Background
Methods
Description of intervention delivery
Lesson # | Healthy Eating | Gardening |
---|---|---|
1 | Introduction and Kitchen Safety | Introduction to the Garden |
2 | Reading a Recipe | Maintaining the Garden |
3 | Whole Foods and Nutrition | Food Preservation and Seed Saving |
4 | Eating for Energy | Soil and Compost |
5 | Fruits and Vegetables | Water in the Garden |
6 | Traditional Foods and Food Sovereignty | Plant Parts and Life Cycle |
7 | Healthy Meals and Healthy Families | Native Plants and Navajo Ecology |
8 | Garden to Table | Getting Ready to Plant in the Garden |
9 | Garden Celebration (combined lesson) |
Characteristics | Site A | Site B |
---|---|---|
Number of 3rd grade classroomsa | 3 | 3 |
Number of 3rd grade teachers interviewed | 3 | 1 |
Median students per 3rd grade classrooma | 15 | 16 |
Number of 4th grade classroomsa | 3 | 2 |
Number of 4th grade teachers interviewed | 3 | 1 |
Median students per 4th grade classrooma | 15 | 25 |
% of students who are American Indian or Alaska Nativea | 81% | 96% |
% of students who understand Navajo languagea | 40% | 59% |
Gardening Lessons | ||
Number of intervention staff + (support personnel) | 1 (0–1) | 1 (0) |
Number of lessons delivered | 8 | 6 |
Healthy Eating lessons | ||
Number of intervention staff + (support personnel) | 2 (0–1) | 1 (0–1) |
Number of lessons delivered | 8 | 8 |
Total lessons | ||
Total number of lessons delivered | 16 | 14 |
% of intervention completed | 94% | 82% |
Data collection
Fidelity checklists
Interviews with intervention staff and classroom teachers
Analysis
Results
Evidence of Adherence in Delivery | Elements Supporting Program Satisfaction | Lessons Learned About Delivery |
---|---|---|
• All intervention staff had a preparation routine • Intervention staff used the lesson plan, but variations were common • Intervention staff and teachers did not co-teach lessons as planned • Level of engagement with the school garden was variable across classrooms | • Visual, experiential, and cultural aspects of the lessons maximized student engagement and understanding • Students were engaged by lessons that related to their families and communities | • The scope of curriculum content was ambitious for the timeframe • Lessons could be more inclusive of diverse student needs and life experiences • The curriculum should align with standards and existing curricula • Several barriers impeded the transition of lesson delivery from intervention staff to teachers |
Evidence of adherence in delivery
All intervention staff had a preparation routine
Intervention staff used the lesson plan, but variations were common
We had to adapt the curriculum a little bit to the kids…. I would look at the curriculum and go okay, I want this one to be, like, more of a Q&A interactive discussion, so the kids are more engaged. So, how do I need to take the points and transform them into questions so that the kids can understand it more?
Intervention staff and teachers did not co-teach lessons as planned
Level of engagement with the school garden was variable across classrooms
Elements supporting program satisfaction
Visual, experiential, and cultural aspects of the lessons maximized student engagement and understanding
Visual, experiential, and cultural aspects of the lessons maximized student engagement and understanding |
“Everything needs to be experiential, or hands-on, have a visual support with it. Lecturing to 3rd graders who are learning English is just going to be in one ear and out the other.” (Teacher, Site A) |
“The kids LOVED [the guest speaker]. Obviously, her background in teaching and Diné language was a huge plus, but the kids were excited to count and share their Diné vocabulary with her. We made blue corn pancakes together, and the kids really enjoyed watching the whole process. Many of the kids wanted copies of the recipes to take home to their parents.” (Intervention Staff, Site A) |
Students were engaged by lessons that related to their families and communities |
“There was a recipe given, which was shared with all the students, and I think out of my 17 students, three of the students actually used the recipe at home and shared that their family made it.” (Teacher, Site A) |
“I think one of the coolest things was when the kids, like, started being able to ask the questions that were actually important to them and like, ‘Oh my gosh, like I bought that at the flea market’ or whatever or, ‘My grandma makes those pancakes,’ just kind of like, making connections that feel real to them. So I thought that was really good.” (Teacher, Site A) |
“They had good discussion.. about growing their own food, too. Because I remember they talked about.. how they, or their neighbors, or their family grow corn and some of the traditional foods.” (Intervention Staff, Site A) |
“The ability of certain lessons to have the kids feel…their culture, history, and families were something worth studying—something worth exploring and understanding.. it was an absolute joy to witness for me and really built on the kids’ strengths.” (Teacher, Site A).
“I have a lot of kids who are really interested in planting and…anything in their traditional backgrounds, so I would say anything that they can either build or make, or can be tied in with, like, a traditional story really went over super well. Because like, the more connections they can make to their own lives would just be, like, a lot stronger for them.” (Teacher, Site A).
“[The students] finally took a bite into it…and they were just amazed! Like, just hearing that and just seeing their faces, just, surprised—it was kind of like a magical moment for them…. Those activities were a lot of fun for the students.” (Teacher, Site B).
