I've just read through 3 days of postings and I'm going "Wow". About EDM. I do it and I don't like it. But, I am now asking "What is Essential" in the EDM lessons. Each lesson is so overloaded with activities-it takes up 5 pages/lesson in the teacher's manual! I have read through the passionate posts and believe that yes, we can connect this all to "To Understand". As I read Keene, I am revisiting how I teach. For me it is a matter of how I teach across the day. How to let go of the nonessentials and to focus in on understanding. This book is impacting how and what I teach-across the curriculum. I must admit that I am somewhat intimidated by the high level of rhetoric in these postings. I can only hope to one day approach the sophisticated level of teaching that I read about here. With that said, I would like to share the tiny piece of chapter 4 I tried in my room this week. I thought I was providing adequate wait time for student responses. This week I waited even more and dwelled in their ideas. I had asked the class what could we do with a list of words we had generated as a group. One girl tried to orally give me her idea. The old me would have moved on at this point. But, this week I stayed with her. I cut the words out and tried to have her show me what she meant. When she realized I still wasn't "understanding" she drew me a diagram. My mouth dropped to the floor. She picked 4 students to help her take the list of words to create what was in her diagram. When completed this was hung on our door for a cultural event. This is a student who is showing great discrepancies in learning and is being evaluated for special education. I was able to see past that and tried to "dwell in her ideas". What she produced was amazing. If I learned one tiny practical piece from Chapter 4 is to wait, dwell, stay there a bit longer, dig deeper and support what they are trying to get across. In a way that is also what I experienced with this whole EDM conversation. I stayed back, continued to read, supported everyone's ideas and came to a greater understanding. This listserve is like a classroom of kids. We all are here to learn, we add our opinions and thoughts, we may digress and then get back on track, learning along the way. (Embedded image moved to file: pic14015.gif)
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