"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!