College of Education
AFTER YOUR VISIT
(1) Draw a picture of the inside or outside of the Oak Grove School.
(2) Write an age-appropriate story, poem or journal entry based on personal observations.
(3) Make a “schedule” for a typical day in the One-Room Schoolhouse. Include before and after school activities. Information about a typical day can be found at http://www.cedu.niu.edu/blackwell/one%20room%20school.htm#typday . You might want to include a discussion on “promotion” emphasizing that mastery was expected before you “moved” to the next grade. Compare with your own daily schedule.
(4) Compare and contrast the teachers of 1900 and the teachers of 2000. Information available at http://www.cedu.niu.edu/blackwell/one%20room%20school.htm#teachers
(5) Compare and contrast the children of 1900 and children of 2000. Information available at http://www.cedu.niu.edu/blackwell/one%20room%20school.htm#students
(6) Compare and contrast possible classroom jobs of 1900 and 2000. For example:
a. Feeding the horse that you rode to school --- feeding a classroom pet
b. Beating erasers full of chalk…wiping the white erase board
c. Fetching water from the well…going to the water fountain
d. Bringing firewood for the stove…adjusting the thermostat
(7) Topics for classroom discussion or writing assignments:
• Would you find it difficult to learn in an environment where 29 students from 7 different grades met in one room; discuss use of recitation bench
“ I wonder how she did it. Looking back, I really do, I remember her taking time with each class. As I remember, she got the younger children started on a project, maybe painting or going over our ABC's or our numbers. Then she would go on to the next class and get them started. We were all kind of getting started and busy. Then she went to the older children. She spent maybe a little more time with them because their lessons were a little more complicated. Then she would come back to us. But we knew that her eyes were on us and we kept busy. By the time she came back we tried to have our work done, at least I did … And that's how I remember her accomplishing her teaching.” Rebecca Freeman, former student at Iron Hill School
• Would you rather plan your own outside activities or have a p.e. teacher?
• Why were the children back then willing to walk two miles to school?
• Would you prefer following the early 1900 school calendar (22 weeks of school with 30 weeks working on the farm)?
• Without individual books, how did children do their lessons? (emphasis on memorization)
• What would be the advantages and disadvantages to using slates rather than paper?
• What were the differences in the textbooks of then and now?
8) Return to the Other Website links and explore any of the myriad of resources that might now be of more interest, for example: the NPR series on other one-room schoolhouses found at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5178603