"Nothing as Certain as Change"

On page 175, Keene discussed some ways to have students relate certain literacy elements to their own lives. She states that teachers should "focus instruction on a few important concepts, teach them in depth over a long period of time, and permit students to apply those concepts in a variety of texts and contexts." Students need to connect their own lives to other texts and to the real world. Giving them more time to think and write down their thoughts is very important! I believe Keene to be right, if teachers spend more time with a few important concepts and give their students more time to think and prepare their writings and projects, students will make better connections.

A Renaissance of Understanding

"I envision them as people who treasure the freedom to disagree, to challenge authority in a respectful way, who are unafraid to take risks that may lead to failure." (Keene 140)

This quote is a summation of Renaissance thinking and understanding. Renaissance thinking and understanding takes a great deal of higher levels of thinking, reflecting upon their own questions in a variety of academic areas, test their questions, revise thinking, etc. I don't believe Renaissance understanding is something that is realistic for our schools today. I could see it being done in a charter school, but in public schools, there are so many things that hold back teachers from teaching this way. (Standards, curriculum, the amount of children in each grade, etc) I would love to be able to go and see a Renaissance classroom, I feel as if it would be a great learning experience!

 

To Savor the Struggle

“I don’t give A’s in this class when the papers include no original thought. This paper reflects nothing original.” (Keene, 103) I will honestly say, very rarely have I ever heard a professor speak like this. I do on occasions have the few that want original thought instead of me just spitting out information that he/she already know. My thoughts and Keene’s thoughts are very similar, “I didn’t know how to learn to think. How does one go about getting an original thought?” (Keene, 103) In school we are “trained” to write a specific way, and it is not about how to put your own thoughts down on paper. I have struggled trying to put my own thoughts into a paper, because I worry about what the professor may think.

As a teacher, we need to make time with our students to have them write down their own thoughts about the topic at hand. Give them time to go into a deep thinking mode and not be afraid to share what they truly think. Learning should be fun, whether the child agrees with the teacher or not. Let the students explore, ask questions, think, and “explore their own internal drive to learn.” (Keene, 104)

Dwelling in Ideas

In Chapter 4 of Keene’s book, she states, “When I teach, I try to model how it looks like to take that time, silently, right in the middle of a lesson, in front of the children.” (77) This makes instruction more specific and children will retain and reapply what they learned in an easier way. Keene discusses how classroom time is spent on so much lecturing and instruction that we forget, as a teacher, to have students think quietly to themselves and listen deeply to other conversations. Keene discusses, “In our frantically paced classrooms, I worry that our children don’t have the time they need to dwell in ideas in silence, to purposefully reflect on an aspect of text or a social studies or science concept they are learning.” (77) We give children on average 4-9 seconds to respond to a question, but how would you like it if you were being timed to answer a question with a meaningful and intelligent answer? I know I would not want too. “When we assume that kids aren’t doing high-level thinking, we may need to consider whether the conditions we create are conductive to high-level thinking.” (77) I agree with Keene, we need to give the children in our classroom more time to think!

Driven to Understand

“We humans long to understand.” (44) This quote by Keene caught my attention. Humans understand in a variety of ways. Some things that undergraduates in education learn, some people learn better in a visual or auditory sense. I personally have always been a visual learner. I have noticed that as a visual learner, my teaching revolves around that technique. I like to show movies, slideshows, maps, pictures, etc. Of course I know as a teacher, I need to make sure I teach in a variety of other ways to make sure all of my students, not just my visually enhanced learner’s get the most out of the lesson.

Keene discusses crafting sessions on pages 55 and 56. I have used these crafting sessions in the classrooms I have taught in. One of my favorites to use is, “A time for teachers to invite students to apply what they’ve learned in composing. Crafting sessions end when readers and writers transfer their attention to independent reading and writing.” (55) Using background knowledge in crafting sessions, I believe, is extremely important. Background knowledge can bring forth connections from text to self, text to world, and text to text.

Besides crafting sessions, Keene also goes in depth about other techniques of teaching, which I found to be extremely useful. However, on page 66, Keene displays a puzzle that shows the “elements of a classroom culture that fosters fervent learning.” This definitely caught my attention. The first stage is known as rigor. “Teachers probe for deeper, more thoughtful responses.” (66) I think this is a huge difficulty teachers have every day. Teachers want more meaningful and thoughtful conversations, but sometimes students are not willing to go into depth about a passionate topic. The second stage is inquiry. “Students’ questions and passions drive their work.” (66) I am very passionate about inquiry, and I believe all students should inquire on a daily basis. Whether it is through ELA, Math, Science, Social Studies, Health, or even Physical Education. Inquiry helps students challenge idea’s being taught. The third stage is environment. “The classroom environment is comfortable and uncluttered, and provides clearly delineated spaces for large-group, small-group, and independent work.” (66) As an undergraduate I was taught in almost all of my educational classes that the environment a student works in is the most critical. Now that I have had the joy of teaching, I completely agree with this statement. The final stage is intimacy. “Rigorous, in-depth work is balanced by a pervasive sense of respect, trust, and freedom to take intellectual risks. The teacher holds positive beliefs about each child’s capacity for intellectual engagement.” (66) The teacher and students need to have a bond between them, once trust and respect is developed, I believe the classroom will run smoothly and learning and fun will happen on a daily basis.

I enjoyed this chapter of reading and I believe Keene had some amazing ideas that I will definitely be using in my own future classroom.

Keene, Ellin Oliver. (2008). To Understand New Horizons in Reading Comprehension. Driven to Understand, 41-70.

Seeking Understanding in Our Minds, in Our Lives

Keene stated in Chapter two, he remembered one time in his class where the students conversations about the books they were reading, absolutely astonished her! She remembered going home to her husband with great enthusiasm about her classroom experience and how amazing it was having them so interested and having their minds absorb and question so many details of the book. However, it made her start thinking about why can't they do this every day. I completely understand where she is coming from.

It is great having a child or a class finally “gets it" and use their minds in extraordinary ways, but it does not happen as often as teachers would like. "They don't concentrate long enough o have discussions like that every day; someone is always pulling them out of class to go to this or that special ed class or band; some of them have hormones raging; they usually want to talk about who is going out with whom and who got new skis. If there is an assembly, they take forever to refocus..." (Keene, 21) The biggest struggle I have come across with teaching is the time spent outside the classroom, or the interruptions that occur throughout the day. For children, it is hard to get them refocused on the lesson being taught and to engage their minds so they ask questions and search for inquiry.

Her chapter continued with how to bring that inquiry into a classroom on a daily basis. When I was reading through these ideas, they seemed great! However, I would need to break a lot of it down to an understanding level for elementary school children. It was a great chapter with a lot of good ideas that I would use in my own future classroom!

Keene, Ellin Oliver. (2008). To Understand New Horizons in Reading Comprehension. Seeking Understanding in Our Minds, in Our Lives, 20-40.