When there is time to ponder, and people don't feel like they need to
rush through this thing to get to the next, then there is time for
question after question to go deeper into the inferential and
reflective areas.
It is not surprising that students begin on the surface of anything,
but in order to peel the layers back, there has to be engagement on
both sides. Teachers need to ask more and better questions; students
need to ponder and respond.
Years ago in my 2/3 class I spent some time one day.... a significant
amount of time.... having my students just ask questions about things
they wondered about. At the end of well less than an hour, we had about
ten chart papers covered with questions ranging from "How do dogs
bark?" to "Where did God come from?" I am now teaching a once-a-week
GATE pullout class. On the very first day I thought I would do this
question gathering, then expand from there and have the students choose
a topic/area for inquiry. In more time than I had spent with my 2/3
class, we ended up with well less than one-fourth of the questions. And
this was the GATE group! Frankly, I was rather astounded.
But it's even worse than we think.....
Recently I was at a math conference in Monterey, and during dinner one
night was seated with a man who teaches teachers at a state university
in California. Specifically, he teaches a class called "Math for
Elementary Teachers." I asked him how he's finding his students these
days, and he said, "Dumber than ever." When pressed for details, he
said more and more students don't think, don't want to think, don't
read, can't write a paragraph or a grammatical sentence. They think
they don't need to know any math because they are only going to teach
elementary school. They've never read an "adult" book. etc.
So back to the new problem at hand, I think that we as teachers should
and can expect some surface responses, but we also need to learn to ask
questions in such a way as to get deeper into inferential and deductive
areas.... and just pure ponderings.... and this will never happen, in
my opinion, when people are pressed to pass a test and when that test
decides all.
Unless we make it so.
Renee
On Dec 22, 2006, at 5:37 AM, William Roberts wrote:
> Been there, done that. They don't hate either. They just lead
> passionless
> lives. The best they can come up with is, "It's stupid." or "That's
> gay."
> When I try to discuss WHY it's stupid, they can't go beyond the "gay"
> thing
> (which I hate so I ban the use of the word in class).
>
> We started with the reading strategies. We made the transition to
> THINKING
> strategies and I brought in movies, art, music, etc. to show that
> EVERYTHING
> requires thinking. On a literal level, they understand the concepts,
> but
> there's no thinking. Admittedly, there are a few, but I've never had
> so
> many who aren't.....actually, REFUSE...to think. Showed a painting by
> Edward Hopper which usually illicits some feeling because of his use
> of dark
> colors and simple scenes, but instead of trying to think about what the
> painting meant, they described the painting ("There's a chair, a open
> door,
> a staircase. Green curtains with yellow trim. I "think" someone
> forgot to
> close the door...." "Maybe the dog got out."). Previous years, there
> were
> discussions of what the door symbolized ("a new journey, a new life,
> fear of
> the unknown, do you stay or do you go? Reminds me of the poem
> "Stopping by
> Woods on a Snowy Evening" and Langston Hughes' poem, "Mother to Son."
> the
> staircase could be going up like a 'Stairway to Heaven?', etc.). This
> group
> could say it made them feel depressed, but then skip any discussion of
> their
> feelings and went straight to description. Some even went so fas as to
> suggest the "author" should use brighter colors and paint something
> else.
> Rather than figure out why the painter painted it, they are so
> egocentric as
> to think the painter should paint it based on their recommendations!
>
> Funny thing, though. Their reading levels are 4-7 or better which is
> kind
> of low, but better than average for this age group, their fluency
> levels are
> right at where they need to be, and can answer almost any "right
> there" or
> "in the book" questions, but they can't infer or look at the big
> picture.
>
> I'm thinking we have stressed "finding the answer" and "passing the
> state
> test" and "strategies" so much that maybe we have forgotten to teach
> the
> pleasures of learning.
>
> Bill
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Joy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: "Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Listserv"
> <[email protected]>
> Sent: Friday, December 22, 2006 12:38 AM
> Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] New problem....
>
>
>> William and Carolyn,
>> I like Carolyn's suggestion, but would like to take it one step
>> further.
> Show them something you KNOW they will HATE. Hate is such a strong
> emotion,
> and very often kids can find lots of derisive things to say,
> especially at
> this age. It's not cool to have a favorite; if you pick the "wrong"
> favorite, you subject yourself to criticism of your peers. Although
> eighth
> grade students say they want to be individuals, they really want to be
> part
> of the group, and will do almost anything to gain or maintain group
> status.
>>
>>
>>
>> Joy/NC/4
>> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> How children learn is as important as what they learn: process and
> content go hand in hand. http://www.responsiveclassroom.org
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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