As I entered the grade one classroom, I could hear the
students gasp... Without missing a beat, a voice was heard shouting, “We’re
smarter than adults!” ...It was a thrilling end to a class lesson on making
bread. The 24 mini loaves of bread being carried into the classroom had made their mark on the bubbling crowd of
students. The concerted efforts and tremendous accomplishments of the students that afternoon
had produced incredibly risen, baked to perfection bread... Had Wayne Gretzky entered the classroom at
that moment he might not have been noticed!
I had been asked by the grade one teacher do something with
her class... We had met on many occasions as I volunteered across the hall in
the classroom of ‘Mary’, the primary intensive
language-primary lead- teacher of the school our sons had attended...Up to that
point, I had been visiting Mary’s class two mornings a week teaching her
students the basics of yeast dough, teaching them to think... It had all begun in 1994.
Working with dough had become the focus of my attention as I
volunteered with Mary... Attention and working memory, among other things, had
been the challenges facing her class. It was then that yeast dough came to be, a hands-on
activity that was safe, cost effective, transferable to any
environment, and stimulated all five senses of the body... Enriched environments
had become my passion now and yeast dough was this enriched environment,
grabbing the attention of every student in the class. Unless strongly connected
to the use of language, yeast dough was almost a pointless exercise for these
children. It was engagement and thinking at its best.
Yeast dough was a program whose continual use of language
propelled these youngsters into the realm of expert...It allowed the world into
the hearts and minds of these special children. As time passed, the students
became the teacher enabling other ‘weaker’ students gain the necessary skill
set and confidence to bring about positive learning outcomes. Language was the engine
that drove the yeast dough program. ...It was the miracle in the special needs classroom...The brain was
engaged in higher order thinking: the students had to make ongoing determinations
about many things based upon their current knowledge. Was the dough ready?... Why?... Was the
temperature correct?... Why?... Had enough time
passed for the next step?...Why?... The questions were never ending and always
thought provoking... They had to be... Real life was waiting for these children and
cushioning them from that reality was simply delaying the inevitable harshness
and cruelty that life can be. The program’s aims were to develop sharp, higher
order thinking skills now. Chemistry, physics, algebra, geometry-(my favourite)
began to have meaning and were now a fun part of school life.
Prior to my participation in this grade one bread making
class, I had asked a few adults about their experiences making bread. All had
expressed misgivings and failure at the seeming difficult task of making it... Perhaps, the young boy knew what he was talking
about when he said his classroom of grade one students was smarter than me! ...
Out of the mouth of babes...
The grade one class was already at the top of its learning
game. Making bread simply refined what the class already knew and understood... With Mary’s special children, yeast dough was
helping to level the academic playing field for them and was a daily reminder
that asking questions was a part of life... Scientists knew it... Now they did, too...It was succeeding beyond
our wildest imagination... Gluten was now infiltrating their minds at play
time... What was happening?... We smiled at their transformation...
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