Angela, I love your thoughts about the new rules of the literacy club. As I try to learn these new rules, I am very aware of how many of my education colleagues haven't yet figured out that the old rules aren't enough. Unfortunately, it may be a while before many educators figure out that the same old same old isn't working any more.
Here's what I've been coming to understand about my students. They are different than the ones I had just two or three years ago. The thing is, they don't LOOK different when they take their seats each day. In fact, they look and sound very much like the 8th graders I've been teaching for years. They are coming through a district that, while successful in many ways, has not been keeping up with Web 2.0 technologies, so their classroom experiences are very similar to those of of past students. They come to class, do their work, and participate in all the traditional ways that kids have done so for years - they play the "school game" well. Their teachers, including me, are all too willing to keep playing the game, too, teaching as we always have. It appears still to be working, so why change it?
The thing is, when I scratch the surface a little and ask them about what they do at home, I realize they are not at all like the kids I taught even three years ago. They leave my classroom at 2:06 each day and go home to their real lives where their days begin - online. They are not just texting and IMing, they are creating and publishing and sharing and experimenting. Occasionally, they are doing so with my subject matter, or so I'm told, but often they don't give my class a second thought until they reenter my classroom the next day. I'm not irrelevant yet, at least to most of them, but I get the feeling that's where I'm headed.
If we don't start changing how we engage them, it won't be long before they will revolt. Oh sure, we will have many students who will continue to play our little game, and work hard at earning good grades using the old literacy skills they have learned since kindergarten, but more and more of them will be biding their time until the bell rings.
So how do we learn the new rules of the literacy club when so many of us don't yet know they have changed? I have a feeling it will be our students that will teach us. At the ASCD Annual Conference last Monday, Sir Ken Robinson made the point that it is always the case that, in a new world, it is the children of immigrants who learn the language and culture of the new world first and then teach if to their parents. The education world is dominated by digital immigrants right now, but if we allow our students, the digital natives, to teach us, then perhaps we can still be relevant. They still need us to do what we do best - help them develop the literacy skills they need to be successful in whatever context they will need them.
I want to close by pointing out how important it will be for our education leadership - and by this I mean our superintendents and building principals - to be aware of the new rules for the literacy club. Dennis Richards, a recently retired superintendent from MA, presented at the Annual Conference last weekend on his journey into Web 2.0. Hopefully there are more leaders like him in our future.
AngelaMaiers
· 9 months ago
Thank you so much for such a poignant and honest response. I comment you for being aware on two fronts- that kids are changing...and not all for the worse. As you stated - "They are not just texting and IMing, they are creating and publishing and sharing and experimenting" and secondly noting the need for teachers who are willing to learn the "new rules".
Both Dennis and Ken are heros in my mind- making the case for leadership in learning.
Your students still need you - they need teachers who understand their talent, who honor their diversity, and who are willing to be co-learners in the process. You are an inspiration to them and to your colleagues as you take these conversations back with you.
The best gift we can give students is respect- for who they are, what they know, what they can contribute, and what they can achieve. They do not seek you knowledge - they seek your understanding and belief. They are lucky to have you to lead them into this future!
Maya Frost
· 9 months ago
Yes! Great post, Angela. There ARE new rules--for learning, for literacy and for connecting with others all over the globe.
Your personal story and this list of the new rules of the literacy club reflect the changes ALL lifelong learners are experiencing as we shift to new ways of absorbing, using and distributing information. In my work with parents and students around the world, I have seen that those who are the most successful at adopting these new rules are the ones who thrive once they leave the formal education setting and continue their learning adventure.
As we become more learner-oriented and aware of our own potential as peer teachers, we will connect more deeply and deliberately with others.
Cheers to the New Rules! (or as I like to say, "Good-bye, Old School. Hello, Bold School!")
AngelaMaiers
· 9 months ago
Here, here for learning! You are right on- only when we become more learner-oriented and aware of our own potential as peer teachers, we will connect more deeply and deliberately with others. Thanks for sharing the rules!
Tracy W
· 8 months ago
Interesting post. Some niggles - is there a myth that learning to read is over by third grade? Or if there is, does this myth have anything to do with joining the literacy club? I can understand why you might worry, but I think it is a universal problem with any complex idea at all that people can easily simplify the idea and then believe the simplification without being quite aware that they are doing so. I suspect that if everyone saw reading as a lifelong endeavour there would still be a proliferation of myths, perhaps different myths, but still the same fundamental problem.
