Your Homework: Teach this to someone when you're 60

How well are students retaining what we teach? Earlier this week, orchestra students learned a valuable lesson on the heritage of fiddling. Their task is now to take the same tunes taught to them and teach them to a younger generation in the future. After all, this is how these songs have survived multiple generations.   As I observed yesterday, students were practicing the tunes learned by ear earlier in the week and are dedicated to their task.  It begs the question, "What will our students be able to teach future generations?"  I think of the essential skills and knowledge we teach in classrooms everyday and wonder what's so important that we want students to pass it on when they are 60 years old.

During warm-up and tuning, 6th graders are honing their fiddling skills by practicing the tunes they learned earlier in the week.

In choir, it's warm-up Wednesday, and students are physically engaging their bodies to prepare to sing by stretching their upper bodies and enhancing breathing.  The breathing skills in preparation to sing will last long beyond the songs themselves.

In getting kids to develop long-term skills, we must hold them accountable for learning now, moving from superficial understanding to an ingrained process.  By working with their teacher in a small group, these students are moving toward an embedded skill of paraphrasing.

Students are researching a topic for an informative paper  The skill of researching and citing sources is one that will last long beyond the content of their research.  

In COPE, students role play different conflict scenarios.  To enhance this experience, students write out the dialogue and direct the scene as other students practice.  This hands-on experience will help them generalize the skill.