Time Flies...

Well, I was hoping that my classes last semester would provide blogging inspiration but instead it left me buried in paperwork and exams. Has it really been six months since I’ve written a blog?!?! This semester is not panning out to be much different, however I will say that my classes are much more meaningful now that I can actually relate them to my career.
In my brief but glorious 3 week break from classes I read Debbie Miller’s book, Reading with Meaning. The books takes the reader through the school year with a class of first graders during their reader’s workshop. Man, was I impressed with what these first grader’s were capable of by the end of the school year! Several student artifacts were presented in the book and, from a developmental perspective, these students seem to be thinking at a much higher cognitive level than is typical of a 7 year old.
Her technique had a strong focus on metacognition and comprehension. She modeled, explicitly, the thinking process of readers and spent a significant amount of time characterizing qualities of readers. These first graders were making insightful inferences and comparisons. They were having thoughtful discussions and (in an unexpectedly abstract manner) making metaphors to describe reading. Below are a couple of quotes provided by her students, one about inferring and one about synthesizing:

“When we infer together, it’s like a wire that connects from my head to someone else’s head, on and on and on, all around the circle.” – Riley (Reading with Meaning, Miller, 2002)

“Synthesizing is like putting a puzzle together. You have to sort out your thinking and put it in the right place.”- Cory (Reading with Meaning, Miller, 2002)

Maybe its lack of experience spending enough time with first graders, but that seems highly philosophical for that age in my mind. It’s amazing to me that her method instilled such a deep understanding not just of the texts but of the process, the strategies which they will probably be using throughout their academic career. I guess I have become accustomed to expecting reading instruction to first focus on how to read, then to move into comprehension. I think Miller’s approach is brilliant. What resulted was that students became highly motivated to build reading skills.
I recommend this book, although some of the comments on Amazon stated that the book is probably more suited for new teachers. I learned a lot from her technique that I intend to use and will likely be re-reading this book a few times to re-absorb it.

A Place in the Tribe

I am currently in a literature course which is a study of various pieces of literature by or about Native Americans. I have always had a deep curiosity in the cultures of Native American people, and I think that most elementary age children also find learning about those cultures interesting.
While reading some of the material for the class, I started to really focus on the traditional/ historical descriptions of the tribe community. I think there is a lot that can be learned from it, such as the idea of having a purpose, or responsibility within the community. An example is evident in the following quote from Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions by John Lame Deer and Richard Erdoes

“Crazy Heart was a shirt-wearer, which was a great honor. He wore a yellow-and-blue shirt fringed with locks of human hair. He was listened to in our councils and the people sought his advice on all matters of importance. Good Fox, too, was respected for his wisdom.”

In our own society, respect is dictated by things such as wealth, status and power. In modern day, these forms of respect beget each other. Think about teachers, for instance, who work tirelessly to support children in the learning process so that they may grow up and have opportunity in the world; yet do this for little pay, and little respect within the society in general. I don’t know how many times I have heard people refer to teaching as "easy work", and complain that teachers make "too much money for what they do." Yet someone who is nearly criminal in their business life will make multiple millions of dollars and have unwavering respect.
In historical accounts of Native American tribe cultures, a job was dictated by your natural talents and skills, not your level of education. Respect was always given for your contribution to the community, regardless of job. Status was not about what position you held or what you owned, it came from sharing your wisdom.
Imagine if our own society treated people in this manner, if everyone had an opportunity to contribute based on their abilities and be respected for their contribution. Imagine how uplifting it would be to be honored and respected for the wisdom you could offer, even if that wisdom came from street smarts rather than an Ivy League education, or higher education.
We may not be able to change the way the world operates, but at least teachers have the opportunity to create a more welcoming community within their own classroom. This reminds me that every child has something to contribute to the classroom community and I think it’s important to find the good aspects of behavior and build its strength, rather than focusing on the negative end and treating it as a problem- this could be an approach to behavior management. For instance, if there is a child who is constantly disrupting class by talking or passing notes, this child could be recognized as a natural communicator (something that may be a disruption at times in school, but is actually a great attribute in the "real world") and given the job of reading class announcements, writing things on the board, delivering messages, or other things that utilize the skill of communication. There might be other students who would shy away from some of those classroom jobs because their talents lie elsewhere.
Since I don’t have any practical experience to apply this to yet, this is just an example off the top of my head. But I would like to remember what I learned from Native American tribe communities- to seek to find a role for everyone based on their strengths and to honor and respect all strengths (even when they appear at first as negative qualities) and help to guide them in a positive direction within the community.

Mathmatical Difficulties

My break is over and school is back on. One of my classes is the second half of a math for elementary school teachers course. This section is also twice as long as the summer section was, so I have been excited that I will have the time to really think about what I am learning and ask myself, “How will I apply this in the classroom?” instead of just flying through in order to test on time.
After one week, my excitement has already begun to wane. I feel massive frustration right now. The content itself is nothing difficult. What causes me problems is the method. I just can’t believe how much math has changed since I originally learned. I keep reverting to old ways, and I can’t seem to internalize the new techniques, even though they are probably much more efficient and easier.
Furthering my frustration is the fact that all the classroom sections of this course are during the day, when I am at my full time job, so I had to take it independent study. I did meet with an instructor to discuss the issues I am having and she basically told me not to worry about if I get the problems right or wrong. It's only about the method, focus on learning the methods to have as a tool for teaching different learners. But how am I supposed to teach it to someone else if I don't understand it myself first?
I’m freaked out right now about teaching math someday. I'm not clear at this point why so much emphasis in this course is placed on using the specific methods outlined in the text. Does the curriculum dictate the specific method that you have to teach, or do teachers have the leeway to teach any method as long as the objectives are accomplished?
I need to find a way to just let go of my preconceived ideas of how to do this and try to put myself in the place of a student learning this for the first time. How would I want the teacher to explain this to me? I even went to the extent of buying a white board so that I could work through it as if I was explaining it to a class; sometimes teaching something helps me understand it better myself.
Letting go of the way I think things should be taught (based on the way it was taught to me) is something I need to work on, its one of my weaknesses and its not going to help me in the classroom at all- especially because the world has changed significantly since I learned, just take technology for example, I didn't learn on computers in elementary school. I need to be prepared to deal with all different kinds of learners and situations.
Maybe a good way to approach methods class is to go through the Multiple Intelligences and determine how I might teach single concept to the different types of learners. Or maybe I should create three or four imaginary students, with different learning challenges, that I can use as a practice model throughout my course. What ever I do, I think I need to place some focus on learning about differentiated instruction to help me to break out of my own patterns of thinking.
What kinds of challenges have you encountered with differentiated instruction in your classrooms?