2007 Award Winners

Elizabeth Grelle
Frances Xavier Warde School
751 N. State St., Chicago
Kindergarten

“I believe children are most successful when they are allowed to be themselves,” proclaims Elizabeth Grelle, a kindergarten teacher at the Frances Xavier Warde School, a NAEYC-accredited Catholic school in Chicago. Joseph Guinan, parent of two of Grelle's a former students, relates, “I asked my sixth grader for some feedback all these years after kindergarten. He said, ‘Ms. Grelle let me be an individual. She didn’t try to mold me. She let me be who I am.’”

Grelle accomplishes this in her classroom by analyzing how each of her 23 young students learns, and what each needs in order to succeed. “I know which of my students thrive working on their own,” she says, “which feel more comfortable working with me on an individual basis, and which need a little more encouragement.”

Using textbooks for reference only, Grelle develops her own lesson plans, individualizing the curriculum to each child’s strengths. In this way, the art and science of teaching come together in Grelle’s classroom. “For example,” she says, “I developed a game called the Letter Race, which is played by five children at a time. Each child is invited to roll a letter block. They record on a graph each letter rolled, each time it is rolled, to see which letter appears most often, which appears second most, and so on. Although each child thinks he’s playing the same game, each child is uniquely challenged depending on ability. A beginning student might practice letter names or correct letter formations; another child may use the graph to figure out how each letter ‘placed’; and another child might create a word using the letters in the game.”

By developing games like this, Grelle is allowing her kindergarten students to be kindergarteners. They are playing, as children play, while at the same time developing important early literacy skills. She’s meeting the academic demands required of students at that age, and setting high expectations of them, while not forgoing the experience of childhood.

Grelle doesn’t just encourage her students to be life-long learners; she is herself one, as well. She frequently attends workshops and recently completed a 30-hour graduate-level course on reading programs. “Her own sense of wonderment fills the space that is her classroom,” says principal Susan Sperling. “Children literally skip into her room each morning, eager to see what the day will bring.”

“The beaming smiles on her students’ faces are proof that there is something great going on in room 105,” says colleague Elizabeth Mellis. “That ‘something’ is Elizabeth Grelle.”