Welcome to our blog site! I hope you are all ready to begin our time of learning together.
This first class meeting focused on assessment and informal evaluations. As you think about our time together, are there any new ideas or thoughts you had after you left our class? Would you be willing to share how you felt as you wrote about your "Roxaboxen"?
Now that you have read "Learning Through Engagement," what are you thinking? What do you think about the statement "...that content by itself is powerless"? Tell us what you think about this reading assignment.
17 comments:
After having read "Learning Through Engagement," I felt vindicated,saddened,and motivated.The piece clearly indicates that teaching in "lockstep," focusing learning stringently to the standards, and
taking a textbook -driven approach to learning is counterproductive and a negation of current brain research and/or best practices. I have long been a proponent of the importance of the affective domain. We all remember teachers who made learning fun and made it all right to make mistakes. They made their classrooms safe environments where learning did often occur through digression and mistakes.
There were so many quotes in this reading that I found important, but perhaps the two most important to me were the following:
" The irrefutable fact is that each student is a collage of varying interests, natural inclinations, inherent modalities, and distinctive personalities.Add environmental and genetic backgrounds to this mix, and the statistical probability that any one student is even similar to another, much less standardized, is highly unlikely." In close proximity we are told that teachers must know our students before we can help them learn. That learning is later referred to as being a "global inalienable right" that we must defend in the face of mandates and requirements. This article is an excellent resource and springboard for discussion.
I agree with Nancy: I also feel vindicated, saddened and motivated. In thinking about my own learning as prompted to do by the author, I remembered a moment from college. The memory is of a feeling. All specific details have vanished. I know that I had a writing assignment and that in the process of drafting my essay, I recalled something my 12th grade English teacher had told me. I don't even remember the advice. But this moment has come back to me again and again and I have been mentioning it to students since I began teaching as a TA. At the time my 12th grade teacher gave me the advice, it seemed unimportant. Perhaps I didn't quite understand it. But a year or so later, it "clicked" inside me when I needed it most.
That experience shows two things: 1) learning is definitely not linear; 2) engagement is key. In my case, for whatever reason, I held on to that information and when I was engaged in an activity related to the advice, my brain made the connection.
As Nancy M. has noted, there are so many important quotes. Here is one of my favorites, from Zull (qtd. in selection): "Without this transformation [from past information to possibilities for the future] we rely totally on the past and our reflections about it." In the margins, I have written: "True, and nicely put. Perhaps [this is] a nice explanation of our national, socio-political attitudes." Though we study history and can see the error in our ways, we rarely get beyond noting the errors to planning a different approach, a way to avoid similar errors, assuming perhaps that those events are irrevocably past, and so we fail to notice when we are committing similar blunders presently. Recent issues with the fairness of school funding and with the aftermath of Katrina and with the current re-segregation of inner-city schools certainly seem reminiscent of issues supposedly handled by Civil Rights era legislation.
It all seems connected to your question about the quote Paula: "content by itself is powerless." Knowing the content is totally different than being engaged by it and in it, and deciding to do something new as a result of it.
testing....
This article evokes many thoughts…making us wonder what we are doing and more importantly why? As career and technology joins the area of “end of course testing”; it leaves a teacher wondering how it is best to teach. In our area especially, we have always been taught to teach in the real world and real world is not multiple choice. However, our “end of course” tests are multiple-choice and it is now our real world.
I definitely agree with the article that no two children are similar, much less standardized. I have come to the realization that our job is to attempt to teach all students something and given the fact they are coming from different backgrounds (especially in a mixed class of all grades and levels), this is especially true. They will not all arrive at the same place at the end of the semester, they will not all make A’s on standardized tests, but they should leave the class knowing more than when they entered the class.
I will leave the quote that struck a chord with me… “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” Many people are not on board with the career clusters and the choosing of majors for high school students, but if they are not encouraged to do so in high school, many of them will go to college and waste a lot of time and money changing majors or worse yet, choose a career/job with which they will not be satisfied with later.
I am going to focus my blog on the second question that was posed to the group, how did I feel as I was writing about my “Roxaboxen”. At first I was stuck as I went through my mind thinking of places that I played as a child that helped me develop socially and emotionally. However, as I took a few minutes to formulate my thoughts and sort them out I was able to focus in on my grandmother’s farm. This was a place where my family often went and socialized with my aunts, uncles and cousins. Once I started writing I felt like I could have continued for 5-6 pages worth of material. I guess the lesson I learned from this is to try and provide the students with adequate time to formulate their ideas instead of rushing them into a writing project. This will lead to a higher quality product in the end.
