You know what Bev? In my schooling,WAAAY before accountability and NCLB, I can remember being asked to sit on the rug with phonics charts and chanting the sounds in isolation with my classmates. I can also remember my very first spelling tests in first grade and the tears that came when I saw all the red x's on my first test.( I can STILL remember 39 years later, that I spelled girl as"gril" and was totally devestated by it!) I can remember the SRA kits...where we all read from little cards and took the quizzes so we could go to the purple level...I was one of those over achieving kids that would work like the devil to get to the higher levels.) None of these practices are what I would consider to be best practices. I would never teach that way myself...no thinking at all....BUT, that was my elementary schooling. Very traditional...yes...even down to the Dick and Jane readers. I still loved going to school and I loved reading, though the time I spent with the set of nature encyclopedias my mom gave me and my beloved Laura Ingalls Wilder books (a new one for each birthday and Christmas) was a very different kind of reading than what I did at school.
I can also remember, with great joy, the first male teacher I had...who as a student teacher happened to be experimenting with what must have been an early version of writer's workshop in fourth grade. There was an excitement in that class and lots of self-directed learning. I remember that time with great fondness...I can particularly remember that Mr. Colbert told me I would be a writer some day. (If you are listening Mr. Colbert...I'm not an author yet, but maybe someday! :-) ) And here I am today...an eager learner and an ardent reader. I wonder what lesson is to be learned from this? Why wasn't the curiosity schooled out of me? Perhaps we can take hope, that even a single teacher in a school career can make a tremendous difference...or that many kids are resilient...and can still become a life long learner in spite of what happens in the majority of their time in school. That isn't to say we shouldn't strive for better...I just think that we can still have an impact by the way we teach, even if we are lone voices in the wilderness for right now. Jennifer 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: Beverlee Paul Sent: Mon 6/23/2008 4:04 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [email protected] Subject: Re: [Understand] Jen's comments about reflection sessions Which of us in this book study could survive with our sense of wonder and reflection if we, as children, had to sit in some of the direct instruction classrooms in America today where thinking is dead? And in a particularly deadly food chain, just as our children's curiosity is driven out through neglect and starvation, so will be the intellect of our teachers. How fortunate we all are to have Ellin's books to help us live and breathe. _________________________________________________________________ Do more with your photos with Windows Live Photo Gallery. http://www.windowslive.com/share.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_Wave2_photos_022008 _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
