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DOCUMENT RESUME PS 024 444 ED 399 040 Springer, Mark AUTHOR Watershed: A Successful Voyage into Integrative TITLE Learning. National Middle School Association, Columbus, OH. INSTITUTION REPORT NO ISBN-1-56090-088-1 PUB DATE 94 NOTE 195p. AVAILABLE FROM National Middle School Association, 2600 Corporate Exchange Drive, Columbus, OH 43231. Descriptive (141) PUB TYPE Reports Books (010) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC08 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Conservation Education; Cooperation; Cooperative Learning; Curriculum; Curriculum Design; Elementary Secondary Education; *Environmental Education; *Experiential Learning; Field Trips; Group Activities; Integrated Curriculum; *Interdisciplinary Approach; Intermediate Grades; Learning Theories; Middle Schools; Outdoor Activities; *Outdoor Education; Parent Participation; *Teaching Methods; Wilderness Adler (Mortimer); Glasser (William); National Middle IDENTIFIERS School Association; Native Americans; *Rivers; Sizer (Theodore R); Streams ABSTRACT This book describes a "whole learning" approach to education called the Watershed Program, which stresses integrated curriculum and experiential learning. Each chapter begins with an episode from the history of eastern Pennsylvania along the Brandywine River, used as an analogy to problems faced by the teachers in the Watershed program. The chapters are (1) "Beginnings," tracing the Watershed idea back to 1985 and detailing the basic precepts, including whole learning, openness to all students, elimination of grades in evaluation, using real life situations, and the use of the (2) "Wild Indians Brandywine River as a focus of study for students; and a Sense of Place," comparing Native Americans with the seventh graders in their love of and ownership of the land and river, along with describing the arrangement of the classroom space to reflect whole learning principles; (3) "Explorations: The First Year," (4) "Growth and describing the beginning of the school year; Changes," a story of the second year of the program; (5) "No Cross, No Crown, No Names Above the Door," introducing the five basic tenets of Watershed: commitment, cooperation, courage, caution, and caring--and emphasizing the revolutionary structure of the program in form, content, philosophy, and practice; (6) "New Frontiers," describing the challenge of adding fifth graders to the program in (7) "United We Stand, Divided...," the fourth year of the program; discussing the challenges presented by peer conflict; (8) "Manifest Destinies?," describing the evolving application process for students; and (9) "Place, Time, and Quality," reflecting on the whole learning experience. Appendices include the original program proposal, folder comment sheets, and a student application packet. Contains 21 references. (BGC) C=3, rn C:11 J. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Ais document has been reproduced as erred from the person or organization originating it. O Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality o Points of view or opinions stated in this doc me nt do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY rTh, TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) ,-7-A...--"".":"'' '` ' . ....V.'"' ' I.;C: ----) 7-..,<I'-..-1,:nt,tt,..,7', , -,. - . , - - .. 2 0 ..1...'::,..r,):._4;.: -, irA. Ake , A NATIO _;..,,t.,-,..,:oe.,,:',,...::-.: ..,-; OAOratmon. 1991 A COOPERATION COMMITMENT go. COORACIE CAUTION CARINQ WATERSHED 3 Watershed: A Successful Voyage Into Integrative Learning Mark Springer NATIONAL MIDDLE SCHOOL ASSOCIATION nmsa NATIONAL MIDDLE SCHOOL ASSOCIATION Mark Springer has taught at Radnor Middle School in Wayne, Penn- award-win- sylvania, for twenty years, the last seven as co-director of the and col- ning Watershed program. He has also taught at the high school lege levels. Mark for his The National Middle School Association is grateful to pioneering work in whole learning and for preparing this particularly timely designed volume. Appreciation is also expressed to Mary Mitchell, who for her origi- the book and prepared it for printing and to Barbara Brannon nal art work on the cover. Copyright@ 1994 National Middle School Association in All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted writing from the publisher except in the any form or by any means without permission in articles. case of brief quotations embodied in reviews or The materials presented herein are the expressions of the author and do not necessarily represent the policies of NMSA. ISBN 1-56090-088-1 5 iv Contents Acknowledgements vii Foreword ix Introduction "You Boys Didn't Really Think You Were Going To Get Away With This, Did You?" 1 Beginnings 1. 