Even the title gives me something to think about, Raising Your Expectations. I always think I have high expectations for my students, but in reality, I think mine are just average. The chpater discusses to not only have expectations, but to verbalize them to your students. Whenever I assign something, I always tell the students what I will be looking for when they turn it in for a grade.
The second best thing about this chapter for me is the "excellent chart" (p. 58) That basically spells out exactly things I look for in writing samples. It also gives me an idea. I think I will give my kids a copy of the chart at the beginning of the year and when they get stuck about what to write, it will be a nice reminder without having to ask the teacher.
The last main point of the chapter I want to express, is the practice of demonstration. The book lists a variety of ways to do it. Again, oh yeah moment, observe, talk, listen, suggest, try out, set goals, and evaluate. Those are things we as humans do everyday, some without very little thinking. Hoever, they are so important to the foundation of learning not only in the classroom, but if life!
I think all your points go together well and reinforce the importance of modeling - make it clear to the kids we have high expectations, and this is what meeting those expectations look like. I don't do that nearly enough, and I vow to do better. Just like our students assume we have the background information to make sense of their writing, we mustn't assume they know what we mean when we say what we want - we have to show them what we're talking about, and give them lots of opportunities to try it for themselves.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if anyone else has ever felt this, but I think I do a pretty good job of modeling when teaching - that is until I read about modeling. Then I start to feel like my modeling is severely lacking. Can we ever model enough? When learning something new (which is not very often), I realize I need a lot of modeling for myself. It seems like if I need this, children must need much more!
ReplyDelete