Thanks for the post Barbara. I agree with your mention of using more open-ended questions with our students as well as using the wait time. I recently read that research supports the notion that frequent use of higher-order, open-ended questions in interacting with our students has a direct effect on their GPAs and test scores. We need to believe in their intellect and treat them as young people capable of intellectual thought. They will only give us what we expect of them--it's in our hands. And this goes to the essence of Keene's book. Instead of asking them what happened at the end of the book, we need to ask them how reading the book changed them in some way. That is a more personal connection--and it is in connections that we construct meaning. When have boring, dry facts ever resonated with us after we have put the book down?--but, an intellectual discussion of the last few pages of Sounder might resonate for years, as it has with me. As Keene suggests, we need to be Renaissance thinkers in the classroom. We cannot be afraid to make emotional connections through deep, probative thoughtful discussions and even assessments. Assessments can and should be stimulating learning experiences as well. Our understanding and comprehension are enriched through joyful learning environments where teachers believe in their students--and themselves--and will go out on a limb to cultivate a safe environment where real learning--and thinking--can happen. To understand is to experience the thought, not just memorize or mimic it. Great book!

barbara's comment

A professor in my undergraduate education also gave a lecture once about how to ask questions to our students. The most important idea that I remember from that lecture is the three second rule. Ask a question and wait at least three seconds for a student to raise his or her hand with an answer. Don’t just jump in and give the answer or call on a student before giving him or her the chance to reflect on the question and develop an answer.
The professor also made us think about asking open-ended questions promoting thinking and solving problems. Remember, I was in the hands-on technology major and much of our students thinking relied on taking chances, designing ideas and trying different methods of solving construction, transportation or communication problems or challenges. It was a difficult thing for my students to grasp the idea that there might be more than one solution to a problem. They were only thought to think of the answer that would answer the comprehension question asked by the textbook. No thinking involved, just memorization. A difficult habit to break!!!!

Summary

Finally, I want to say that I have enjoyed reading this book. As a result, I am a different teacher now than I was before I read it. Most importantly, I now understand how important it is to not only teach the comprehension strategies but also teach the students how those strategies help them understand the text on a deeper level. I've always just taught the strategies in the past. Now I will think and talk about how a text affects me as far as what I understand about humans, whether a text changes what I believe, etc. I will focus on fewer concepts; instead I will choose the most important ones and teach those to a deeper level, giving my students more time to think, understanding that 'silence is golden'.

Ch. 8: The Great Conversations

This chapter dealt with giving the students time to think and gather thoughts for disscussions and reflections. Having them reflect on what they learn was a key point with me since I have begun tutoring my student in word study and allowing her the time to reflect on what she has discovered by doing the word sort. In the beginning, she appeared very lost when I asked her to write reflections for her sort. I had to give her lots of guidance and almost dictated her first set of reflections to her. However, now as I watch her completing the sort, I can see her analyzing the way the words are spelled in preparation for writing the reflections. This increases learning and allows deeper learning to take place. No longer can she just "do it to get done" but she has to think about it while she's doing it. And I have certainly experienced that learning curve myself. When I'm contemplating a new teaching idea, for example, it feels very foggy and I am uncertain about the execution of the idea. But when I articulate and discuss the idea with a colleague, it feels as if my thinking comes into a clear focus from the fuzzies.

I agreed that there has to be balance in every thing that we do. But, the youth of today does not have the idea of balance in anything that they feel, do or experience. They are driven to extremes in their emotions and actions. We have to be the examples for them. If they can see that balance is achievable, perhaps they will follow.

In my previous experiences of teaching Technology Education (new version of woodshop) I was constantly trying to get my students to “think out of the box”. They, for the most part, could or would not even try this abhorring idea. They felt there was one and only one answer to any question or problem or challenge put forth to them. They had been taught since DAY 1 of their education to absorb information, then, spit out back to their teachers when asked on a quiz or test. They were never asked what they thought about an idea or concept, never asked or allowed to question. They were afraid of trying something new or different for fear that they might be WRONG. We must change this in our students. We must encourage them all to be Renaissance thinkers. Barbara