11 2. Wild Indians and a Sense of Place 29 3. Explorations: The First Year 37 4. Growth and Changes 53 5. No Cross, No Crown, No Names Above the Door 67 6. New Frontiers 79 7. ... United We Stand, Divided 91 8. Manifest Destinies? 103 9. Place, Time, and Quality 121 Appendices The Original Proposal A 133 Summer Packet B 139 Structured Reports C 152 D Sample Folder Comment Sheets 164 E Application Packet 168 F Learning Station Overviews 174 G Objectives and Outcomes 189 H Selected Bibliography 193 v Acknowledgements As the record of an educational odyssey, this book about the WATER- SHED Program has been a journey in its own right. Since setting out origi- nally seven years ago, I have explored numerous highways and byways trying to find and to chart an appropriate route which others could follow into the realms of integrative studies. Always challenging, the journey often proved arduous and frustrating. Many times I lost my way. Fortu- nately, each time I reached a crossroads of doubt or indecision, I found friends to encourage me or to point me once again in the right direction. To these many friends I owe enduring gratitude. I would like, in some small way, to acknowledge my debt by dedicating this book to these people: First and foremost to my wife, Allison, and to my children, Colin and Lauren, who have sacrificed more than anyone else for the sake of WATERSHED; to Ed Silcox and Woody Arnold, my constant companions on this journey, whose ideas and enthusiasm constitute the very heart and soul of WATERSHED; to our earliest mentors, most notably to Bob Struble at the Brandywine Valley Association, our first principal, Anne Janson, school board members Jane Beatty and Ruth Payne, and our superinten- dent Dr. John DeFlaminis without whose support the journey would never have been possible; and to my newer friend, John Lounsbury of the Na- tional Middle School Association, who first read this manuscript and pro- moted its publication. Finally, I wish to thank each and every one of the WATERSHED students and their parents. It is, after all, their commitment and courage which make the program work and make the continuing journey worthwhile. July, 1994 Mark Springer vii Foreword Some men see things as they are, and ask, "Why?" Other men dream things that never were, and ask, "Why not?" This idea of George Bernard Shaw's, paraphrased and popularized by Senator Robert E Kennedy, came to mind as I first read the Watershed manuscript. Given an opportunity, Mark Springer and Ed Silcox, experi- enced teachers, said, "Why not?"as much with an exclamation point as a question mark. Thus began an educational odyssey of true significance. Through these pages walk with Mark and Ed as they turn dream into reality, developing a full day experiential program for forty seventh graders in a public school. Via an engaging narrative, author Mark Springer chronicles this adventure in teaching and learning, giving ample detail to the program's initiation, its difficulties, its triumphs. Freed from the tradi- tional organizational barriers of subjects and schedules which often make education artificial and irrelevant, these courageous pioneers created a whole learning program that involves students in real life activities, leads them to become responsible for their own education, and integrates all learning. The Watershed story is a remarkable and often touching chronology. It is inspirational as well as informative, honest and reality-based. The narrative is sprinkled with interesting bits of Americana, the culture of the Na- tive Americans who inhabited eastern Pennsylvania, and mini-lessons from American history. This book is an also unabashed testimony for whole learning. The author doesn't hide his disappointment that comparable whole learning programs haven't materialized at his school and only three such projects are to be initiated elsewhere this fall. Student drawings and photographs not only increase the book's attrac- tiveness but give it a sense of reality. The ample appendices provide copies of pertinent documents, student projects, record keeping forms, and research topics actually used at various times in the program's first six years. Watershed will excite and inspire youand perhaps you may be chal- lenged to conclude, "Why not?" John H. Lounsbury ix S INTRODUCTION "You Boys Didn't Really Think You Were Going to Get Away With This, Did You?" I'd like