Waldorf Methods/Reading and Math 2
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.
Mathematics in the Waldorf school is divided into stages. In the first stage, which covers the first five classes, mathematics is developed as an activity intimately connected to the life process of the child, and progresses from the internal towards the external. In the second stage, covering classes 6 to 8, the main emphasis is on the practical. Course Outlines
Waldorf Methods/Reading and Math 1
Lesson 1: Introduction Lesson 2: Reading/1st Grade Lesson 3: Reading/2nd Grade Lesson 4: Reading/3rd Grade Lesson 5: Math/1st Grade Waldorf Methods/Reading and Math 2 Lesson 1: Math/2nd Grade Lesson 2: Math/3rd Grade Lesson 3: Reading/4th Grade Lesson 4: Reading/5th Grade Lesson 5: Reading/6th Grade Waldorf Methods/Reading and Math 3 Lesson 1: Math/4th Grade Lesson 2: Math/5th Grade Lesson 3: Math/6th Grade Lesson 4: Reading/7th and 8th Grade Lesson 5: Math/7th and 8th Grade |
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Tasks and Assignments for Waldorf Methods/Reading and Math 2.4.
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 age group in question 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 this age group.
2.2. Create 2 examples that relate to "Narrative Content and Reading Material" for this age group.
2.3. Create 2 examples that relate to "Grammar" for this age group.
2.4. Create 2 examples that relate to "Writing and Reading" for this age group.
3. Study the checklist for literacy skills in classes 4 to 5, then create an assessment of a child (either with a child that you have access to, or a fictive child) using the checklist; finally report your findings in writing to the faculty chair with your recommendations.
4. Additionally submit comments and questions, if any.
Please send your completed assignment via the online form or via email.
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 age group in question 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 this age group.
2.2. Create 2 examples that relate to "Narrative Content and Reading Material" for this age group.
2.3. Create 2 examples that relate to "Grammar" for this age group.
2.4. Create 2 examples that relate to "Writing and Reading" for this age group.
3. Study the checklist for literacy skills in classes 4 to 5, then create an assessment of a child (either with a child that you have access to, or a fictive child) using the checklist; finally report your findings in writing to the faculty chair with your recommendations.
4. Additionally submit comments and questions, if any.
Please send your completed assignment via the online form or via email.
Study Material for Waldorf Methods/Reading and Math Lesson 2.4.
English Language and Literature/Class 5
Speaking and Listening
Most children enter their eleventh year while they are in Class 5. This can mean a final blossoming of childlike gracefulness and musical mobility before rather more coarse tendencies set in during the time leading up to puberty. The relaxed openness of Class 5 pupils allows the teacher to offer them all kinds of variety in terms of texts for recitation. In addition, their first history main -lesson suggests excerpts from early oriental cultures, such as the Bhagavadgita, the Mahabharata, the Vedas, or Sumerian, Akkadian and Egyptian hymns and prayers.
Such literature coming from so far away both in time and place astonishes the pupils and helps prepare them to be open to other cultures and also respect and appreciate them.
Poems continue to be recited and where appropriate verses in hexameter form can be taken. Prose texts from the Gospels can also be learned by heart and recited. Another field of oral work is word pictures, in which children describe a plant or the mood of a particular landscape.
Such literature coming from so far away both in time and place astonishes the pupils and helps prepare them to be open to other cultures and also respect and appreciate them.
Poems continue to be recited and where appropriate verses in hexameter form can be taken. Prose texts from the Gospels can also be learned by heart and recited. Another field of oral work is word pictures, in which children describe a plant or the mood of a particular landscape.
Narrative Content and Reading Material
Stories and reading material are taken from ancient eastern cultures (Hindu legends of Krishna and Arjuna, the Sumerian legends of Gilgamesh, Egyptian and Greek mythology) up to the time of classical Antiquity, as well as stories from the Celtic tradition. There can be alternation between the teacher telling a story and the class reading in chorus, or exercises in reading aloud and listening. Steiner also suggested describing scenes from history a year before history lessons proper begin. It is up to the teacher to make a selection.
