In September 2018, all Ukrainian first-graders will go to the New Ukrainian School. At the same time, the pilot of the 2nd grade of NUS will start in 100 schools of Ukraine. This was stated by the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, Liliya Hrynevych, today, August 29, 2018, in the Government House.
"From September 1, the continuation of the pilot for the second grade will be ensured in those schools that piloted NUS in the 2017-2018 academic year. I would like to remind you that there are 100 schools throughout Ukraine - 2 classes in 4 schools for each region. And we are very grateful to these institutions, their employees, students, and parents for the fact that they were the first to take this path, that we were able to use these results in preparation for the launch of the New Ukrainian School, which will be attended by almost 450,000 children already in September." Lilia Hrynevych said.
She emphasized that the pilot of the 2nd class of NUS will be more stable. Yes, if in the 1st pilot class teachers received the program for a week, now it is developed for a year. Schools already have model curricula and educational and methodological support for three subjects - Ukrainian language, mathematics and the integrated course "I explore the world". Programs in physical education, foreign language and art are currently in the final stages.
Another change will be that instead of a week, 3 to 7 weeks will be allocated to study one topic. However, as in the first pilot class, the topics will be studied through problem questions.
Programs have the following structure:
– Subject or title of the content line
- Brief description
- Problematic questions
- Description of activities
- Expected results
– Evaluation tool
During the preparation of model programs for 2nd grade, one of the main challenges was to ensure continuity with the 1st grade programs. Yes, they included the study of topics from various spheres of the child's life. Students learned them empirically, through practical work and research of interesting and important problems for them.
For consistency, in the 2nd grade programs, these topics were grouped by points of contact and condensed. Problematic questions were made deeper and more philosophical. They involve the comprehension of previously acquired knowledge and skills at a higher level of generalization.
For example, the problems solved by first-grade students within the themes "I am a schoolboy", "Our class", "My friends", "Autumn mosaic", "My environment" will be considered in the second grade through the prism of changes, that happened during the year (topic "Changes"); topics "I am a traveler", "We are explorers", "My favorite books", "Water" - grouped under the topic "Ways of knowledge", etc.
For the study of each topic, there will be 4 components, which will be repeated in each of them and ensure systematicity:
- Self-knowledge
- Knowledge of society
- Knowledge of nature
- Derivation of new knowledge, reflection
Such a sequence of topics and their structure will allow students to develop the competencies and cross-cutting skills required by the new State Standard of Primary Education at the end of the second grade. Therefore, the innovation of the second pilot class will also be the appearance of a tool for measuring competencies.
At the end of studying each topic, students will be offered a certain case (situation) and a series of competence tasks for it. Appropriate tools have been developed for evaluating results, which will allow teachers and parents to monitor the dynamics of student results, which will be recorded in the portfolio.
