This week’s topic is scope. If we keep our theme of “everywhere, all the time” going, then what does it mean for us to be worried about scope? If everything is at a distance, then why are we asking questions like, “Who should be using distance ed?”
While we wrestle with scope, then, consider two things.
First, what we’re really talking about is selecting delivery channels that learners can use to develop their own understanding of a topic. To the degree that we, as educators, want them to learn a particular thing, we have to be aware that our goal is not the learner’s goal. When it comes to assessment, the learner may have no desire to prove what they know to us — or anybody else. In fact, they may not be ready or able to demonstrate knowledge until well after the class is over and they’ve had a chance to reflect and practice their knowledge.
Second, my daughter reads. She came to us yesterday afternoon in tears. When asked, she told us that she’d seen a posting on one of the forums she reads that one of her favorite TV personalities had died and she went to read the news articles. She learned that it was a freak accident with a stingray and all the rest. She even described how the police now had the video and his wife and children were probably very sad. We talked about how it was ok to be sad, but that we were all part of the (cue Lion King music) Great Circle of Life and that he was doing what he loved to do, was working to help people, and that the world is a dangerous place that we all need to be careful in. So yesterday she learned how to program her forum space, how to load an avatar in her 3d chat, and that news from Australia comes with tomorrow’s date. She’s eight years old.
As we talk about scope and we talk about teaching kids, be considering your conversation from last week about ‘home schooling’ and ‘protecting kids.’ Remember that kids who read sometimes read things they need help with but that is not a reason to keep them from reading those things as much as an opportunity to help them deal with it.
September 3rd, 2007 at 9:48 am
[...] This final week of unit one, we’re dealing with scope. I wrote about it last year — and it’s a bit dated — but the constructs still seem valid even if the examples are a year old, but you can see it in the article On Scope. [...]
September 3rd, 2007 at 10:44 am
Teaching and learning are tough fields to navigate! What we want others to learn and what they do learn or even desire to learn can be quite dissonant at times! I look at my students at times and wonder, “why are you interested in learning?”, but then, I realize they are interested in learning….just not what I sometime think they should! They love to learn the latest video game or song lyric….but when it comes to electron oribital notation, somehow the appeal is diminished. How do I strike a balance is the question I must wrestle with daily…..sometimes I am wrestling a giant….other times its a TKO….but it never ceases to change. Even more of a mystery is the fact that what worked last year with a different group of students doens’t necessarily work with this year’s crop. So I must constantly tweak, remodel or reinvent to stay on top of the job. Truly teaching is NOT an 8-3 profession!
September 3rd, 2007 at 1:51 pm
I agree that teaching and learning are a tough field to navigate. I see similar things that go on in my classroom as well. I teach special ed reading and math. Reading is the hardest to teach. These students can memorize everything they hear, but struggle so when it comes to learning how to read. Each day I think do they really want to learn? They do I know becuase one of my students came in telling me a story that she had heard on the news. It was about a six year old who had been murdered. All day I thought to myself why can she remember that and why can’t she remember the strategies she is taught to help her read. I see that is all in what intrest them or what they are hearing around them more so that what we want to teach them. It has become very clear over the past three years that as long as I relate everything they are doing to real life then it is possible for them to get it. I still have to find the things in real life that they like the best.
September 3rd, 2007 at 9:18 pm
I, too, saw the same things when I student taught last Fall. They split the semester up into two 9 week periods with one for 6th grade Math and the other for 8th grade Social Studies to pretty much cover the spectrum. I had a whole lot of great ideas I used for students in the 6th grade that went over well. However when I applied them to the 8th grade realm they did not work as well as I had hoped. Nevertheless, I continued to search for something that would fit with the group of kids I was teaching. I suppose sometimes it comes easy and other times it takes a little bit more work.
Social Studies is a challenge to teach in itself because there is so much you want to expose your kids to, but you have a strict curriculum you must stick to and not steer to far away from. For me, I never got anywhere near the Korean War or even the Vietnam War because we pretty much stopped after World War II.
