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Steven Vande Griend, a fifth grade teacher at Lynnwood
Elementary School in Seattle, Washington is the third teacher
profiled in “No Greater Calling.” This section shows two
different lessons he uses to reach his students. The first is an
activity in which his students go to a home improvement
superstore to work out geometric equations. The second is a
social studies activity involving the debate process. Steven
talks about how he realized that when he attempted to have
students debate issues relevant to social studies content, they
struggled with applying an unfamiliar process to unfamiliar
content. As a result, he has his students debate topics like
cats vs. dogs to gain greater familiarity with the debate
process. Steven discloses how teachers should know the
subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to
students.
“I believe in creating broad themes throughout the year which
pull together a timeline of events that show where we have
come from, mistakes we have learned, problems we solve and
what the future may hold. By weaving activities from the arts
into our theme studies, we read, write, act, speak, solve,
create, organize, and share our learning with each other.”
Connecting Geometry to Real Life Experiences
Steven, along with parent volunteers, took his fifth grade class
to Eagle Hardware and Garden to provide a hands-on, real life
experience in the use of geometry. Prior to the field trip, Steven
provided the foundation in geometry for the assigned activities.
Students were placed in small groups and given a list of
activities that must be accomplished. Each word problem gave
specific directions for every individual project. Given the
dimensions, Steven had his groups discover:
How many tiles to cover a room
How many sections of gutter would be needed
How many boards and nails for wooden deck
Total cost of materials for each project
When asked how he felt about the project, Steven said,
“They’re going to say, ‘I remember when we did this at Eagle.’
That’s what important to me.”
Connecting the Unknown to the Known to Increase
Understanding
In order for his students to gain a better understanding of the
fifth grade social studies curriculum, Steven wanted his
students to be able to debate relevant topics. He discovered,
however, that his students had no understanding of the debate
process. This caused Steven to rethink his lessons. In order for
his students to meet his goals in social studies, he had to lay
the groundwork first. Steven felt that students would be more
comfortable working with topics with which they were already
familiar—such as cats versus dogs as pets. Steven
demonstrated the quality of flexibility so important to the
teaching process.
Recently Steven taught a lesson on time management. To
make the lesson real for his students, he arranged for them to
interview city workers. Each group of four students created a
news team, fully equipped with cameras and microphones.
One team interviewed the mayor, another the director of parks
and recreation. The children analyzed their experiences in a
report afterwards.
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