After you read Sally, ask yourself -- transmission or construction? That will take you right to the essence of theme study. Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel
-----Original Message----- From: thomas <sally.thom...@verizon.net> Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:28:18 To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group<mosaic@literacyworkshop.org> Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] themes Hi Joy, Beverlee, etc. I got some of my ideas about developing inquiry yes from Harste, Burke and Barbara Flores and others from that wonderful connected group of educators many of whom are directly connected to the Goodmans and each other(thinking here there were some great articles in the Whole Language Catalog)...But I also got ideas from Coalition of Essential Schools and maybe they were influenced also by the above. Whatever, a useful way to think about themes....especially those that lead to an inquiry stance is to ask "essential questions." Find the overarching question (or several interrelated questions) that is rich and authentic, keeping in mind the interests and developmental levels of your children and yes, sometimes, even the expected "curriculum" at your grade level. In other words you gain little by working against the science or social studies focus of your grade level per your particular state. (Some would differ with me here and its not like sometimes I didn't ignore that as well) It would sometimes take me weeks to figure out what the big question was, one that would include the concepts and strategies and knowledge that I wanted to cover. Phrasing it as a question I think automatically turns it to a sentence rather than a simple topic. Even if you start with a topic, if you turn into a question it pushes you on that inquiry journey and to deeper thinking about the topic. For example, your students would like to study horses. Ask why do horses play such a central role in the life of some Native American nations? Remember our Mosaic work and how learning to ask good questions is more important than giving right answers?? Next I think through the concepts(deeper understandings) I expect children to learn through this inquiry. Then I figure out the critical knowledge that they'll work with. Yes, knowing "some" stuff, some facts is important. But this forces me to narrow this down to pivotal knowledge, not just collections of facts, dates etc. that could be tested on a multiple choice test! Then I think through the skills and strategies they'll use to accomplish their inquiry - group and individual. Then and possibly throughout I consider the underlying values and assumptions underlying my plan and consider how they might emerge in the children's work. I always ask myself the social justice, fairness kind of questions here. How will different perspectives be privileged in this work? How will I respect the diverse children in my class and so on? Then I figure out how I will assess how we are accomplishing, whether we did accomplish (formative and summative assessment) and I run that back through All of the above to add, delete, refine etc. Then I begin work on resources and particular ways to begin the unit and so on. In some ways, this last step is where I used to start my planning. But doing all the other thinking above results in much better teaching and learning I think. It is open to emerging understandings and information because I start with the stance that the question is a real one for me, not just the children. Gosh, sorry if I've gone on to long. It just always help to think through what we're doing and I love it that the whole question of themes has emerged here. Sally On 6/19/09 3:50 AM, "Joy" <jwidm...@rocketmail.com> wrote: > > Beverlee, > If there is a group that can help me push my thinking, this is it. I'm > pondering your suggestion that sentences are needed to describe themes. That > is an interesting idea. Does the sentence narrow the concept, or does it > broaden it? > > I wonder if I struggle with this because our standards are given to us in bits > or because I am not thinking globally? I always thought I was a big picture > kind of person, maybe I'm mistaken. I can see how things tie together, and > have developed projects that are integrated, but struggle with the label. > > > > Joy/NC/4 > > How children learn is as important as what they learn: process and content go > hand in hand. http://www.responsiveclassroom.org > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mosaic mailing list > Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
