Waldorf Curriculum 1
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:
Course Outlines
Waldorf Curriculum 1
Lesson 1: Introduction Lesson 2: Preschool and Kindergarten Lesson 3: Grades 1 - 3 (Part 1) Lesson 4: Grades 1 - 3 (Part 2) Lesson 5: Grades 4 - 6 (Part 1) Waldorf Curriculum 2 Lesson 1: Grades 4 - 6 (Part 2) Lesson 2: Grades 7 and 8 (Part 1) Lesson 3: Grades 7 and 8 (Part 2) Lesson 4: Grades 9 - 12 (Part 1) Lesson 5: Grades 9 - 12 (Part 2) Lesson 6: Evaluations and End of Year Reports |
Tasks and Assignments for Waldorf Curriculum 1.3.
Please study and work with the study material provided for this lesson. Then please turn to the following tasks and assignments listed below.
Summarize the study material in your own words and add comments and questions. Use the following format: 1.A. Class 1/Developmental Profile 1.B. Class 1/Aims and Objectives 2.A. Class 2/Developmental Profile 2.B. Class 2/Aims and Objectives 3.A. Class 3/Developmental Profile 3.B. Class 3/Aims and Objectives Please send your completed assignment via the online form or via email. 
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Study Material for Waldorf Curriculum 1.3.
The Lower School: Classes 1 to 3
Class 1 (age six to seven)
Developmental profile
The seventh year sees the commencement of 'formal' schooling in the Steiner-Waldorf method. During the first seven years, the young child learns to be at home in the physical body, developing an orientation in space and acquiring the initial, fundamental developmental capacities of uprightness, speech and thought. The content of the child's whole environment is the learning context; the child 'imitates' the people and the agencies that are in his/her environment. This imitating gesture serves to imprint on the child's will the content and the quality of what is learnt. In the nursery or kindergarten, experiential learning, discovery through creative play and intensive social interaction with peers and teachers constitute the main educational themes. Awareness of the complexities of the mother tongue and number is acquired through informal play and social interaction. These is not taught didactically. Around the seventh year the child completes the process of forming the second dentition sufficiently for forces that have been concentrated on growth and physical upbuilding to become active in developing the facility for independent, representational, pictorial thinking. 'Formal' methods of teaching - in literacy, numeracy and other disciplines - are introduced. The child is still in a mood of dreamy wholeness, more able to bring broad awareness than focused concentration to learning settings. Much learning is continued through activity and imitation through which the child receives an image, internalises it, recalls it, and generalises it into a concept which can be applied, e.g. the letter 'R' or times 'x' What was experienced practically, though not conceptually, in the pre-school years, is raised to a feeling relationship through mental picturing. The child's holistic experience of the world is nourished by archetypal pictures such as those reflected in fairy tales and well thought out nature stories.
Aims and objectives
In this year the children make the important transition from the kindergarten to school where they begin formal learning. The children are led by their teacher to a first experience of the forms, sounds and sequencing of letters and number symbols by using pictures, rhymes and stories. The children learn to recognise and memorise these with lots of practice involving movement, verses, drawing and writing. During this first year the class acquires the good habits of classroom life and work, which will form the basis of their time together in the Lower School and indeed for all subsequent learning at school. Cultivating reverence for nature, care for the environment, respect for others, interest in the world and a feeling of confidence in their teachers - these are the moral aims for Class 1 and the following classes. The teachers aim to lead the children into becoming a socially cohesive group who care for and listen to each other.
Class 2 (age seven to eight)
Developmental profile
The eight-year-old child continues to reside in a largely self-created psychological landscape, which derives from the child's faculty for developing individualised thought-pictures from the realms of their inner life. The events and experiences of the outside world are filtered through the child's imagination and rearranged to accord with the child's homogenous world-picture. Children show greater alertness in noting what happens around them at this age. The mood of wholeness differentiates into contrasts such as a deeper, more conscious feeling for the religious element alongside a tempting awareness of the mischievous. The curriculum content for this age serves to cultivate in the child a sense for the breadth and richness of the language of the feelings and emotions. Cognitively the child continues to be at home in a learning context where pictorial thought content is to the fore. Concepts are best understood meaningfully when they are mobile and organic in quality. The pupils continue to familiarise themselves with the fundamentals of numeracy and literacy, while in gross and fine motor movements - whether through skipping, catching and throwing a ball, or knitting, crocheting or flute-playing - they develop a repertoire of skills and competencies that were initially introduced in Class 1. Thus the intellect is allowed to awaken through the artistic approach. In Class 2 pupils, the adult teeth continue to push through, laterality and dominance are firmly established and it is during this year that specific learning needs and difficulties are observable. The range of abilities within a class becomes clearly discernible. Much of the confidence and sense of belonging which Class 2 pupils exude is clearly due to the fact that the child is building on the foundations laid in Class 1.
