Summer Block Preparation Guidelines

Developed by Janet Langley

In the summer, after you have gone to the “Art of Teaching…your grade” or
its equivalent and have created your yearly block plan (See Considerations
When Planning Your Yearly Block Rotation by Janet Langley), it is time to
begin your preparation for the coming year. I highly recommend that you
meet with your mentor before you embark on the following to get his/her
recommendations and words of wisdom, then return to him/her after you
have done most of the work, to ask for feedback on your plans. Below are
suggestions on how you can tackle the monumental task of planning a year of
Waldorf curriculum:

1. IDENTIFY RESOURCES: Create a list of resources for each block-

speak with your mentor, the teacher a year a head of you, teachers
from your summer training, etc. for their suggestions; locate these
resources.
2. ANTHROPOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS: At first, focus on reading
the Anthroposophical texts that provide a background for your work.
An example might be Emil Bock’s books, Genesis and Moses to
prepare you for the 3rd grade Old Testament stories.
3. POETRY: Spend time reading poetry for that age, select those poems
that are pertinent for the year/age of student and that you love. (Be
sure to make note of any poems that you like that would be
appropriate for another grade- file them away for that year/subject.)
Note: I have files of poetry for every grade and block subject-
contact me if you would like me to email some to you.)
4. MUSIC: Review the music that has been passed on to you. If you are
not a musician, contact a friend that can play the various songs on the
piano or recorder and select those that you really like. It would be
good to make a recording of the songs to help you learn them in the
future.
5. CHOOSE YOUR RESOURCES: Peruse the resource books that you
have collected and choose those that you will use as your main
resources. Sometimes we are handed 10 or more books on one subject,
which can be overwhelming- it is imperative to weed through them and
get down to a few golden gems!
 Note: When it came to selecting the books I used for my story
content (for example: Old Testament stories or Norse Mythology) I
would lay out all of the various collections of stories I had and select
2-3 stories found in all of the volumes to read and compare (such as
the Story of Esther in the Old Testament or The Theft of Thor’s
Hammer in Norse Mythology). Invariably, I would find that I liked the
“storytelling” style of 2 or 3 authors over the others. I set aside
those that didn’t appeal to me and used the 2-3 books of stories that
I did like. I then read, synthesized and created my own version of the
story for my class using these few selected texts.

6. LAY OUT YOUR BLOCK PLAN: Begin to lay out an outline for each
block along with the resources, poetry and music you might use. As
much as possible, include the following (taken from Planning a Main
Lesson Block by Janet Langley):

Soul Aspect – The first step in planning any block is to answer the
following questions:
- Why did Steiner suggest that we teach this topic at this particular
age?
- How will this subject help the students evolve/develop at an inner/soul
level?
- Are there particular aspects of this study that would especially “meet”
my class or certain students in my class?

The answers to these questions will help to inform your choices of

curriculum, assignments, etc. as you plan your block.

Knowledge Foundation: This is the story/lesson content that will

supply the images and basis for the students’ academic and artistic skills’
development. It also provides them with an introduction/growing
knowledge of their world and an understanding of human evolution.

-Select and prioritize those events, biographies, demonstrations, areas

of study, etc. that should/could be considered as main lesson topics.
Academic Skill Goals

Ask yourself, “What academic skills should be developed or further

strengthened during this block? A good place to start when identifying
academic goals for each block is your school’s curriculum standards or
guidelines for your grade.

-When referring to your school’s academic goals for your grade, identify
those that lend themselves to the subject you are going to teach.
-Once you have identified these academic goals/concepts, look at your
lesson plan and see if there are “natural fits”. After filling in the “natural
fits”, begin looking for ways to bring in other academic skills.

Artistic Skills Development

When looking at this aspect of block planning, we should choose activities

that expand the students’ artistic skills through instruction of new
techniques in the visual arts, new approaches to poetry and recitation and
more challenging pieces of music, both choral and instrumental. Begin by
asking yourself, “What artistic skills need to be strengthened or
introduced to my class during this block?”

Other Considerations

PROJECTS: Begin to think about the projects you might want to assign
for the various blocks. Beginning in 3rd grade, there are many activities
that the students can do to deepen their understanding of a certain part
of the curriculum and develop new skills.

FIELD TRIPS: Identify field trips that you might want to incorporate
into your block to help bring the subject “alive”. Begin researching them
and make arrangements, as needed. I spent many wonderful summer days
visiting the places that I was considering taking my students. This time
was invaluable in helping me to plan each trip so that my class got the
most out of the experience; these preliminary visits also helped to avoid
many potential problems. (Note: In our final 8th grade reviews, my classes
fondly recalled each and every field trip- they didn’t miss a one from
First Grade on!)
GUEST SPEAKERS: Think about possible guest speakers or artists that
might help enrich a subject- whether it be someone who can teach your
students how to wash, card, dye, spin and weave wool in 3rd grade or a
medical specialist who can teach the students how to use a blood
pressure cuff, take their pulse, etc. in 7th grade…specialists can bring a
wealth of knowledge and excitement to a subject. Contact them and set
up their visit. (A word of caution here…make sure you discuss in advance
what and how the guest will bring his/her information. Sometimes a guest
may need some guidance on how to present and what to include in the
presentation for that particular age.)

