I think we
have all heard the old adage, “do as I say, not as I do.” Here’s the problem with that: life doesn’t
work that way, and neither does teaching.
Typically speaking, this phrase is used as a cop-out for authority
figures who want to enforce the rules for others, but have the opportunity to
break the rules for themselves. This
sort of elitist attitude does not normally compute with young people, or older
people, if I am being totally honest. In
a perfect world, the phrase would be, “do as I say, and I’ll show you how by
doing it myself.” In chapter 11 of Subject
Matters, Daniels and Zemelman discuss this concept as it pertains to
teaching students how to interact with text.
Here is the point behind their discussion: instead of telling students
what to do and expecting them to do it, show them how to do it. The most effective teachers are those who
allow students to borrow their expertise in order to become masters themselves.
Reading
comprehension is not an instinctual action; the brain does not see a
configuration of letters and automatically understand the words and how they
connect to each other. Just like reading
itself, comprehension must be taught.
D&Z suggest that “teachers use ‘think-alouds’ to demonstrate meaningful
thinking, giving instruction rather
than just instructions.” This means that teachers should be doing what they ask their students to
do, instead of just telling them what
to do. When I think about modeling in
this case, baseball comes to mind. I
could have a group of people sitting in a classroom listening to me explain how
to catch a grounder. If I do not show
them how it is done, however, they will never truly understand how the process
works. It is the same with teaching
students how to be effective readers. They
may have a general understand of what is being asked of them in theory, but
without modeling, the chances of them being able to convert theory to practice
is slim. As educators, it is our job to
show them how to bridge the gap.
No comments:
Post a Comment