally human but not specialised way -  that we should take what comes out of the  genius of a particular language regarding  human nature and balance this by means of  another language.

The interest of the pupils can be focused on  other peoples all over the world and this can help  them develop an understanding of those who are  different.

Once again astronomy can be related to  geography and history. The pupils can be shown  the Copernican view of the world and discuss how  the view of the heavens changes in different parts  of the world. The point of departure is practical,  perceived astronomy, rather than theory. Practical navigation can be taught, thus linking the exploits  of early voyages of discovery, with astronomy and  orientation.

As with physics in Class 8, formulae now also  begin to appear in mathematics. A start is made  with algebra and equations, perhaps using interest  percentages (Class 6) as a point of departure.  Then the pupils have an analytical experience of  perspective in mathematics when they learn about  square roots. The realm of negative numbers is also  entered for the first time. Learning how to gain an  overview of things can also be schooled through  practical business calculation, e.g. in book-keeping,  the basic principles of which can be introduced in  Classes 6 and 7.

In geometry, theoretical proofs are practised in  connection with the congruence of triangles using  all kinds of definitions according to angles, triangles  and quadrilaterals with inscribed or perimeter  circles and also through the different proofs for  the Theorem of Pythagoras (including the use of  square roots) that links up with these. By repeating  and constantly practising the proofs, the pupils can  develop their capacity for forming judgements.  Constructions in perspective provide the link with  history and drawing, just as the construction of the  Golden Mean in Class 8 allows for a link to be made  with anatomy through anatomical proportions.

Forming exact judgements and concepts in  geometry is less difficult than in music. The  youngsters need to find their orientation in this  realm that expresses soul qualities. As before,  listening is every bit as important as solo playing  and making music and singing with others. Like  eurythmy, as we shall see, music at this age is  important socially and therapeutically because it  helps the youngsters form links with others and  extricate themselves from the loneliness that is beginning to take a grip on them. Music lessons can  introduce them to various composers and styles  and also help them develop an understanding of composition.

Eurythmy is connected with this. Ballads and  humorous pieces are worked on. Speech eurythmy  also supports language studies by cultivating artistic  interpretation, while tone eurythmy adds to and  accompanies music studies. As mentioned above,  doing eurythmy in a group allows for the practice  and development of social skills. At a period when  they can be shy, self conscious and awkward, the  youngsters are helped by discovering that the  formal principles of eurythmy can articulate their  experience of dynamic space as well as providing an  artistic medium for the expression of soul moods.

The Class 8 play has already been mentioned in  connection with English studies. This is intended  to be much more comprehensive than the short  plays and scenes that have been worked on from  Class 1 onwards in the main-lesson and foreign  languages. This play for the first time allows the  children to shape their emotions while still under  the protective mask of a role in a play. This can be  stimulating and motivating. In addition everything  they have learned and worked on in the Lower  School can be drawn on: making the scenery  (painting and carpentry), sewing the costumes  (handwork), making the posters (drawing),  choreography (eurythmy, music).

In the description of handwork in Classes 1  to 3 we have already mentioned practical skill.  Now we become increasingly concerned to  combine this practical usefulness with a sense  for the aesthetic, whilst relating natural materials  to their environmental context. For example the  youngsters might make shoes and then embellish  them artistically to suit both purpose and wearer.  Use of the sewing machine is practised so that in  the coming years complicated pieces such as shirts, blouses, trousers, skirts and dresses can be made.  Here design, function, material and technical skill  are brought into a relationship with aesthetics and  individual expression.

Just as handwork in Classes 7 and 8 gains an  element of the artistic, so do crafts and woodwork.  Useful objects of artistic design are made. The  design takes account of both function and aesthetic  appearance. Salad servers, candle holders, postcard  stands etc. are made in woodwork. To make toys  with moving parts you need a basic understanding  of mechanics, enough not only to allow you to  understand how something works but to be able to  design it in the first place.

Two qualities are particularly important at this  age, namely self-restraint and self-motivation.  Things that prevent us from participating in the  world, e.g. laziness, antipathy or fear, are tackled  for the first time in subjects such as gardening.  The weather itself provides a challenge because  of its unreliability.

Difficult procedures requiring  patience and skill, such as transplanting, are learnt.  If possible the whole gardening year should be  experienced, from sowing, planting, cultivating  (watering, hoeing, weeding) to harvesting, and then  even selling the produce. A sense of responsibility  is needed to sustain all this. The same goes for the  care of shrubs and trees because in addition to  immediate results it also requires foresight over  many years.

History is mainly concerned with experiencing  and understanding the past (although in Class 8 the  future can also be allowed to appear). Gardening,  on the other hand, is a responsibility directed to the  future.

Gym and sport lessons provide the aspect of  self-restraint and self-motivation that leads to clear  experiences of self. Apparatus work and springing  in all its many varieties, provide plenty of choice.


Perseverance and stamina are schooled by more  intensive running exercises. Ball games provide  an important social balance to the more solitary  disciplines. Once puberty begins a distinction is  made between the sexes for the first time. Training  is directed to developing strength for the boys and  elasticity for the girls.

In Class 8 a year-long project is also undertaken  by each pupil. Subjects and methods are many and  varied. The aim is for the youngsters to produce and  document work showing their own formulations  and graphic solutions, their own craft skills or  musical progress. The element of self-restraint and  self-motivation can be particularly strong here. At  a time when it is often difficult to 'reach' individual  pupils, a project provides opportunities to enter  into relationships with them based on an area of  common interest. This enables teachers to continue  an on-going relationship genuinely wanted by the  pupils.



Summary of Classes 7 to 8

The overriding theme is working with the world's  laws by conversing with them and, in doing  so, finding one's own voice. Students should  experience how knowledge makes one capable of  forming appropriate judgements and how forming  judgements leads to new questions. The students  should be led to bring together what they have  learned into a meaningful world picture in which  the human being as a striving ethical being has  central significance. The students should also reach  a degree of independent working that enables  them to approach the Upper School equipped for a  more subject specialist approach to learning which  requires more initiative and independent working  skills.

Even though at the founding of the original 
Waldorf school, the pupils left school after Class 8,  Steiner's comment below is equally relevant when  the students go on to the Upper School.

When you discharge a child from school you  should have laid the foundations for him  or her to be no longer tied to the body with  every fibre of the soul; in thinking, feeling  and will he must have become independent  of the body.

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