dworsley's blog
A Voice From The Classroom: A Reason Not to Cry
Rock, folk, blues, country (oh, these labels!) singer Lucinda Williams has a lyric in her song “Reason to Cry” that goes, “When nothing makes any sense, you got a reason to cry.” The line’s been working my brain like a koan ever since I’ve heard it. I’ve been noticing a strong correlation between sensations of senselessness (does that make sense?) and crying, so to speak...
A Voice from the Classroom: The Puzzle of Trust
Last year I was meeting with Mr. O- in his classroom in a high school for emotionally disabled children, when Tyreek (not his real name) slipped in. A slender kid with a serious, intellectual demeanor, he approached me and asked if he could have a look at the ballpoint pen in my pocket. New at the school, I was still naïve about the ways of the students, and felt it could only be a decent gesture to trust him. Bad move. He sidled to the other side of the room, began dismantling the pen, and, when asked to return it by Mr. O-, made his escape to the...
A Voice from the Classroom: Three Puzzles
Three puzzles: (1) How can I continue this blog effectively when I’m too busy to write it well? (2) Do crossword puzzles belong in the classroom? (3) How can we find the best way to teach each student? I’ll tackle them one at a time, bringing up along the way the research I promised in my last post.
Puzzle #1: I can’t. That one was easy! Which is why this blog took so long to...
A Voice from the Classroom: The Learning Pyramid and the Chinese Room
Have you ever seen the famous (or infamous, depending on your opinion of its validity) “Learning Pyramid”? Its basic claim is that as a learner you retain 5% of what you hear, 10% of what you read, 20% of what you both hear and see, 30% of what is demonstrated to you, 50% of what you discuss, 75% of what you practice by doing, and 90% of what you teach to others.
It is a too simplistic explanation of how humans learn, and its research origins are...
A Voice from the Classroom: Swimming in the Lake of Literature
Let’s say you’ve secured beachfront property on the lake of literature (see my last blog post for the source of that reference) for all of your students. Unlike the lakes in resorts and gated communities, this one defies the laws of physics and provides space for anyone who can reach its shores.
So many things to be done in its waters: wading, swimming, diving, sailing, fishing, skiing, tubing…. What are your students doing when they...
A Voice from the Classroom: Property on the Lake of Literature
Last weekend a tornado of workshop planning, bathroom repairs, and out-of-town visitors wiped out the time I needed to follow up on my blog post “The Hero Journey of a Reader.” Gina gave me a pass. Thank you, Gina.
First, an update on the “Tarzan Method” of reading. Cecily Iddings, a teacher of high school Global Studies students at District 75’s Lillian L. Rashkis school, tried it with the...
A Voice from the Classroom: The Hero Journey of a Reader
Jeff Schneider has written to elaborate on (and correct) my description in the last blog post of his “Tarzan Method” of reading:
'I am glad you have tried to use my method. However, when the reader chooses a sentence she must write a comment about it -- not explain what it means. That is important since there should be no stakes in understanding the sentence. She should explain why is it important or repulsive or interesting. The reader should choose sentences she ...
A Voice from the Classroom: Tarzan, Oyster Knives and Text Complexity
Welcome to the rebirth of Paragraph Six, now under a new name: “A Voice from the Classroom.” The spirit is the same, and its mission to nurture the joy of teaching by freely exploring its human dimensions also remains unchanged. So why the new moniker? My supportive and professional sponsor Gina Scala requested that I change it to something that identified the post more accurately with educational themes. I agreed this might be a good idea.
So what might be an educational theme of...
