Hi all, I LOVE this book, but there is a problem with it. I wonder if others are having the same problem I am experiencing (I notice the list is rather quiet). My problem is this: the book is thick. I don't mean dense, really, although maybe I do. What I thought/think I mean is that there is so much to talk about every time I read, I have no idea what to post to this list. I am afraid of writing a novel for each posting!
Here are just a few of the text/learning connections that are happening for me: Eye to Eye, Smart Art, Kaplan's Gate icons, Flow, and To Punish With Rewards. Each of these other texts has been huge in my life, and Keene is tying them all together and making my brain buzz. (And those are just a few that have come up.) I think about room environment (gosh, with 35 big fifth graders it is hard to comfortably find that gathering spot to talk and read); using art to push comprehension (I didn't realize how much I was doing that when I used Smart Art--Keene's ideas will help me to better focus that energy); Gate icons (we certainly see how using these icons with ALL children shows the magnificent thinking some of our lowest readers are doing--we also see how the icons--like the strategies--can end up being used in a thin manner, not really aiming for understanding--so Keene's ideas have me rethinking my use of GATE techniques); Flow was an all time favorite book (I feel like Keene is saying that when we focus on the real deal-understanding--and we come to grips with what that feels like, sounds like, is...the students will be in flow--that is the fervent fun of understanding); Alfie (rewards) always annoyed me with his rather uppity voice, but his ideas about rewards have held true in my environments (and here is Keene, reinforcing the direct nature of how external motivation kills reading interest). Sorry about that long run-on, but you can see To Understand is stirring up fountains for me. Okay, outside of all the text and learning connections I am making, I have these moments where I just need to TALK to someone, and I know this list is the perfect place, but I do not know if others are experiencing this book like I am. So I have decided to just pick one thing per chapter--or my chatter will be too loud for my list friends to hear anything I am thinking. So, Chapter four: "The skill and Drill approach has been around for decades, and, in my view, what we have in many schools is a whole lot of disengaged kids slogging through the essential skills in the right order, but who are starving intellectually." My response: "Go, Ellin!" I so agree with her thinking here. Then I read about all the lovely schools she is visiting where the environment and system is being set up to support real understanding, and I feel frustrated that I am not in one of those environments, and more importantly I feel unsure whether I am doing any favor to my children by changing the environment they have before and after me. Here is what I mean... This year is a perfect example. These lovely children came into the fifth grade: well-behaved, polite, do their work, bring all homework...but no deep thinking--everything was on the surface. I would ask an open-ended question and hear the crickets in the wall. I would model reading and they would ask if there is a paper for them to do. If I gave them papers they worked great, but to get them to talk and think? Pursue an idea? PULLING TEETH. So I worked all year on it. It took about half the year to get them to enjoy the banter of thinking aloud. So, the second half of the year I have had some fun with them. Now during a science lesson they jump out of their seats with curiosity. Now, during reading, they groan if they cannot choose their own material. They have opinions galore. Much more fun for me. But have I done them a favor? Next year they will return to a rather traditional approach of chairs face forward, opinions to a minimum. Meanwhile, it took so long to get them where I like them (and not all the way--they still bring up rewards from time to time), I wonder if I would have done better to stay within the system they are in? Is one year enough? Maybe I am just a distraction to their K12 learning. Okay--there is my one thought for this chapter. :)Bonita _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
