What have you all done to help students learn to look deeply and work to understand what interests them? This is a BIG question, Jan. It is, after all, the very essence of Ellin's book, right? I only began reading To Understand at the end of last school year, so I hadn't totally had a chance to apply all that I've learned. But I'll share with you 3 concepts that I did apply in my classroom last year. 1. I modeled for my students my own struggles, my own attempts at understanding EVERY CHANCE I HAD: I read them excerpts from my school law book which puzzled me or interested me or made me think about something else. I brought in Pillars of the Earth (great book) and told them about how little I knew about that time period and how it was affecting my reading. I shared with them my admiration of Ellin Keene and Nancie Atwell and explained how I couldn't get enough of their research and writing. I wrote in front of them and with them about my musings. In others words, I really showed them, for the first time in my teaching career, what it looked like to be a learner (at least in my world.) :) 2. I used the language from To Understand to make them aware of their own behaviors and struggles when they did look deeply. When I saw a student struggle for insight while reading a picture book about the Titanic - they just COULDN'T believe a ship that big could sink - I had a conversation about the struggle and how it's what learners do! When a student wanted to say "one more thing" about the article we had read 5 hours ago on unisex schools - we talked about how great it is to dwell in ideas. That's what you do when you're striving to understand. 3. I made sure the kids shared these moments with others. "Joey, can you tell the class what you just said to me about unisex schools. Boys and girls, we read that article at 9:00 this morning - and Joey is still thinking about it. Sometimes, when something you read changes your mind or changes your beliefs, sometimes you just let that idea sit in your mind awhile and roll it around. Sometimes, you need hours, days, weeks, to just dwell in that idea......" Modeling, using the language, and sharing really did start to make a difference in my classroom - and this was only for a couple weeks at the very end of the school year. And sharing your enthusiasm is a great start - even if they do roll their eyes. It has to start somewhere. For me, it started with modeling and then making them aware of their own behaviors. :) Dana W.
----- Original Message ---- From: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Special Chat List for "To Understand: New Horizons in Reading Comprehension"" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2008 10:39:13 PM Subject: Re: [Understand] Chapter 8 What have you all done to help students learn to look deeply and work to understand what interests them? I teach 8th grade, and when I shared my enthusiasm with my students last year about half of them rolled their eyes or giggled. Whew! That was hard on me. Jan _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
