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This widely used Workshop Way® system of human
growth for education, developed by Grace H. Pilon, is a dual
management design for teachers and students.
The system operates through the use of special teaching
techniques and procedures that are incorporated during:
- Homework vocabulary that builds responsibility
- Reading sessions that address National Standards
- Independent work for students through the WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
- Whole class instructional format
- Lesson plans for Phonics, Math ad English that have five important steps to build academic skills and self-confidence
- Philosophy and psychology that help children grow self-confidence
- Parental involvement
- Small group instruction for re-teaching and enrichment
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Human
Growth First
Teachers are more than “imparters of knowledge.” WORKSHOP WAY® preserves the dignity of all of those involved in the learning process- teachers, students and parents. Students experience many mini-successes during each day. Success is viewed as the willingness to be involved in the learning process, even at the risk of making mistakes.
Respect for Others and Positive Self-Esteem
Specific techniques and procedures lead students to develop initiative, responsibility, awareness of one’s own worth as a human being and respect for others.
An intellectually Safe Classroom
The physical and social environments have been structured to reduce stress, promote peace of mind at an early age, encourage willingness to take risk and provide numerous thinking opportunities – all vital to learning.
The Workshop Schedule®
A series of tasks which students do independently throughout each day is the heart of the WORKSHOP WAY physical environment. As soon as they are ready each morning, students begin the tasks, starting with Task#1. They proceed at their own pace. No one has to finish all the tasks nor remember where she/he left off the day before. All students succeed at their own pace.
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The Four Goals of Workshop Way®
1 - To Satisfy the Basic Human Intellectual Needs
- Inner Order
- Intellectual Safety
- Feelings of Importance, of intelligence, and of Power of Management
- Ease in talking with peers and adults
- Willing to admit what one does not know and to ask for help
- Satisfaction in doing one’s work without competition and without adult interference
- Courage enough to face whatever is up for LIFE regardless of consequences of
decisions in the process
- Creative Management
 2 - To Sharpen Sense Powers
- To SEE better
- To HEAR better
- To TALK better
- To SENSE order and human dignity
3 - To Grow Human Skills
- Initiative
- Independence in work habits
- Responsibility
- Courage in Foundational Creativity
- Ease in risking
- Honesty
- Self-Confidence
- Go-Stop Power
4 - To Develop Basis Abilities of Thinking
- Opening up learning capacity– or Maintaining it if already opened
- Concentration
- Managing the order of movement towards finishing tasks
- Being brave enough to think and to share it with peers
- Intelligent listening
- Making choices when that make sense
- Creating ways to handle negative consequences
- Precision thinking
- Critical thinking
With these goals, a new way of living is given to the
students and another way of management is given to teachers. Both ways allow students and teachers to feel their own human dignity and that of others in the learning process. Knowledge is the by-product of the process.
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Benefits
of Workshop Way®
Teachers
Learn:
- An array of teaching techniques and organizational skills to accommodate various learning styles within “whole group lessons.”
- An effective whole class instructional format.
- A homework vocabulary that builds responsibility.
- Small Group instruction for re-teaching and enrichment.
- Reading Sessions that address the National Reading Standards.
- Math Sessions that allow students to become proficient in Math Standards.
- Strategies to promote independent work for students through the (Workshop Schedule)
- Lesson Plans for Phonics, Math and English that
have 5 important steps to build academic skills and self-confidence.
- How to use the homework process that uses specific grade level material that develops responsibility.
- Philosophy and Psychology that helps children grow healthy self-concepts
Students
Outcomes:
- Promotes equality of worth as human beings
- Promotes intelligent involvement at no risk of
being right or wrong
- Nourishes mutual respect and self-esteem
- Opens up learning capacity for students
- Develops thinking skills
- Gives satisfaction in doing one’s work without competition and adult interference
- Provides time to develop responsibility
- Helps children feel safe in the classroom while making mistakes and asking for help
- Learn to feel the importance of their management skills
- Develops the ability to converse with peers and adults
- Develops courage to live with the choices they make regardless of consequences of the decision
- Calms and develops inner order and peace
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6
Elements of Workshop Way®
1.
Creation of a unique Physical Environment in the classroom by means of the Workshop
2. Creation of a unique Social Environment by means of the five freedoms and special
teacher-student-content relationship
3. Self-Concept Vocabulary Project
4. Instant Personality Activities
5. Use of Time and Content for Human Growth
6. Parental Involvement
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First Element: Creation of the Physical Environment
THE WORKSHOP SCHEDULE® is the heart of the WORKSHOP WAY physical environment. It is a series of tasks which students do independently throughout each day whenever they are not in whole class or small group lessons.
Students begin to do the tasks as soon as they are ready to work each morning. All of them begin with Task #1 every day and then proceed at their own rates through the Workshop.
No one has to finish all the tasks and no one has to remember where she/he left off the day before. All students can succeed at their own pace.
The task creates a work-life climate that allows all students to be “caught up” in living by the energy of thinking.