Chapter 6: A Renaissance of Understanding

In this chapter, Keene comments on the different types of children we encounter throughout the years. They all usually start out in Kindergarten as eager and interactive participants in the learning process. Then, for some of them, they continue throughout the years in the pleasurable and intoxicating love of learning whereas others lose the glow and the passion. What happens when this occurs? Is it because of the testing culture? Is it because of us as teachers? Is it normal development for some of them to become more interested in social development and the intellectual development becomes boring? I, personally, have heard teachers comment that the kids come into Kindergarten very widespread in their intellectual abilities but by the time they reach sixth grade, they are all in the same ball park intellectually. I have to ask: Why? Is this what we do when we lump a group of 20 or so kids in one room and teach whole group? Is this our goal as teachers? Should we be concerned about this? While this appears so negative, I cannot always come down on ourselves as teachers. The past doesn't look so great, but when I consider the present and the future with so much emphasis on differentiated instruction, and teaching kids on their level, I feel for classroom teachers. That is a very difficult task for one person to accomplish. In reality, I don't think it can be done. If teachers manage to teach different groups of kids in differing levels of reading and spelling, I think they are really doing well. To differentiate in everything, classroom teachers would be so exhausted by the end of the day!! As I work shoulder to shoulder with them every day, I think they have an enormous task and one which cannot be attained other than by word only.
Keene also pursues the idea of creating Renaissance kids in our classrooms. While I agree that it's a good idea to teach kids the "think outside the box" in inventing new thinking, pursuing a wide range of interests, etc. I see how easily Renaissance thinkers can come up against the ethical dilemmas that rampage throughout society-then and now. In a sense we can look at the banking crisis we have today and draw a comparison. There were individuals who were trying to think outside the box and came up with lots of ways to "do business". Other people, the consumers, did not do enough thinking outside the box, and thus took on loans and mortgages they couldn't afford. What were both the bankers and consumers motivated by? One word...greed So now I'm back to a similar question I had asked in another chapter...what is it that makes one person a Renaissance thinker but another person someone who doesn't think at all? There has to be a motivating factor inside each and every one of us. And if our motivation is less than worthy, our society can certainly turn into one big mess, which we see in our economy today. I'm sure each of you have views on these issues, but to me, having balance and standards are key concepts in "Renaissance thinking" that should not be overlooked.

Chapter 9, "To Feel, to Remember, to Understand"

In this final chapter of Keene's book, she confesses that when she reads a good book, she is not sure if the emotions are the characters' or her own. Well put. This is what we strive to accomplish for our young readers--get them to feel what they read. I immediately connected with her statement. Many times I have come away from a good book feeling like I had experienced the journey of the characters. Keene just drills into her reader the necessity for encouraging our students to make personal connections with their text. This is exactly what I see Jenna's group encountering in Miller's book. The many authors' research have proven connection to be an integral component to remembering. Keene uses Bruce, a teacher she knows, as an example. Bruce has the ability to articulate how emotions affect what he understands, the way he studies the world, and the ways in which he writes. Emotions that make others cringe or retreat into a cozy state of denial are fodder for daily discussion in his classroom. How exciting! When Bruce makes a mistake in an approach to a lesson, he admits it and challenges his children to do the same. He questions an author's use of wording aloud as he reads with his students. He questions their motivation and honesty. He asks his students if they noticed the beautiful sunrise, and if they did, they write about it. Keene calls Bruce a Renaissance man because his curiosity carries over to all aspects of life. Keene believes students are lucky to encounter a teacher like Bruce because the result of his teaching can be measured in the confidence of kids who didn't believe in themselves and the willingness to feel among kids who used to hide from emotion--and the outcomes are academic as well. Keene worries that many of those children may never know another Mr. Morgan (Bruce) in their lives. She worries that we have sterilized our teaching approaches and removed much of the emotional component that anchors the concepts we teach. She outlines the cognitive strategies we have all come to realize as the cornerstone of improved reading and comprehension: monitoring, questioning, determining importance, synthesizing, using prior knowledge, inferring, and creating sensory and emotional images. She asks that we promise to not only ask, but listen. She states the capacity for our students' thinking is nearly limitless if create the learning conditions to support it, provide the language to define and describe thinking, and if we simply ask "What else?" I think we all agree with her, but I am always left wondering how to apply these strategies and principles to the instruction of expository texts. Can anyone share their success--or struggle--with bringing this same enthusiasm to the dry, fact-filled text books that our students struggle with each day?