My first impression after reading the article was that there are several necessary ingredients involved in producing a successful learning experience. Teacher knowledge of content, teacher ability to plan and execute an effective lesson plan, the ability of the teacher and the student to communicate, providing the best possible environment and the student willingness to become an engaged learner – that is their commitment to obtain and retain the learned skill, are all key factors.
I have no issue with any of these factors and certainly agree to their importance. You take any of these factors away and the learning experience will be diminished to a certain degree. A teacher can have a great lesson and preparation, but if the student is uninterested, unmotivated and not engaged, little, if any, learning will take place. Conversely, you can have an ineffective teacher, with minimal planning or presentation skills and the most motivated student in the school and the learning experience will be greatly diminished.
In the Learning for the Future section, the statement about our job is to prepare student for the future, but even we, technology and socially, are not sure of what the future hold is worthy of note. It is hard to imagine what will be out there in 10-20 years both socially and in the area of technology.
"Learning Through Engagement"
I like how Nancy begins her blog..with 'vindicated, saddened, and motivated.' With so much of our professional articles, there are a lot of things that we teachers will say, "yes, see!" but then I think we (or, at least I) sometimes feel that those ideas of ownership, individuality, and differentiation are not backed up or supported when we are given specific measuring sticks and tests and standardized curriculum to perform.
I think it was Jonathan Kozol (spelling??!?) who said something along the lines of we are testing or standardizing all the learning out of education. I need to find that quote--I like it.
I know we need guidelines--but sometimes I feel our guidelines are becoming more like boundaries.
If we don't have some indepedence and ownership ourselvs, can we provide it for our students?
Are we taking the learning out of education if we have to follow a prosribed script or schedule?
How can we be differentiated for the "collage of ... interests,...personalities...and backgrounds" if our boundaries and yardsticks encourage a 'paint by numbers' approach to teaching?
One of the reasons I've lasted this long is that I've worked most of my years in teaching in schools and districts that respect the variety of, not just students, but of teachers. The day I am given a schedule and a script to follow is the day I find that cubicle job.
So, to steal again from Nancy, I was vindicated and motivated, but also a bit frustrated by a few of the things this article encouraged me to see or think about.
good start to the reading though.
I vented to Jonelle yesterday about the frustration I was having in the English lab. The lab can be a difficult environment for the students (and in turn for we the teachers). I found myself being bombarded with comments such as, “This is boring!” “My computer froze” “It logged me out” “I don’t understand why we have to do this!” I was frustrated and agitated. I wanted them to do the work and stop complaining. However, after speaking with Vick, and reading this article, one voice keeps ringing in my head. One of my students turned to me and asked very plainly, “What is the purpose of this?”
At first I was a little angry…he hadn’t been listening during lab orientation, or the many times I explained why we were trudging down to the lab two days a week. HSAP practice! Quality practice to prepare you for the test your high school career hinges on. However, I then realized his question was legitimate, and despite my feelings of frustration, I owed him an answer. I realized I needed to clarify.
So many times we find ourselves teaching teaching teaching rather than qualifying anything we’re doing. And sometimes, we may believe the purpose of learning has been given when, in fact, it hasn’t registered with the students. (I may be using the term “we” too leniently, so I will revert now to “I”). A line from the reading struck me: “Although engagement is necessary for learning, it is infinitely easier to define than to create.” I must continue to make learning purposeful, despite the fact that I sometimes feel I’m teaching in a box. I believe we can hit the important standards, but still allow (stealing Jonelle’s words now) creativity and ownership of the learning.
So, a personal goal: know my students. While the standards are laid out for all to partake of, I still need to find the best way to fashion them student to student.
Learning Through Engagement
September 7, 2007
Before I even got to the article I started thinking about the quote by John Dewey. Was John the brother of Melvil Dewey the creator of the dewey decimal system? But I digress before I even start. When thinking about learning I go back to those classes that I simply did not do well in- chemistry, pre-calculus, and statistics. I never even thought that there was a process to the learning. I just knew that there were some formulas to memorize and some places to plug some numbers in. Was there ever a process? That must be why I did so poorly!
