Bonita It is so interesting to read your post...I have zero background in art...though I like to consider myself creative,( I make jewelry, cross stitch, scrapbook), I "can't" draw or paint. I was thinking about when it was that I decided that I couldn't draw...and I think it must be about fourth grade or so. When you think about it, don't you wonder if there is a connection between the "fourth grade slump" and when kids start worrying about what other kids think of them? The debilitating effects of judgement indeed...the students beginning their journey into puberty and the cumulative effects of several years of formal schooling... Is this when we have schooled kids out of creative original thought? When I think of 'flow' I didn't originally made the connection to the Zone of Proximal development...but that makes a lot of sense...the right levels of challenge to keep interest and engagement. The first connection I made was to the idea of a "runner's high"...pushing past the pain until you reach the point where hit that elation...I have always wondered how much motivation figures in to achieving flow...a certain amount has to push you through the difficult initial points before a certain level of success becomes the motivation for you to continue. Here is where we as teachers have to share our own experiences...the joy of the struggle with our students. And I can see that many of my own students really need a LOT of convincing before they will completely buy that idea. As I start trying to teach more about the nature of understanding, many of my younger students are showing progress. Just run around my elementary school and look at how many third grade student writing samples are suddenly using the word "fervent". :-) Yet, some of my oldest students...fourth and fifth graders, are tougher nuts to crack...they have struggled for too long without enough success to easily buy in to the concept of struggle as good. I believe, deeply, with all my heart, that these kids are smart and have so much to offer, but a few of these kids just tune me out. They seem to think that intellectual engagement is something that isn't for them. I wonder what those of you with middle and high school students are finding? Are kids responding to your initial attempts to teach the dimensions of understanding? I am not giving up...but I am worried that my hour a day as reading teacher isn't going to be enough. I need to spread the "Understanding Gospel" to my colleagues too, I think. What is reassuring to me is the number of stories Ellin writes about schools and students who have so many strikes against them. These kids persevere.. think deeply and are not afraid of the struggle. The trick is...how do we set up that environment when so much in our culture works against it? I sometimes wonder of my own teaching setting, wiht so many well-to-do kids may be disadvantaged in a different way because EVERYTHING comes easy to them always. Ellin gives us suggestions, but not a recipe for doing this. Now the challenge...we know what we want for our kids...what do we do tomorrow, next week, next month to get them where we want them to go?
Jennifer In a message dated 5/11/2008 1:47:16 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Okay, I'll begin:) It is in chapter five that I run into the words" the debilitating influence of judgment" and later the words (paraphrased): the power of discovering the capacity of their own minds... Three big connections I make to these ideas are the teaching of drawing, the book called "Flow" written by researcher Csikszentmihalyi, and the use of art to teach thinking. **************Wondering what's for Dinner Tonight? Get new twists on family favorites at AOL Food. (http://food.aol.com/dinner-tonight?NCID=aolfod00030000000001) _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
