[Understand] Don't stop the discussion...

[CNJPALMER at aol.com]

...of previous chapters! We have some really rich and interesting talk  going 
on right now. I do feel obliged, however, to begin the discussion on our  
final chapter, especially since we are a couple of weeks behind our original  
schedule! But don't let the start of this new thread prevent you from posting on  
the ongoing threads of discussion! I am still struggling with main idea 
myself  and am eager to continue to hear from others who have been lurking up to  
now.
 
While we will take the usual two weeks to discuss this  last chapter, we do 
not have to let the discussion end in two weeks!  Something tells me that as we 
get ready to go back to school, there will be many  opportunities for 
questions and insights! As mentioned earlier, the third week  of September, we will 
begin again at Chapter one. 
 
SO...on to chapter 9: To Feel, To Remember and To Understand. 
 
In this chapter, Ellin discusses the role of emotion in understanding. My  
first reaction to this was a fervent "AMEN!"  I had learned this for myself  
recently as I taught one of the lessons from Harvey's Comprehension Toolkit with  
my fourth graders.  Now, this particular group was very frustrating to me  
last year...they weren't behavior problems. They were the most passive,  
unresponsive learners I have probably worked with in 15 years. I had started  working 
with them in non-fiction...which seemed to have lit a fire under a few  kids, 
but most just wanted me to tell them the "right answer." I started using  the 
wait time towards the end of the year..."I know you don't know, but if you  
did know, what would you say."  I had some results, but I was discouraged  when 
a student asked me if I was ever going to have a substitute. When I asked  
why he wanted me to have a sub, he said that he was tired of thinking and his  
friends were too!  :-( (My two coteachers were both out on maternity leave  and 
I was left with two subs who were well meaning but couldn't be expected  to 
hold my kids feet to the fire to the same degree I did!) 
 
Finally,in desperation, I pulled out a book on the brain (Seymour  Simon, I 
think) and I talked to kids a bit about what I knew about brain  
research...that their brains were plastic and they could be changed...and that  by reading 
and thinking they could improve their own brains. Now I know that  this is very 
oversimplified to the point of being wrong, but I told them that  when they 
learned something, they changed their brains...they added new wrinkles  to it 
and new pathways that weren't there before. I showed them pictures of  neurons 
and dendrites...brain scans...the whole nine yards.  After a chorus  of "EW! 
Mrs. Palmer, that is gross!" I started to see some changes in my group.  There 
were lots of questions about the brain and how kids learn. The next thing  I 
knew, several boys had asked the media specialist for the "brain book". 
 
Then, I launched into a discussion of what it meant to understand and that  
those things we feel emotionally connected to or have a strong emotional  
reaction to are more easily remembered and understood. We briefly discussed what  
happened to them with the "Brain Book." Some kids said they remembered it  
because it was disgusting, one other child, a little girl, said that she didn't  
know her brain could change and that made her really happy. 
 
THEN, they were ready and I taught them the comprehension toolkit lesson on  
Polar Bears (in the determining importance unit, I think). They had the  
organizer Steph Harvey provided which asked the kids to write important facts  and 
their reactions to it. I asked them to remember what they had learned from  
the Brain book and to pay attention to their thoughts and feelings when reading  
the Polar Bear article.
 
Now it is a real downside to be a reading specialist sometimes, because we  
have to leave a class on schedule and can't keep on going when the kids are hot 
 on to something! I wasn't entirely sure that the Polar Bear article was the  
right text to teach this lesson with... So...with trepidation, I left my  
fourth graders to go to fifth grade and trusted that the sub would follow  
through. 
 
Well, apparently, she did because the next day, I started the  class with a 
question. With trepidation, I said, "Tell me what you  remembered from your 
reading yesterday? What was important?"  I nearly  fainted with relief when ALL 
24 hands were in the air and bottoms were out of  the seat wanting to share 
what they had learned. Just visualize 24 little  Horshack clones going "OOOH! 
OOOH! OOOH!"  I had NEVER been able to get  them to engage like that at all!  
(SO...can you all hear the strains of  violins playing God Bless America for this 
wonderful teaching moment?hee hee  hee)
 
I took the time, and called on every single child, for the simple reason  
that I wanted ALL of them to feel what it was like to be so engaged. Then, with  
Ellin hovering over my shoulder, I asked them what they had learned about  
reading. I got variations on "When I pay attention to my feelings about my  
reading, I remember it better." Then I asked the "SO What? What do you  understand 
now that you didn't understand before?" After a pause, one child  tentatively 
raised her hand and responded, "I learned you were right...I really  can 
change my brain!"  
 
In reflection upon this moment, I realize that what happened here was one  of 
the outcomes of understanding that Ellin describes in this chapter:  
Confidence. These kids didn't believe they could think and no one had yet  convinced 
them that they were intellectually capable. When they began to think  they 
COULD think, then, well, they DID!
 
If I were to be able to get in a time machine and go back to that moment, I  
would ask the kids to concentrate on how they felt at that moment...and put  
words to what it meant to understand. (Something tells me the word fervent 
might  apply!) I wish I had pushed that girl to elaborate on her thinking just a  
little more to see if I could have taken it even deeper. I think I missed  an 
opportunity there...(I think it was the shock of the breakthrough  moment! ;-) 
I hated to see the school year end because all this happened in  June and I 
am worried they will have forgotten by September...
 
Sorry this was so long...
Anyone else have thoughts on our last chapter? And of course, please  
continue the ongoing discussions as well!
Jennifer
 



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