Our Innovative Curriculum in Action - The Webb Schools

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Our Innovative Curriculum in Action How does a high school prepare students for careers that might not even currently exist?

For a world whose landscape is undefined and constantly shifting? How does it instill in them the creativity and flexibility to address future social, technological and economic challenges?

Research on teaching and learning has advanced in the last decade perhaps more than in the previous half century combined—the stand-and-deliver model of teaching and learning, while still valuable, is giving way to new methods founded on research about how children learn best.

Five years ago, the faculty and administration of The Webb Schools embarked on a strategic planning process to answer, in part, these questions and more including: what qualities and habits of mind do we want for students as they head out into this diverse and ever-changing world? What are colleges and new employers looking for and, what are colleges and universities doing to address these same questions?

After a deliberate and thoughtful process, which included visiting other boarding and day schools around the country and even nearby colleges (Webb is, after all, located in Claremont, home to the prestigious and highly-ranked Claremont Colleges— including Pomona College, Scripps College, Claremont McKenna College, Harvey Mudd College and Pitzer College as well at two graduate institutions: Claremont Graduate University and Keck Graduate Institute), a dynamic new curriculum emerged.

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Today, the courses designed for freshmen and sophomores are skills-based and cross-disciplinary. Building on the skills students develop during their fi st two years at Webb, courses for juniors and seniors introduce students to college-level advanced study and research. “ We looked at the example of the Alf Museum—the educational model there is inquiry based and hands on,” said Dr. Theresa Smith, director of academics affairs. “That model is part of Webb’s roots.”

This year, there were 28 new electives in the humanities and six new science electives; in addition to honors level and AP classes and Advanced Studies classes which are AP-level courses that engage students in high-level intellectual pursuits which, according to the Course Selection Guide, “are characterized by their depth of study, the embrace of the latest in academic research and their attention to making connections among disciplines.”

The following are representative examples of the ways in which the new curriculum is preparing Webb students to creatively address the world in the 21st century.

The Webb Schools • WEBB.ORG

THE LONG NOVEL

Weighing in at more than 1,150 pages, (approximately 560,000 words) War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy has long been regarded as a daunting tome—far too time-consuming to be part of the syllabus in an ordinary English class. But what if the book itself could be studied for an entire semester?

Elizabeth Cantwell’s Advanced Studies class, The Long Novel, is a marathon—one with many challenges and rewards as students read-up to 30-40 pages a night and through class discussions and lectures, examine the cultural, social, and historical forces that combined to produce a great work of literature (future pieces might also include Crime and Punishment or Moby Dick).

“In today’s distraction-driven world, it’s nice to engage with art in a long-term form,” said Cantwell. “We’re tracking characters over a span of years, looking at the geography of the place, and trying to understand the cultural context of the times.”

“During the fi st half of class, we usually discuss the assigned reading,” explained Tom Liu ’18. “And then we might have a lecture about Russian society at that time—to give us context.

We also talk about Tolstoy—what were his intentions, what was happening at the time?”

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Cantwell encourages others, including faculty, in the community to get involved and join the reading. She posts comments about assignments on Facebook and inspires students to interpret the work using podcasts. Each student in the class will produce a podcast related to the book.

Liu worked on his podcast when the class was just 100 pages into the reading.

“ It gave us a snapshot of the aristocracy at the time,

GeoGebra software is used extensively to visualize and investigate three-dimensional geometry; this class helps prepare students to take multivariable calculus in college.

“There are so many applications of linear algebra—in computer science, fi ance, science, and engineering,” said Dahler. “This class gives students a solid foundation for advanced studies.

ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

“This is really more typical of a class you’d be taking in college,” said Sally Mingarelli of her Organic Chemistry course. And, in fact, students in Mingarelli’s Organic Chemistry are working with college students in the lab of Daniel O’Leary, an organic chemist and the Carnegie Professor of Chemistry and Chair of the Chemistry Department at Pomona College.

“I reached out to Dr. O’Leary—his daughter Maggie ’15 attended Webb for two years—and he had students in his upper level spectroscopy class pair-up with Webb students,” she explained.

In Webb’s new state-of-the-art advanced science and research lab, the Thornton Lab, which was supported by a leadership gift from trustee Ming Liu and the Liu/Cheung Family, students are synthesizing molecules at Webb, and then taking them to Pomona to look at them under the college’s infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers. “ I like science and math, but my family said, ‘you’re crazy!’ when I decided to take Organic Chemistry,” said Ellie Canty ’18.

“There’s a lot of concept-based learning. Sometimes classes

so I explored those themes and interviewed other

are really specific—you’re learning to do well on a test, but in

teachers who were reading it, as well as my classmates.”

this class, we investigate what we’re interested in. This is

In the beginning, Liu explained, the book was very intimidating, “I wasn’t used to reading that much, but I got into the flow of it.”

like a class I imagine I’ll be taking in college.”

As a fi al project, the class will present a mock literary conference with panels and a keynote speaker.

Shyam Arya ’18 says people were “afraid for me” when he told them he was going to take Organic Chemistry. “But we’re in the lab creating medicines, learning why molecules are bonding the way they are,” he said. “The best part is discovering for myself—not just having a teacher tell me. We have the opportunity to build on the concepts we’ve learned. I’m building on previous knowledge to create new knowledge.”

LINEAR ALGEBRA

With more and more Webb students fi ishing the math curriculum in less than three years, teacher Jim Dahler knew he had to fin new challenges for his students. During a semester-sabbatical, he traveled to schools back east, talked to other educators and determined that Linear Algebra was the class he wanted to offe .

“I attended a workshop in Boston on an innovative Linear Algebra curriculum developed by a team of educators working with a National Science Foundation grant. We went through their book,” he explained. “Webb’s course is meant to be conceptual, based on habits of mind—not just a teacher standing at the front of the class saying, ‘here’s how you do this.’”

Webb Magazine • Spring 2017

L . A . L I T E R A R Y C U LT U R E

Tracy Miller has been interested in the literature of Los Angeles since she fi st arrived at Webb six years ago.

“It seemed strange to me to be teaching Walden in California,” she said. With professional development funds to support research, she attended a National Endowment for Humanities Seminar on the writer John Steinbeck.