|
|
Graduate School News |
|
|
|
|
|
M.A.T. alumni bring stellar skills to classrooms
|
Nineteen kindergartners at Willamette Primary School listen intently as Susan Harris MacKay reads The Emergency Room, in preparation for tomorrow's field trip to a hospital. As she closes the book cover, hands shoot up. "My sister fell behind the bleachers and broke her leg, and we had to take her to the hospital," one boy whispers. "A board fell on my head," says Stevie. "Grandma and mommy tried to put a bandage on it. They took me to the hospital, and the doctor put real super glue on my eye." The children are brimming with stories, some personal narratives and some pure fiction. "It's time for workshop," MacKay announces. "First, I want to do research," Campbell states. "What do you want to research?" MacKay asks. "I want to research babies," he answers. While Campbell and an eager group of five-year-old researchers march to the library, another group heads to the drama area to turn the playhouse into a hospital. The first thing they need, they agree, is a sign. So, they pull out a bucket of magnetic letters and help each other spell the word hospital. When they get stuck, MacKay suggests they go to the nonfiction bookshelf and find the word in a book about hospitals. Students in another corner relate stories as they create clay sculptures. Using a digital camera, MacKay captures their creations on a sheet of paper. Later, the children retell their stories. A Mozart concerto plays softly in the background, while at small round tables in the center of the room, other kindergartners share their stories orally with each other before beginning "to write" their books. "How many pages do you need?" MacKay asks Chloe before Chloe starts to draw pictures for her book. "Let's talk it out and figure out what is going to go on every page before you start." "My grandma had a frog in her throat," says Chloe. "And she died." "Wow, Chloe! I really want to know what happened after she got the frog in her throat and before she died," MacKay says. "Do you know that part, too?" Chloe gives it another try: "My grandma had a frog in her throat. She went to the hospital, but the doctor couldn't get it out. So, she died." MacKay repeats the story back to Chloe and hands her a sheet of paper for each part. Chloe draws a picture on each piece of paper as she retells the story.
'At Lewis & Clark, we teach our interns to create literacy-rich environments.' "Children often create one drawing and then tell a long story that has changes, problems and solutions. I try to show them how they can expand the story and can create movement through multiple images, which ultimately can become the pages of a book," MacKay says. After cleaning up their areas, the children return to the circle to share their work. Alyssa announces she's written a play. After explaining the plot, she casts the characters, and students enjoy an impromptu performance. "We do a lot of story making and telling," MacKay says. "We do it through making pictures, playing on the tactile table, using building blocks, acting out plays and talking about drawings or other artistic creations. "During workshop, I try to get students to focus on narrative in its various forms, and on understanding that pictures convey meaning," she says. "They understand what makes a good story and how they can create one in many different ways," MacKay says. "And the better they understand that oral and pictorial foundation, the better writers they will be." "At Lewis & Clark, we teach our interns to create literacy-rich environments," says Carol Witherell, professor of education. "When I walk into Susan's room, I see many examples of multiple forms of literacy: language literacy, art literacy, science literacy and ecological literacy. She works from multiple intelligences to create all those literacies. That's her genius."
'My job is to help them interact with each other....' "Her class works on two levels," says Ruth Hubbard, Mary Stuart Rogers Professor of Education. "She has a lot of respect for what students come to school knowing, and she creates a curriculum for them that expands upon this knowledge. She teaches her students to be thinkers and researchers right from the beginning. "Susan has high expectations for her students, but she also collects a lot of data. She listens to how students ask questions and how they make sense of the world, and then she figures out how she can help them to move to the next step. She models what it's like to be a researcher. She's doing research on their thinking and learning, and they see this unfolding before them." MacKay works carefully to ensure that the experiences students have in her class are meaningful and relevant. "I try to be really careful that I don't run over them with my agenda," she says. "I invite them to engage in the materials I introduce. And I work just as hard at listening to them, so I can engage in the material they introduce." "In our teacher education program, we emphasize that the teacher is a curriculum creator rather than a curriculum consumer," Hubbard says. "The curriculum creator bases the curriculum on students' needs and the teacher's own high expectations of them. MacKay is a curriculum creator." "Curriculum is negotiated through ongoing conversation and sharing," MacKay says. "I trust the wisdom and experience that children bring to school with them. I want my students to see themselves as having a ton of resources," she says. "They see me as a resource in the classroom, but I'm not the only person who can help to solve their problems or inspire them. "My job is to help them interact with each other and to become responsible socially and intellectually. Most important, I want them to believe that in this classroom their ideas, questions and feelings will be heard." - by Jean Kempe-Ware |
Susan Harris MacKay M.A.T. '97 is one of more than 2,500 graduates of Lewis & Clark College's master of arts in teaching (M.A.T.) program who bring a stellar set of skills and knowledge to their classrooms as they teach close to 100,000 children throughout the world. MacKay came to Lewis & Clark's Graduate School of Professional Studies with a bachelor's degree and teaching credential from Vassar College. She began working on her M.A.T. at Lewis & Clark College at the same time she obtained her first real teaching job. "For four years while in the in-service program, I was able to constantly go back to Lewis & Clark and to be with people who were supportive and who wanted to have meaningful conversations about teaching and learning," she says. "Lewis & Clark made me the teacher I am today." MacKay not only teaches kindergartners and sometimes mentors Lewis & Clark interns at Willamette Primary School in West Linn, she also writes articles and teaches child development and literacy development at Lewis & Clark's graduate school. |