Readings 2/16/2012 - Validation for what I do?

Assignments: Beers et al Chapters 5, 6 and 10       

"Teaching reading IS rocket science."   

— Louisa Moats

As I read through the assigned chapters realized that the main focus was on getting students to work hard using text that interests them and focusing on the skills needed for the ‘flat’ world. There are many teaching models and concepts that exist today that support this such as workshop model, expeditionary learning model, and six plus 1 traits among others.

I gained much insight form all three chapters, but chapter 5 resonated with me more than the other two. 

Chapter five talks about the use of the workshop model to facilitate instruction. The author explains that the workshop model has demonstrated its effectiveness in eliciting hard work from students on both their reading and writing. I agree with the author wholeheartedly because I work in a school where we actually use the workshop model and I have seen how effective the model can be in getting students to actually do work. Students develop accountability and learn over time to take ownership of their learning and as a result I have had moments (rarely of course) where I can sit back and let the students manage and monitor their own progress independent of me. I also do a lot of dialogue and sharing of work as a par of our expeditionary learning model, so my students have no choice but to speak and learn to present their work. I find this to be one of the easiest parts of my class to monitor, as my students love to share their knowledge and their work. I suspect this is because of their self-centeredness due to their developmental stage. J

Of course getting them to this point took a lot of hard work and debriefing of challenging moments, but students enjoy sharing things that interests them and knowledge they have.

Teaching...can be likened to a conversation in which you listen to the speaker carefully before you reply.
Marie Clay

Iffeisha