This post has got nothing to do with technology, but it's about teaching, and pretty much anyone reading this blog is my colleague, so I figure it still applies. Today I think my students and I rocked out, and I'm pretty pumped up about it.
Yesterday, I met with a couple of colleagues to go over our videos where we were teaching "talking to the text" with our students, while reading What's Your Read Rubber Ball? by Kevin Carroll. When I saw where their students were, I understood that I had been going about everything completely wrong. With all the information from my different ed classes, and the instructions from our professors and mentors, I had been trying to get my kids to think of questions about the text, or to answer questions about the text, and I didn't understand why nothing was working. When I saw my friends' videos I understood - their children understood the book! Completely! Every sentence of it! So the reason that all the instructions we've been getting didn't seem to match up was because they didn't match up - they weren't intended for me and my students. Once that finally dawned on me, and thanks to some fresh thinking and some advice from my lovely colleagues, everything fell into place.
This morning, we had a blitz session with the book. We started at the beginning. I read a sentence, and then I stopped, and wouldn't continue until both of my kids (my third kid had to leave after a break-down in which he threw his books and his pencils around the room) could restate what was ACTUALLY IN THE SENTENCE with their own words. BAM! Next sentence! We're not going on until you know what he's saying! No more "what do you think this word might mean?" - that's for the students missing three words per page, not five words per sentence. So I'll define each word, I don't mind - but you've got to tell me what the sentence means! Not what you did this weekend. Not what you think he might feel now - what does he say in the sentence? Three, five words at a time - when he says "ignoring discouraging words like these" - is he listening to the bullies, or is he saying no way, I can do this! ? That's right, he's saying he can do it! BAM! Next five words!
I think my kids were a little stunned. Last time we tried to read together, I was accepting everything they said, and letting them get into their personal connections - which is important, too, but they can't connect to the text if they have no idea what he's saying. This time, I was merciless. In half an hour, we got through seven sentences, including showing how footnotes worked, We started in on an eighth, which we'll have to start with again tomorrow. But we will UNDERSTAND that sentence tomorrow! We are going to rock our way through this story! In three weeks, my kids will know how to read a text, sentence by sentence, clause by clause. The pages won't be some strange enigma filled with random words, some familiar and some completely unidentifiable. They'll know that every sentence has an idea behind it, and the ideas go together to make a story. They'll be able to write their own stories, too - about their passions and their lives. My kids are amazing, my directive is clear, and I've never been so psyched in my life.
Yesterday, I met with a couple of colleagues to go over our videos where we were teaching "talking to the text" with our students, while reading What's Your Read Rubber Ball? by Kevin Carroll. When I saw where their students were, I understood that I had been going about everything completely wrong. With all the information from my different ed classes, and the instructions from our professors and mentors, I had been trying to get my kids to think of questions about the text, or to answer questions about the text, and I didn't understand why nothing was working. When I saw my friends' videos I understood - their children understood the book! Completely! Every sentence of it! So the reason that all the instructions we've been getting didn't seem to match up was because they didn't match up - they weren't intended for me and my students. Once that finally dawned on me, and thanks to some fresh thinking and some advice from my lovely colleagues, everything fell into place.
This morning, we had a blitz session with the book. We started at the beginning. I read a sentence, and then I stopped, and wouldn't continue until both of my kids (my third kid had to leave after a break-down in which he threw his books and his pencils around the room) could restate what was ACTUALLY IN THE SENTENCE with their own words. BAM! Next sentence! We're not going on until you know what he's saying! No more "what do you think this word might mean?" - that's for the students missing three words per page, not five words per sentence. So I'll define each word, I don't mind - but you've got to tell me what the sentence means! Not what you did this weekend. Not what you think he might feel now - what does he say in the sentence? Three, five words at a time - when he says "ignoring discouraging words like these" - is he listening to the bullies, or is he saying no way, I can do this! ? That's right, he's saying he can do it! BAM! Next five words!
I think my kids were a little stunned. Last time we tried to read together, I was accepting everything they said, and letting them get into their personal connections - which is important, too, but they can't connect to the text if they have no idea what he's saying. This time, I was merciless. In half an hour, we got through seven sentences, including showing how footnotes worked, We started in on an eighth, which we'll have to start with again tomorrow. But we will UNDERSTAND that sentence tomorrow! We are going to rock our way through this story! In three weeks, my kids will know how to read a text, sentence by sentence, clause by clause. The pages won't be some strange enigma filled with random words, some familiar and some completely unidentifiable. They'll know that every sentence has an idea behind it, and the ideas go together to make a story. They'll be able to write their own stories, too - about their passions and their lives. My kids are amazing, my directive is clear, and I've never been so psyched in my life.
It's great that you chose to write about this, Naomi. I was commenting on Sarah's blog, and something that she wrote about led me to think about the challenge that good mentors face when they work with student teachers...all of the experiences, understandings, contextual questions and knowledge and lots and lots of practice gets interpreted into action that becomes at least somewhat habitual (but not TOO much), etc....and unwinding all of this to point to why they made THAT move or THIS choice can be hard, though probably also very healthy. In any case, it felt liked you did some of this unwinding, where you (I think?) revisited your assumptions and recommenced your journey. It's no wonder why you are excited, as it seems clear that you gave yourself reason to trust your eye and your instincts and that has to be empowering.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that, even teaching college students, I rarely regret taking a little time to verify basic context/understandings, at least when I have the wit to recognize the need for such a step.
Woohoo! I'm glad that your discussion was so successful. I'm curious about which grade your students are in. I'm with 8th graders so we haven't needed to stop at every section yet, but as I'm reading your post I'm foreseeing a similar experience with the "With the Rain" piece we'll be doing this week. Some of the material seems pretty advanced for the level that my students are at. The book that we read last week was pretty easy for them. Our lesson focused primarily on a few vocal words they didn't fully understand, or understood but couldn't describe. We also worked on being able to summarize pages, understand main themes, and connect those themes and ideas to their own lives. It's nice to hear about your experience and input so that if I fall into a similar situation this week video taping I have another "tool" in my "toolkit!"
ReplyDeleteI love when you get excited Naomi! It's infectious! :) I'm really glad that conversations with your colleagues were helpful in illuminating your own practice. I think that's one of the most incredible things about this program - we're "in the trenches" with a group of really smart, motivated individuals, and everyone wants to help each other out. I'm so glad that worked out for you so well this week. I imagine we'll all be experiencing similar things as the year wears on.
ReplyDeleteYour story highlights the importance of recognizing where your kids are, and working from there. Flexibility is so crucial. Rather than starting with a fixed idea of how you're going to approach something, it's so important to listen and respond to your students. As we become more experienced, we'll learn more ways in which we can be responsive - what approaches work best when. It's great that you're already starting that process!
Naomi!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad I got to read this post. I think what you did with your change in focus was so important and I'm glad I could be a part of the process of thinking about that. I think something that talking to the text really helps with is understanding the nuances or feelings hidden in the text and getting into the writer's mind. This then is not really helpful when the student can't grasp the surface knowledge yet. And it's not like you stopped talking to the text either, I think it was important to give them that tool to help them learn how to become better readers at any level and understand how it is when they read. I know that you will be an awesome teacher that is very aware of and will go out of her way to meet her future students' needs.
Claire