—Educational Endeavors

Linda Baron’s ‘Love Of Words’

By Eliza Hallabeck

There was nothing “nonchalant” about Middle Gate fourth grade teacher Linda Baron’s classroom on Friday, February 25.

Mrs Baron was nominated for a profile in The Newtown Bee by Middle Gate parent Michelle Ku after she read Bee intern Emily Ashbolt’s February 18 article, “Some of Newtown’s Creative Educators Share Teaching Strategies.”

“Besides her endless energy, the thing that impressed me about her is the amount of time she spends staying connected with parents. She makes phone calls to her students’ parents just to check in several times a year,” Ms Ku says of Mrs Baron.

Mrs Baron’s Dinner Plate Words was just one of the teacher’s many lessons Ms Ku says is worth highlighting.

Literary Dinners

The atmosphere was energized as the fourth grade students sat down on Friday to discuss the most recent Dinner Plate Word: Nonchalant.

Dinner Plate Words are words the students and Mrs Baron have discovered over the course of the school year while reading. If students take note of not understanding a word or notice the word for another reason, the word becomes a Dinner Plate Word. Essentially, each student in the classroom brings that word home for dinner. Using a sticky note, the students are given the direction to bring the word home and stick to their dinner plate. Before their parents have a chance to serve dinner, the student is told to halt the proceedings until the family discusses the word.

Then again, Mrs Baron explained on Friday, Dinner Plate Words just have to be discussed with the family, and do not necessarily have to be discussed in that manner at that specific time. Dinner Plate Words get their name from where the idea came from.

Mrs Baron seemed to be relishing the atmosphere as students muttered, pondered, and savored the word “nonchalant.”

Student journals, used for both Dinner Plate Words and for “Beautiful Language,” were open before them in the circle. Each student had written his or her own sentence and a sentence contributed by a family member that used the word “nonchalant.”

 Mrs Baron said building vocabulary is a curriculum goal for fourth grade students at Middle Gate. School reading specialist Mary Blair also shares a word of the week with students over the loudspeaker.

“My approach may be a little unique,” Mrs Baron said, “because I like to involve the families as much as I can. I believe that time spent with your family, be it at a dinner table or something, provides an opportunity for conversation to take place. And why not learn something new when you are conversing at night?”

Mrs Baron cannot remember when she began involving the “DPWs” in her classroom, but said she describes how the program will be incorporated during the school year. Sometimes there is one word a week, and sometimes students bring home multiple words a week to discuss with their family members.

“It’s like they are word detectives outside of class,” said Mrs Baron. “And now their whole families are using the language.”

The day after students bring Dinner Plate Words home, they share the sentences either they or their family members created using the word.

Touchdown!

“I’ve given them carte blanche permission to yell ‘Touchdown!’ in the classroom anytime they find a DPW,” said Mrs Baron.

When this happens, the whole class stops, “What did you find?”

“These words are higher level words,” she said, “many of them.”

Touchdown is also sometimes expressed at home too. For one family, Mrs Baron said, it created a confusing moment during a football game. Another student yelled “Touchdown” upon the discovery of the word “conundrum” on the back of a cereal box.

“They are starting to discover things in real life,” Mrs Baron said. “And they are starting to tell me where they have seen them, or where they heard them.”

One student even e-mails Mrs Baron every time she discovers more Dinner Plate Words.

“I just find it so sweet,” said Mrs Baron. “So exciting, they are excited. There is an excitement in the air when it comes to writing.”

Students can also use their personal notebooks to list any “Beautiful Language” they find when reading. The “Beautiful Language” can then later be used in their own writing pieces.

“Language,” said Mrs Barson, “is a big part of our school. We want parents to know when they enter our building that we are all about learning and language and communication. We want them to know we are a literary rich environment.”

The goal, she said, is to inspire students to learn.

“And why not take each day as a gift and come home learning something knew? You’ve had a successful day. We want children to feel empowered when they learn,” said Mrs Baron.

Collaborating with her fellow teachers, Mrs Barson says, is a gift. Anytime a colleague shares a teaching strategy with her, she tries it. It also makes her feel like “I might have helped in someway” when another teacher tries one of her teaching strategies.

(Nominate a Newtown teacher with a teaching strategy worth highlighting by e-mailing Eliza@thebee.com.)