David Whyte's Crossing the Unknown Sea..: Teacher's Journey ... exploring the work that stru...

David Whyte's Crossing the Unknown Sea..: Teacher's Journey ... exploring the work that stru...: "Welcome, Journeymen and Journeywomen! Our purpose here is to have a forum for asking questions, reflecting on experiences, sharing tentativ..."

Top 10 Things You Don't Learn About Teaching in College!

Two more "classics" for the classroom: Brown and Vygotsky

Google Ann Brown and you will discover the wealth available in the field of "metacognition. " Google Lev Vygotsky to incorporate another crucial illuminary into your practice with learners, "Zone of  Proximal Learning."

Our exercise for this week illuminates how to use both to supercharge your instructional practice!

Activate Our Journey into Ambitious Teaching

Nexus in the City Ó2009

…where Ambitious Learning X Ambitious Teaching = Nexus Academy

Dr. S. Heidi Bach -Professor Emeritus

Palladio International University

Albert Einstein noted,  “Problems cannot be solved by using the same level of thinking through which they were created.”

Your Experiential Study of “Metacognition” … a process to develop through the following instructional design:

Educator’s Aim: Metacognition means ‘thinking about thinking’ (Google: Brown, 1987). The exercise below allows entry into the vast store of information internally represented in mind ... our minds, our students’ minds (Google: Faulkner, 2000).

Focus on students’ comprehension of reading material this week.  Begin with teaching a class lesson, but restrict your analysis focus to the content performance and process performance of just two students. Add particularly interesting students as you gain a sense of competence and enthusiasm.  Never frustrate yourself by making your own pedagogical learning too complex, too soon. Operating in the frustration zone only obstructs learning and leads to discouragement.  Discouragement leads to “dropping out” (Google: Margolis & Fisher, 2003).   Cultivating discouragement is counterproductive, regardless of a learner’s age!

For your case study, select two students –one who is readily able to complete any particular assignment and one who is particularly challenged with comprehension and process skills. What you learn from exercising in new ways below will develop your capacity to better develop all students later. Therefore, select two with whom you have fluent working relationships.  As you exercise your thinking during the week, these students will be expected to individually share their thinking about their own thinking (i.e. metacognition) with you.

Technology:  a microphone recording devise with USB connection to download/save/review data.

Preview, prepare as needed, then use the chart below to guide your thinking about these two types of student work samples. The chart helps you apply what you know so far about the nature of the subject matter content/process, the nature of the pedagogy selected (the what, how, and why) to transmit content or processes, and your students’ interpretations of this “nexus.” In other words, what was their experience of the pedagogy used in relation to the knowledge and know-how they actually received through this transmission?

Refer to http://teachersjourneyinourcities.blogspot.com/ for further discussion of Zones of Proximal Learning, introduced conceptually through the work of Lev Vygotsky, Russian Educational Psychologist from the thirties

A. What is the ‘nature’ of subject matter? How does pedagogy (instructional design/ presentation, and activities) support this nature? (List the types of thinking and behavior required in order to be successful in your assignment.)	B. After a brief introduction to content (and processes), ask each student to verbalize (then write a description) of what s/he understands and how s/he knows that she understands/doesn’t intended learning.	C. To what extent did pedagogy  transmit content/ processes effectively for various types of students? What adjustments are needed to reinforce/repair learning according to students’ learning needs?
D.  From the lists in “C,” note Independent Zone Skills (already in secured place), Instructional Zone Skills (those still in formation and needing outside support/structure), and Frustration Zone Skills (those as yet “out of reach,” thus bringing symptoms of frustration.	E.  Instructional Zone Skills must be ‘scaffolded’ for each student now in order to correct inaccuracies, allow sufficient supported practice leading to sufficient  practice on the independent level. Frustration Zone Skills must be ‘scaffolded’ with a sequence of instructional lessons (perhaps Units) for each student now in order to reach independent zone target mastery.	F. What forms of pedagogy will work well to achieve target performance/mastery along this sequence of scaffolding? How might we group different types of students at various points along this sequence?

Apprenticeship-To-Go

As Ray Charles reminds us,  “Don’t go backwards.  You have already been there.”