Grammar
There is plenty to work with here in Class 5. Both now and in the near future it is important not to make grammar too technical and full of rules. The emphasis is on usage and the qualities that each grammatical form express. One should first explore the phenomenon before labelling it. Having introduced a terminology, it is important, though, that it is consistent and mutually agreed with the foreign language teachers. Successful foreign language teaching depends to a large extent on the grasp of grammatical phenomena that the children acquire through understanding their own native tongue. Many colleagues prefer the normal grammatical terms to avoid confusion and to make life easier for the teachers of foreign languages. In fact it is very useful if the class teachers first consult with the foreign language teachers on what aspects of grammar need to be emphasised as a support for the foreign languages.
The active and passive voices can now be considered. Attention is paid to the new role played by the subject, which retains its subject -character in an entirely new situation. That the passive voice is willing to leave the doer unnamed is only touched on, without any discussion at this stage.
Another important grammatical phenomenon that belongs in Class 5 is direct speech. When children report what others have said they usually use a lively mix of direct and indirect speech. They should now become aware of what this entails:
At this time, try to get the children to report freely in direct speech not only on what they have seen and heard but also on what they have heard and read. Let them report as they would if what they say were within quotation marks. Try to let the children practise distinguishing between telling their own opinion and reporting the opinion of someone else. Then do the same in writing; let the children make a clear distinction between what they themselves think or have seen and what they have heard another person say. In connection with this you can also try to perfect the use of the punctuation this entails.
The children must differentiate between their own opinion and the opinion of others. They must pay attention to repeating exactly what the other person has said. Using direct speech correctly provides a foundation for the coming year, when the indirect speech will be studied.
The qualitative difference between the simple and progressive forms should be clearly distinguished with many oral examples e.g. I drink milk but I am not drinking at the moment. Negatives and questions forms are also important to discuss and explore. Functional words such as pronouns, conjunctions and the comparison of adverbs and adjectives (a pupil once asked 'isn't there anything better than best?') can be discussed. It is always important to draw attention to the qualities that sentences have by including conjunctions or pronouns (do we know who he is in the sentence, he is not here?) Sentence structure can be ordered around subject and predicate, direct and indirect object (who did what to whom and how?). The concept of subject, predicate, direct and indirect object and adverbial phrase can be introduced.
Prepositions can also be introduced which have a temporal quality (in 5 minutes, at 2.23 a.m., around 7, within the hour, up to midnight etc.). In punctuation, the use of commas (again!), quotation marks, colons, semi-colons, hyphens and brackets should be introduced (or revised).
The active and passive voices can now be considered. Attention is paid to the new role played by the subject, which retains its subject -character in an entirely new situation. That the passive voice is willing to leave the doer unnamed is only touched on, without any discussion at this stage.
Another important grammatical phenomenon that belongs in Class 5 is direct speech. When children report what others have said they usually use a lively mix of direct and indirect speech. They should now become aware of what this entails:
At this time, try to get the children to report freely in direct speech not only on what they have seen and heard but also on what they have heard and read. Let them report as they would if what they say were within quotation marks. Try to let the children practise distinguishing between telling their own opinion and reporting the opinion of someone else. Then do the same in writing; let the children make a clear distinction between what they themselves think or have seen and what they have heard another person say. In connection with this you can also try to perfect the use of the punctuation this entails.
The children must differentiate between their own opinion and the opinion of others. They must pay attention to repeating exactly what the other person has said. Using direct speech correctly provides a foundation for the coming year, when the indirect speech will be studied.
The qualitative difference between the simple and progressive forms should be clearly distinguished with many oral examples e.g. I drink milk but I am not drinking at the moment. Negatives and questions forms are also important to discuss and explore. Functional words such as pronouns, conjunctions and the comparison of adverbs and adjectives (a pupil once asked 'isn't there anything better than best?') can be discussed. It is always important to draw attention to the qualities that sentences have by including conjunctions or pronouns (do we know who he is in the sentence, he is not here?) Sentence structure can be ordered around subject and predicate, direct and indirect object (who did what to whom and how?). The concept of subject, predicate, direct and indirect object and adverbial phrase can be introduced.
