Hello Patrick, Within your post, what I see is a basic question: "Why throw out the baby with the bathwater?"
In a classroom, there are many choices a teacher needs to make, and many different teaching methods and strategies to choose from. Since all children do not learn the same way, or at the same pace, it's important to do everything we can to meet every child's needs. At the base of these choices, for me, is a question to myself: What does this really teach? For example, you mention copying vocabulary and definitions from a dictionary. It is my opinion that this does not really teach vocabulary in the most efficient way. It does address dictionary skills and something we used to call "near point copying" and maybe even penmanship. Do I think it harms anyone? No. Do I think it's the best use of time? Also, no. You also mention self-esteem. For me, self-esteem is something far deeper, broader, and more far-reaching than making a child feel good "at this moment" (although that may be part of it). I also know that considering a child's self-esteem and teaching content are not mutually exclusive. I think you are asking good questions, and hope you will continue to do so. Renee On Aug 6, 2007, at 10:53 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > Here is my Question For Mosaic Listserv Group. Thank you very > sincerely. > -Patrick J. Monette > When I was a kid, I had very little interest in reading and making > rich > contextual connections, but now I love to read and I don't know why > this > happened. Though I'm mostly ignorant of the reasons behind this > outcome, I'm almost > certain that what happened was in virtual absence of most of the > inscribed > methodologies - in their calculated form - presented in Mosaic. My > question, > thus, is, How do we discard things that we might consider to be > antiquated or > outdated methods of instruction when they clearly worked for so many > in the > past? For example, reading groups that were divided by different > reading > ability levels. I was part of many a lower reading level in my day and > I feel like > I came out of these mostly unscathed. Further, I don't think that my > self-esteem suffered all that much, but it's my opinion that > self-esteem is immensely > overrated anyway. Some of most terrible and evil tyrants in history, > including Hitler and Mussolini, and some of the most notorious mob > bosses and gang > leaders, had - each of them - VERY high levels of self-esteem. I > believe that > one's values are a much greater determinant of one's character and > goodness, > and should anything be given higher precedents than these? Also, if my > self-esteem did take a hit, who's to say that this didn't benefit me > in any way? - > that it didn't give me thicker skin, make me stronger, build character > in me, > etc.? But back to the regularly scheduled program… Although I’m not > sure if > I enjoyed looking up vocabulary words in the dictionary and writing > down > their definitions when I was a young bucking bronco, I’m not quite > ready to > dismiss this method of instruction as unprofitable because I think > that much of > the learning that was impressed on us in our younger days did so in > such subtle > ways that it would be impossible - indeed, unprofitable and maybe even > harmful - to say, simply, that this and other methods are either > great or > worthless. Further, I don’t think that they necessarily have to be > one or the other. > Each alone may just serve as another piece of the puzzle that, > combined with > the many other pieces, contributes to the mosaic, but by no means > completes > it. That being said, in all its presumptive vigor, I love what I've > read of > Mosaic thus far ;). > > > > > > > > ************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new > AOL at > http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour > _______________________________________________ > Mosaic mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/ > mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > > "We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It's easy to say, 'It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.' Then there are those, who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes." ~ Fred Rogers _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
