I found a lot of good ideas from reading chapter 4 Designing A Unit in The Passionate Teacher. I especially liked the idea of a "hook" question to help students relate, and become interested in a new topic. For example, Fried talks about a unit on the civil war and using an opening question like, "How is a fight within my family different from a fight with strangers?" (p. 71). I liked that this is something anyone can relate to, no matter where they are from. This would be great for students who are not originally from the United States, and therefore not especially interested in its history.
I was very intrigued about the idea of "the game of school" in Chapter 5 in The Passionate teacher. "This obstacle occurs whenever nobody cares what's going on intellectually in the classroom or the school, when the idea of learning is treated as a mindless duty--something to 'get through anyway you can.' It's what I call having to play 'The Game of School.'" (p. 93).
The example where the children in the afterschool program were sharing answers reminded me of the semester I tutored in an afterschool program. The students used the same tactics to get through their work, except they also utilized the unsuspecting tutors to get answers are quickly as they could. Several students would pretend not to be able to do any work, so the tutors would provide more information than they should. The children were much smarter than they let on.
I think these are just examples of students not being interested in the work. Plus, I think no student wants to continue doing school work after a long day. (I sometimes don't either.) But, I'm reminded of Fried's key ideas in the Passionate Teacher which is to make your passion for teaching engage the students in real learning. Perhaps the teachers assigning work in the example from the book, and my tutoring session need to become more passionate.
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2 comments:
Aimee, I loved this too:"How is a fight within my family different from a fight with strangers?" (p. 71). This spring I started a unit on Canada by asking what people knew about their next-door neighbors. Before they could answer I started a think-aloud, "well, I know Jane on the left, she's nice, she's a writer, and I don't know the people who live upstairs from her, but i know Kim across the street and she's nice and her kids are Justin and Brittany..." As I was thinking-aloud, kids started to think too and one or two put up their hands. Then I asked who are our neighbors and what do we know about them, and mentioned Canadian bacon and Canada geese, to trigger prior knowledge. It was so great to see the kids start to get into it. I feel like bringing the dynamic in, the fighting with your family and knowing the neighbors, separate from particulars like Civil War, Canada, etc., is like bringing the world directly into the classroom to the kids, without the filter. julie
Aimee,
I think you are so right about how smart kids are! If there is a system, they will learn how to game it. I think Fried is right about trying to reduce the system/game because it will be too bad if all students learn from school is how to get good grades or get enough answers to complete their homework. As teachers, we have to find a way to focus their learning more on skills. We need to find a way to channel those smarts we know they possess.
Alice
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