Vik-Bessaker Skole

On February 25, 2009, I visited Vik-Bessaker Skole in Bessaker, Norway. Bessaker is a town with the population of 200. So it is not surprising that Vik-Bessaker Skole has a total of 15 students. Because of the population, this school has 3rd -7th grade this year. I met with both groups of students: the 3rd-4th and the 5th-7th grade. I did the Regions of the United States lesson for both groups.

Both lessons went great. The students were very quiet, but they enjoyed the read aloud (which is not surprising since they could look for objects in the illustrations) and they liked drawing the pictures. However, I did have one little boy in the second class (5th-7th) who chose not to draw anything at all. He could not think of anything to draw and did not seem to like any of the ideas his fellow students or I gave him.

Here are some of the drawings the students made about the US. Remember the prompt was one thing you know about the US:

3rd and 4th grade drawings

A big city with a McDonalds on the corner. This one was done by the Latvian student who just moved to Norway this summer.

This was after I introduced myself, but I thought it was cute that the girl drew it for me!

5th, 6th, and 7th grade drawings

I love these small schools and the multiage classrooms. There is something more personal about there education. It seems more like a family and less like a cattle herding.