Oh, Beverlee, what a beautiful message! Sometimes I get so caught up in your lovely language that I need to reread for content--and then I'm pumping my fist! Do you mind telling us your general isolated area?
You conclude with, "If our children watch us teaching them, what do they conclude is essential? What do they think reading is? What do they think comprehending is? What do they think thinking is? What do they think understanding is?" I don't know the answers anymore than you do, but I have a small notion this year. I'm talking more about my own reading with this year's group of third graders because I see them sit up a bit straighter and, 4 weeks into the year, they actually refer to MY reading. And I don't mean I only read them excerpts to demonstrate a strategy...I mean I talk about the effect my reading is having on me and how I think about it. I told them how one scene made me cry and cry...and not the gentle tears of a touched reader, but big sobs from one joyfully enthralled (and I cried again when I read them the piece). Another day I forgot the book I was reading at the time and I wanted to show them, as writers, how the author drew me into an episode with lively details. I simply told it, but as I told it, I found his language coming back, my arms were waving, I was out of my chair, and the kids were nodding, shocked, leaning, laughing, and breathing a collective sigh of relief. "Look," I conclud ed, "good writing did that for me AND for you." Afield, Judy -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: Beverlee Paul <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > One of the things I LOVE about To Understand is the concept Ellin uses of > showing those who have, indeed, spent their lives trying to understand the > world > through art or music or architecture in order to mentor us as we move toward > trying to understand, too. One of the reasons I like it so much is that it's > so > new to me. I live in a very rural area (our school district is larger than > two > of the United States) and I haven't had the experiences Ellin describes. I > have > to drive 150 miles to browse Borders and 400 miles to hang out at Barnes and > Noble. And our closest museums are museums about fur traders and mammoths. > So > I love to ride along with Ellin as she does those things about which I can > only > dream. And I love that she has a life outside teaching so she can widen > mine. > The literature she chose for the new Mosaic of Thought left me awed. > > And, this being almost October of an election year makes me wish all the > voters > in our democracy had been taught the thinking strategies Ellin describes as > transformational. Just consider the original comprehension strategies and > see > if you think our populace is using them to read some of what the campaigns > have > put out there. Sometimes it takes using all the comprehension/thinking > strategies to understand something because of its level of challenge. But > sometimes we need to use them to realize there really isn't anything much > there. > You can't delve deeply into something that's an inch thick and a mile wide. > > Then I think of my daughter struggling to "teach" Reading Mastery this year > for > the first time. And I think of the long-term consequence of seeing reading > as > something to which you "call and respond." > > Then I reread in chapter one the section about the principal dying his hair > purple if children "read" X books and it infuriates me once again! Even > ignoring the obvious folly of what it says to kids if you have to bribe them > to > do something, we can't ignore the fact that what we're teaching the children > exactly the opposite of what we think we want them to do. As Ellin writes, > "Do > we demonstrate our lofty goals by asking the children to fly through hundreds > of > books, with little expectation that they dwell in the ideas or learn more?" > How > do we proactively reverse this thoughtless trend? > > I think these practices shout our beliefs and pretty much drown out what our > words say. Between our "fluency" instruction, AR, "we can read 850 books > each," > to Pizza Hut's Huts incentive program, we say "read fast, read not what you > want > to but what has the right number of points, choose the thinner books and skim > over the words cuz you know nothing very deep will ever be on the test, etc." > > If what's essential to us, if our goal is "skimming and scanning," we'd be > doing > great! Skimming has its place, but it's certainly not deep understanding. > What > are we teaching our children? > > And that brings me to one of my favorite quotes from Robert Fulghum: Don't > worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching > you. > > If our children watch us teaching them, what do they conclude is essential? > What do they think reading is? What do they think comprehending is? What do > they think thinking is? What do they think understanding is? > > No wonder Jamika couldn't figure it out. > _________________________________________________________________ > Get more out of the Web. Learn 10 hidden secrets of Windows Live. > http://windowslive.com/connect/post/jamiethomson.spaces.live.com-Blog-cns!550F68 > 1DAD532637!5295.entry?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_domore_092008 > _______________________________________________ > 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
