"My goal is to keep their heads down." [grooooaaaaaan]
I loved that this chapter starts out with the importance of learning through communities. NACA's entire philosophy is based on community ties within and outside of the school community, and I think with these ties students feel so much more accountable for their own learning and the outcomes of their outside communities. Some of the outcomes this chapter outlines are increased morale, lower absenteeism, and sustain, transferable learning. Trust is so important to this process, and I couldn't help but think that a lot of my students may come from families that have a mistrust for Anglo institutions because it was not so long ago so many of them were let down themselves by teachers only seeking to anglicize their own communities.
I really like the idea of letting students make the classroom their own. The book suggests that the students have their own folders, bulletin boards with student work displayed, or allowing students to make decisions about due dates or procedures. My favorite was allowing students to write their favorite or most questionable/ thought provoking quotes on the whiteboard.
Engagement is different then entertainment.
Cambourne's Conditions for Learning as a Model of Engagement - I'm only going to talk about a couple of these since we are all reading the same book and summary is less necessary.
Immersion
If you want your students to be engaged, you must immerse them in what you want them to learn. This goes beyond providing lecture, but creating a community within the classroom that fosters and supports the learning process. Play music from a certain time period, include text other than novels (movies, poems, songs, drawings).
Responsibility
I really like the suggestions this section makes for having students take responsibility for their own actions, but I think a big one is also taking responsibility as a teacher for having students that are disinterested. Perhaps you are so tied to a book and love it so much you don't want to let it go, but what benefit is it to your students if 5 years into teaching the book only a handful of students really enjoyed it.
Approximation
I've heard this so many times as well, but stop focusing so much on right and wrong and allow students to learn through exploration. Teaching that mistakes are normal can be so beneficial to the learning process. One example of this is modeling for students. When modeling writing, students can see that even adults spell things wrong, or have to erase and start over. Once those barriers are knocked down, writing and discussing becomes so much more rich and rewarding.
In regards to NACA's mission, I have to say that it is really a noble one. Sometimes, I get the impression that when we teach our students history, we teach everything like it is ancient history. To them the Civil War feels just as distant as Ancient Greece and the Trail of Tears is right next to the fall of Rome. It is so easy for us to forget that, for some people, history isn't as distant as mainstream American culture makes it seem. I am glad to hear that some school systems are trying so hard to be sensitive to those histories.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I love the idea of learning through approximation. That is one thing that I always worry about for my students. After all, in the wide world there isn't a teacher there to slap a grade on every scrap of paper and tell them what is write or wrong. Life is a lot more complicated than that. I am looking forward to seeing if the book addresses more of this idea.
These first two chapters touched on some really good concepts, like you said. But so many of the ideas and tactics that are presented just don't fit into the curriculum that a teacher is expected to present to the students and grade their progress on. Approximation is a good concept, and I think that if we really want to educate someone it should be utilized, but in today's schooling system the administration wants grades and it expects teachers to tell students what is right or wrong. I wish we could take ourselves outside of this archaic system in place and really start thinking outside of the box about what makes people want to learn!
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