Whole Schooling Videos
Welcome to a portion of our website where we share video clips of positive practices in school classrooms. Most of these videos were taken in association with the Whole Schooling Research Project funded by the U.S. Department of Education from 1999 to 2002.
We sent a mailing to every school district in Michigan and Wisconsin and asked for nominations of schools who felt they were trying to implement the principles of Whole Schooling as they were articulated at that time.
Please note that these video clips were not taken by professional photographers but researchers who were spending time in classrooms. The teachers in these classrooms were not perfect of course and we do not present them as such. But all the teachers we videotaped were doing their best to implement the principles of Whole Schooling.
We do hope that over time educators throughout the world will send additional photos and videos of classrooms where teachers and administrators are aiming to implement the 9 principles of Whole Schooling that we can publish. We look forward to gradually growing a video database where you can visit and actually see exemplary practices being implemented.
So. Welcome. We hope your visit will be enjoyable and valuable to you.
▶️Clicking on the section title will take you to the video playback page for that section.
Photos of Whole Schooling
These two videos show different collections of photographs of children that illustrate various practices associated with the nine principles of Whole Schooling. You might look at each photo and see if you can identify the Whole Schooling principles evident in that photo.
Authentic Multi-level Instruction
Below you will see 9 examples from elementary classrooms where the teachers are aiming to provide multi-level instruction. What examples do you see here that are good? What questions does it raise for you?
- Three classes and multi-level teaching
- "Let's tell a story together!"
- Arts in Academics, Detroit
- Reading workshop: Reading together
- Children organize a read-aloud of story books to one another
- Math games and a student with a cognitive disability
- Tanya teaches an inclusive bilingual 1st grade class
- Watch a read-aloud with Gina who has a very severe disability
- Sydney engages with other students as she works on her moose project
Community Building and Friendships
The videos you will see in this section illustrate a variety of ways that teachers seek to build community in their classrooms. It’s tempting to think, “Well building community has little to do with actually learning academic skills!” And you would be wrong. When a classroom community is built students have resources from both the teacher and other students in the class who can provide assistance.
- Having conversations with respect
- Morning meeting in first grade
- Building community in 3 elementary classrooms
- Circle of Friends Meet
- Student with severe disability welcomed by peers
- Two students reading together
- Gym teacher talks
- Peer tutoring
- Student with disability with friends on playground
- Consultant Susanne Frank discusses friendships between high school students with and without disabilities