Aims and objectives
The initial experiences of the first year are deepened and enhanced in Class 2. This time is used primarily for practising and developing all the new skills from the previous year. Whereas in Class 1 a lot of energy goes into forming the class into a social cohesive group where children are supported by the wholeness that they experience, in Class 2 a mood of contrast or polarisation often surfaces, which can be observed in the way children relate to each other. To help the children go through this stage they are told stories where contrasting human qualities and characteristics are found portrayed by holy people and saints in legends and by animals in the fables. This class needs strong leadership from the teachers through consistency of approach and through the power of imagination. The children derive direction and form from the images they are given.
Class 3 (age eight to nine)
Developmental profile
Class 3 in the Steiner-Waldorf curriculum is the equivalent point of entry into Key Stage Two in the English National Curriculum guidelines. In Class 3 the pupils enter their tenth year. At this point, noticeable physiological, psychological and cognitive changes take place in the child. These changes, referred to as the ninth/tenth-year threshold, may begin as early as 8.5 years or as late as 9.5 years and may last from between six months and one year. The child develops a firmer, more balanced gait; speech sounds are increasingly formed in the middle of the mouth and articulated more directly and the child focuses on the 'middle distance: The child's constitution is noticeably stronger. The heart increases in size and is capable of receiving a larger volume of blood and a new breath/blood pulse ratio is established in the region of one breath to four pulses. Growth begins to focus more on the limbs and metabolism and there is a growth in the breadth of the trunk. In some children this developmental phase is marked by symptoms including weariness, tummy and head pains, nausea, dizziness, a variable appetite, asthma, eczema and disturbed sleep patterns. Steiner talks about a metamorphosis in the child's feeling life. At seven years, there is a metamorphosis in the child's thinking. In Class 3, the child experiences a duality in perceiving the world, in his or her feeling. A process begins to unfold through which the child experiences with increasing strength, a sense of objectivity, alongside growing subjectivity. Subjective inner experience and objective world reality stand at odds within the child's soul. Questioning, doubt, aloneness and a dawning tendency to criticise are emergent features in the child's psychological landscape. Sometimes a little earlier, sometimes a little later, but for most children a very significant step in self-awareness occurs during this year. It is experienced as an awareness of being separate from the surroundings both human and physical, and of a distinction between an inner and an outer world. Contrasting emotions of the sense of loss of the previous unity with the world and a sense of wonder at seeing the world in a new way often lead to confusion and insecurity. These can be expressed in marked changes of behaviour that vary considerably according to temperament and personality. The images of the Old Testament, its laws and guidance foster inner security during the unsettled period and the main-lesson blocks on farming, building, etc. help the children to engage in a new relationship with their surroundings.
Aims and objectives
As the Class 3 children become more aware of themselves and the physical environment in which they live, a new interest in the practical, material world emerges. After practising their literacy and numeracy skills in Class 2 they can now apply these in a wide range of everyday situations which require measuring or weighing, solving simple problems and the writing of simple formal letters. By involving the whole class in the experience of working together in building, farming and other examples of work projects, the class teacher helps to transform the initial feeling of separateness from the physical world into a feeling of responsibility for it. It is important for the teachers to lay down clear guidelines for behaviour and to give the children confidence in the authority of the teachers, not only the class teacher. The children should have a strong sense of the social unity of the class, an experience of 'we.'
Developmental profile
The seventh year sees the commencement of 'formal' schooling in the Steiner-Waldorf method. During the first seven years, the young child learns to be at home in the physical body, developing an orientation in space and acquiring the initial, fundamental developmental capacities of uprightness, speech and thought. The content of the child's whole environment is the learning context; the child 'imitates' the people and the agencies that are in his/her environment. This imitating gesture serves to imprint on the child's will the content and the quality of what is learnt. In the nursery or kindergarten, experiential learning, discovery through creative play and intensive social interaction with peers and teachers constitute the main educational themes. Awareness of the complexities of the mother tongue and number is acquired through informal play and social interaction. These is not taught didactically. Around the seventh year the child completes the process of forming the second dentition sufficiently for forces that have been concentrated on growth and physical upbuilding to become active in developing the facility for independent, representational, pictorial thinking. 'Formal' methods of teaching - in literacy, numeracy and other disciplines - are introduced. The child is still in a mood of dreamy wholeness, more able to bring broad awareness than focused concentration to learning settings. Much learning is continued through activity and imitation through which the child receives an image, internalises it, recalls it, and generalises it into a concept which can be applied, e.g. the letter 'R' or times 'x' What was experienced practically, though not conceptually, in the pre-school years, is raised to a feeling relationship through mental picturing. The child's holistic experience of the world is nourished by archetypal pictures such as those reflected in fairy tales and well thought out nature stories.
Aims and objectives
In this year the children make the important transition from the kindergarten to school where they begin formal learning. The children are led by their teacher to a first experience of the forms, sounds and sequencing of letters and number symbols by using pictures, rhymes and stories. The children learn to recognise and memorise these with lots of practice involving movement, verses, drawing and writing. During this first year the class acquires the good habits of classroom life and work, which will form the basis of their time together in the Lower School and indeed for all subsequent learning at school. Cultivating reverence for nature, care for the environment, respect for others, interest in the world and a feeling of confidence in their teachers - these are the moral aims for Class 1 and the following classes. The teachers aim to lead the children into becoming a socially cohesive group who care for and listen to each other.
