...before we move on to chapter six! How is everyone doing? Four more days for me with the kiddos, and then several more for school improvement meetings and then a much needed mental break. I have been reconsidering some of Ellin's points in chapter five, along with some of the discussions both on the Mosaic list and on a lesson study listserv I subscribe to, and I have been doing some thinking. My lesson study listserv has been talking about how observers in Japanese classrooms notice that these children in solving math problems, are less worried about being wrong. It is considered part of the learning process and it is okay to be wrong. Teachers praise and thank students for helping the class learn when a mistake is made in solving a problem. One person noted that perhaps lesson study has not taken off in the US because teachers are uncomfortable making mistakes in front of colleagues. I am wondering if this is part of the US culture that is holding us back in education. In chapter five, Ellin reminds us that we need to teach children to savor the struggle. We need to create an environment where it is okay to make mistakes...where kids want to work hard to find the answers...to understand something themselves. Isn't this the rigor we want? As the school year comes to a close, I am thinking now about what I can do to create an environment where the struggle itself is valued and where it feeds motivation... There have been many discussions on the Mosaic listserv in the past about how our struggling readers often have the deepest insights into their reading. They have far better thinking than the more able students in the class. Isn't this phenomena explained somewhat by the idea that these kids already know the value of hard work and how it deepens learning? They already have made mistakes and understand at some subconscious level, that learning results from it? Anyone thinking along these same lines? What should I do and say with my kids next year to create this environment? Do you think we are working against American cultural values here?Don't we want to make our children's lives easier and better than our own? How do I communicate what I want to do with our student's families? How do we build my student's internal drive to learn when, as a reading specialist, I only see them for a few hours a day? ( I guess I need to be working with the other teachers in my school!) I am thinking it is the language that I use with kids, colleagues and parents that is important. I need to phrase things in such a way as to help folks understand that mistakes are valued, that time is required for good thinking... and that a struggle is absolutely okay, even something to seek. Jennifer
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