I wanted to let you all know how much I've enjoyed reading your posts in the last couple weeks. Thanks for all the thought and insight you're bringing to your reading of To Understand.
In reading Judy's post this morning, I decided that I would hop in to comment because I really think she's put her finger on a very important question. The research community doesn't really have a fix on this either, but I really believe that there are bits of information that I might call "functional knowledge" that people just need in order to function in a democracy and that these bits of knowledge - you used the example of kids knowing how many days in which month - are critical as "functional knowledge". I do think that there's a difference between knowing how many days in a particular month which to me is non-negotiable - everyone has to know it and knowing the critical "learning how to learn" processes that you all are teaching kids every day. For example, we cannot teach children to memorize the spelling of all 350,000 words in their eventual lexicon (the words they can recognize by sight and, we hope, spell when writing). But we can (and must, in my view) teach them a process for committing those words to memory (storing them in the lexicon). Many spelling researchers have shown that a process in which children visualize the word (with their eyes closed) and then write it and repeat the process is a very useful process to commit a word to visual memory (which is how we remember the conventional spelling for words). In teaching kids this process, we are teaching them a "learn to learn" process that will apply to thousands of words they encounter over the years rather than trying to teach the specific "content" - teaching each word, which would be impossible. My sense is that when we teach children the comprehension strategies and the Dimensions and Outcomes of Understanding, we are teaching them "learning to learn" processes which will, we hope, ensure their intellectually curiosity, engagement and that they are strategic, effective and efficient learners in whatever content they need to learn or want to learn. I'm not arguing that content isn't important - in Social Studies, Science, Math, Art, Music, etc., content is of critical import. But in an information age, we simply have far, far, far too much content than we can ever teach kids. Therefore, we must be very selective about the content we do teach, teach it in great depth over a long period of time and allow kids to apply what they have learned in a wide range of texts and contexts, simultaneously teaching them the learning to learn processes that will ensure that they keep learning for a lifetime. I hope that makes some sense - I agree, Judy! It's a tough thing to articulate. best, ellin _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