to think that the water swirling softly around our shins knew and cared that we were therea ring of us, 40 seventh graders, Ed and me standing mid-stream just below the Route 842 bridge. It's always tempt- ing to think of the Brandywine as a living friend, glad to see us when we arrive, somehow different when we leave. We've come to know this river and its neighboring streams so well; and, like the process of education itself, rivers are custom made for allegories. The autumnal equinox glistened. High overhead we spotted first one, then two, and eventually more than twenty turkey vultures spiraling easily in the late September sunshine reflecting our circle below in the current. As if on cue, a solitary osprey appeared upstream gliding swiftly toward us along currents only it could sense. Gracefully, effortlessly, the osprey arched eastward over the field of stinging nettles, assuring itself that we had not disturbed its domain during our short trek from the road to the river. The osprey could not know what pains these kids, duly warned of tingling ter- rors, had taken to avoid contact with any and all plants along the narrow path from bus to bank. Satisfied of our honorable intentions, the regal bird gave us one last glance before it drifted silently toward the forks and van- ished. Standing there in the riffles, I, too, felt a certain sense of rightness as I thought back over the events that had brought us here, both to this particu- lar spot, and to this inauguration of a new approach to public education, a "whole learning" approach we call WATERSHED. Ed and I, like the Brandywine's two branches, had reached this juncture near the forks from similar yet separate directions. We, too, had traveled meandering paths to meet here and begin this journey together with these students. Ed arrived by way of the environmental sciences; I through a more circuitous route of literature, history, and the arts. Yet, here we were, welcoming each student 9 INTRODUCTION in turn to this special place, the Brandywine River, and to this special program, WATERSHED. There is much debate concerning the Brandywine's sources. So many first order streams filament the Welsh Hills of northwestern Chester County, Pennsylvania, that it is virtually impossible, certainly impractical, to say which is the "true" source of each branch. Wilmer W. MacElree, in his 1906 edition of Down the Eastern and Up the Black Brandywine, claims that both branches seep up within one half mile of each other just north- east of the farming community of Honeybrook. United States Geological Survey topographical maps clearly substantiate that possibility, and our personal observations, clouded though they may be by romanticism, lend additional credence to MacElree's theory. I remember the magical awe I felt when I first saw the twin streams, neither of which is a good pace I had set out purposefully to find wide, winding through a cow pasture. them, else it's doubtful I ever would have noticed them. I was, however, well guided by MacElree's 80 year old volume, a ten year old road map of Chester County, and my nine year old son who navigated and valiantly tried to record my periodic observations and calculations. I don't think he understood my excitement as we played tag with the shrinking stream along narrow roads winding among corn fields and cow pastures. I don't think he understood the enthusiasm with which I stopped the car as we crossed a damp ditch that I believe to be the most likely source of the west branch. Fortunately for us both, we had our seat belts securely fastened and no other cars happened by. Finding the birthplace of a stream, actually watching it be reborn with each drop of water welling up from the seep, is truly a magical experience. My son was not impressed, but I'll never forget that moment. Nor will I forget a similar moment several months later when I tra- versed the spot again. This time I asked the bus driver to stop so all forty- two of us, students and teachers alike, could stare with simultaneous dis- belief and wonder at the infant river. So, I accept without debate the twin sources MacElree described: you however, that the can make up your own mind. There can be no doubt, Brandywine River, nee "Creek," springs from the lush and fertile heights of those hills named for the Welsh Quakers who settled there some three hundred years ago. Similarly, though we could debate ad nauseum the metaphysical beginnings of our journey to this point, I know, and I believe Ed would con- cur, that WATERSHED is the natural point toward which our respective 2 1 0