By KRISTINA SEWARD
BEE STAFF WRITER

Modesto Bee, Sunday, February 12, 2006

In an era when education is mostly driven by curriculum standards and test scores, one Modesto City Schools program has managed to keep thinking "outside the box." That's how teacher Jeanne Pollard described Fremont Open Plan, an alternative education program housed in a wing of classrooms on the Fremont Elementary School campus.

Pollard has been with Open Plan since the beginning.

"We started in 1976, and if you think about the world at that time, we were all coloring outside the lines," she said.

In the '70s, Pollard said, state education standards were far more lax than today. Every school and every classroom could use different textbooks. No rules regulated what subjects were taught in each grade, she said.

From that freedom emerged programs such as Open Plan, an approach to education centered on synergy between students, parents and teachers.

"The idea behind it is that the regular classroom is too structured, too cookie-cutter," said Principal Jane Griffith.

That's why parent Amy Peters chose Open Plan.

"I went to other traditional classrooms and all I saw was kids in rows in desks," Peters said. "There was no imagination."

In Open Plan classrooms, there are no individual desks, but large tables that allow students to work together.

There are eight teachers and one head teacher who serve the school's roughly 200 students.

Pollard said curriculum is "theme-based," meaning math and writing assignments will focus on weather or ecology or renowned artists and musicians.

Parents who enroll their children in the program are forewarned, Griffith said, that their participation is mandatory.

Parents choose to make their presence known in different ways. Some opt to prep materials for classroom projects or do clerical tasks such as copying and filing.

Others help in the classroom.

Teachers freed to instruct

On a recent afternoon, dad Russ Matteson coached students in the computer lab while they did Internet searches on the Winter Olympics.

Pollard said parents regularly offer their personal expertise, such as a high school English teacher who led sessions on writing short stories and a physicist who taught lessons on electricity.

Parents have taught everything from building Web sites to stretching with yoga poses. This spring, they'll help students produce a musical, "World of Music."

A parent advisory group oversees an $18,000 annual budget for such student activities, including assemblies and field trips.

"When parents take over those kinds of activities," Griffith said, "that really frees up time for the teacher to focus on curriculum."

Students also are encouraged to teach.

Kelly W. recently showed classmates how to hula.

Emi C. said she and her mom teamed to teach students how to cook a quesadilla.

Although Kelly and Emi are technically sixth-graders, in Open Plan they're considered part of the Upper Department.

The Open Plan program also combines grade levels.

First and second-graders are in the Primary Department; third and fourth, in the Middle Department; and fifth and sixth, in the Upper Department.

To teacher Laura McClenaghan, having first and second-grade pupils in one class is the best feature of Open Plan.

"The older ones are often the experts," she said. "It gives an opportunity for them to be an instructor — which helps them learn."

Open Plan is 'a big family'

Teachers also pay close attention to different learning styles to help students meet all Modesto City Schools standards needed to progress to the next grade.

Pollard said she gives students a quiz that determines whether they are audio or visual learners.

She then knows how best to reach each student but also teaches them how to cope with a different style.

One sentiment echoed by students, parents and teachers is that participants of Open Plan are a close-knit group.

"We know everybody's parents, and we move from grade to grade together," Emi said. "We're a big family."

Peters said Open Plan was definitely the right choice for her children.

"My daughter is an auditory learner, she needs to hear it. My son is a visual learner, it needs to be on paper for him to get it," she said. "And this program has worked for both of them."

The school operates on an open enrollment policy for interested families throughout the Modesto City Schools District. For more information, call 576-4679 or go to www.fremontopenplan.com.

Bee staff writer Kristina Seward can be reached at 578-2235 or kseward@modbee.com.