Reading Response #1

Summary:

• Cambourne Article:  The Cambourne article talks about finding a teaching pedagogy and understanding how people learn through her teaching, observation, and research. Cambourne used to have a very common pedagogical approach of repetition of skills and habits that are broken down into smaller, more manageable parts, praise appropriate responses and extinguish inappropriate responses, and learners must be told what to learn and how to go about doing so because they are too immature. Through her experience and research she realizes that this is not working and that it takes up so much time and energy. Her new ideas involved modeling her teaching after everyday learning that children automatically do. She now believes that you must use immersion, demonstration, engagement, expectations, responsibility, approximations, employment, and responses as a way of being when teaching. She then tests this out with some classroom teachers in order to answer any questions and it does prove that this is an effective way of teaching.

• Shannon Article:  This article discussed how there is a correlation between social class and reading instruction.  Generally, if you are of a lower social class then you will be placed in a lower reading group.  This basis generally comes from test scores but on occasion will come from an “idea type”.  After being placed in the different reading levels, teachers place different expectations onto their students.  They facilitate the lower and higher groups in different ways, a way that causes the lower groups to fall even more behind.  The solution to this problem can be dealt with by either an academic, affective, or emancipatory solution.

Quotes: 

• Cambourne Article:  “It doesn’t matter whether learners are engaged in learning to iron, play tennis, write an economics essay, tie shoelaces, or acquire the oral language of the culture; they are continually asking themselves, ‘How am I doing?’”

This quote emphasises the fact that constant evaluation is needed throughout the learning process and as teachers, it is our job to facilitate this effectively. This is why allowing the children to work collaboratively in pairs, together in small groups, as well as all together as a class, is just as important as working independently.

• Shannon Article:  “...the most important finding of ecological research is that the socialization function of schools operates differently for students of different races and classes. Disadvantaged students tend to be socialized for subordination; advantaged students are socialized for responsibility...” (page 3, last paragraph)

This quote expresses the way in which teachers can often teach students certain things simply through the way they are taught.  Teaching children the material of the class is important, but overall, its the things they learn about dealing with people, authority, and respect that will carry on with them for the rest of their lives. We might not have a classroom lesson on respect or how to talk to one another, but the kids learn it through the way you address them, how you allow them to address you, and how you address other adults within the classroom. These “teachings” are subconscious, yet we need to bring them to the conscious and make sure we are teaching all of our students exactly what we want them to take away from that aspect of ourselves as teachers and as human beings.

Connections:

Overall, both of these articles are attempting to make teachers take a step back and think about everything they are teaching and how they are teaching it. Some things we do instinctively without thinking them all the way through because they make sense in our heads. However, both of these articles, although dealing with different reasonings, intend for teachers to slow down and realize how each decision, whether made consciously or not, can affect these little sponges they call their students. This extends from choosing materials, the groups we place students in, what we address in each reading or subject matter, and even how we go about addressing these areas.