Sunday, January 6, 2008

Out of the Mouths of Babes--Chapter 4

The essence of this chapter can, in my mind, be summed up in the advice the kids give on page 31. One student suggests that in order to learn about something, he must be emotionally attached to it. Another says that if she could focus on learning one thing at a time and have time to discuss, learning would be more effective. If, as teachers, we let these students' words guide the educational decisions we make, our teaching will be lasting and meaningful.

The chapter suggests that by focusing our efforts on creating interest in students about a subject, exploring that subject deeply and thoroughly, and focusing on metacognition, our classrooms can be transformed. I agree.

The practical ideas in the chapter about how to actually accomplish this, resonate well with me. As a literacy coach working with content area teachers, I often feel that I teach the subjects I know less well with greater success. At first this confounded me. The words in this chapter explain the phenomena. When I don't know a subject well, I have to teach myself before I can teach others. As I do this, I carefully consider what I have done to learn so that I can communicate well with kids. I think the reminder to consider how you, as the teacher learns, is an important concept. Purposefully sharing with students how you learn, and asking them to discuss how they learn is a powerful means to encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning. As you eavesdrop on those conversations, it provides a window into how a student learns that would provide valuable insight into how to present lessons and expand existing strengths of individual students.

As I work with teachers in content areas and read through textbooks, I am not surprised when kids struggle. These books are written in such a sterile way. They are often too difficult for students to read and lack any interesting details that inspire students to read on. When I talk to the teachers, though, they exude enthusiasm for a subject. It leaves me with a sad feeling. These teachers hold a passion for history, science, etc., but they align themselves so strongly with a text that the students don't get to see the enthusiasm from their teachers that I see when we are "just chatting."

This chapter inspired me to begin assembling collections of "way-in texts" (P 29)for teachers to have at their fingertips. I spent some of my Christmas vacation digging in to research and hanging out at the bookstore. I've decided to start with social studies, because I will be coaching a 6th grade social studies teacher soon. The kids must have something more interesting and inspiring to read than the textbook. So, an appeal. I am trying to find interesting articles, picture books, websites, etc. that correlate with the Indiana Middle School Social Studies Standards. I think a lot of us are trying to do this same work. Many hands make light work. Do any of you have texts that you use that you would like to pass along?? (When my amazon.com order comes in, if the books I've ordered look good, I'll pass the titles along.)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

We just found your blog--it's nice to find some other coaches out there in the blogosphere. This book sounds fantastic--thanks.

David said...

Are you interested in reducing your work load? Me too! Today is the beginning of the Mentor Text Writing Workshop Mini Lesson Challenge. If you submit one Mentor Text Lesson to ZZWRITER.com you will receive a guaranteed twenty lessons in return. If I receive fifty or one hundred I’ll dump them all over into a pdf file and email a link to you so you can download all of them at at your leisure. Here is the mentor-text-lesson-template

Download the template and select or delete my text / pictures and add your own. Email it to me [davidastoner@gmail.com] as an attachment and I will compile and distribute to all contributors on the 30th of each month. Tell your friends and we can make it big! The more the merrier. Make sure you include your email address. I’ll create a mailing list specifically for distribution of the lessons.

Anonymous said...

Can't wait to read this one! I'm putting it on my wish list and headed to my principal's office tomorrow morning. This sounds like a great resource for reaching a middle school demographic!