OPEN SCHOOLS

• click here to see the web page of Peeler Open School, an exemplary "open" school in North Carolina.
• Their sister school is Erwin Open School. Both are in Greensboro, North Carolina.

  Other open schools include:
  

• Irwin Avenue Open School in Charlotte, North Carolina.
• Hans Christian Andersen School in Minneapolis, Minnesota and
• Clara Barton School in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• Marcy Open School in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• Martin Luther King Jr. School in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
• Ralph Waldo Emerson School in Wichita, Kansas,
• Open Alternative School in Santa Barbara, California
• Bedford School in Camarillo, California,
• Washington Open School in Santa Clara, California.
• Los AngelesOpen Charter school in Los Angeles, California.
• Ann ArborOpen School in Ann Arbor Michigan and
• Detroit Open School in Detroit, Michigan.
• Albion Open School in Albion, Michigan.

Here are some sample lesson plans that use sequential Learning Stations:

• Math and Science Careers
• Bike Rodeo
• Using the Newspaper to Learn Geography
• Understanding Sound
• Knowledge from the News
• The Earth, Sun Moon and Stars Unit (Planets too!)
• Let's Explore Sound Waves Together

• How to Develop and Use Learning Centers by Sandra Nina Kaplan.
• Allan Kaprow's Assemblages, Environments and Happenings.

Some features of Open classrooms:

Instructional Designs

Models of Instruction

• co-operative learning
• discovery-inquiry
• small-scale discussion

  Instructional Media

• learning centers/stations
• activity/task cards
• contracts and scheduling
• individual packets
• learning starters
• journal writing

  Types of General Activities

• games
• opinion polls, student contributions
• creativity, play, spontaneity
• arts
• role-playing
• inquiry-- experiential, exploratory learning, scientific method and experiments, puzzles, mysteries, hands-on activities

  Content

• interdisciplinary
• flexible content driven by student interests and inspiration

  Group Size and Focus

• individual and small group participation
• student centered, learner controlled
• student choices
• self-paced instruction
• independent study
• learning styles
• student interests/motivation/relevance
• student initative and volunteering
• individual needs, curriculum, goals
• cooperation and non-competetiveness
• active participation

Classroom Management

Discipline

• non-authoritarian
• non-Behaviorism (rewards and punishments)
• freedom of movement
• freedom to talk
• discussion, flexibility and input into procedures
• trust students ability to choose
• student freedom and resposibility for learning
• democracy and decision making
• teaching skills in team building, cooperation and mutual respect
• students involved in decision making and execution of procedures and rules
• self and peer monitoring of discipline
• supportive, facilitating, rather than commanding or directing teaching role

  Room Arrangement

  
• diversity of materials, materials-rich environment
• use of found materials, improvised
• sensory and manipulable materials, multimedia
• responsive to individuals, student-centered
• centers, installations
• open space architecture, flexible use of space
• decentralisation of space and arrangement of desks
• comfortable deinstitutionalised space
• student contributions to environment
• flexible schedules ans timetable

  Grouping of Students

• flexible/vertical/family/heterogenous grouping across usual age, skill level (gender, social distinctions) categories
• continuous progress

  Evaluation

• testing for diagnostic purposes only to facilitate and guide learning
• portfolios
• teacher observation reports and interviews inclass
• thoughtful writing and diary reports outside of class
• students not competing against each other for grades
• individual goals, goal centered
• grading minimised or eliminated
• learning objectives
• non-standardisation
• alternative assessment
• peer teaching, peer evaluation and self-evaluation
• reports to parents and administrators

  Student Work

• homework minimised, driven by individual needs
• assignments student centered
• team teaching