LOL...Ah Catherine! We'll never know, really, what led to the breakthrough moment for my fifth graders...the weeks of modeling and immersion...or giving the kids the language to express their thinking. I think probably we need both. Would they have been able to do the strategy if I had given them the language first and not done the weeks of modeling? Probably not...but on the other hand, by giving them the language to name the sources of legitimate, helpful connections, they could more easily share their thinking with each other and really, teach each other when they turned and talked to each other about their reading. I think that having the language...by being able to articulate what they are thinking about, their learning curve took off and the sophistication of their thinking improved.
What occurs to me, at this moment, is that we require language to think, don't we??? Naturally, some of our thoughts are in pictures, but isn't our use of language what enables us to think abstractly? How could we say we are teaching thinking without teaching the language of thinking? This has been a fascinating discussion and I am not sure about any of this... Just some ponderings in my own struggle to understand... Jennifer In a message dated 3/29/2008 9:09:16 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: When you began to name the connections they were able to hook on to them. As a distant reader, I also noticed what you may have missed. You had spent 3 weeks immersing them, talking with them, modeling and coteaching. Vygotsky would be proud. I think it was all this foundation work that led up to the big "Ah-ha's". Without the immersion, we are not providing students the support they need. **************Create a Home Theater Like the Pros. Watch the video on AOL Home. (http://home.aol.com/diy/home-improvement-eric-stromer?video=15&ncid=aolhom00030000000001) _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
