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The board had its first conversation of the school year at its November meeting, focusing on "Finding a Voice: Communication and Public Speaking." Each year, the board conducts several "curriculum conversations," designed to continue the dialogue about an essential question: "To what extent do Bronxville students produce high-quality, original work that demonstrates the capacity for analysis, reasoning, problem-solving and effective communication about complex global issues?"
Recently, topics included inquiry labs, fifth-grade research projects, Social Studies discussion and “stepping up to questioning,” representatives said.
"The board has heard students and teachers describe their work, watched classroom videos and learned about professional development programs, such as lesson study and action research," board members said in a press release. "This approach reflects an underlying belief that it is more productive (and interesting) to have a series of connected conversations about an important question than to have a periodic stand-alone dog-and-pony show."
Representatives said the November discussion provided an overview of how verbal communication skills develop with respect to focus, presence, use of technology and scope of audience.
"Having something worthwhile to say stands at the center of this process: our youngest students begin with 'show and tell' -- informally sharing information about themselves, their likes and dislikes and their families," representatives said in the release. "In the intermediate years, students learn to report what they have learned about a specific subject. Later still, they examine issues from multiple perspectives, determine their own beliefs, and weave what they know and believe into a coherent narrative."
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