I personally think that representations of learning are among the least-understood, least-utilized, and most-fascinating topics in education today. If you're highly involved in NAEYC, you've probably done a lot of thinking in the area, but many mainstream K-6 educators today just seem to narrowly focus on "proof of learning/accountability/whatever else they call it" instead of entertaining the idea of how best children can represent their learning. It's a whole branch of thinking as educators that is vital we focus on in these days of SBRR, etcetera but we haven't been, probably precisely because of SBRR and high-stakes testing. This ties in to To Understand and comprehension strategies because in order to move into the kinds of intellectual engagement TU examines, we have to widen our lens of the possible--which is SO hard to do when education has swung to an arena where we teach/test the most minute of a process so that we can measure growth. Ellin is saying that understanding is far, far more than the parts that distort any hope of getting to the "whole" engaged thinking, and since the mini-parts are the only thing that can be "tested" and show growth, we, with our instruction, are practicing reductionism, the opposite of TU. And I believe that representations of learning have to be addressed if we are ever going to "prove" growth to our larger community. I do believe that To Understand will be an even more important book than was Mosaic of Thought.
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2008 14:56:08 -0400> To: > [email protected]> Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Taberski at MRA> > > Right > now, three of us at my school are exploring comprehension strategy > > instruction with very young children (K, 1) and also grade 3 learning > disabled > students. We are using a process called lesson study which I have > written about > before on this list. Three of us plan the lesson, one of us > teaches while > the others watch, then we debrief, look at student work and > adjust the lesson > accordingly and a second teacher teaches it. > > One of > the things we have found through our explorations is that the very > young > kids and those that are learning disabled are able to think at very high > > levels but often do not have the language to express it completely. Thus, > > finding alternative ways to show thinking---drawings, role plays etc---while > > simultaneously providing rich oral language modeling and opportunities for > > practice helps build the language kids need to express that higher level > thinking. > I have seen K kids infer complex themes, synthesize, and even > explain their > thinking. The key is, perhaps, how we ask kids to express > their thinking that > may be inappropriate.> Just another way of looking at > it...> Jennifer _________________________________________________________________ Helping your favorite cause is as easy as instant messaging. You IM, we give. http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/Home/?source=text_hotmail_join _______________________________________________ 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.