The things that students seem to be interested in like song lyrics and video games seem to distract them from learning the content we want them to learn. But, if we can incorporate some of those things they want to look at into what we want them to learn maybe they might be hooked onto the content. Those interests will vary and keeping up with them will be daunting task, but will pay off when they can demonstrate their knowledge well after they graduate and pursue their interests.
September 4th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Whenever I was a child, my folks took my brother and me to the public library nearly every week. It was a family outing. We were allowed to choose any book that drew our interest. I remember the look on their faces when I chose a biography of a former drug addict. I also read books about kittens, letters to God and lots of adventure stories. To this day, I absolutely love to read. I think the freedom to choose influenced my interest in reading.
At the beginning of the school year, I ask my students to write general information on an index card and I ask them to tell me what they would like to learn in the class. I try to honor as many of their wishes as possible. The material must be relevant to them and their stage in life.
I think that I am luckier than some teachers because I teach Spanish and we can have fun with the language. We can talk with and about each other as well as learn things that they want to say to their friends in Spanish. On the other hand, grammar can be an absolute nightmare.
Podcasts are a good way to listen to music sung by popular Spanish musicians. Students enjoy this activity and little by little, their listening improves.
September 4th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
I too feel that I am lucky to teach Spanish. Students come to me n Spanish 1 ready to soak up everything they hear. We sing, listen, and try to communicate. I look so forward to each day with my Spanish 1 classes. Each year there is a waiting list to get into Spanish.
I think that this novelty begins to wear off in Spanish 2 because the difficulty of learning the grammar begins to get in the way of the enjoyment. This is when I begin to see a hint of negative attitude concerning assessments and remembering what they had in Spa 1. I’ve had this concern especially this year upon returning to school.
I agree that if you can focus on what they find interesting and enjoy or allow them to give input on a learning topic every so often then they are much more ready to participate and learning can continue.
I haven’t tried podcasts. I will look into those. My students love to sing in class in Spanish.
September 1st, 2008 at 8:50 am
[...] following post is a bit dated (the Second Point) but still valid: On Scope First, what we’re really talking about is selecting delivery channels that learners can use to [...]
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:23 am
Reading this and the comments was interesting. I think it is an issue that most of us are aware of. We teach and teach but some of our children still do not remember–their goal is not the same as ours. However, when it is something they relate to or have a particular interest in they will seem to always remember it. We need to try to relate our topics to real life. This will get their attention more. I am in very strong agreement with you on the fact that children will sometimes read things that may hurt them (such as news) but we should let them read what interests them (realizing that there is a limit on some things) and take that opportunity to teach them how to deal with things. Death and bad news is a part of life just as important to learn about.
September 2nd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Kids are always learning. They may not learn specifically what and how we as teachers want them to, but they are learning. I remember sitting in on a parent-teacher conference with a fellow teacher. The child was not performing well in the class and the teacher and parents were going to try to work on a strategy to help. To make a long story short, they kept questioning and critizing the young man until he had had enough. He stood up and recited material that the teacher had covered in class over the last month. Everyone was shocked. When the parents and teacher inquired as to why the boy had not performed well on the assessments since he obviously knew the content, he responded, “Why should I? Ms. ____ doesn’t care.” Ms. ____ said of course she did but the boy spouted back, “then why were you complaining to Mr. ____ in the hall about how much you hate our class? And why don’t you grade your own papers instead of having other kids do it?” See, I told you that kids are always learning.
We as educators need to set examples for the students (one reason why I am still taking classes when I don’t have to). Also, not every child will learn in the same way (no I don’t mean learning styles). Kids process information differently and thus store it differently. Just because he or she does not do well on an open response question, does not mean they do not understand it.
Finally, we need to tackle the tough questions because they do learn from us. I went through the same type of situation with my sons about the same event as you did with your daughter. I used it as a learning experience and it helped. When Heath Ledger died earlier this year, they understood that people-whether young or old, famous or not-die and that is just a part of life.