What has to shift for a group of learners to become a learning community? What is different about a school for which this shift takes first priority?

Let’s step back a little bit to think about what each of these words means. As many educators and theorists have proposed, a useful way to think of learning is as the construction of knowledge. With what we already know in hand, we then build new structures that represent and contain new knowledge. When we learn in community, we do this work together.

Like “communication,” the word community is rooted in the idea of sharing; in community, individuals are not independent, but interdependent….

The Arc of Computer Science at Long-View

Too often, people may conceive of the pedagogy of computer science in primary and secondary school as mainly the process of teaching learners to code. At Long-View, we try to approach the academic discipline of Computer Science, which began well before the invention of the personal computer, in an authentic way. As learners progress in computer science from first encounters to diverse applications of the discipline in later years, a throughline remains: we focus on thinking and learning, not syntax or language-specific features. To engage in computer science at Long-View is to learn the process of identifying the next best step in a computational problem, rather than memorizing a narrow set of solutions.

The arc of computer science at Long-View begins with ‘unplugged’ experiences (no computers necessary) that connect to big ideas….

computer scienceLisa ZapalacFebruary 12, 2024Long-View Micro Schoolcomputer science, coding, principles, ideas

A Tapestry of Play: A Glimpse into Long-View Micro School's Approach to Nurturing Growth Through Physical Play

The midpoint of our day at Long-View is the hour we spend at Pease Park, just an 8-minute walk down the road. But this isn’t just “a break” or “recess.” Congruent with the rest of our school day, it is an intentionally designed time to provide rich experiences for our learners.
Since the founding of the school nearly ten years ago, we have recognized the importance of unstructured free play and reflected on the value of this time. Live Oak Meadow at Pease Park is the stage where different forms of play unfold organically, contributing to the rich experiences that define our school. Learners play and interact in ways that they choose; adults are mindfully observant but not controlling or “managing” behavior. Opportunities for creating games and facilitating other positive forms of engagement or play are plentiful. And thus, so is the opportunity for learners to increase their understanding of conflict and practice effective resolution of conflict. During this time in nature, children can also feel calm, soaking up the proven stress relief that nature brings, and improve their senses as well as develop important sensory integration….

park timeLisa ZapalacDecember 20, 2023Long-View Micro Schoolfree play, park, recess, nature

Community Conversation Recap (Nov. 2023)

Across the year on a handful of Fridays, we schedule time for “Community Conversations” — the aim of these conversations is to help the adults in our community come together to discuss ways we can support our learners. Our first Community Conversation of the 2023-24 year occurred last week. We created a reel on Instagram highlighting a few key points, and we hope, paired with this blog, those who were there can reflect more on the discussion and those who were not can feel included in the conversation.

We began with Claire Rudden (math content leader for Gold Band) giving an overview of the personal finance series we are in the midst of during Monday morning Campfires. We are working to make sure all learners have exposure to aspects of personal finance through this teacher-led Campfire series, which spans three weeks. Last week, the four options for Campfire centered around saving money. Yesterday, the four options taught about various aspects of spending money. And the week after Thanksgiving break, we plan to have four options teaching about investing….

generalLisa ZapalacNovember 14, 2023Long-View Micro Schoolparents, community, campfire, financial literacy, challenge

Assessment at Long-View: To “Assess” is to“Sit Beside”

The word “assess” comes from a Latin word meaning “to sit beside.” While the concept of assessment has taken on a life of its own, especially in the world of education, the word’s etymology reminds us of the true intent. As a teacher, if you are not sitting beside a learner when you set out to assess, you are actually grading, not assessing. The difference matters.

As discussed in our recent post on conferring, much of our culture at Long-View centers around talk. Across the day, learners are expected to say more about their thinking. It is not enough, for example, to say that you think that the midpoint between 8 and 46 is 27. There’s always the follow-up question: “How did you think about that?” Early on, learners may respond by saying, “I am not sure,” or “It just seems like it should be.” As teachers, we lean into these responses and support learners in developing their metacognitive processes so that they can articulate the thinking by which they arrive at understanding….

generalLisa ZapalacNovember 10, 2023Long-View Micro Schoolassessment, conferring, understanding thinking

Conferring: A Dialogic Teaching Practice from Literacy Block

“Talking in class.” For many adults, this charged phrase may conjure up memories of times when we were asked to be quiet in a classroom so that we (and others) could focus on our individual work. But at Long-View, as in many schools that lift up the practices of dialogic teaching and inquiry learning, “talking in class” – in larger group conversations, with partners, and between individual learners and teachers – is foundational to the way we learn.

