Comment on this chapter using the following format:
1.a salient sentence or passage, and why it stood out for you
2. a question you would like to ask the author
3. one or two key ideas you got from this reading, and why you believe it/they are important
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Quote:
ReplyDelete"Clearly, we need to teach in a way that recognizes, develops, and rewards three aspects of successful intelligence that are important to pursuing a career in any field...To be successfully intelligent is to think well in three different ways: analytically, creatively, and practically." (p. 102)
I feel this quote is significant because we talk about the importance of educating our students for the real world and these three aspects of successful intelligence can be attributed to any career in any field. It's funny to me how some educators and administrators place such a high emphasis on these three attributes while others work to remove them from their curriculum.
Question:
The stories you give for examples help to understand how the learning process at the Met works. But, it is all positive and "perfect." I'm curious to know how you handle situations that don't always have perfect endings, or students who don't comply with the learning process.
Key Ideas:
Nothing you hand a kid to learn will be as important as what's already inside them.
This really exemplifies students taking responsibility for their learning and I can see the validity in the statement that if kids are interested in their learning, then no one has to force them to learn. When giving a speech, you want to begin by capturing the attention of your audience. You have to find a way to get inside and touch their hearts. This makes it easier to keep the attention of your audience. So the same goes for students and their learning. Find something that captures their heart and you will certainly grab their attention.
The right kind of school can give students the knowledge they need to function now and the skills they need to be successful in the future.
This is important to prepare our teenagers for the work in their future. Educators need to incorporate discipline, use of mind and body, responsibility, and goal setting to prepare students for their future.
Quote(s):
ReplyDelete“To be successfully intelligent is to think well in three different ways: analytically, creatively, and practically. Typically, only analytical intelligence is valued on tests and in the classroom.” (p. 102)
This quote stuck out to me, because of the truth it encompasses. We are human, and therefore, need to build upon all three of these intelligences. The only one we seem to focus on in traditional schools is the analytical one, but this does not make sense. It’s not how we operate. Focusing on the analytical skills for students reflects how much schools genuinely care about education, and how they care about their students.
Question(s):
Do you think it is possible to learn student’s passions, and pursue them in teaching at a traditional school with a strict curriculum? At what point do you lose the students?
Key Idea(s):
One key idea I thought important from this chapter was the dedication to allowing students to work through their passions. In conclusion, students are more likely to keep their work, and not throw it away. When the work is meaningful to the students, they take this into consideration, and learn this way! They are actually engaged, versus just completing the worksheets.
A personally significant sentence or passage, and why it stood out for you:
ReplyDelete“When you connect kids' learning to what they need emotionally, you are making academics more than “academic.” You are taking the privilege and excitement of learning and entrusting the students with this power.” (97) We studied in EDUC 225 and 351 the importance of recognizing our students emotional needs and striving to meet these to the best of our abilities within the classroom because learning cannot take place when these more important needs are being ignored. This takes that concept one step further. I've always looked at meeting the emotional needs as a way of getting the students to the place where I can finally teach them what they need to learn, because this is how it's done in our school system. This is a different way of looking at the situation, and I can appreciate this much more. The focus isn't on me and getting the students to where I want them. Instead it is on the student and understanding how meeting these needs can empower them.
A question you would like to ask the author: What kind of professional assistance is available for students who delve into an interest based on emotional interest and find themselves unable to cope?
One or two key ideas you got from this reading, and why you believe it/they are important:
This chapter demonstrates using examples the success of the individualized curriculum. The key idea is that students really do get excited about learning when it becomes their learning. The examples show how students go above and beyond what is expected of them when they are learning about something they are really interested in. Even though this sounds nearly impossible, these examples show that it can be successful, and is successful.
QUOTE: “They each said they were reading so much more than they did in middle school, because at The Met, they didn’t have to read any particular book chosen for them by someone else. They could choose their own books, based on their own interests. All of them talked about how they finally had the freedom to really read to learn.”
ReplyDeleteThis is something that stuck out to me because I always felt that way in school. Even in college, I hated reading a book if it was assigned, but I could read it and even enjoy it if I read it during my own time. The best example I can give of this is Reading Lolita in Tehran. We were told to read it before we came to school and I tried. I really tried but I failed at it miserably. I thought it was terrible and I just put it down! But, I recently went back and read it cover to cover in about two days and thoroughly enjoyed it!
QUESTION: How do you introduce new Met student to their curriculum? I can imagine that it must be very difficult to go from a traditional curriculum to an entirely student led one.
KEY IDEA: I think the most important thing in this chapter is that kids will learn what they need to know if they are convinced they need to know it. The only way to convince them they need to know it is to allow them to explore what they are truly interested in. A student may be really into math and science and choose to learn about the solar system. But in that learning, they will have to acquire adequate writing skills, adequate reading and comprehension skills, and they will also have to put it all together.
