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“The brain research has pointed to a need for increased physical
activity levels in children to increase learning for a few years now,
but administrators have been reluctant to add it in until a more
concrete plan was introduced to them” says Rhea, who contacted
several school districts before her trip and wrote a blog about her
findings while in Finland.
Fort Worth Independent School District will begin initial training in
the fall and will introduce the five-year pilot program in kindergarten
and first-grade classrooms starting 2014-15. Project ISIS, which is
expected to receive more than $7.6 million in grants from 2013 to
2019, will begin with some of the model at Fort Worth’s independent
Trinity Valley School and TCU’s College of Education lab school,
Starpoint School, this fall.
Project ISIS will increase the number of recess periods each day to
include a 15-minute recess every hour for each grade level in the
pilot. The K-1 students will attend four content classes per day, two
in the morning and two in the afternoon, and recess between each
one, Rhea says. This will continue in second grade.
As the pilot program progresses, students in grades three through
five will have five content classes each day. Beyond the pilot study,
the plan is to move students in higher grades to as many as six
content periods a day, and continue time for physical activity and
creativity.
Restructured class periods create less information absorbed in
traditional content each day, Rhea says. However, research shows
more time for play and creativity provides a better environment for
developing the skills necessary for successful adulthood.
FWISD, TVS and Starpoint School each will decide how the pilot will
be structured, but the public school district portion will include two
or three test schools and control schools in each school district. In all
portions, one grade will be added each year up to fifth grade.
They also will identify content differently, Rhea says. Instead of
offering set, hour-long periods of reading, writing, math and science
every day, students in the pilot program will receive hours of
content time per week in nine separate areas, including character
development and second languages; more content would be added
as the students get older.
“Two of the key areas where we are going to start with the
kindergartners are cooperation and bullying,” she says. “We are
going to stress that how we treat each other and how we respond to
each other are very important.”
Besides language arts, math, physical education, sciences, history,
character development and foreign languages, Rhea’s plan includes
time for arts and crafts and music. Those are subjects that some U.S.
schools also have dropped in recent years.
FWISD is open to new and creative ways to improve learning for
children, states Michael Sorum, Ed.D., deputy superintendent for
leadership, learning and student support at FWISD, in an email.
The school district will work with principals and the community to
determine the best way to move forward.
FEATURES
The Harris College Magazine
- 2013 ·
19