Big Picture Main Text
Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to the next lesson. This one is called "The Big Picture." And
it comes again from a book called The Big Picture. And The Big Picture is by a man
named Dennis Littky. Now Littky is spelled L-i-t-t-k-y, Dennis Littky. The name of the
book is The Big Picture. I love this book. This is a book about education and Mr. Littky
is an extremely interesting guy. He is just a fantastic teacher, a fantastic educator.
Mr. Littky used to be a teacher and then he became a principal of a middle school.
Actually I think he started as a principal of an elementary school and then later a middle
school, public school, just a normal public government school. Well, he created an
incredible school at his first school, just an amazing school. There were articles written
about his school. It just became so famous because this school had a lot of low income
students, students from poor families. So this was not in some rich neighborhood with a
lot of money. And before Mr. Littky became the principal, the school was having a lot of
problems.
But he came in and he changed everything. He changed the teachers. He hired only
passionate, excited, energetic teachers, but not only that. He changed the whole
system. He stopped focusing on testing. He stopped focusing on grades. He focused
on the students as human beings. He wanted his students to grow as people. Not just
to memorize a bunch of facts, but to really learn how to think. And even more
importantly how to use their thinking and use their knowledge. So for example, most of
his classes were project-based. In other words, the students did not study textbooks
and take tests, no, no, no. What they did is they created a project. And each project
was individual. Each student chose a project or projects based on their own interests.
And of course the teachers helped to guide these projects and structure them.
So for example, if one child really loved dinosaurs they would create a project about
dinosaurs. The teachers, the math teachers, the science teachers, etc., the English
teachers, would help that student learn math, learn science, learn English, learn history,
learn everything, all focused on dinosaurs because this kid loved dinosaurs. So they
would use dinosaurs to teach math, for example. Maybe they had to learn how to
calculate the size of a dinosaur's bones or something. I don't know exactly how they did
it, but they used the students' individual passions to teach. And the students had to do
these incredibly, amazing, huge, difficult projects. These were not easy. They were
really tough. But the kids were very passionate about what they were doing.
And another thing that Dennis Littky did, he involved the community. His school had
mentors, advisors, helpers, from the community...parents, especially parents, but also
experts. So for example, if a kid really loved dinosaurs or maybe a whole class was
really interested in dinosaurs, they brought experts from museums, from universities to
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Big Picture Main Text
Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to the next lesson. This one is called "The Big Picture." And
it comes again from a book called The Big Picture. And The Big Picture is by a man
named Dennis Littky. Now Littky is spelled L-i-t-t-k-y, Dennis Littky. The name of the
book is The Big Picture. I love this book. This is a book about education and Mr. Littky
is an extremely interesting guy. He is just a fantastic teacher, a fantastic educator.
Mr. Littky used to be a teacher and then he became a principal of a middle school.
Actually I think he started as a principal of an elementary school and then later a middle
school, public school, just a normal public government school. Well, he created an
incredible school at his first school, just an amazing school. There were articles written
about his school. It just became so famous because this school had a lot of low income
students, students from poor families. So this was not in some rich neighborhood with a
lot of money. And before Mr. Littky became the principal, the school was having a lot of
problems.
But he came in and he changed everything. He changed the teachers. He hired only
passionate, excited, energetic teachers, but not only that. He changed the whole
system. He stopped focusing on testing. He stopped focusing on grades. He focused
on the students as human beings. He wanted his students to grow as people. Not just
to memorize a bunch of facts, but to really learn how to think. And even more
importantly how to use their thinking and use their knowledge. So for example, most of
his classes were project-based. In other words, the students did not study textbooks
and take tests, no, no, no. What they did is they created a project. And each project
was individual. Each student chose a project or projects based on their own interests.
And of course the teachers helped to guide these projects and structure them.
So for example, if one child really loved dinosaurs they would create a project about
dinosaurs. The teachers, the math teachers, the science teachers, etc., the English
teachers, would help that student learn math, learn science, learn English, learn history,
learn everything, all focused on dinosaurs because this kid loved dinosaurs. So they
would use dinosaurs to teach math, for example. Maybe they had to learn how to
calculate the size of a dinosaur's bones or something. I don't know exactly how they did
it, but they used the students' individual passions to teach. And the students had to do
these incredibly, amazing, huge, difficult projects. These were not easy. They were
really tough. But the kids were very passionate about what they were doing.
And another thing that Dennis Littky did, he involved the community. His school had
mentors, advisors, helpers, from the community...parents, especially parents, but also
experts. So for example, if a kid really loved dinosaurs or maybe a whole class was
really interested in dinosaurs, they brought experts from museums, from universities to
www.EffortlessEnglishClub.com
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