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From Now On
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Vol 8|No 7|April|1999 |
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by Jamie McKenzie
Even some of the best educational research into Internet uses by teachers (Becker, 1999) paints a somewhat sorry picture of how these new tools are being used with students by most teachers. (click here to go to "Internet Use by Teachers" Web site at University of California Irvine http://www.crito.uci.edu/TLC/FINDINGS/internet-use/startpage.htm) Becker's data show that even those teachers with access to four or more networked classroom computers were rarely taking full advantage of the student learning opportunities available. For STUDENT RESEARCH USE, teachers would score 1.0 if they did all three of the following, .66 if they did two of the following, .33 if they did just one of the following and .00 if they did none of them . . .
For STUDENT PROJECTS AND PUBLISHING, teachers would score 1.0 if they did all three of the following, .66 if they did two of the following, .33 if they did just one of the following and .00 if they did none of them . . .
Across all teacher types, regardless of access, the scores came out as follows:
Source: Teaching, Learning & Computing - 1998, These scores are distressingly low, but the scores for those teachers with the most robust Internet connections at home and in school, while better, are still pretty discouraging, since they are meeting, on average, only two of the three criteria for student research and less than one for student projects. Some of us who have been working the Internet and schools for the past five years would argue that the three tests of use employed by Becker to reach these scores are "entry level" descriptors of use hardly robust enough to indicate the kind of substantial, daily program integration which would merit the huge expenditures required to equip classrooms with four or more networked computers.
Source: Teaching, Learning & Computing - 1998, Becker's sample of teachers is an interesting one, not entirely representative of teachers nationally. If anything it is somewhat loaded with more inventive and constructivist teachers than usual. One major portion of the sample was picked in a random, representative manner (the national probability sample), but two other portions (the purposive samples) were selected 1) from schools engaged in "educational reform" programs or from 2) high-end technology schools. We need exercise caution before generalizing to the nation as a whole based on this sample skewed toward the inventive and experimental. What is striking after considering the sample as somewhat skewed is the meager evidence of substantial program integration even under the best of circumstances.
Researchers have found that proficient readers - ones with strong comprehension abilities - use their minds quite differently than those who read word by word, sounding out the words without much understanding of content.
Think in terms of jigsaw puzzles. Ever look at the picture on the box before putting the pieces together? Why? The picture helps us to sort and sift the fragments. It works somewhat like that for reading. If students start by considering what they already know and bring it into the reading process, they will be ahead of the game.
The next step is to teach them to outline other writers' thoughts and ideas so they can see the connection between the reading and the writing act . . . the way that ideas are arranged within passages.
1. Make Research, Writing & Questioning Central to Schooling Unless the school makes research, writing and questioning central, the networked technology will be used rarely and tangentially, with a tendency toward special events and trivia rather than "bread and butter" issues. Rank and file teachers want to see more than "virtual field trips" and fanciful bike tours of distant continents. They want to see activities which pay off in higher scores and better performance. The first step is to make research a daily event in every child's life, not just something which happens once a year in February or March when we suddenly devote several weeks to a "state project." Research is the best practice for the kinds of strategic reading discussed earlier. The February issue of From Now On described in some detail how to employ each of the following three strategies to make research a daily event . . .
To be a successful thinker, reader and writer, each student must possess a Questioning Toolkit - a set of questioning strategies which will support the kinds of reading for meaning outlined earlier. Infotectives have highly developed repertoires of questioning skills. As a beginning, consider the toolkit outlined in the November, 1997 issue of From Now On.
Ideally, we would hope to see students develop the capacity to formulate their own questions. For a dozen strategies to enhance student questioning abilities, click here for the article, "FILLING THE TOOL BOX, Classroom Strategies to Engender Student Questioning." Writing as Process - We are also beginning to see more and more clearly the interplay between writing, thinking and reading. To optimize the technology return on investment, we need to invest in substantial professional development designed to make sure all teachers know how to provide the kinds of support needed to make Writing as Process a fundamental program element. Writing as Process is essential if we want to see growth in student abilities because the model provides a basis for strategic intervention by teachers. It turns out that the critical variable when improving student writing is prolonged, intimate and highly strategic teaching. The work of writing instructors such as Lucy Calkins, Peter Elbow and Linda Flower (see references below) eloquently illustrates the extended journey required to achieve growth. Writing improves when the writer internalizes an inventive process of reworking early efforts. Young people learn to be reflective and questioning about their own performance and efforts. They are both strategic and playful. They are versatile and fluent. They develop a rich palette. They fill their toolkit with writing skills. They generate a "bag of tricks." They learn to shed the lazy, the cheap and the plastic in favor of the authentic and the genuine. They develop a passion for editing and revision. Great writing teachers may prove an inspiration. How? Dialogue. Extended engagement. Commitment. The process is commonly torturous and time-consuming. Teacher and student enjoy a highly personalized exchange that cannot be reduced to simple formulas or recipes. The process cannot be easily packaged or replicated. There is no compact twelve step program. It is an intensive human communion requiring persistence and devotion. Teacher and student consider intriguing issues like these . . .
