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From
the Ground Up
Total
Learning Takes Root in Bridgeport Public
Schools
This
week, Roosevelt School
teacher Melinda Stygles shared with
Great
News details about the Total
Learning Initiative within Bridgeport Public
Schools, as well as an example of her most recent
work with her
students.
What
is Total
Learning?
Total
Learning is an approach to school change that aims
to increase student achievement by surrounding the
child with support of all the systems that impact
learning. The Bridgeport Total Learning
Initiative focuses on birth through 9 year olds,
and is a collaborative effort involving
the Bridgeport
Board of
Education, ABCD (Action
for Bridgeport
Community Development),
arts education IDEAS,
LLC, ABCD, Music
Together,
and Child First at
Bridgeport
Hospital.
 The
professional development, provided by IDEAS,
consists of a year of intensive embedded coaching
through which teachers learn multi-sensory
strategies to deliver the curriculum. These
strategies include music, art, dance, and drama to
engage the child f ully in her learning. The
full model consists of this professional
development, plus extended day, a family worker,
and an additional para professional assigned to
each classroom; and mental health services from
Child FIRST. Music Together provides
training for 22 pre-kindergarten classrooms in
Bridgeport Public Schools, to start children on a
positive path to active learning as early as
possible. Infant-toddler classes with
parents are held in several
sites.
Why
is Total Learning important to your classroom, the
district, to
scholars?
Total
Learning addresses the need of Bridgeport
students and teachers to prepare for success in
school and the 21st Century community. The
professional development is intensive and changes
the way the curriculum is delivered to the
students. Teachers learn engaging, multi
modal strategies that allow teachers to deliver
their entire curriculum with imagination, and to
build independent learning skills as well as a
love for learning.
The
strategies require children to be actively
involved, therefore the children are learning.
Discipline problems disappear as students feel
success, and test scores have increased in Total
Learning classrooms. The wrap-around
services provide support to the students and their
families, thus increasing the communication
between the school and the family. Parents
are also involved in Total Learning activities, in
support o f their children’s learning. The
district has benefited from the five years that
Total Learning has been a part of select schools
and hopefully, the model will be expanded and
replicated within the
district.
Where
is Total Learning implemented within the
district?
Total
Learning appears differently in the schools that
are part of the initiative. Some schools
receive the professional development only in
certain grades, some schools receive the full
model, and some schools receive the wrap around
services only. There are Total Learning
classrooms at Cesar Batalla,
Hall, Hallen, Longfellow ,
Roosevelt,
and Wilbur
Cross
Schools .
In addition, teachers trained
at Waltersville and Barnum
Schools continue
to use Total Learning strategies even though they
are not officially served by Total Learning
trainers in 2011-12.
Who
participates in Total
Learning?
The
Bridgeport Total Learning Initiative is a birth
through 9 year-old initiative, serving pre-K
through Grade 2 this year, and designed to move up
into at least Grade 3.
When
was Total Learning
implemented?
Total
Learning was first implemented at Columbus School and
at the ABCD Head
Start and
Early Head
Start programs
during the 2008-09 school year. It was and
continues to be funded by the State of Connecticut
legislature, with support of the Connecticut State
Department of Education. In addition, over
the past five years, funding has been supplemented
by Federal funds arranged by our local
congressmen, including Chris Shays, Jim Himes,
Chris Dodd, and Joseph Lieberman. The
funding is supplemented by private donations from
local businesses and
individuals.
How
is Total Learning used in the
classroom?
 Total
Learning provides the teacher and para
professional with multi-modal strategies for
delive ry of the Bridgeport
curriculum. Model lessons are taught in the
classroom each week by the Total Learning trainer
to introduce the strategy, conferences with
teachers develop ideas to apply the strategies
across the curriculum.
This
year, “studios” are also introduced weekly to
provide differentiated learning so all children
have the opportunity to work at their own pace,
and develop independent learning
skills. This focus on independent
exploration and differentiated learning directly
supports the district’s goal of providing
education that engages each child, and meets the
needs of all learners.
How
are students benefiting from Total
Learning?
Students
are engaged, different learning styles are being
addressed, and the participating teachers are
re-energized to teach in a more participatory
manner. Dual language learners in TL
classrooms are acquiring language at a rapid pace,
and problem solving and higher order thinking
skills are emerging. Observers notice that
children are highly involved in their learning,
and there is a higher degree of verbal
fluency.&nb sp; The voice of the child is
heard in TL classrooms. Children are
becoming socially responsible for their behavior
and are learning skills that are essential for
group learning and independent practice.
Overall, Total Learning classrooms become positive
learning communities that become seeds of change
for the school.
 Second
grade students in Melinda Stygles classroom at
Rooseve lt School built a 3 dimensional structure
during a Total Learning Lesson. The students
composed a 2 dimensional replication of their
structure using geometric shapes that they learned
to cut from square post-it notes.
Directional vocabulary was targeted, and the
final step in the project involved the students
writing directions to build their structure.
Later, independent studio work involved the
students editing multi-step directions for
clarity, building a friend’s structure, and
writing about their
structure.
Participants:
Picture,
top right: Aisha Perez (Total Learning
paraprofessional) and student, Yoled
Aca
Picture,
bottom left: Yoled Aca (left) and Joaquin Ortiz
(right)
Picture,
bottom right: Jeiny Apolianris (left) and Jose
Roberto Figuero (right)
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