e Outdoor Classroom

The Outdoor Classroom

A closer look at EL Education

Second grade teachers Ida Beal and Kelsey Marco have no problem getting their hands dirty—today it’s in the butterfly garden where Beal explains her students’ spring expedition on pollinators and pollination. “They’re answering the question ‘How do we help support pollinators and plant interaction at West Bath School?’ and the kids had the idea to build a butterfly garden,” said Beal. The unit is part of the school’s EL Education model, formerly known as Expeditionary Learning. West Bath School is one of only seven schools in Maine and 160 nationwide that follows this type of teaching and learning style. In EL Education, students look at real-world problems and create projects to solve them. The vision behind EL Education focuses on student excellence in three core areas: mastery of knowledge and skills, character and high-quality student work.

“I think the idea of change, for a lot of people, is hard. When you let your students drive instruction, that's new teaching and new planning, every time—but it's worth it,” said Beal.

The curriculum Beal uses in the discover-by-doing model is all based on Maine state standards and focuses on giving students the opportunity to conduct field work, be active, challenge themselves and work collaboratively with each other and the community. “Our learning is all based on being authentic. You’re asking kids to read things at a higher level and asking them to solve a problem in our community. That’s their ‘buy in,’ they’re more invested and they drive my instruction because they have their own ideas,” said Beal. The expeditions include students demonstrating their proficiency and deeper understanding in a chosen area of study, their ability to become effective learners with critical thinking skills they can use later in life,

and their presentation of a body of work that shows their original voice and connection to real-life issues that are meaningful to their school, community and beyond.

“Everyone here is very collaborative and very supportive. We’ve evolved and had specialized professional development on EL Education. It’s a great place to work,” said Beal.

Each expedition includes field work, where students partner with community members and organizations to accomplish a task. In Beal’s 2nd grade class’ latest expedition, students went to the botanical gardens and dissected the flowers. Then the students planted their own butterfly garden outside their school. Experts taught students about pollination rather than the teachers being the only ones in charge. “I liked going to the botanical gardens. I liked when we dissected a flower and I got to see how they looked and where the pollen was,” said Colton Miedema a 2nd grader. When the students themselves become knowledgeable enough, they too share with their classmates. “They teach each other. They become experts, so they have to step up their game. They have a sense of responsibility because they know other kids are relying on them,” added Beal.

The West Bath School is in its fifth year of EL Education with newer teachers, like Kelsey Marco excited to see where they’ll go next. “I didn’t know anything about EL Education until I came here. I realized this is the right way to learn; we should be following these habits of scholarship traits, perseverance and self-directed critical thinking,” said Marco.

The seven schools in Maine that follow the EL Education model are Casco Bay High School, Portland, King Middle School, Portland, Lebanon Elementary School, Presumpscot Elementary, Portland, West Bath School, St. George School, Tenants Harbor, and Bath Middle School.