The WORKSHOP SCHEDULE PAGE
Click here for Catalog Materials available for TASKS:
Pencil illustration / THINKERS®/ Workshop Schedule/ TEACHERS Handbook/
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Second Element: Creation of the Social Environment
By means of the five freedoms and special teacher-student –content relationship:
Five Freedoms:
Freedom from fear
Freedom of movement with a purpose
Freedom of position and location for work
Freedom of conversation while working
Freedom of choice in the classroom environment
Positive attitudes of teachers
All children can learn to a much greater degree than they are now learning.
Children are not born “perfect” and need time and a way to grow
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Third Element: Self-Concept Vocabulary Project
The Self-Concept Vocabulary Project is a student-oriented kind of homework using vocabulary sheets. It is a daily activity which all students manage from start to finish. The purpose of the vocabulary project is to give equal opportunities to 100% of the students for experiences in which they will discover they are persons who can learn, think, and manage so they all can have self-esteem. This kind of homework is a source of dynamic nourishment as it allows all students to live creatively in its process. The homework project is an opportunity for students to grow all their human skills, particularly initiative and responsibility.
This experience assures the students that they have the power to manage their learning without fearing negative outcome which may result from their decision. For them, success is in the willingness to handle the lesson in their own way.
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Fourth Element: INSTANT Personality- Activities®
The INSTANT Personality-Activities ® presents a systematic instruction in a daily five step whole class lesson. These activities are presented with a human growth emphasis. Children not only
learn , they learn so well they become more clearly aware and conscious of their power to learn. Children love the
opportunities to learn things fast which leads them to feel important and feel intelligent. All students need to feel that they have “learned a lot already” and to feel the movement in learning something new each say.
The daily experience format generates enthusiasm in teachers which spills over to students, creating joy for learning. Teachers feel secure in teaching . Students have security because they always know what activity is next in the lesson and they believe in their abilities to handle it.
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Fifth Element: Use of Time and Content for Human Growth
When one thinks of WORKSHOP WAY® one often thinks first of The
WORKSHOP SCHEDULE® . Although it is the heart of the physical environment of WORKSHOP WAY, changes in behavior and changes in
learning conditions call for more than a Workshop of task.
The system of WORKSHOP WAY is based upon what every human being has (human nature). Experiences in living in a WORKSHOP WAY classroom furnishes the four major areas of human growth which are:
• Satisfy basic human intellectual needs
• Sharpen sense powers
• Grow human skills
• Develop abilities of thinking
The students in a WORKSHOP WAY classroom become the active agents in the learning process. If 100% of the students have the right to be active agents in the learning process , the immediate mastery of knowledge skills will not depend upon the right answers! It must depend upon an environment that gives all students equal opportunities to manage the same experiences in the way they interpret the “doing” that leads them to discover feelings of importance, intelligence, and the power of management. They become convinced that what is different is only in the “timing” and the “way” for learning.
WORKSHOP WAY contains specific structures which need each other in order to create a learning process for 100% of the students. These are:
Structure in Time (See Essential Time Allotment Chart on the next page)
Structure in Materials-(Homework, Risk Sheets ®, THINKERS®, Yes-No or
Precision Cards, Movable Markers, etc.)
Structure in Techniques-(Incorporated in the system’s philosophy
and psychology)
The Structure of the Essential Time Allotment Chart for Primary grades is in self-contained classrooms. WORKSHOP WAY® provides each child with time to finish work in his/her own timing.
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Sixth Element: Parental Involvement
The involvement of parents in the classroom introduces a effective liaison system between the home and the school. Greater understanding between parents and teachers heightens the effectiveness of learning conditions in the classroom. Positive attitudes between the home and school helps create better learning attitudes of students .
It is a policy in WORKSHOP WAY to allow parents in the classrooms. Parents are invited to do this. They may even want to become helpers in the classroom.
However, even if parents cannot be physically present in the classroom,
scheduled visitation is a powerful factor in itself to achieve greater harmony between the teacher and the parents.
Parents need to know that when WORKSHOP WAY classrooms are operating with all their materials and prescriptions, they still use the school’s curriculum in teaching the basics prescribed by the district.
“Human beings will love learning if they are freed from fear, respected in the process, and allowed to be themselves along the way.”
Grace H. Pilon
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Philosophy of WORKSHOP WAY®
Subjectivity, Differentiation, Independence
WORKSHOP WAY ® IS A SYSTEM OF HUMAN GROWTH FOR EDUCATION. It is an approach to learning which provides equal opportunities for all to learn how to learn, how to think, and how to manage life.
As a system of education, WORKSHOP WAY is structured, first, on what is alike in all human beings, our human nature and the inherent possibilities for growth and development that reside in each person. This focus is the paradigm of Individuation (Subjectivity) and recognizes both the uniqueness and the value of each person’s way to learn, grow and develop.
Secondly, as a system, WORKSHOP WAY derives its energy and coherence from its functioning as a unified system that cultivates growth in all persons as part of the larger context. This focus is the principle of Interdependence (Unity) and promotes living and working in a community.
Finally, WORKSHOP WAY’s system of human growth for education recognizes that successful schools and classrooms create a physical, social, and mental environment that develops self-actualized persons. The principle of Differentiation (Diversity) is the focus of this principle. Each person is different. Respect for self and others, in a self-actualized environment, is fostered when all are involved in their own growing and learning.
(Pilon® Workshop Way®: Synthesis of Grace H. Pilon,2008,p17)
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