I fully agree that engagement is necessary for learning, but that it is easier to define than to create. I have watched many teachers use wonderfully creative techniques to keep students engaged, but their efforts were in vain. Asking students to brainstorm before a lesson sounds like a good idea, but teachers beware, ANYTHING can come from a student’s mouth. You will hear a range of related and highly unrelated comments. Students often make the comment, “you don’t have any good books in this library.” I don’t take offense. I just say, “well, tell me some titles of some good books.” Most of the time they say “anything by Zane”. To which my reply is, “I am sorry, we can’t put books like that on our shelves”. If they have actually read one of her books they know why we can’t have them before they ask. If they have just heard about her books they will ask “why”. I simply say that her books are considered “erotica.” If this is what engages students, no wonder we can’t keep their attention!
The Who Are Survey is a wonderful tool for getting to know students. The Then and Now exercise is great for seasoned teachers. I can’t help but think how today’s students just take over the computers like they are their own. Yesterday’s students may have put bubble gum under the table top, but they definitely would not have stuck paper in the floppy drive or rearranged the keys on the computer keyboards!
Learning for the future is ever changing. The basic reading, writing, and arithmetic whether taught with pencil and paper or white boards and software will remain the foundation of all curricula. Let me end this blog by asking my cohorts, does anyone really understand all of the mandates of the “No Child Left Behind” legislation? From what I have read, the legislation would be better titled, “No Teacher Left To Teach Our Children” OR “No Child Left Standing.”
Nancy Rollison's Post
Comments on "Learning Through Engagement"
At the beginning of this article, the author asked us to reflect on a time when we had to learn something difficult. What type of experience did you have? Were you successful?
I thought about the first time I took a computer course and how frustrating that experience was. I was at Midland's Tech and the computers were already very "old school". What I remember the most, however, was a comment by the teacher (who didn't really seem to care to be there) after I'd really gotten into a mess and somehow caused the computer to lock up. After 10 minutes of trying to fix the problem, he just looked at me and said, "Ma'm, keep your day job!"
Although I just laughed it off, his comment seriously affected my confidence that I could actually learn to use a computer. Later I had some teachers who just encouraged me and helped me feel successful. In the first scenario, I was engaged (for a while), but the teacher was not. I learned something in spite of him, but I might have quit if I hadn't been self-motivated.
Moving on to another topic for discussion: I appreciated the sample questions we might use to engage our students in the process of teaching them how to learn. We want to foster student independence in our ESOL classes, and this type of questions will help them formulate their own queries.
Nancy
This week I believe that I had one of the most controversial, yet engaging classes that I have had in my short career. We were reading a slave narrative that day so as a class we were discussing the historical significance surrounding the piece. In the article it states that “a primary factor in engagement is a connection to one’s own experience, background and interests.” I point this quote out because some of my students who haven’t been engaged in the learning all of a sudden took interest and the ones who had been involved decided that this is something that they weren’t interested in hearing about at all. The class discussion last half of the block and some of the students began to get really heated because of the comments that were made.
I had to end the class discussion because I could tell that some of the students were about to take it to another level that didn’t involve talking. I guess I am wondering how you deal with this situation. For half of the class this lesson was something that they really wanted to hear and learn about but for the rest they were not interested at all. On paper it sounds really great to find some way of engaging the students to the point that they can make an emotional connection but what do you do about the rest of the class? Is it ever possible to reach everyone at the same time? I believe I already know the answers to my own questions but does any one have any advice to share?
In response to "Roxaboxen", I began to think how I could make my classroom a roxaboxen for my students. I really enjoyed this story, and feel that I could apply it to my classroom to help students grow. For me, the roxaboxen symbolized a place or person that caused a lot of growth in you. In feeling a sense of identity in French class, I would hope that students would feel motivated to learn.
As for the article "Learning through Engagement", the author states: "If engagement is at the center of learning, then students are at the center of engagement." This statement reminds me of two things: 1) Students constantly engage in French class, so engagement is at the center; a requirement of language learning 2)
I do not always put the students at the center of engagement because my teaching style is to give them the information to use to engage.
Some good points were made regarding emotional learning. The author emphasized the importance of a safe environment to encourage learning. "Safe" meaning that students feel low anxiety about taking risks. This point is the connection that I made to "Roxaboxen". I agree completely. Students don't do well when they feel that their mistakes will be addressed more than their accomplishments.
Writing my Roxaboxen…I had forgotten how imaginative my brothers and I were as kids. We created a new community within our acre yard: we set up new roads, buildings, and rules, and we created new lives for whatever suited our fancy. I suppose my students have done or even still do similar things??