One place where this ethic manifests is in the way that Literacy teachers at Long-View most frequently give feedback: individual “conferences” between a learner and a teacher. Our reading and writing conferences aren’t a once-a-semester affair, but happen in the course of every day. These brief interactions provide timely, individualized, holistic feedback on what’s happening at a particular moment in a child’s reading or writing life – and do so, critically, in a way that permits the child to engage dialogically with that feedback in real time….

generalLisa ZapalacNovember 3, 2023Long-View Micro Schoolliteracy, dialogic teaching, feedback, pedagogy

Build Week 16: Designing Playgrounds

At Long-View, we don’t have a playground – and that’s by design. In the middle of each school day, we walk, with our lunches in hand, to spend an hour at a public park, where we run, climb, banter and pretend, unconstrained in our visions of how to play.

But lately, we’ve found ourselves thinking about the value of playgrounds to a wider community. In a series of Campfires in early October, we inquired into the history and function of several types. From “adventure playgrounds” that encourage “risky play,” to the highly designed structures and spaces brought to life in local projects like Fortlandia or the work of the Danish playground design firm MONSTRUM, places designated for play have a unique role in a community. In MONSTRUM’s words, “a great playground should be a gathering place sparking the imagination and challenging all visitors to create the best play experience for themselves.” All this inquiry led up to the big reveal on Thursday, October 12: for Build Week 16, we would be designing playgrounds! Learners began by considering MONSTRUM’s “Three Major Principles of Inclusive Design”….

What We’ve Been Reading: Transfer

On Fridays, when Long-View teachers meet as a team, we often begin with a discussion of an article on a topic that we are considering. This year, Ms. Fleury kicked off the series with “Transfer as the Goal of Education,” an article that synthesizes research on the difficulty of using prior learning in new situations.

Transfer is a concept that we refer to daily, both in academic blocks with learners and among ourselves as we analyze the work of learners through informal discussion. In a Long-View Math Block, for instance, we coach learners to see how they transfer understanding from the community conversations in a Concept Study or Thought Exercise over to the work they do with partners on problem sets in Studio. But we also work to foster the transfer of larger ideas across disciplines, across days, across years. A discussion of the t ransformative power of awe in Campfire pops up as the practice of “Reading with Awe” in Literacy Block. We see learners take what they heard about growth mindset in Math Block with them as they power through an obstacle in designing an experiment in Science.

teaching teamLisa ZapalacSeptember 12, 2023Long-View Micro Schoolprofessional development

Experts Come In To Help Us See Out

When many of us went off to college, we had little perspective on “what we wanted to be” or careers beyond what we saw our parents or close relatives doing. Why didn’t our K-12 experiences help us to better see the possibilities? Why shouldn’t school help to give that perspective? At Long-View, we decided to do that.

To outline this effort and belief, a few years ago we wrote a blog post titled Learning Within a Larger Ecosystem. It explains “we think of Long-View as a porous organization, and work to use and be part of the wider ecosystem of learning that exists around us.” Further, ”Learning is precipitated on openness, opportunity, connections, depth, and curiosity. At Long-View, we don’t wait for these to find us, but actively seek them out. Interacting with professionals and specialists helps us gain perspective as we learn about a high-level topic.”

But in this post, we want to tell you more about the experts who have come to us recently. Returning to our more regular cadence of hosting experts (after covid-related disruptions), last school year we welcomed many fascinating visitors both in person and virtually. Dr. Jenna Moore told scientists about her “library” of worm specimens in the natural history museum in Hamburg….

Build Week 15 Takes Off

It was 9am on Monday of Build Week 15, and learners were already saddling up to head for the park – not yet sure what they’d be making across the week. When they arrived at the park, teachers handed each team two model gliders: one larger one made of foam and one smaller made of balsa wood. Then, equipped with a clipboard, three strings of varying lengths, basic information about gliders and two blank data tables, teams set off to run three test flights on each glider, measuring the distance of each trial and observing the differences in the designs of the gliders. By then, they’d gotten the picture: this week, they’d be designing for flight.

The “bird’s-eye-view” of our plan for the week might be helpful for readers: Teams design, build, and test small-sized gliders to maximize flight distance and an aerodynamic ratio, applying their knowledge of fluid dynamics to its role in flight. Teams walk themselves through the entire engineering design process, from brainstorming to drafting, including team-driven research (physics of aerodynamics and glider components that take advantage of that science), creating materials lists, constructing, testing and evaluating—all within constraints, and concluding with a final launch day/competition.

build weekLisa ZapalacMay 13, 2023Long-View Micro Schoolbuild week, science, math, engineering, park