LIVERMORE

HERITAGE

GUILD

October 2000 Vol. XXX No. 1

 

CALENDARCALENDAR
Thursday, October 12 @ 7:OO p.m.
LHG Meeting, Carnegie Bldg

 

Annual General Meeting,

Livermore Airport Terminal Bldg. Friday, October 20, 7:30 p.m.

Speaker: Anne Homan "Morgan Territory"

 

HERITAGE GUILD HAPPENINGS

Livermore Heritage Guild will hold its Annual General Meeting on Friday, October2O at 7:30 p.m. The speaker will be Anne Homan who is working on the history of Morgan Territory. The meeting will be held at the Livermore Airport main terminal bldg. This should be a very interesting presentation and we hope to see you all there.

 

Livermore Herald, November 17,1939

 

County Superintendent Explains New Teaching Plan, Markings

Reasons behind the new teaching methods in the lower classes at the Livermore grammar school, in common with the other schools of the county, and the methods of marking are explained in an article written for The Herald by County Superintendent of Schools, E.E. Muller of Oakland.

 

The article was written at the request of The Herald f'ollowing recent distribution of report cards at the schools, the first under the new plan, and

resultant difficulties among parents in attempting to understand the new methods, particularly the plan of using new ratings on the report cards. The county superintendent says.

 

Alameda County's new primary report card has gone home for the first time. As an aftermath, these questions have been voiced "Why levels instead of grades. Why 'satisfactory', 'unsatisfactory', and 'outstanding' instead of the old marks of A, B, and C' or 75% and 100%"

 

Alameda County schools, like many other in proessive counties and cities, have abolished "grades" during the first three years. In the place of these grades, we have eight levels of progress. These levels are necessary because all children are different and no one course of study or book will fit all of them. They may all be six years old when they came to school, but they differ as much in mental development as they do in height and weight. Then, too, they grow differently --- some getting ready to read much earlier than others. Some children are ready to read when they come to school and others are not ready for several weeks or months. Often the child who develops slowly at first, outstrips the one who is ahead of him in the beginning. There is no pattern for growing either mentally or physically--- each child does it in his own way.

 

The purpose, then, of the levels is to provide enough groups in the first three years so that every child may find his level and grow normally and happily. With this plan, he may slip from group to group as fast as he is able to go, at any time in the school year, never meeting failure. If at the end of a semester, he is not ready to go to the next level, he is given more work on the same level, but he never has to repeat that which he has once done This prevents the

discouragement, which follows repeating a grade

This systern should prevent children from getting into the fourth grade without being able to read, and should reduce the great number of repeaters that are found everywhere in primary grades.

The new report card lists all of the levels and checks the one where your child is. If his work is satisfactory on this level, or he would not be there.

Since all of a child's experience at these levels contributes to growth in reading, that subject alone is graded. We read at these levels number stories, science stories, health stories, art stories, etc., and so study all subjects through reading.

The old report Ccrd compared one child's achievement with another's, in terms of perfection. The new card grades the growth of each individual.

"Satisfactory" means that the pupil is doing the best work his ability will permit. "Unsatisfactory means that he is not doing as good work as he is physicalIv, mentally, and emotionally able to. "Outstanding", means that his achievement is superior to that of normal children.

The old report card considered book learning alone, the new one gades not only reading but health, effort, habits of thought, the ability to get along with people, and other attributes of citizenship.

Let's give the new system a trial --- like your new automobile, it might work better than your old one

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