Bonita I finally had some time after a rather busy home life recently, to carefully reread your post and the first thought that comes to me is what an amazing teacher you must be...you definitely have "voice" in your writing. I can just see and hear what an enthusiastic learner you are...the joy that comes from all the connections you are making to other texts you have read, to your own experiences...your own students. I am sorry, but I think you LOVE having all these ideas floating around in your head. A problem with the book??? Yeah...right! ;-) I think I speak for everyone when I say please go ahead and share your other thoughts about chapter four...don't worry about limiting yourself. Your joy and enthusiasm for this learning experience is infectious and I can't imagine anyone minds reading your posts. And as for your students...one year experiencing that fervent joy of learning from a role model like you and those kids are set. There is power...and a lifetime of memories... that your students will gain from a year being deeply and truly intellectually engaged... 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: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sun 5/4/2008 12:43 PM To: understand Subject: [Understand] Chapter Four and other musings 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.
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