Convent Elementary
Tales of the Fourth Grade
Somebodys
How Convent Elementary School’s fourth grade teachers
empower the Leaders of the Lower Form. Everyday the Grant Building is alive with girls in maroon pinafores and capes who don’t walk the halls without a teacher escort. But the fourth graders do. The younger girls have the hot lunch that is served, and can’t chose from the ala cart menu. But the fourth graders do. The younger girls don’t switch classrooms for different subjects. But the fourth graders do. Some rights of passage are important at Convent Elementary School, and rising to the fourth grade is a big deal. This is not just about having choice at lunch or being trusted to walk the hallways alone. When girls enter the fourth grade, they transition from being Little Sisters to Big Sisters. This is when they become Leaders of the Lower Form. This is also an important time for nine- and 10-year-olds in the learning process, and for that they rely on Convent’s fourth grade team(pictured above): lead teachers Amanda Pagano and Kelly Beal, and associate teacher Michelle Hom. As teachers they are drawn to this age, Amanda says, in part because their students know enough about the world around them to hold a conversation about it, but are still curious little girls. “It’s a magical combination,” she says, “because one day they’ll tell you about how they believe in dragons … but then they have these real opinions on world peace and war and the environment.” The big transition between third and fourth grade is that the girls are reading to learn, rather than learning to read, and do more independent, critical thinking. The curriculum they have created takes advantage of this, Kelly says, with real-life applications. In math, the girls learn the everyday value of knowing fractions. In February, they finished their memoir-writing projects, which taught them to narrow their focus in storytelling (an alternative to the common “and then, and then,” method). Also in February, the girls began BizWorld, working in groups to develop a product—in this case,
friendship bracelets—then market and sell them, keep track of finances, sell stocks for their company and make a presentation to a venture capital group (older students). In May, the girls will start the Influential Women project, which requires them to write a paper on a woman who has contributed to math or science and to present their research to the class. The bigger projects, as well as the smaller daily lessons, incorporate creativity, math, problem solving and teambuilding in many forms. Michelle says one of their challenges as educators is to help them with the independent work they do in groups. “We spend a lot of time on cooperation,” she says. In fact, the girls spend entire classes dedicated to communication and social skills. “Friendship issues are huge at this age,” Amanda says. Having a team of teachers makes developing great curriculum easier, says Kelly, who is in her third year teaching on Broadway. She previously taught at a private school where she was alone in her grade. “We have great opportunities to bounce ideas off each other,” she says of Amanda, who is in her fifth year with the school and third year as lead teacher; and of Michelle, who is in her second year as an associate teacher and is a candidate for her master’s degree from the University of San Francisco. All agreed that the key to their success is the support they feel from Lower Form Dean Kellie Irish and Head of School Anne Wachter, RSCJ. “It’s nice, as a teacher, to have all the resources you need,” Amanda says, “and to have the freedom and trust to do what you think is right with the curriculum … to make adjustments based on the girls’ needs.” To the girls, it may seem like using balloons to conduct static electricity and playing four-square at recess are just fun things, but for their team of educators, these moments are helping them realize all that they can do in this world.
C o nvent & S tuart H all
17