Many Roads (1970)

[Music] Two roads diverged. in a wood and I I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference. Children take many different paths towards learning. Paths that twist and turn, sometimes forward, sometimes back. They travel swiftly, then slowly. They shift and change. The world outside the classroom offers an infinite variety of ways to learn. Through words and pictures, through electronic transmission, through people. In the world outside, there are things to touch and hear and see and smell and taste. >> Wait a minute. What about this one? >> There are many roads to choose, and each of us chooses to meet our needs at the moment. our own road carved by our own sense of individual goals. >> Are there enough roads to follow? Enough choices available for each individual child? Are children encouraged to choose to find their own way to each learning objective? Here in the Hegel School in Madison, Wisconsin, the answer is yes. Where are you going now? You have another class. >> Smile at classroom. The entire school is built around this learning center. In this central area, many different roads to learning are presented to the children. Audiovisisual roads. [Music] [Music] Hi, Greg. >> Hello. >> What are you doing? >> How did you get that film? >> Well, when I was first here a year ago, I had to ask someone where it was, and from then on, I'd just go and find it. And then you'd look under a certain number and there there have certain things like science or um social studies, things like that. >> I see. Now, tell me why you chose a film strip over a book or a tape, something like that. >> Well, I think it Well, it tells you you can read it cuz it's got words below it and you can also see pictures so you can see what you're reading. And I think it's more interesting when you can see when you're read what you're reading. Oh, >> do you get a better idea about what you're learning about then? Is that it? >> Uh-huh. >> Let's see. Now, what did you like to learn through film strips? >> Mhm. >> Do you use books, too? >> Yeah. >> Tell me how you go about choosing things when you have a topic. I see you're studying here. The old stone age. >> Mhm. >> What would you do when you come to the learning center? >> Well, I don't know. You always choose film strips for instance. Uh >> I choose books, uh tapes, film strips like I have here. I think they're more fun way to learn than if you've got to just do something with the class all together. >> You come down here by yourself. >> Is that right? >> Yeah. your whole class doesn't come out at the same time particularly. >> This presentation tells how some scientists have studied the structures of living animals, plants, and many fossil remains and have developed a theory that tries to answer these questions of man's beginnings, the theory of evolution. >> What are you up to today here, Ken? >> I'm making some student materials on evolution. uh were presently involved in a unit and there are very few uh if any materials at a student's uh reading level. >> I see this helps to uh get the objectives met by the students uh no matter what their background or their level might be then. >> Yes, we're hoping that by the tapes they can listen rather than read texts that would be far beyond the reading level. >> I see. Now, uh do they have things other than the tapes that you're making here? What other kinds of things would you prepare for them? For instance, >> well, we have some slide sets prepared presently. We have student handouts u type sheets giving uh data on evolution and have created a bibliography of books uh which uh have pointed out certain series of pictures primarily. >> So you're doing a good job. >> Yes, you can understand it. Good. Having a lot of equipment and materials available is only the beginning. In addition to the usual audiovisisual materials, this learning center has cross media kits, demonable models, teaching machines, paperback books, many many record titles, magazines, simulated models. The materials are well organized for use by both children and teachers. A single card catalog lists everything, and the cards are color-coded by media. But still only a beginning. How many schools have you seen where all of this beautiful stuff remains beautiful semester after semester, year after year? Or schools where the children are pulled together once a week to see the film and it's regarded as either a free period or something very far removed from the mainstream of activities. So after we have all of these materials pulled together, how can we go about using them in the most appropriate ways? How do you encourage children to choose media? How do you go about guiding children away from one medium to another? [Applause] >> Hi kids. Do you mind if I join you for a minute? >> No. >> You're doing something that looks awfully interesting. Could you tell me a little bit about it? >> Well, we're making um curves with line segments. >> Curves with line segments. How do you find out about that kind of thing? Well, this tells us like what we should be able to know by the end of the unit. And our teacher tells a little bit about how we're supposed to be able to do this. >> You're saying then that before you start your project here, you know what you have to end up with. >> Mhm. >> Gee, that's real good. Uh, how do you find out how to do these kinds of things? I noticed they're all different, but uh, is it the same kind of line segment that you're using in each of these? >> Yeah. I see. Well, how do you find out how to do this? Uh I notice each one is different here. >> Well, um we use our own ideas for shapes, but um our teacher to tells us um showed us how to do it >> a while ago. >> I see. That's very good. Is there anything else that other youngsters in your class would be doing other than this to maybe get the same ideas or learn the same kinds of things? >> Do you all do the same thing? >> No. No. We work at our own rates. >> Yeah. >> You might finish first and you second or something like this. What do you do when you finish? >> Well, then you go on to the next chapter. Chapter testing. >> I see you. In other words, you get these whenever you're ready for them. >> Yeah. >> Is that correct? I see. Do you have races? I mean, you try to move faster. You don't do that. >> Some people think they do. They should, but um you really shouldn't. >> Hi, Tom. How you doing? >> Pretty good. How are you people? Uh Tom, what if you could tell me how you chose these children for this specific activity? >> Well, I didn't really particularly choose them. They really chose the activity. I just simply set up the behavioral objectives that I wanted to see and then uh these this particular group of people was free to choose the type of activities that they thought they were best suited for to uh reach the objectives. I see. This means then that uh these youngsters would be working with the needles and threads here. Other youngsters would be doing other things. What are some of the other kinds of activities they