Dana Great insights...I needed to have the language to describe understanding before I expected the kids to get there. AND...LOL...when I said "easy"...I meant easy for the kids, not me! :-) Certainly there has been a lot of revision in my own thinking, through this listserv I have started to find words to describe my changes in thinking and then I have just started to take action upon those changes in my thinking. There is another dimension of understanding that I am finding in myself as I learn more.
Come to think of it, I realize the kids and I missed one of the most obvious dimensions of understanding in the Grandfather Twilight lesson: revision of thinking! How could I have missed naming it for the kids??? (Duh!) They certainly noticed it! :-) Jennifer Palmer Reading Specialist, National Board Certified Teacher FLES- Lead the discovery, Live the learning, Love the adventure. Reading furnishes the mind only with the materials of knowledge. It is thinking that makes what we read ours. -John Locke From: Dana Williams Sent: Wed 4/9/2008 10:44 PM To: Special Chat List for "To Understand: New Horizons in Reading Comprehension" Subject: Re: [Understand] Jennifer's lesson Jennifer - I love that you're asking us to not just say "yep, they finally got it!" but, instead, to pause and ask "Why?". I'm short on time right now (which is ironic after just reading the posts about the importance of taking time and reflecting!) and I can't truly stop, think, and listen like I want to... but I just couldn't resist posting my immediate thoughts. I think that the reason it "bubbled up" for them is, partly, due to your very intentional use of language when you presented the original lesson. More importantly, I think it is a direct result of your recent understanding about the nature of understanding! I mean, perhaps before if they said such things as "The classroom got really noisy" or "We really wanted to know more", you wouldn't have had the understanding, the language even, to describe to them that those are things that happen in our minds, in our lives, when we understand. Actually, you maybe wouldn't have thought to even pose the question/make the chart as a follow-up lesson. You may have just asked "How did your questions help you as a reader?" - incidentally, a question I've been asking for years. :) So, I'm thinking that because you are starting to understand what happens in your life, in our lives, when understanding takes place, you can now make your students aware of those very same things. To me, your language choice and your awareness as a reader, as someone who does understand, made all the difference. I have always followed up my strategy instruction with "how did that connection help you as a reader" type questions, too. But I have never said things like "I love how when you asked that question, you wanted to just sit and dwell with the text for a moment" or "after reading this book last night about Writer's Workshop, it's like I've developed a fervent desire to learn more, to try it....I can't stop thinking about it". I think it's when we start using that language and actually showing our students what it looks like, what it feels like to understand - that is when we'll go "yep, they finally got it!". I think what you just witnessed in your classroom is what Ellin was attempting to discover and to explain when she wrote the book. I'm wondering how many of my students "got it" all along - did they have it the whole time, but I didn't have the language, the understanding, to make them see that they got it? Did I not even really know what it would look like when they got it? I almost feel like I was asking those questions and sometimes not even knowing what I would hope they would say! And I don't think it was necessarily "easy" - you did a lot of thinking, planning, more thinking, more planning, and you acted very deliberately- and that's not easy at all. :) Dana Williams Original message: So...why was this so easy today? I have worked and worked over the years with classes who couldn't seem to answer metacognitive type questions like "How does this help you as a reader?" and my kiddos always struggled. I thought this would be so hard and it all bubbled up. Was it the fact that they had time in between to reflect? Was it the changes we made in the lesson plan to include more about the nature of understanding? Was it just one of those "God Bless America" happy accidents? well... I hope not. I still have much to consider. Jennifer _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
