Continent Project Immersion Studios

The work of the project study at Slate School is an incredibly varied and beautiful quilt of children’s interests and growing abilities. They spread across the classrooms with both tender care and wild abandon. It is a joy to behold. Once a year, the school takes the opportunity to share the study of a continent together. This spring, we engaged with our learners as we studied what most captivated each of us about the continent of Asia.

Each year before we begin our continent study, we have a time of immersion so that we can stretch our background knowledge about these enormous and diverse places before choosing our topic for an in-depth study. This year, we returned to the Studio Model that was so successful at the end of the last calendar year. We used the premise, but adjusted it slightly to get acquainted with Asia. Teachers listened to the interests of their children, and shared their interests, too, to form six themed studios for deeper research. The studios included Architecture, Technology and Innovation, Dance, Sports, Games and Play, Food and Traditions, People, Religions and Languages, Music and History, Landforms and Geography, Animals, and Plants and Climate. Every child was able to cycle through each of the studios to learn something more about the wonders of this remarkable place. When each session was finished, the children wrote the exciting new understandings they encountered, ranging from the forms of Kabuki and Noh Theatre to the tactics of Ghengis Kahn. These writings were added to charts, and hung on centrally-located windows for all to see and learn. Each day, the groups moved to a new experience and added new and useful information to the charts. Some classrooms took “field trips” to see the windows and wonder about their contents. Other children would pause as they ran by to see the real size of a tiger, or the native dress for the traditional Japanese tea service. And the conversations around the continent grew. 

As I write this, I am reminded of the unique situation of being an educator at Slate School, where we say that everyone is many things. This was so evident in the studios for Asian immersion. Our entire teaching community explored areas we wondered about, sometimes surprising our students with our varied interests. There is room for this at our school, and we know that it is extremely valuable for our young learners to see that as we grow older, we can continue to investigate and find awe in so many new understandings. We had the agency as teachers and learners to bring these wonderings to the conversations directly beside the wonderings of our brilliant community of young learners. There were moments of great discovery, and as many moments of quiet awe. Each had the power to draw us into the mystery of this vast and complex place. 

On the last day of the week, the children brainstormed ideas for potential studies with their classmates. Teachers scribed the ideas on a big white board, writing as fast as they could to keep up with the excitement of the learners. I don’t know exactly if there is a value in quantifying the number of ideas generated in these classes, but there were more, and more surprising choices than ever. The children were filled with glee as they announced their topics to the whole school in our weekly Harambe meeting. They have already begun to develop the questions that will guide their studies, and help us to identify the resources they will need to slake the thirst of their curiosity about their topic. The horizon ahead is filled with possibility for discovery and unexpected connections to the topics of their friends. They will most certainly emerge. As educators, we’ve learned to be patient and wait for the extraordinary revelations that are sure to come from this, our third wonderful continent study.