Classroom Diary

Classroom diary




It's early spring or late winter in Newark, Delaware, depending
on how cool you find the breeze this morning, and at Downes
School the kids are more than halfway through the school year
and are really coming along.

From the hall comes the sound of violins being played
competently, and in Sharon Meconi's first-grade class, the kids
are reading and writing with more confidence and poise than
ever.

"Oh, everyone, you have to hear this. This is so cool," Meconi
says, looking at one student's composition. "She's starting her
sentence with different words. She's not starting with the same
word."

There's still a fair bit of oblique behavioral guidance-"Oh, I
love the quiet way Tim is working. Crystal, don't you love the
quiet way Tim's working?"-but the class rolls along smoothly,
at least to a visitor's eyes.

Right now, the class is working on writing letters from City Frog
to Sea Frog, learning the formal structure and o...