Students were engaged by lessons that related to their families and communities
Lessons learned about delivery
The scope of curriculum content was ambitious for the timeframe
The scope of curriculum content was ambitious for the timeframe |
“And there were times, yeah, that we had to kind of rush through things and finish up because it was time for them to switch to another classroom.. So that was probably our biggest thing, is that getting everything done within the 45 minutes to an hour timeframe before my class had to move on to go to do something else.” (Teacher, Site A) |
“We need more time for these activities because sometimes we had to cut out the last activity, even though it was 10 minutes; 10 minutes in third-grade time is way different than fourth-grade time.” (Intervention Staff, Site A) |
Lessons could be more inclusive of diverse student needs and life experiences |
“One major blind spot that I perceived—and I know that other teachers did, too—was the reality that a lot of kids have food insecurity.. For kids who are poor, calories are calories.” (Teacher, Site A) |
“I have kids with behaviors. I have kids who need me to do, you know, scaffolding with them, like visual supports and things like that. So a lot of things take a really long time in elementary school, and I, I don’t necessarily get the impression that, like, the curriculum was set up with that in mind.” (Teacher, Site A) |
“Add other things that could help the kids in that area, you know, with their needs.. Some of them are cooking, they’re cooking for the parents, they’re helping out, they’re taking care of their parents, that kind of thing.” (Teacher, Site A) |
The curriculum should align with standards and existing curricula |
“It didn’t go against what we were doing. I would say to truly support [standards], we would have to incorporate math, we would have to incorporate more reading type of things, but it was mostly just science.. I would say the Gardening lessons did a really good job to our cultural standards, though.. I thought that was great because that’s a challenge for us.” (Teacher, Site A) |
“We adjusted our standards to correlate with the Yéego gardening standard. So, whatever standard they were teaching that day…we correlated that with our standard, and we made it fit into ELA, math, social studies, science.” (Teacher, Site A) |
“Kind of like making dough, you’re putting everything together and you’re making bread and tortilla, and it came out just right. Because when we did that, it kept reinforcing the healthy eating and then it tied in with our standards, and it worked out well…” (Teacher, Site B) |
Several barriers impeded the transition of lesson delivery from intervention staff to teachers |
“So they did tell us, like, they told us from the get-go, ‘We’re providing this lesson because the end goal is that we do this for the year, and that you pick it up and continue it after seeing the modeling.’.. I knew that I wasn’t to check out; this wasn’t, you know, a guest speaker time. This was a time that I’m bringing in a guest speaker from the community to present something, but we work together.” (Teacher, Site A) |
“They told us it was going to be.. a gradual release for us, like they would be taking more of the burden in the beginning for teaching, and then at the end we would be. Honestly, just with all the other stuff that I had to do, it was an unrealistic expectation, I think, of all the teachers to have all the necessary, like, preparation and just, like, an understanding of the content—like I do not know how to garden.. I don’t know that much about nutrition in the way that they were teaching it.” (Teacher, Site A) |
“Because I really didn’t know what was going on, I was merely just going to facilitate—or monitor students, and then kind of just learn along with them, because I didn’t really know what was going to happen.” (Teacher, Site B) |
“I only know the theoretics of actually gardening, but to actually implement it.. in general I don’t really know too much about gardening itself.. And when I was speaking with [another teacher] last year I asked her too, I was like, ‘Are you a big gardener?’ She gardened a little but not too—I don’t think she gardened that much to really be able to teach it, I think is what she said? So both of us were still really not at ease with teaching gardening, because we didn’t feel like we were up to, up to par with it.” (Teacher, Site B) |
“I probably wouldn’t have done it without [the intervention staff]. I don’t think this is doable, like, alone. Only because the money makes things possible, and thoughts, ideas, coming from people are very helpful.” (Teacher, Site B) |
“Teachers that have no clue about ag[riculture] and farming, it would be a little bit hard for them to kind of, actually teach this, I think.” (Intervention Staff, Site B) |
Lessons could be more inclusive of diverse student needs and life experiences
The curriculum should align with standards and existing curricula
Several barriers impeded the transition of lesson delivery from intervention staff to teachers
Discussion
Recommendation | Suggested Actions |
---|---|
Narrow the scope of the curriculum | • Focus on a small number of overall learning objectives. • Make every lesson deliverable in 45 min or less, plus setup and cleanup time. |
Make the curriculum more immediately usable | • Provide a well-organized online interface and videos that model how to teach each of the lessons. • Create a student workbook with handouts in the order students will use them; explicit step-by-step written instructions for every activity; descriptive visuals and colorful pictures; vocabulary words and word banks; and a table of contents. |
Reduce or offset costs associated with program materials | • Make more of the activities team-based to reduce the quantity of materials needed. • Foster relationships with community members, businesses, and organizations, who may donate time and resources to the program. |
Support capacity of teachers to deliver lessons | • Involve community members, parents, and grandparents to help with lesson delivery and classroom management. • Invite them to contribute their skills, knowledge, and experiences to the lessons. |
Achieve stronger alignment with learning standards | • Collaborate with teachers to further align curriculum with science and Navajo culture learning standards. • Provide teachers with example lesson plans that illustrate how gardening and healthy eating activities can be incorporated into their existing curricula. |
Maximize content relevance and level of engagement from teachers and students | • Continue to emphasize visual, experiential, and Navajo cultural aspects of lessons, and reconsider how didactic content can be delivered (e.g., use videos to explain foundational concepts). • Assign classrooms their own section of the garden to increase students’ active participation. • Increase the intensity of hands-on gardening and healthy eating activities. • Include time in the lessons for teachers, students, and other community members to contribute their own knowledge and connect the content to their own lives and communities. |