Chapter 5, "To Savor the Struggle"

After struggling through several introductory pages in this chapter, I arrived to the meat of Keene's message: We struggle for insight and we learn from the struggle itself--this is when we venture into new learning territory. If we remain where we are comfortable or allow our students to stagnate in that spot, we are not experiencing intellectual engagement. She writes that to overcome obstacles is to know our strength. Hurray! I think we all agree with that. The author includes an entire page of teacher and student behaviors where there is evidence of the intellectual struggle. One which jumped out at me is that students go beyond reporting or retelling after reading; instead they are asked to share their thinking about the text--inferences, images created, questions pursued, etc. Another is that students are encouraged to challenge the text. I, personally, love it when students challenge the author because it demonstrates they are engaged and thinking. They are reading at a higher level.
Keene then goes on to challenge the barrage of standards that are mandated by the states and the dilemma of how to cover content while addressing those standards. She argues that people learn best when a few important concepts are taught in great depth over a long period of time and when they have opportunities to apply those concepts in a wide variety of texts and contexts. She believes that when we try to address every skill that anyone ever thought important, the result is teaching that lacks focus and depth. At this point, the author delineates those essential skills and strategies for learners in grades k-12. They are 3 "surface" structures: graphophonic, lexical, and syntactic--the cueing systems necessary for learning to read; and 3 "deep surface" structures: semantic, schematic, and pragmatic--the cueing systems for acquiring deeper understanding of what we read. Keene refers to Rumelhart who argued that these 6 systems are used simultaneously by proficient readers and, therefore, need to be taught simultaneously. Keene believes instruction of the 3 "surface structures" receives more instructional attention in schools than the "deep surface" structures, and without providing solid knowledge of all 6 systems, we may be selling our students short. Her suggestions for using the pragmatic system--the highest level on Bloom's Taxonomy--include book clubs, reader's theater or skits, sketches which illustrate their thinking, or something as simple as written responses to what they have read. She emphasises that these activities help us "figure out" what we think.
Keene concludes the chapter by stating that as teachers our instinct is to free the path from obstacles and make their way clearer and easier, but to limit their opportunities to learn through struggle is to tame one of the most dynamic forces in their intellectual development. While this is a bit lofty, I do agree. It strikes me as being very constructivist--along the lines of Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development--we put the intellectual ladder up for them and give them the tools to climb each wrung as is within their ability; as long as they are moving up the ladder, they are moving in the right direction.