From Arne Duncan's "How Schools Work":
Our sixth graders are not given any assignments. They are given coloring pages, scissors, construction paper, and tape. A good day wasn't a day when they mastered fractions, or learned how a bill gets turned into a law. A good day was a day when no one got hurt.
There was no homework. We changed that from the very beginning, giving these kids assignments, to train them everyday after school, putting in long hours to bring the academics up to grade level.
- We found that categories had to slide one slot to the right. The kids who were in "exceeds standards", were actually just meeting the standard.
- we don't need rote knowledge anymore, we have the Internet for that. What we need are kids who can learn anything and continue to be able to learn for the rest of their lives. We need kids who can think, not just recall. We need kids were comfortable solving problems in the group, working together, supporting and challenging each other, and bringing out the best thinking in everyone.
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Our sixth graders are not given any assignments. They are given coloring pages, scissors, construction paper, and tape. A good day wasn't a day when they mastered fractions, or learned how a bill gets turned into a law. A good day was a day when no one got hurt.
There was no homework. We changed that from the very beginning, giving these kids assignments, to train them everyday after school, putting in long hours to bring the academics up to grade level.
- We found that categories had to slide one slot to the right. The kids who were in "exceeds standards", were actually just meeting the standard.
- we don't need rote knowledge anymore, we have the Internet for that. What we need are kids who can learn anything and continue to be able to learn for the rest of their lives. We need kids who can think, not just recall. We need kids were comfortable solving problems in the group, working together, supporting and challenging each other, and bringing out the best thinking in everyone.
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