California Educator

Campbell Healy and Taylor Hanson rehearse a dance at Marquez Charter Elementary School. INSET: United Teachers Los Angeles member Jeff Lantos choreographs a lesson. Research, re-enact, sing the subject Jeanette Mills graduated from UCLA a year ago. Ask her if she remembers the original 13 colonies and without batting an eye she breaks into song naming all of them correctly. That's because when she was a fifth-grader, she performed in historical musicals co-written by Marquez Charter Elementary School teacher Jeff Lantos, a member of United Teachers Los Angeles. Today, she helps Lantos choreograph in the classroom. During a recent visit, students were singing and dancing for a production called Water and Power set in Massachusetts in 1840, the site of America's first cotton mill factory, while Lantos accompanied them on piano. I labored in the cotton fields, Years of sweat and pain. I wondered how those bosses Could be so inhumane. Students must research their characters — actual people during that era — in depth. 16 California Educator | 8-21 June.09.indd 16 june They read old newspapers from that period. They internalize and think about the events that took place, says Lantos, who has been teaching 22 years. "It's stealth learning, because they don't realize how much history they have learned until they get to high school," says Lantos, who has co-penned other musicals based on Lewis and Clark and the writing of the U.S. Constitution. "If you want instant buy-in, all you have to say is 'Let 's put on a show,' because kids love performing. And they re a l l y s t a r t t h i n k i n g a b o u t t h a t e r a instead of just memorizing the answers. When it comes to tests, our kids perform off the charts." "I love it," says student Chad Warren. "It's so much better than just sitting there and reading a textbook. We get to be active and have fun. We'll always look back and remember this when we're older." For more information on these musicals e-mail Lantos at jefftoes@aol.com. learning we're born with," he continues. "I began talking to students about a time when they enjoyed going to school and had fun. Usually they said that was back in first or second grade when they finger-painted and explored things, before all the testing. Ultimately, it boils down to a teacher's ability to engage the students so they can see there is some application of what they are learning to their own personal lives." To learn more about the use of critical t hi n ki ng i n e d u c at i o n , v i s it w w w. c r i t i c a l t hi n ki n g . o r g / re s o u rc e s / k 1 2 / TRK12-tactics-encourage-learning.cfm and www.criticalthinking.org. 2009 6/4/09 1:57:55 PM

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