I love teaching English, and it’s hard for me realize and remember that my students don’t always feel the same. For me, every minute is purposeful and engaging, but that may not be the case for them. I remember a district official expressing her frustration when a teacher pulls out lesson plans from a file cabinet: “It’s then that I know we have a problem,” she said. Candidly, I don’t know how a teacher survives day-to-day, year-to-year, if he/she never revises lesson plans to fit the students of that class and term.
In my first and second year teaching, I tried to make learning reflect my lesson plans. I plan my lessons and write them as daily lists—1-2-3—and I tried to make learning reflect that, too. I remember a quote from Janet Allen that teaching be “controlled messiness,” or something to that effect. In my third year, I tried to let go a little, and let class (i.e. learning) flow more naturally. It worked better than my linear approach, so I’m trying this semester to let go even more. This week, students opened up the perfect opportunity to suggest the “circular fashion” (page 4) of learning. I asked for feedback about our book talk experience, and several students said they appreciated knowing how to write a book report. A book talk is similar to a book report, but I never thought of that when planning my lessons. At some point in the future—school, work, and in other areas of their lives—I believe my students will be asked to present or report on a text of some sort. Here, they have a framework (from the graphic organizer to the process of writing a polished draft) to apply for that situation.
The greatest challenge in teaching is getting students turned on to the content. So often, students feel that they "have" to take the class and aren't interested in gaining a thorough understanding of the course. Even students who want to do well in the class often don't care about the level of understanding--they are just interested in a good grade. A good grade is not synonymous with understanding.
When I think of the quote, "...that content by itself is powerless" it reminds me that just delivering the content is not the objective, the objective is the search for understanding. However, the education system we work under does not value or attempt to measure anything but content knowledge. When we, as a society, begin to abandon the idea that content is not the most important aspect of learning then we may see a shift in improved teaching methods.
When I think back to class last week, I am reminded of how thrown I was by the article discussing praise. Over the past week my students have been giving class presentations. At the conclusion of each presentation I have students respond to the presentations using specific praise and constructive criticism. For the most part they have gotten better about finding specific areas in which they and their peers are doing well or may need improvement. I think that naming the area of praise/criticism can really be beneficial to the child. (Don’t just tell them what is wrong, but offer suggestions for improving it.)
I was also quite impressed by my "Roxaboxen" writing. I enjoyed the activity a lot. I love being able to reminisce back to my early high school years. The sensory images that the assignment brought to mind were amazing. I really felt like I was back at my old hangout again.
As I read “Learning Through Engagement,” I was forced to really reflect once again on my own teaching style. It seems as though no matter how many times I am asked to consider specific questions regarding the process of learning I still find myself slipping back into the old habits of education where standard-driven lectures and tests led the way. After all, it worked for me, right? It is a daily task to remind myself that my friends and I were among the unique in school.
One part of the reading that really struck a chord with me was concerning the various questions proposed by Project 2060, particularly the viewpoint question. I can certainly find ways to draw in multiple viewpoints on specific themes/topics that would help to create a much more inquiry based classroom. I also need to continue to answer the meaningfulness question for my students. As we all know, if they don’t see the relevance/importance, it is not likely that they will really embrace the task at hand.
THIS IS BCDIVA'S POST!!!
Engaging our students into becoming active learners is a trick of the trade. On the one hand you are turning over some of the control to the students(ooooooscary)but you are also giving ownership.
You need to get a common ground for a place to start the encounter, a basis for learning. Our classrooms are very diverse so the common is somewhere out there. It can be done; example: Give the students a broad subject with no right or wrong, just execute. I use express yourself for them. They can do, demonstrate anything legal in my classroom for sef-inventory. They are in their comfort zone and yet others are learning about them. One student may draw on the overhead, one may show pictures they have taken, one may get up and sing. They are engaged and they are learning.
-BCDiva
The neglected "R" is REAL. I found myself as I read this chapter very guilty. I do have my students write but I am very aware of the time issue. I feel sometimes I do not give them the enough time. I now realize that it sends a clear message that it( writing is not important and just get something written down.
I tried the other day an opinion writing. The prompt was What the opposite sex should understand about your sex! Some students wrote one sentence,others wrote one paragraph,a few wrote a full page. I gave no limit on it.but when a student came up with one sentence, I would suggest something like Do you like it when a girl call you or do you think girls should pay when you go out on a date? They do have trouble thinking of a sparkplug. If we as teachers can tap into this it can stimulate them.
When I read them out loud (of course no names)I really think that some of them began to see that they need to proof read theeir work. Some would try to correct it as I read exactly what they wrote. Such things as I meant to write Blah, Blah, Blah.
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