Effective writing teachers show their students how to extend their own growth, showing them models like the Six Traits of Effective Writing (click to see example) approach to revision and then encouraging them to develop their own questions. In all too many programs there is insufficient attention to the nexus of writing, reading and thinking. Writing as process helps to close that gap. 2. Make Strategic Teaching a Priority The secret to changing student performance is timely intervention by a skillful teacher who is constantly watching and diagnosing student efforts. As outlined in the December, 1998 issue of From Now On, a teacher may intervene in four basic ways . . . 1. Adds to the student toolkit The teacher frequently monitors the toolkit of each student to see which tools have slipped through the cracks. The teacher intervenes to provide each individual student with enough support to make essential tools a permanent part of the toolkit. 2. Untangles wrong thinking Effective teachers ask students to reveal the patterns of their thinking. Once the teacher knows how the student is approaching the problem, the teacher may help to untangle the thinking and may suggest some better strategies to apply in the future. 3. Empowers independent problem-solving The effective teacher rarely picks up the students problem and rarely touches the students mouse or track pad. The emphasis is firmly placed on developing independence and autonomy. 4. Encourages invention Independent problem-solving often requires the invention of new tools and strategies. Sometimes it simply requires new ways of using old tools. Students must learn to modify their toolkit, making new tools and bending the old ones to the new tasks at hand. (go to the article for full description) 3. Identify & Practice the 60 Toughest Questions Regardless of the state, the same 5 dozen challenging questions and reading tasks occur over and over again.
Schools need to make lists of such questions and then blend them into the daily lives of students so they encounter and practice them in social studies, math, science, art and all of the subject areas. It is not enough to provide practice. Students must participate in group sessions during which a teacher may model an approach to that kind of question. We need to "surface" the inquiry process which works best for each of these questions rather than just assuming that all of our students may figure out the best strategy independently. 4. Emphasize Mindware Some software programs can actually enhance the way we do our thinking. Inspiration, as mentioned above, is a kind of mindware which encourages a more visual approach to thinking. Sustained practice under the right conditions might help students to "put their heads around" some complex thinking processes. In much the same way, various software tools such as spreadsheets can help students to do a different kind of data analysis and scenario testing - seeing what happens if variables change. This is precisely the kind of mathematical reasoning and inference required more and more often by state mathematics standards and tests. Unfortunately, there is little evidence that these more "constructivist" uses of computer software have taken hold in classrooms. Conclusion In some respects the Internet and networked computers are only half a product . . . like a car without a highway, gas or destination, like a CD player without music, like a guitar without strings or strummer. In all too many cases we have "put the cart before the horse." Enamored with the glamor of networking and inspired by the workplace readiness arguments of futurists, we have rushed to place cables and computers in all classrooms without completing the design of the product. What we have slighted in this process is the development of sound, worthwhile, effective learning experiences and activities which would take advantage of the new technologies to achieve new levels of student performance. We have operated on the (mistaken) notion that equipment and access would translate into performance benefits. We have allowed too many from outside of schools to tell us what we needed, and we have welcomed their selling of half-baked solutions which ignore decades of serious inquiry into the pre-conditions of effective teaching and learning. This article attempts to demonstrate how networked computers could make a difference in student learning if we would just install them with the proper accompaniments of professional development and program development. The most important thing to remember is that great teaching is more important than great equipment! Nancie Atwell "In the Middle: New Understandings about Writing, Reading, and Learning" Bakhtin, M. M. "The Dialogic Imagination" Calkins, Lucy McCormick and Shelley Harwayne "The Writing Workshop : A World of Difference : A Guide for Staff Development" Calkins, Lucy McCormick et al "Raising Lifelong Learners : A Parent's Guide" Calkins, Lucy McCormick "The Art of Teaching Writing" Elbow, Peter "Writing Without Teachers." Elbow, Peter "Writing With Power : Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process" Elbow, Peter "Embracing Contraries : Explorations in Learning and Teaching" Flower, Linda "The Construction of Negotiated Meaning : A Social Cognitive Theory of Writing" Flower, Linda "Problem-Solving Strategies for Writing" Peck, Richard "Love and Death at the Mall; Teaching and Writing for the Literate Young" Tucker, Shelley "Painting the Sky : Writing Poetry With Children" Wilson, David E. "Attempting Change : Teachers Moving from Writing Project to Classroom Practice" Credits: The photographs were shot by Jamie McKenzie. Icons from Jay Boersma. Copyright Policy: Materials published in From Now On may be duplicated in hard copy format if unchanged in format and content for educational, nonprofit school district and university use only and may also be sent from person to person by e-mail. This copyright statement must be included. All other uses, transmissions and duplications are prohibited unless permission is granted expressly. Showing these pages remotely through frames is not permitted. |