Recommended Best-seller

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. This extraordinary mountain climber and exceptional humanitarian received the AAUW award this year (2009) for his efforts to establish schools in extreme, remote, and rugged circumstances. Starting schools in compromising environments and within unfamiliar cultures (Pakistan, Afghanistan) required grit.  Greg encountered the roller coaster of discouragement and persistence, engaged in literal and figural mountain climbing among disparate cultures.  Themes addressed: mobilizing community involvement, cultural differences and bridge building, practices of gender socialization, negotiating the balance of power, the power of devotion and perseverance, the power of alliance and support, the power of desire to learn, social dynamics that inculcate self-efficacy in students.

Recommended music for thinking through these exercises with fellow apprentices:

Google “World Music” then select from the subcategories of your choice.

Africa, origins of humankind, offers African Drumming, uses the Djembe creating the master flow –contemporary and folk- African rumba, jazz, Ethiopia, Senegal, Gambia, Ivory coast, Mali, Guinea.

Websites your find helpful during your process:                                       

Music to purchase? Contact:

Putumao World Music 411 Lafayette St, NY, NY 10003 (212-625-1400)        

Classical Music:

Ferde Grofe’s Grand Canyon Suite (1921-1931) “The richness of the land and the rugged optimism of its people has fired my imagination.  I was determined to put it to music some day.”

Pop Music:

Dar Williams – When I was a boy

Film for Reflection

The Kite Runner (2007) – Various circumstances contribute to at-risk conditions. Comprised of at-risk circumstances, conditions entail more than type of readiness. Circumstances have long-term and cumulative consequences, whether positive or negative.  If society’s ultimate educational goal is preparation of citizens capable of lifelong learning and contributing to the greater well-being, then conditions which shortchange our capacity to set those children at-risk of failure. 

Set in Afghanistan, the narrator flees the Taliban as an adult. Through flashback, we witness damage done by class discrimination, loss not only to a boy, a family, a friendship but also to a nation. Most of our at-risk students, from one generation or another, come from other cultural backgrounds.  Generational transmissions structure perceptions that affect learning. To what extent does a child’s relocation process influence his perception of self, other, surrounding resources, self-efficacy? What projections and inferences might adults engage that confront or sustain inequities?

Content Websites

www.CarnegieMellon

www.Vygotskyzoneofproximaldevelopment

www.brownmetacognition

www.bloom’staxonomyofthinking

www.at-risk

Quote in conclusion, by Pascal:

“There is a reason that reason does not know.”

Rules in School

Rules in School

Please visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haim_Ginott

Natural and logical consequences date back to Haim Ginott in the sixties

...his wisdom is shared from decades of studying children's thinking and behaving.  Parents and teachers seeking need a basic, simple, and effective principle for developing children's capacity to make informed choices habitually.  Natural and logical consequences evokes a child's ability to think and choose.


Haim Ginott is a classic in the field of child psychology.  His guidance flows from what is currently today best practices from wide knowledge bases: child development, attachment theory, self-efficacy, and neuropsychology.  The principle of natural and logical consequences operates in the home and classroom as simply and effectivly as that basic invention, the wheel!

The wheel works across time, because it fits reality. It's organic, it flows from reality. The same is true of  natural consequences, which evolve into use of logical consequences. Better than coddling, excusing, overlooking, or pretending with kids. "Reality therapy" is what Haim Ginott called this application of his life's work with kids. He encouraged parents and teachers to use reality therapy with kids at home and in school. If we all followed his advice consistently, we might have been able to purchase condos on the moon by now!

Just the same, I am glad newbies are digging the oldies but goodies ... strategies that work here and now because they make sense...did then, do now! Take a look at Rules in School. Encourage parents to visit the Global Parent Academy blogspot to learn how to practice these tried and true strategies at home!

Learner Rubric

                                  Listen...Focus...Attend...FollowPrompts...Stay on Task...Get Help...Think..Initiate



Tenderfoot


Pupil


Student


Scholar


1. Just beginning or rudimentary skills 
2. partially proficient for grade level expectations
3. proficient for grade level expectations 
4. advanced for age/grade level

Teacher Journey Rubric

    Intellectual...Avid Learner...Organized...Generative...Self-Regulating...Creative...Conscientious

Novice
1
2
3
Apprentice

Teacher

Lead Teacher

Master Teacher

Professing Teacher


Note:  the cells are now open for entries/details...let's hear from all our urban teachers. If you work/or have worked in a suburban or rural area, please note that shift in perspective and experience.

