Engaged Learning

So far this semester, this has been the most helpful and insightful book. I believe this has a lot to do with its practical methods along with its "scientific" approach to helping students develop into better learners. My brain was throttled while reading the first half with new information and the second half provided much insight to how I will run my own class.

I've come to the realization that teachers need to "practice what they preach." For example, if you want your students to write with emotion, you should show them your own writing where you revealed emotion. So, the chapter on modeling seemed pretty straight forward. But as I read, I began to pick up on some vital strategies to model what I know for them. VanDeWeghe says we need to show our students how we think. This can be done by thinking out loud, expressing our own confusions, and showing students how we come to a conclusion. I think I often overestimate my students abilities to think critically, and can get frustrated when they have difficulty answering a question posed about our topic. What I am seeing is that the students are not being lazy or are unable to comprehend the question, but rather that they need to be shown the process of thinking.

I also enjoyed the chapter on involving students in authentic discussion. I can admit to envisioning myself as the teacher in the beginning of the chapter who does a "run through" of a chapter by having the students shouting out the answers (even if they are using the text to supply them), and counting this as a class discussion. Clearly, this is not causing the students to think and I cannot imagine many students would come away with much knowledge, aside from learning how to use the glossary a bit faster, by using this method. The key is to pique their interest early on with a "big idea." With this, they are able to connect what they are reading to their world, and hopefully statements such as, "This reminds me of..." or "I don't agree with..." can inspire our class to think a little.

Along with these strategies, I plan to further develop my methods for teaching reading and writing. One thing the book showed me about this was that many students need to be shown how to comprehend what they read. I will definitely teach reading with a "trinial" approach.