HighScope Elementary Approach: Classroom Environment (continued)

Planning allows children to consider the what, where, when, how, and perhaps why of what they will be for the next time period (or for multiple time blocks, for older children). Planning may be as simple as an oral commitment, such as "I am going to the listening center to listen to Blueberries for Sal," or it may involve a written description of a project involving both art and math materials. In thinking about and planning classroom events, children develop a sense of predictability, control, and ownership of a smoothly functioning classroom routine.

Doing means action—working with materials, interacting with other children, choosing, creating, sharing. The active learning process of doing is the curriculum's way of tapping the child's innate interests and motivation. It is also a way of stimulating the child's higher order thinking abilities through the application of skills to problem-solving tasks. Doing involves building; experimenting; cooperating in games, drama, or writing projects; and using computers and materials. Planning guides the work segment by helping children structure their own activities and take responsibility for seeing them through. Cleanup, following each activity period, restores materials to their original places and prepares the room for the next day.

Reviewing completes the plan-do-review cycle. Reviewing (or recalling) involves putting what one has done into words or pictures and sharing the representation with other children, teachers, or parents. Reviewing provides opportunities to assume personal responsibility as well as to account to the teacher and to the other children. What was planned? What was accomplished? What might be done differently next time? The plan-do-review sequence best occupies a single unit of time between 45 minutes and an hour or more in length. Planning immediately precedes doing, which is immediately followed by reviewing. However, for older children, this schedule may be relaxed to allow for the most efficient use of time. For example, planning by older children may take place as soon as they arrive at school and before the beginning of other activities, such as circle time or small groups

Workshops for Math, Language, Science, and Other Topics

Workshops are a means of harnessing the resources of the classroom computers, activity centers, and teacher-led instruction for language, mathematics, and other topic-related or integrated learning experiences. During each workshop, three or four small groups of children, working at separate stations (including the computer area), are engaged simultaneously in different topic-related activities. The children rotate among the computer center and the small-group workshops, either within the workshop period or on subsequent days. During workshop times, teachers may focus on one or two groups while other groups work relatively independently, or they may adopt a more general focus, observing and assisting children throughout the room as needed.

The Curricular Areas

In recognition of the different and discrete aspects of human knowledge, the High/Scope Curriculum is structured to allow children to develop in accordance with their particular strengths. This approach to learning and development is in agreement with the multifaceted view of intelligence elaborated by psychologist Howard Gardner.¹ Intelligence, as defined by Gardner, is "the ability to solve problems, or to fashion products, that are valued in one or more cultural settings". Gardner identifies seven intelligences as major components of skilled human behavior: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. The High/Scope Curriculum is likewise organized with the aim of helping children develop skills that are necessary to solve problems or create products, but it assigns particular significance to those skills that are functionally important in today's world. Thus, the High/Scope Curriculum incorporates seven primary curricular areas: