Can you send the name of this report, please?
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-----Original Message-----
From: Mena <drmarinac...@aol.com>
Sender: mosaic-bounces+ryantammy7=aol....@literacyworkshop.org
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2010 08:06:02
To: <mosaic@literacyworkshop.org>
Reply-To: "Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group"
<mosaic@literacyworkshop.org>
Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] a professor's reply
First, I have to applaud this LISTSERV for enabling honest, risk-free,
friendly, dialogues (similar to what I remember around the dining-room table at
my grandmother's home on Sundays over sauce). My uncles loved to dispute
current issues..they would yell and scream their opinions and then feel
validated in just being able to share their experiences :) I truly value
interacting with experienced professionals such as Rosie:)
Second, ...Someone Explain this to Me is Awesome!!! This is what the article
had to say about TFA.
While I applaud the commitment of the young people who see things
like Teach for America as a way to
serve the nation, it is a shame that we think the best we can do
for kids in our most challenged communities
is a steady diet of inexperienced short term teachers. (And it
might not be all that effective, according to a
new report examining the academic achievement of students under
the instruction of TFA staff.)
Philomena Marinaccio-Eckel, Ph.D.
Florida Atlantic University
Dept. of Teaching and Learning
College of Education
2912 College Ave. ES 214
Davie, FL 33314
Phone: 954-236-1070
Fax: 954-236-1050
-----Original Message-----
From: Beverlee Paul <beverleep...@gmail.com>
To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group
<mosaic@literacyworkshop.org>
Sent: Wed, Jul 14, 2010 12:24 am
Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] a professor's reply
I'm thankful for the TFA kids; I know they take on some of the more
difficult situations, but if they did well without an education-education,
think how well they could do with classes in how kids learn, how teachers
facilitate learning, etc., etc. etc. Sometimes how kids learn is
counterintuitive to how we imagine they do from our viewpoint as
adults/adult learners. One of my mentors said, "Teaching isn't talking,"
and that's so true. Without training, we all feel like we're really
presenting a rigorous curriculum when we talk and talk and talk. I think
it's more pseudo-learning a child gets when he can chant back the words the
teacher programs him to. Another of my favorite quotes is "Learning is
something done by a child, not to a child." It even takes outstanding
teachers, who will take your breath away, much practice and commitment to
recognize and live that truism. What seems efficient is sometimes wasted
energy. I think engagement is a concept that is given inadequate attention
in most teachers colleges. With an appropriate teacher education, teaching
becomes simple. Not easy, but simple. When Mena writes about holding up
boxed programs against a knowledge-based professional preparation, she's
stating what I'm trying to say in a different way. We as teachers have to
know not only what we think, but WHY we think that. When I say teaching is
simple - if we know what is to be learned, and we know who is to learn it,
we'll know what we have to do. It isn't always easy because the "how we get
there" can stretch us to the max as teachers. And those kids that aren't
"easy"? Those are the ones for which we need teacher education so we know
what to do for them. But . . . it's probably those particular kids, their
challenges and successes, their joy that keeps us in education and
fascinated with what's to come. I think a TFA kid could probably do fairly
well with herself as a teacher. But what the trained professional knows is
how the environment in the room is also a teacher. And the other kids and
teachers. They get the big picture.
Another of my mentors responded to my question once as to the roles of
"nature/nurture" in teachers. She said, "There are some teachers who are
born to be good teachers. There are some teachers who can be taught to be
good teachers. But, for GREAT teachers, there has to be both nature and
nurture. And what kinds of teachers do we want for our kids?"
On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 12:00 PM, Mena <drmarinac...@aol.com> wrote:
> I think that Beverlee's email also gives voice to the importance of
> Colleges of Education and the importance of preparing teachers as
> professionals in light of the many alternate paths to teaching that are
> currently available. I have a wonderful teacher in my graduate class who
> taught for "Teach for America". She was a bit offended when I mentioned that
> I was worried that 1-3 years teachers in inner-city schools were being
> replaced by TFA teachers. She had a wonderful experience and didn't see how
> undergraduate courses could have better prepared her to teach. However, I
> think that so many new approaches and concepts are thrown at teachers, that
> only by holding up real-world, packaged programs to a solid foundation of
> theory, research, "child development, and cognitive processes" can teacher
> make the hard decisions of how to effectively teach a student. Philomena
>
>
>
>
> Philomena Marinaccio-Eckel, Ph.D.
> Florida Atlantic University
> Dept. of Teaching and Learning
> College of Education
> 2912 College Ave. ES 214
> Davie, FL 33314
> Phone: 954-236-1070
> Fax: 954-236-1050
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Beverlee Paul <beverleep...@gmail.com>
> To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group <
> mosaic@literacyworkshop.org>
> Sent: Mon, Jul 12, 2010 8:46 pm
> Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] a professor's reply
>
>
> And yet another perspective, that one of a reading specialist, lit coach,
>
> and university instructor:
>
>
>
> I understand how frustrating it may have been for you, and hope you had a
>
> good lit coach or grade level partner to help you through, but I'd like to
>
> speak to the issue of teacher education.
>
>
>
> What you missed in your teachers' college was what I call "training" which
>
> is different than education. The teachers' college really does have the
>
> responsibility to prepare you for the profession of teaching and what is
>
> known best practice. It sounds as if that's what they did. They educated
>
> you as to what we currently know about how kids learn and how you build on
>
> that to teach. How to be a professional educator. That took the 36 hours
>
> or whatever you had in your major. Now, within that, they certainly could
>
> have spent some hours talking about the "real world" but it couldn't take
>
> much time away from their obligation to educate professional educators.
>
> They needed all the time they could get to educate you as a professional.
>
>
>
> Fortunately, I guess, it doesn't take nearly as long to "train"
>
> managers/teachers to follow a basal reader or do the kinds of things
>
> required by NCLB/Reading First type programs. That's the kind of training
> a
>
> school district can do; it's not all that sophisticated and the
>
> decision-making that is required of a professional isn't involved. It
> takes
>
> no knowledge of child development or of cognitive processes or any of the
>
> other sophisticated knowledge that would be required by a program in which
> a
>
> teacher had the responsibility to design teaching and learning.
>
>
>
> Truly, a couple of days with some refreshers could prepare someone for the
>
> lower-level job of "delivering" the curriculum with fidelity and
>
> standardization, a one-size-fits-all program. So, from my perspective they
>
> probably did the best they could: they prepared you to be a teacher, and
>
> left the job to the district to train you for whatever they wanted.
>
>
>
> Hope you still have that knowledge within you! There'll come a day. . . .
>
>
>
> Bev
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> A different perspective if I may...
>
> >
>
> > I graduated 9 years ago from a school that had a clear philosophy of
>
> > inquiry based learning. I had no exposure to a basal text, and direct
>
> > instruction was also considered "evil". While I believe that the ideas
>
> > presented in the Mosaic books is the best way for certain to learn, it is
>
> > very disheartening as a new teacher to learn that many school districts
> do
>
> > not hold similar views. Please expose your students to basals and
> whatever
>
> > the required curriculum is for your district or state. When I first
> started
>
> > teaching I was very angry that my school did not prepare me for what I
> saw
>
> > as the "real world". There was little to no discussion about
> standardized
>
> > testing especially those related to NCLB and AYP.
>
> >
>
> > Just another viewpoint.
>
> >
>
> > Rosie
>
> >
>
> >
>
> >
>
> >
>
> >
>
> >
>
> >
>
> >
>
> >
>
> >
>
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
>
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>
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>
> To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to
>
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>
>
>
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>
>
>
>
>
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>
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>
>
--
"There is nothing so unequal as equal treatment of unequals." Chief
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
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To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to
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