This is a year I'm doing pretty much everything completely differently than I've done it in the past. The reason? My school is adopting a model of teaching as an apprenticeship--which was mentioned in chapter 5! I was very excited to see the idea that's working so well at my high school mentioned in our curriculum book. : ) The idea is that the student is an apprentice and learns by doing. I used to think this philosophy would be difficult to incorporate in English class, but I was thinking about it too literally. Now, instead of "discussing" a text by doing most of the talking, students are discussing the texts with limited input from me.
Another point I liked in this chapter was (of course) the incorporation of technology into the classroom. If students could listen to podcasts at home (as we are doing for this class) then come into class and DO work instead of listen to a teacher's lecture, I think schools would be completely re-energized. Let's face it: switching from class to class and being talked at is boring for anyone. If we could make traditional "lectures" something done at home through podcasts--as a framework instead of a full lecture--then students would be able to DO more during the school day. I think everyone should agree to put the days of daily note copying from powerpoints and the chalkboard behind us and get students actually working on things in the classroom.
*Disclaimer: yes, I know sometimes students need to take notes and need to learn the art of note-taking. I was referring to the current practice some teachers use of having note taking the only part of their classes, followed by quizzes and tests.
Great post Jane! It must be really exciting to be incorporating a new idea! And I really like the idea of letting students learn via "apprenticeship." How do you get the students to start their text discussions? Do you have prompts, or do you give little nudges, or are they fairly independent in their abilities to lead themselves? I too am a fan of technology, and I think that letting students do some work, such as listening to lectures at home, would certainly allow for more productive "working" time at school.
ReplyDeleteWhat an exciting time to be working in your school! There are two science teachers in Colorado who are bringing to life your comments about students listening to podcasts at home so that they can DO more in class. I teach Chemistry and Physics. My department head recently sent me the website for the two science teachers I mentioned above. Their website: www.learning4mastery.com contains all of the podcasts they have developed so far, and they have they developed a LOT of them! So far I only have listened to their first podcast for Chemistry (it's basically an introduction to podcasting and what the students job is when listening to one) and it is very well done. I would like to try and incorporate a few of them into my classes this year and see how it goes, and then in the future start making my own. It is very clear to me that my students enjoy doing labs the most, and if I delivered the basic content to them via podcasts (listened to at home) than it would certainly open up more time so that we could do more labs over the course of the year.
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