do? >> Well, some of the other types of things for this particular project were that they could uh use the overhead projector make transparencies. In this case, the the children instead of using the manipulative materials are using the manufactured overhead transparencies to try to get the same objectives accomplished. >> In other words, they're they're going down two different roads to get to the same spot. Is that correct? >> Right. And hopefully we try to design even more than two. over there. Paul is using another resource material, a textbook to find out a little bit more about the history of measurement in geometry. You know, after a while, the children get used to following their own track towards any given objective. They're very independent and proud of being able to use all the equipment and find most anything in the learning center. Nancy, could you tell me a little bit about how you get the youngsters to experiment with different kinds of materials and what the techniques are that you use to get them to break out? >> Okay. Well, the first thing we do is we put out as many different things media as we can for them to experiment with and we let their curiosity draw them to the area that they're interested in. And we actually let them fiddle around and, you know, try and learn something from it. Then we pull them together in groups and we actually explain what it is, the mechanics behind it, some things they might have been doing right or some things they might not have been doing right to make sure uh they really understand how to use it and then they're on their own. >> We've been using a series of microscopes. Uh they've been working with dry cell batteries and uh we will be doing some filming. The children will actually be making their own motion picture soon after we visit the uh educational TV station. >> Tell me a little bit about that, would you please? >> Well, we're going to start out with the field trip to the educational TV station and we want the children to understand the mechanics behind cameras and behind television. We want to get away from the concept that something is in the box performing for them. We want them to understand actually what happens. And they will make their own sound with this also. where they do the filming, the actual camera work, the whole >> they're going to be the producer, the director, everything. They're going to make the script themselves also. >> Great experience. >> One of the intermediate teachers spoke about independence and familiarity with different kinds of media. Does that start here in the primary unit? >> Yes, it does. We attempt to expose the children to as many different ways to learn as possible. For example, in the roleplaying you are about to see, we use the medium of a slide story to trigger discussions with the children of what they would like to be when they grow up. Um, this led them into doing research on their own with books, with film strips, with stories, picture kits about the different occupations that they are dreaming at this point about. If I want to be a basketball player and I want to be so big so I can stuff like the big guys do. >> No, we have a a very good educational uh TV station here in Wisconsin. In fact, uh the kids just finished working with the patterns and arithmetic series that was developed over at the university. uh we got the manuals and the uh children's workbooks from them and we've been able through our own assessments to match the children up with the particular TV program and kind of schedule it around group the kids pretty much uh uh according to our own assessment key to their uh to their curriculum plan. >> Well, does this mean that all the children participate in these activities? >> No. No. As you can see, our our children range from about 08 to 11 years old. uh some aren't ready for the TV lessons. Some uh are far in advance of them. Uh some of the children just don't learn from television. You know, it either goes along too fast or it goes along too slow. Uh and then there are certain children who need to be able to ask questions. >> I guess you can't ask many questions of a TV set. >> No, right. Well, uh you see back there, uh Robert, he uh he's very good in math, but uh he he can't learn it off of the television set. He needs to see it laid out step by step by step, and uh then he goes along fine, but he can't uh the television set just goes too fast for him. >> Well, how do you know when to match the materials with the youngsters? Well, it it isn't just something that you do, you know. Uh first of all, you understand that no matter how good any piece of material is, it's not going to work for all of the kids all the time. Uh and secondly, if you make a lot of things available, kids are naturally going to choose the things that are most appropriate for them. Uh so you don't have to do all that much. But what if one child left alone wouldn't choose a book? What would you do in an instance like this? >> Well, you have to make him first of all want to read. That's that's our job. And uh secondly, you you have to strike a balance between uh the things he likes to do best, the things he does do best, and the things he needs to do, the the skills he has to get like breeding. >> Well, how do you know when he needs a specific skill? How do you plug him in at in an appropriate place? >> Well, there's uh there's where your ongoing assessment just plays a very important role. Uh diagnostic test and especially observation, but you know, you can spot it when a child is just in a wrong learning situation. Well, to take Robert again for example, uh he has a group of friends and they're all good in math and they like the TV lessons and naturally, you know, he he wants to stay with them. But we could see that it it wasn't working for him. He just wasn't getting it off the screen. And so, uh we had to make a change. >> But, but didn't Robert mind being split from his friends? Didn't he put a battle? >> Well, yes and no. I mean, we we didn't just say, uh, no TV for you, Robert. I mean, we showed him the kinds of problems he was having. We went through his tests with him. Uh, we showed him the learning objectives, and then we worked with him on a a onetoone basis over a period of, uh, I guess about 2 weeks using program tapes, uh, some drill tapes and a a sequence textbook. And then uh each time he would achieve a learning objective, we'd say, you know, that that was great. And so it was a kind of an immediate reward. Uh I guess he'd still like to be with his friends, but not as much as he'd like to learn math. That's the point. >> So that's what you mean when you say that it's your job to help children choose the most appropriate paths for them. >> Exactly. Exactly. In individually guided education, there are as many roads to learning as there are individual children. Materials are made available, choices are made available, and teachers balance choice with guidance. Children are learning to learn in their own way, one at a time together. Heat. Heat. [Music]