Recognize EFFORT ... not "smarts" to encourage ongoing learning

A is different from Z, but both structures consist of straight lines and angles.

A is leven more like  V, except they are directionally opposite, and the first letter additionally sports a midway horizontal line.

When mastering the alphabet visually, many young learners require less instructional intervention (time on task) to differentiate A from Z, than A from V.  Recognizing and remembering that A is not V seems to pose greater challenge.

Knowing this perceptual axiom operates in human learning, think about how you would  rate (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) the following pairs for ease of differentiation (1=hard to differentiate; 5=easy to differentiate):

1. A vs O (hint: straight lines vs curved lines -with not other features: EASY to differentiate; rate: 5)
2. A vs B
3. C vs O
4. I vs. O
5. E vs B
6. T vs I
7. D vs A
8. D vs O
9. F vs E
10. F vs B

Through this exercise, we learn that the more features that an item or event (x) has in common with another item/event (y), the more thoroughly we must examine their similarities and differences in order to tell them apart.  

Practical Application for Parents and Teachers: 

If we want our children to more quickly change their behaviors from the kind we disapprove of to the kind we approve of then we must make it easy for them to differentiate.  Smiles and affable talk clearly indicate parents and teachers approve of the behavior displayed.  Neutral face with a firmly stated "No"(or some equivalent of "No") typically indicates disapproval -with an explicit or implicit invitation to shift to an approved behavior.

We make it  hard for chidren learn to control their impulses (i.e.,  master the necessary shifting to approved behaviors)  when we muddle our verbal, voice tone, and body language cues.  When we mix communication features of a YES vs NO, we delay the development of impulse control.  We make it harder for learners to distinctions between our "approving" and "disapproving" responses to their behaviors.  This delays development of their ability to eventually "self-regulate."

We send mixed messages to our children when we disapprove but smile ... or talk sweetly. this hardly means adults need to speak harshly or loudly or use aggressive strategies like character assassination, disparaging labels, cruelty or meanness.  A simple statement of disapproval  -coupled with natural/logical consequences - consistently applied will do more to shape behavior, than punishment, or enduring parental exasperation. 

 The more important it is to select an appropriate response to x vs y, the more important it is to differentiate between them.  This is true for all life forms, regardless of age or species.  Parents and teachers who cultivate paying positive attention to children, build up a positive emotional/relational bank account!  When children get the positive guidance and consistent attention needed to strengthen bonds as children evolve - they are less likely to seek attention through unpleasant and irritating means. They are also more likely to engage those things we want them to accomplish when they have recieved recognition for these things consistently in the past.

Dr. Carol Dweck, Ph.D. reminds us also to be very careful to recognize and reward the effort exerted.  When focus is placed on the effort given a task, children learn that time and accuracy matter -which they do.  The single greatest factor determining school success is time on task.  Just spending time on a task, without persistent effort to become more accurate, just makes us better at being inaccurate! Practicing reading books that are too hard for us, turns us off from reading, and does nothing to build fluency and vocabularly.  Careless practice of anything simply reinforces carelessness.

Dr. Dweck reminds us that children who have been admired and recognized for their "cleverness" or "smartness," (in contrast to the effort they willingly engage), eventually refrain from engaging anything that is not immediately easy and rewarding.  Their positive identities have been tied to being so clever or being so smart...they do not want to risk diminishing this image -so they begin to decline challenges, become defensive.  As they age they learn different ways to hide the fact that they do not really know -and asking for help becomes a sign they are no longer "smart" enough, "clever" enough.

To avoid this result, be observant of the many opportunities we have in a morning, day, weekend, and week to "outloud" recognize our children's effort and those specific behaviors displayed while exerting these efforts.  When we consistently  recognize and compliment specific efforts, our children will also.  this is how children continue to grow in competancy and self-esteem.  They come to realize that growth is change...and the effort they exert makes change reliable.

EXAMPLE: I notice you put our clothes for tomorrow out on the chair as I asked you.  You did it the first time I asked you.  You did not whine or complain.  Also, you cheerfully asked me questions about whether or not this or that peice of clothing was appropriate for school.  You even walked into the kitchen to ask your wuestions, instead of yelling from the other room.  I really appreciate the time you took and each of your efforts to follow my guidance.  You did it on time!  And you aksed for my help in pleasant ways.  I am proud of the ways you are working to help yourself grow more skillful.