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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.

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.

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).

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.

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
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