Prepositions can also be introduced which have a temporal quality (in 5 minutes, at 2.23 a.m., around 7, within the hour, up to midnight etc.). In punctuation, the use of commas (again!), quotation marks, colons, semi-colons, hyphens and brackets should be introduced (or revised).
Writing and Reading
Essay writing in Steiner- Waldorf schools in Classes 5 to 8 contains aspects that differ from what is done in other schools. The main-lessons in these classes (e.g. botany, geometry, geography, acoustics, etc.) provide material that requires clear description (e.g. of experiments) and characterisation. Events such as class outings provide the opportunity for requesting information and making arrangements that can be encompassed in examples of business letters. The aim of all this is to learn how to state intentions and wishes succinctly and with clarity, to strengthen willingness and ability to listen accurately to what is said, and to school alert powers of observation. This helps the children develop the will to make reports that accord with the facts and are not embroidered with arbitrary imaginative detail.
You will cultivate the children's idealism in a far better way if you do not approach it in too brutally direct a manner ... If during this period (istl« to isit. year) you introduce the children to what is done in real life they will retain their healthy relationship to the idealistic needs of their soul. This will only be extinguished if these needs are senselessly drawn on while the children are still too young.
This is what Steiner said in connection with writing essays at this age. Descriptive essays on experiences the youngsters have had and subjects that call on their imagination do not come into play until the Upper School when their capacity to form judgements is developing.
You will cultivate the children's idealism in a far better way if you do not approach it in too brutally direct a manner ... If during this period (istl« to isit. year) you introduce the children to what is done in real life they will retain their healthy relationship to the idealistic needs of their soul. This will only be extinguished if these needs are senselessly drawn on while the children are still too young.
This is what Steiner said in connection with writing essays at this age. Descriptive essays on experiences the youngsters have had and subjects that call on their imagination do not come into play until the Upper School when their capacity to form judgements is developing.
Checklist for Literacy Skills in Classes 4 to 5
Most children of normal ability range will be able to:
Speaking and listening
4 Perform in a play and speak several lines individually, increasing in length by the end of Class 5 and be able to perform on stage before the school community.
Writing and reading
4 know how to use a dictionary
4 write with an ink pen
4 write an accurate account of events or stories heard in class 4 write a formal letter
4 know irregular plurals
4 know more irregular families of spellings
4 know remaining vowel and vowel/consonant digraphs
4 make a reasonable guess at unknown words in a text
4/5 read confidently and independently
5 read aloud fluently with awareness of punctuation including direct speech
5 take down a dictation on a known subject with reasonable accuracy
5 use a dictionary to find unfamiliar words for both spelling and meaning
5 use of common suffixes and prefixes
Grammar
4 use the comma and exclamation and question marks
5 use quotation marks in direct speech, colon and semi-colon, and appropriate use of paragraphs
5 know use and character of all major parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions (time and space), the articles, conjunctions, interjections
5 use simple and continuous verb forms in all tenses, including present perfect and forms of the future, in questions and negatives and active and passive moods
Speaking and listening
4 Perform in a play and speak several lines individually, increasing in length by the end of Class 5 and be able to perform on stage before the school community.
Writing and reading
4 know how to use a dictionary
4 write with an ink pen
4 write an accurate account of events or stories heard in class 4 write a formal letter
4 know irregular plurals
4 know more irregular families of spellings
4 know remaining vowel and vowel/consonant digraphs
4 make a reasonable guess at unknown words in a text
4/5 read confidently and independently
5 read aloud fluently with awareness of punctuation including direct speech
5 take down a dictation on a known subject with reasonable accuracy
5 use a dictionary to find unfamiliar words for both spelling and meaning
5 use of common suffixes and prefixes
Grammar
4 use the comma and exclamation and question marks
5 use quotation marks in direct speech, colon and semi-colon, and appropriate use of paragraphs
5 know use and character of all major parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions (time and space), the articles, conjunctions, interjections
5 use simple and continuous verb forms in all tenses, including present perfect and forms of the future, in questions and negatives and active and passive moods