Black Ants & Buddhists: MC

The story of the black ants - to kill or not to kill - reminds me of the scene in 7 Years in Tibet where Brad Pitt is trying to build the movie theater for The Dalai Lama - but construction stops because of the earthworms that the monks find in the way... Everything stops while the monks painstakingly sift all the earth to remove the worms from harms way... amazing scene!!

OK - point is - finally an illustration of a WL classroom - a critical literacy classroom - sooo helpful to "see" what it is like...
Cowhey mentions a few strategies of interest...

• EVERY DAY she reads aloud to children - using a variety of texts types
  
• Helping to build comprehension using a variety of strategies
• HElping students make connection - text-to-self, text-to-text, text-to-world
• a second read aloud - focusing on a philosophical question - on-going - emphasis on listening skills and oral language development.

Each chapter in the book looks at questions that teachers ask about teaching critically...How do you...

• keep teaching age-appropriate
• keep it authentic and relevant so kids care
• do it all yourself?
• handle it if families react negatively
• know if kids are getting it

Questions...

Here is a question that has come to my mind...

In whole language, we are looking to teach in an integrated, top-down fashion, using many different types of authentic materials - a strictly skills based program doesn't cut it in terms of helping students to become meaning-makers and reading lovers... Do I have it so far?

My question now... (jumping forward a few years when kids reach content courses) - What I read is that a strategies approach is best - teaching students strategies - like recognizing structures of academic texts, skimming, active reading strategies...BUT - is this just the same old thing - skills based in disguise - separating parts out from the whole

Is this analogy apt? ... that phonics taught in isolation (in elementary) is akin to reading strategies taught in isolation in higher grade courses?

If that is the case - is anyone doing anything similar to WL in upper classes/higher ed? I am looking into the Reading Apprenticeship Program (WestEd) which seems to be starting downt his ally a bit -

Is my thinking on target and do you know of any people doing WL work/application in higher ed where content is king?

Instructional Design Hat

OK, stepping out of student mode to ID mode for a minute...

Right now I am:

• student in 2 online courses
• online facilitator-in- training in 2 different settings - one with students in a developmental college and one working with faculty

So one of my learning goals is to find out more experientially about online learning design and facilitation

What am I learning? - important to find balance of interaction, rigor, activity in design - otherwise it is too much to process... what is too much?

• OK, we are reading several texts and responding using different discussion strategies each week.
• So we are responding in writing to the text - then we are responding to each other on the same text - that means reading all the postings and replying more

Thought - break us up into groups - so that we have less to keep up with in individual posts - and gives us more space/time to think about those postings and respond meaningfully - we can still read and post to others if we want to...

• we are also doing 1-2 activities that ask us to apply the reading in some way or further process it - post those and comment again
• we are thinking ahead to papers and projects that are coming up...

So, where is this working/breaking down for me?

Seems like too much to process with reading everyone's postings, projects, and activities - run out of steam and mental space to process anything - I think fewer posts/activities to read and respond to others would be better - groupings might help - switch groups every few weeks to get to know more people? - same amount of reading and activities, but fewer peer responses to process...

What's missing in terms of facilitator interaction? For me - the voice of the person with more experience, drawing us out, drawing us further through targeted questions and challenges - feedback on assignments in a timely, meaningful, individualized way - where are we getting it - where are the gaps?