Emergent Curriculum

Emergent curriculum, or project-based learning, is the centerpiece of the Manzanita School curriculum. Project work has several key characteristics:

• Projects are student-driven. No one knows where the inquiry process will lead. Students shape the project daily with their curiosity, prior knowledge, family contributions, and community connections.
• Children study a topic in-depth, over a long period of time.
• Topics are selected because they are of interest to children and are meaningful to their lives.
• Projects are interdisciplinary. Content knowledge (reading, writing, math) is integrated into the project.
• Students work individually, in small groups, and in large groups. Groups are multi-age, giving children opportunities to learn from and teach others and to practice their social skills.
• Projects are challenging. They ask students to use many life skills, including research, communication, teamwork, reading, writing, and math. Projects encourage children to think and problem-solve. They provide opportunities for children to apply and use what they learn.
• Learning is documented through teacher observation and student/class products.

Project work encourages children to initiate their own learning and decision making processes. To see how this compares to other instructional methods, view the Continnuum of Student Involvement Diagram by Judy Harris Helm & Lilian Katz.

 

An Example: Ants

Students discover a plethora of ants during a rainy spell. Seeing how intrigued the children are with the ants, the teacher suggests that they set up an ant farm to observe ant behavior. Principles of scientific observation are discussed, and questions are generated from the students' observations. The teacher acts as a facilitator, helping the students to form groups and seek answers to their questions.

Searching for information on ants results in the discovery of AntWeb, an ant mapping endeavor using Google Earth that also creates field guides. Many new questions are now generated around mapping and field guides. A group of students decides to use the information that has been gathered to create a map of the plants and animals of the school site, and another group works on an accompanying field guide. Students use their skills in art, reading, writing, research, math (scale drawings), and knowledge of ecology and biology to develop the map and field guide. They take their classmates and parents on a tour with magnifying glasses and bug boxes.

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