Class 2 (age seven to eight)
Developmental profile
The eight-year-old child continues to reside in a largely self-created psychological landscape, which derives from the child's faculty for developing individualised thought-pictures from the realms of their inner life. The events and experiences of the outside world are filtered through the child's imagination and rearranged to accord with the child's homogenous world-picture. Children show greater alertness in noting what happens around them at this age. The mood of wholeness differentiates into contrasts such as a deeper, more conscious feeling for the religious element alongside a tempting awareness of the mischievous. The curriculum content for this age serves to cultivate in the child a sense for the breadth and richness of the language of the feelings and emotions. Cognitively the child continues to be at home in a learning context where pictorial thought content is to the fore. Concepts are best understood meaningfully when they are mobile and organic in quality. The pupils continue to familiarise themselves with the fundamentals of numeracy and literacy, while in gross and fine motor movements - whether through skipping, catching and throwing a ball, or knitting, crocheting or flute-playing - they develop a repertoire of skills and competencies that were initially introduced in Class 1. Thus the intellect is allowed to awaken through the artistic approach. In Class 2 pupils, the adult teeth continue to push through, laterality and dominance are firmly established and it is during this year that specific learning needs and difficulties are observable. The range of abilities within a class becomes clearly discernible. Much of the confidence and sense of belonging which Class 2 pupils exude is clearly due to the fact that the child is building on the foundations laid in Class 1.
Aims and objectives
The initial experiences of the first year are deepened and enhanced in Class 2. This time is used primarily for practising and developing all the new skills from the previous year. Whereas in Class 1 a lot of energy goes into forming the class into a social cohesive group where children are supported by the wholeness that they experience, in Class 2 a mood of contrast or polarisation often surfaces, which can be observed in the way children relate to each other. To help the children go through this stage they are told stories where contrasting human qualities and characteristics are found portrayed by holy people and saints in legends and by animals in the fables. This class needs strong leadership from the teachers through consistency of approach and through the power of imagination. The children derive direction and form from the images they are given.
Class 3 (age eight to nine)
Developmental profile
Class 3 in the Steiner-Waldorf curriculum is the equivalent point of entry into Key Stage Two in the English National Curriculum guidelines. In Class 3 the pupils enter their tenth year. At this point, noticeable physiological, psychological and cognitive changes take place in the child. These changes, referred to as the ninth/tenth-year threshold, may begin as early as 8.5 years or as late as 9.5 years and may last from between six months and one year. The child develops a firmer, more balanced gait; speech sounds are increasingly formed in the middle of the mouth and articulated more directly and the child focuses on the 'middle distance: The child's constitution is noticeably stronger. The heart increases in size and is capable of receiving a larger volume of blood and a new breath/blood pulse ratio is established in the region of one breath to four pulses. Growth begins to focus more on the limbs and metabolism and there is a growth in the breadth of the trunk. In some children this developmental phase is marked by symptoms including weariness, tummy and head pains, nausea, dizziness, a variable appetite, asthma, eczema and disturbed sleep patterns. Steiner talks about a metamorphosis in the child's feeling life. At seven years, there is a metamorphosis in the child's thinking. In Class 3, the child experiences a duality in perceiving the world, in his or her feeling. A process begins to unfold through which the child experiences with increasing strength, a sense of objectivity, alongside growing subjectivity. Subjective inner experience and objective world reality stand at odds within the child's soul. Questioning, doubt, aloneness and a dawning tendency to criticise are emergent features in the child's psychological landscape. Sometimes a little earlier, sometimes a little later, but for most children a very significant step in self-awareness occurs during this year. It is experienced as an awareness of being separate from the surroundings both human and physical, and of a distinction between an inner and an outer world. Contrasting emotions of the sense of loss of the previous unity with the world and a sense of wonder at seeing the world in a new way often lead to confusion and insecurity. These can be expressed in marked changes of behaviour that vary considerably according to temperament and personality. The images of the Old Testament, its laws and guidance foster inner security during the unsettled period and the main-lesson blocks on farming, building, etc. help the children to engage in a new relationship with their surroundings.
Aims and objectives
As the Class 3 children become more aware of themselves and the physical environment in which they live, a new interest in the practical, material world emerges. After practising their literacy and numeracy skills in Class 2 they can now apply these in a wide range of everyday situations which require measuring or weighing, solving simple problems and the writing of simple formal letters. By involving the whole class in the experience of working together in building, farming and other examples of work projects, the class teacher helps to transform the initial feeling of separateness from the physical world into a feeling of responsibility for it. It is important for the teachers to lay down clear guidelines for behaviour and to give the children confidence in the authority of the teachers, not only the class teacher. The children should have a strong sense of the social unity of the class, an experience of 'we.'