CLASS PLAY: during the summer, you will want to spend some time
reading class plays. There are numerous books filled with plays written
for Waldorf Classes that serve as a good starting place. (Your school may
also have files of past plays by grade for you to peruse.) Over the years,
I have watched the stress that a number of teachers go through when
they realize it is December and have no clue what play they will be doing.

I typically chose a play written by another Waldorf teacher and then

rewrote it for my class…this takes a bit of time, but is well worth it as
the play reflects more closely the needs of my particular class. Some
teachers choose to write their own plays; overall, I think this is
commendable, but a teacher must weigh the benefits of this process
against the amount of time that it takes to do it. First time teachers
should check in with their mentors before embarking on such a journey to
make sure that the mentor feels everything else is in balance.

7. LITERATURE PROGRAM: Another thing to do during the summer is to

read lots of children’s literature. Again, go to your mentors, book lists,
the school’s reader selection, etc. to find those books that will form
your literature program for the coming year. Beginning in 4th grade
the students should have an individual reading program that provides
literature for them to read at school and on their own at home.
Deciding which books to choose as class readers (those that everyone
reads at the same time) and individual readers (books of choice
selected for skill level and subject interest) is best done during the
summer when you have more time to read. (Beginning in 3rd grade, my
 bookshelves were always stocked with a plethora of good, age
appropriate literature for my students to check out.)

8. BOOK REPORTS, ETC.: After you have selected the books that you
are going to use as the basis of your reading program, it is time to
decide what kinds of reports/discussions/projects, etc. you will want
to assign in connection with each book. The type of assignments will
vary depending on the age, but I caution you not to have each
assignment be the same for every book…boring!

Note: While reading, I would note good examples of the use of vocabulary
and often created my vocabulary lists from the words that would be
coming up in the next week’s reading assignment. This helped the
students better understand what they were reading and reinforced that
the words that were in the list were actually used in “real life”. In the
upper grades, I also notated excellent examples of figures of speech
found in the literature (as I read) and often used them as examples
during a language skills’ class.

PARENT/STUDENT COMMUNICATION:

WORK PARTIES: Besides the curriculum preparation that a teacher will

do over the summer, s/he should also plan what and when to communicate
and interact with students and class parents. I recommend planning one
or two classroom workdays in later August when students and parents can
come in and help prepare the room. I found that the students loved to
divide up and distribute the student supplies (crayons, pencils, etc.) and
parents were very helpful making drawing mats (early grades), sanding
and finishing desks, washing curtains, etc. (Note: Just be clear which
tasks you feel comfortable farming out and which ones you need to keep
for yourself… I always painted/sponged my walls since I tended to be a
perfectionist in this area.)

PARENT BINDER AND BACK TO SCHOOL MEETING: I also recommend

putting together a parent binder that has a variety of information in it
about the coming year and distributing this at a “back to school” parent
evening that is planned approximately 7-10 days before school begins. (At
that meeting, you can solicit any additional help that you might need.)
 BACK TO SCHOOL STUDENT PARTY: I recommend that teachers
consider having a back to school swim party (or something similar) the
day before school starts. I did this every year and it worked wonders.
The students reconnected after their summer separation and got caught
up on all of their “news” so that on the first day of school they had
already worked through this and were ready to learn.

HOW TO ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISH ALL OF THIS!: Though the above may

seem overwhelming, it is actually very doable if you set up a schedule that
allows you to accomplish it over a period of time…if you wait until the middle
of August to begin tackling all or most of these items, you will be playing
catch up the whole year, which is very stressful for all concerned.

To accomplish the above without stress, I recommend using June to close up

and move your room, attend end of year faculty meetings, write end of year
reports and attend a teacher education program focusing on the curriculum
for the upcoming year.

In July I recommend taking two weeks off to travel, hike, paint, read non-
school related books, play with your family…whatever helps you “recharge
your batteries” and makes you feel like you have had a vacation. Then
beginning in mid-July and continuing through mid-August, I would recommend
that you dedicate 4 hours a day (morning or afternoon) to the above
curriculum tasks. I use to set up a weekly agenda that had me focusing on 2-
4 of the above-mentioned items per session. I would also recommend that
you meet with your mentor 2 times during this period- at the beginning and
near the end, as mentioned earlier.

Beginning the 2nd week in August, begin to focus on fleshing out in detail the
first and second blocks of the year. Have these ready so that all you have to
do is “fine tune” them during the weekend and evening before you teach each
lesson.

Around the middle of August, I recommend that you begin work on your
room: painting the walls, organizing the furniture, hanging pictures, setting
up your classroom library, storing supplies, etc. You will also have back to
school faculty meetings to attend and host a back to school night, etc.
It has been my experience that if a teacher follows the above timeline,
his/her preparation will be so well in hand by the weekend before school
starts that s/he can actually take off for the weekend and go camping,
hiking, or some other breathing out activity before the year gears up-
something I highly recommend!

Copyright 2011 by Janet Langley