Our class play is done. We have folded all the costumes and put away the props and are back to our regular program. The play went well, though it wasn't quite as smooth in performance as I had hoped; I don't think I will take the shortcut of using someone else's class play again. It was harder for my class to memorize, and I had trouble feeling a connection to the language of the play.
The new morning lesson block is math, which means we'll be doing language arts during our practice (extra main) lessons. This will give us more time to practice the spelling words. I am learning more about the abilities of my students to spell words. There are a few children whose difficulties don't surprise me, but there are others whom I thought to be better spellers than they are.
I read two articles by Arthur Auer this week in the Research Bulletin from the Research Institute for Waldorf Education. Both articles were about teaching reading in Waldorf schools, though the second was far less tangible in its argument, and Auer spoke at length about the way reading is taught in the early childhood classes in Waldorf schools and in the first three grades. I will bring quotes and questions from these articles in my next post. However, I am still left with my underlying question: how do we extend our teaching of reading into the middle grades in a healthy, life-giving way, once the children are already comfortable with decoding the printed word?
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