And, while comprehension is definitely always important with reading, I can see how kids can spend time focusing on just decoding - we only have limited brain power and when you are learning something new it is time to focus on that. I found when I was learning Latin and doing a translation I had to take a first stab at translating the passage and then re-read it to see if the passage made sense - I couldn't both translate and read for meaning at the same time, I didn't have the working memory. Kids can and perhaps should practice comprehension with oral stories while they are in the initial stages of learning reading.
Incidentally, I don't think I'm a very courageous reader, and I'm very sure that I'm not a purposeful nor strategic one. Instead I wander around randomly picking up information. Am I now disqualified from the Literacy Club?
All Comments
Here's what I've been coming to understand about my students. They are different than the ones I had just two or three years ago. The thing is, they don't LOOK different when they take their seats each day. In fact, they look and sound very much like the 8th graders I've been teaching for years. They are coming through a district that, while successful in many ways, has not been keeping up with Web 2.0 technologies, so their classroom experiences are very similar to those of of past students. They come to class, do their work, and participate in all the traditional ways that kids have done so for years - they play the "school game" well. Their teachers, including me, are all too willing to keep playing the game, too, teaching as we always have. It appears still to be working, so why change it?
The thing is, when I scratch the surface a little and ask them about what they do at home, I realize they are not at all like the kids I taught even three years ago. They leave my classroom at 2:06 each day and go home to their real lives where their days begin - online. They are not just texting and IMing, they are creating and publishing and sharing and experimenting. Occasionally, they are doing so with my subject matter, or so I'm told, but often they don't give my class a second thought until they reenter my classroom the next day. I'm not irrelevant yet, at least to most of them, but I get the feeling that's where I'm headed.
If we don't start changing how we engage them, it won't be long before they will revolt. Oh sure, we will have many students who will continue to play our little game, and work hard at earning good grades using the old literacy skills they have learned since kindergarten, but more and more of them will be biding their time until the bell rings.
So how do we learn the new rules of the literacy club when so many of us don't yet know they have changed? I have a feeling it will be our students that will teach us. At the ASCD Annual Conference last Monday, Sir Ken Robinson made the point that it is always the case that, in a new world, it is the children of immigrants who learn the language and culture of the new world first and then teach if to their parents. The education world is dominated by digital immigrants right now, but if we allow our students, the digital natives, to teach us, then perhaps we can still be relevant. They still need us to do what we do best - help them develop the literacy skills they need to be successful in whatever context they will need them.
I want to close by pointing out how important it will be for our education leadership - and by this I mean our superintendents and building principals - to be aware of the new rules for the literacy club. Dennis Richards, a recently retired superintendent from MA, presented at the Annual Conference last weekend on his journey into Web 2.0. Hopefully there are more leaders like him in our future.
Both Dennis and Ken are heros in my mind- making the case for leadership in learning.
Your students still need you - they need teachers who understand their talent, who honor their diversity, and who are willing to be co-learners in the process. You are an inspiration to them and to your colleagues as you take these conversations back with you.
The best gift we can give students is respect- for who they are, what they know, what they can contribute, and what they can achieve. They do not seek you knowledge - they seek your understanding and belief. They are lucky to have you to lead them into this future!
Your personal story and this list of the new rules of the literacy club reflect the changes ALL lifelong learners are experiencing as we shift to new ways of absorbing, using and distributing information. In my work with parents and students around the world, I have seen that those who are the most successful at adopting these new rules are the ones who thrive once they leave the formal education setting and continue their learning adventure.
As we become more learner-oriented and aware of our own potential as peer teachers, we will connect more deeply and deliberately with others.
Cheers to the New Rules! (or as I like to say, "Good-bye, Old School. Hello, Bold School!")
And, while comprehension is definitely always important with reading, I can see how kids can spend time focusing on just decoding - we only have limited brain power and when you are learning something new it is time to focus on that. I found when I was learning Latin and doing a translation I had to take a first stab at translating the passage and then re-read it to see if the passage made sense - I couldn't both translate and read for meaning at the same time, I didn't have the working memory. Kids can and perhaps should practice comprehension with oral stories while they are in the initial stages of learning reading.
Incidentally, I don't think I'm a very courageous reader, and I'm very sure that I'm not a purposeful nor strategic one. Instead I wander around randomly picking up information. Am I now disqualified from the Literacy Club?