2012 Secondary Stories
Secondary
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In the words of Lev Vgotsky, ' Children grow into the intellectual life of those around them.' These oft quoted words are indeed thought provoking. On one hand, they imply that individuals are always in a state of flux, of growth, of evolution - wholly responsive to the world around them, to their environment. On the other hand, with this awareness comes the responsibility for the teacher to create an intellectual environment for them to 'grow into'. What a responsibility for the educator!
If we are to accept this responsibility, we need first to unpack the meaning of the word' intellectual'. Does it mean to be curious? to be truth seekers? to be reflective? For individuals to 'grow' intellectually, emotionally and philosophically, they need to be all three. I want my students to be problem solvers, self- reliant and responsive to the world they live in - be it the 21st century or beyond. As the world evolves, so should they grow, change, transform and adapt. To my way of thinking, in order to do so, they need to be, above all, truth seekers.
Thinking is expected, encouraged and has become a core focus in classrooms. It takes many forms, and is often hidden from view. When I speak to students, I frequently hear “but I have so much work to do….” When I speak with parents, the conversation is often centered around the task that needs to be completed; and how often do we as teachers hear ourselves say “Now get on with your work!”
When we must prepare students for state and international standards, tests and examinations, how do we strike a balance to prepare students and expand their learning and thinking capabilities for life? How can we assist students, independent of the subject studied, to be able to articulate thinking about thinking that reflects basic command of thought?
Student: How is ‘he was buying cats and selling dogs’ an example of parallelism?
Teacher: Well, like we discussed before, it repeats the grammatical structure.
Student: What do you mean?
Teacher: Have a look at the sentence – after the auxiliary verb, there are two verb phrases, both with a present participle verb and a pluralised noun phrase.
Student: I can sort of understand what you’re saying, but there’s no way I can analyse like that.
Teacher: You mean, you can’t analyse like that yet.
Student: No, I mean I can’t think like that.
Developing independent thinking skills in students is a meaningful challenge. I teach senior English and English Language at an independent school for girls in Melbourne, and the brief conversation above took place in one of my Year 12 English Language classesi
One cold and dreary Wednesday afternoon during Term 1 2008, I went to our school’s weekly professional development meeting. We were exploring Understanding by Design and Project Zero’s Visible Thinking Routines. During the presentation one PowerPoint slide intrigued me; it discussed how the Latin root word for assessment is "assidere" which means “to sit beside”.
I went home that night and thought about the idea and its implications for how I taught. I had only been teaching for one year and, while my Year 12 students had achieved ‘good’ results the previous year, I was eager to examine how I had taught the class and the feedback that I had offered.
