Learning the Parts of Speech in an IB school
My office is at the top of the corridor which leads to lower elementary (Kindergarten to Grade 2). It’s the school’s prime real estate. All day long students pass by, saying hello or asking me how my day is going; sometimes they stop to ask about something happening in the school - like an upcoming evacuation drill: when will it be? Will it be scary?
On Tuesday, Oscar and Hector came to my office keen to tell me about the work they were doing on adjectives. It is a particular privilege of my job that, every day, I witness the joy students have in interacting with each other and discovering the world around them: nevertheless I never expected that parts of speech to be part of anyone’s joy of discovery. I really had to see for myself what was going on, and asked for an invitation.
As it happened, it wasn’t just Oscar and Hector who wanted to tell me what they had been doing; the whole of Grade 1 were brimming with excitement. Elise explained that their unit of enquiry was ‘outer space’. Hector showed me a model he had made of the moon, the earth and the sun, telling me about orbits. I pointed out that ‘orbit’ was quite a technical word, and asked if he could tell me what it meant: “It’s like when the earth goes round the sun every year”, he explained. “It also spins once a day”, he added.
I still wasn’t sure where adjectives came into it all. This seemed like science, but Ms Bolton told me that Grade 1 had not only learnt facts about space; they had also been reading stories - specifically the book “Aliens Love Underpants.” William read me his description of an alien, which had been inspired by the book. It was full of adjectives - the alien was purple (an adjective of colour) and 80km tall (a number adjective), and when he was annoyed (an adjective of behaviour) he pretended to be evil (yet another adjective!).
This can’t be something you just write off the top of your head, I thought to myself. Albi kindly explained. After listening and discussing the story, students first planned what they were going to write; then they wrote a draft. They discussed their draft with the teacher, and thought about what improvements they could make. They then wrote out a final version, which they put on class display so they could share it with their classmates.
What struck me was the pride the students took in what they had done: it didn’t come from an adult’s approval or a grade, but from looking at the results of their own efforts. Even at 7 years old they were comfortable with using and explaining technical language, and concepts such as fact and fiction. They could apply an idea like space to subjects like English and science (and, as I later saw, mathematics), effortlessly moving between them.
Every child was engaged, because they had choices about how to. It was academically rigorous, and no-one was judged or ranked. Most importantly, for their development, the children had fun. They will need to continue learning for the rest of their lives - it has to be something they want to do. It certainly made me a lot more interested in all the possibilities that lie in outer space!
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