"If it's something that's real to students, and if it matters to them, and we respect their desire and ability to learn it, they will learn it. And they will keep learning it beyond our influence, because learning will have become a way of life for them." p. 102
ReplyDeleteWe have talked about life- long learners before, but I like the way this quote puts it: learning as a way of life. My dad was one of those people who just couldn't read enough about something he was interested in. His education was very traditional, and he didn't go to college- it was natural because the things he was reading about were real to him.
"To MET kids, MET advisors are real people with real lives. Advisors introduce kids not only to their families and friends, but also to the things that they are interested in and passionate about. Although their main goal is to meet the students' need and interests, they are also always seeking ways to broaden their students' perspectives. p. 105
The most effective teachers I had were those who shared about their lives with us. They were not afraid to talk to us about things that we were interested in too, especially when they were similar. I look forward to sharing with my students and looking for those glimmers of interest in them that I might help them develop.
How flexible is the MET's curriculum? I know that it is highly individualized, but what about the kids that think they want to do one thing, and realize once they get into it that it is not their true interest?
One key idea for me is that when students are engaged in their own interests, competition is eliminated. I am a product of a hugely competitive system and it was SO miserable. I read these accounts of students who have been able to dive into things uniquely interesting to them, and I search for ways to incorporate this idea into my classroom.
QUOTE:
ReplyDelete“When you’re thinking this way, you are figuring out a way to motivate students to learn the things that we know are important for their life success, instead of forcing them to learn things because they come next in the textbook, or because some politician decided every kid in the state has to know this particular thing.” (pg. 101).
Politicians should never dictate to a school district/school what a student should have to know!!! They are not with the students day in and day out. They don’t know what is going on in their lives. Each student is different and I really do prescribe to the idea that each student should be educated differently. Like Littky says “One size does not fit all.”
QUESTION:
Are there in actuality certain facts that you think everybody should know?
KEY IDEA:
A key idea that I picked up on in this chapter is what the whole chapter is about: allowing students to learn by studying their interests. I think it is a really good concept and gets kids really involved in their learning process and makes them want to continue to learn.
But I don’t think it is really practical to have curriculum for an entire large public school like this. I think for The Met it is perfect because the school is so small but for a high school the size of the one I went to it is very impractical.
QUOTE: "When we are interested in what we are learning, no one has to force us to keep learning; we just do."
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with this statement. I know personally that when I find the topic interesting, I stay engaged the whole time. When the topic isn't very interesting to me personally, I have a harder time staying focused and on task. It is a lot easier to learn something that is interesting to you than it is to learn something that isn't.
Question: How can we make sure that every student has some kind of interest in what we are learning? It seems hard to make every lesson interesting for every student.
Key Idea: I think a key idea from this section is the importance of promoting self-motivation in learning. We want students to want to learn things on their own, not be forced to learn things. Students will be able to learn much easier if they personally are interested in the topic and have a desire to learn more about this topic. That is why it is a good idea to know your student's interests. It allows you to teach to their interests and make the learning process more enjoyable.
Key Idea: They are passionate about learning, because they are learning something that they are passionate about.
ReplyDeleteWhen ever people start talking about something they are passionate about it is hard to get them to shut up about it. If you reach kids through their passions in class there would be less off task conversing because they would be so passionate about the class or the assignment.
Quote: "He's in, and he'll stay in-because he wants to find out what happens to him, not some character in a novel. He is in it so that he can see how he turns out- not how the War of 1812 turned out. The right kind of school can give students the knowledge they need to function now and the skills they need to be successful in the future"(100).
If you reach kids through their passions they will want to be there and want to learn.
Q: My question would be, How do you do this in a system that is based on testing? Do you have to change the system or can you do both?
“…nothing you hand a kid will be as important as what is already inside them, and if you let them start from there, they will learn more than you could have ever taught them.” P96
ReplyDeleteMost adults have a reason for whatever career they have chosen. Something about their past influenced who they became and what they do. Why should we make that different for our students? They should be allowed to choose a course of study that interests them. I always dreaded going to my math and science classes because I was not interested in those subjects, and without the interest I was afraid I would not do well in the class. Each student deserves to have some say in what they study and how they will study it, it is after all their learning and their education.
So how would a “traditional” teacher in a “traditional” public school begin to work on understanding their student’s interests and allowing them more freedom in the classroom?
Key Idea: When you allow a student to follow their own interests in they will learn because it is what they are passionate about. They will want to discover everything about the subject and they will also feel that they have control over their education. I think the control is a very important part of learning. When anyone feels that they can learn at their own pace and learn what they want to learn the pressure to learn is taken away. When that pressure is gone real learning occurs because the information will be retained.
Pg 104- When each kid is pursuing his or her own individual interests, competition is eliminated. I really like this because for some reason I have never liked the idea of competition in education. There is that saying "What do you call the guy who took fifteen years to get his PhD?- Doctor." Because it doesn't matter who comes out first- it matters who becomes who of the process.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: What would you do about the student who's passionate about something their parents deem "worthless?"
Key points: again, it is letting the students learn how to think, primarily through their interests. But the author makes it a point to note that it has to be in the direction of "interest first, education second" rather than trying to fit an interest within a preset education structure. Real interest will foster real work and gain real experience, education, etc.