Before you begin reading. . .

Once you have e-mailed your selected reading to Quinton Freeman, he will send you an invitation to be an author of this blog.  Once accepted, create a blog post that includes the title of your selection, your name, and a picture of the book's cover.  This is where you will record all pre-. during, and post- reading activities.  The activities will be designed in such a way that pre-reading activities should happen before reading and during reading activities should happen. . .

All "During Reading" activities are per chapter.  So, please be sure to skim them before beginning to read.

(Note:  Please be sure that you are logged into your school Google account as you post.)

Before Reading Activities

1.  Please read the post "What Should We Be Doing?"  This post will help to explain why doing things together like this book study is so important.

2.  What are three things you know to be important to teaching and learning?  Why are they important?  How do you ensure that your students experience them?

A possible stem:

Every learning experience must include ______ at some point because _______.  Because I believe this to be true I ____________.

3.  Make a prediction regarding what you hope to learn from reading and interacting with your book of choice.

Some possible stems to choose from:

I hope to learn more about __________________.

Based on what I have heard and/or read about this book, I expect to  learn ________________.


Action Steps:
1.  E-mail your book choice to Quinton Freeman
2.  Create your a post with a title that includes your book of choice's title, the book's author, and your          name.
3.  Read the post "What Should We Be Doing?"
4.  List your three must haves. . .be sure to include why they are important and how you make sure that
     learners experience them.
5.  Predict what you hope to learn as you read and interact with your book.
_____________________
If you would like, please feel free to live tweet your reading to the hashtag #raidersshare.

Now you can begin reading your book of choice and complete the "During Reading" activities as you read.

Selecting Your Book

The options for what you choose to read are varied and numerous.  The only stipulation is that the text you choose must be connected to thinking and/or learning in some way.

What that means in terms of your choice will vary.  Part of the process we will all go through is trying to connect what we learn about thinking and learning from our reading and from each other to what we already know about thinking and learning.  Having disparate types and topics of texts will only enrich this experience.

For those of you that would like some suggestions, an Amazon Wish List with possible choices has been put together.  This list can be accessed here: http://amzn.com/w/RJJ3ZQG28C2U

I will highlight two texts from the list that you are familiar with:

Frank Smith's text Reading Without Nonsense is the source of the chapter "Constructing a Theory of the World" from the January 6th reading assignment.  For those of you interested in getting the full context of Smith's positions regarding reading and reading instruction, this might be the selection for you.

James Zull's text The Art of Changing the Brain was the source for the chapter on the importance played by connection-making (both literally and figuratively) in learning.  In Zull's words, learning is physical, so he gives us a neuroscientist's perspective on the mechanics of learning and how those mechanics connect to teaching.

Action Steps:

1.  Choose the text you would like to read or re-read.

2.  E-mail Quinton Freeman your book of choice.

3.  Move on to the post "Before You Begin Reading"

Getting Started

The goal of this book study is add to what we already know about thinking and learning.

Three ideas will serve as a foundation:

1.  Learning is a consequence of thinking.  Thinking and learning cannot be separated from one another and order matters. . .so we need to know all we can about how people do both.

2. There is no blueprint for teaching but there are maps.  While teaching is very personal and contextual, any practice we engage in should be informed by the large knowledge base regarding how people learn.

3. There is a difference between learning about teaching and learning to become a teacher.  Becoming a teacher is a continuous process of adding to and reflecting on what we know to be important for effective teaching and learning (explicit knowledge) and how we go about doing those things we know to be important (implicit knowledge).

With that in mind, you will select a book of your choosing to read independently.  Activities for you to engage in before reading, while reading, and after reading will be provided in posts on this blog.  None of the activities will ever require meeting face-to-face. The idea is for you to read and respond in a space of your choosing at a pace that works for you.

The dates for this course are based solely on Flex Day. . .another course will be offered after February 17th should you choose to participate again or if this time frame is too short for you.

All of the work you produce during these activities will be posted by you to this blog.

Receiving credit for this course is contingent upon completing all activities as listed in the pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading posts found within this blog.

Questions regarding any assignments for this course can be directed to Quinton Freeman.

So, let's get started!  Please proceed to the post "Selecting Your Book".

Action Items:
1.  Decide which course or courses you will sign up for (Pre-Flex Day or post-Flex Day).
2.  Make sure you understand how the work associated with your reading is structured. . .ask questions      if you need to.

What Should We Be Doing?

As to the methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. 

The {person} who grasps principles can successfully select {their} own methods.

The {person} who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

As a community, we really have to repeatedly ask the question:  "What should we be doing?"  

David Perkins writes that, "The smart school finds it's foundation in a rich and evolving set of principles about human thinking and learning." This is, I would argue, what staff development is all about. . .and staff development isn't a day, it is a way of being.

Yes, there are a million things that you could be doing. And yes, I recognize that there are a million things that someone else would like you to be doing.

Yet, I think Perkins challenges us to find/make the time to form and reform our "theory of the world" (to connect the Frank Smith text) with regards to how people learn.

I think he feels this way because how teachers teach, I would argue, is a by-product of the principles they hold regarding how people learn.

Two questions to reflect on:

1.)  How congruent is what I do in the classroom with what I believe?
2.)  Are the beliefs I hold regarding teaching and learning based on more than anecdotal experience and my autobiography as a learner?

If you are interested in thinking more about this, please read the short blog post:  Research on Teaching Offers No Blueprints, Only Maps

One of the primary goals of January 6th was to ensure that a particular principle was a part of the community knowledge of NHS:  The new we know is connected to the old we knew.

David Ausubel puts it this way:  The single most important factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him accordingly.

The challenge for us is to determine how to move this principle, if we believe it to be true, from words on a page (or screen) into the lived experiences of our students.  

If you don't believe this principle is true, then "What should we be doing?"

http://www.conferencesthatwork.com/index.php/tag/john-seeley-brown/

John Seely Brown uses the term explicit knowledge to encapsulate what we know we should be doing (the "know what").

How we go about doing what we should be doing is labeled tacit knowledge. 

The work of a "smart school" is to continuously add to and reflect upon the collective and individual tacit knowledge of the community. . .which should be built upon and informed by solid explicit knowledge.

Recognize that tacit knowledge is constructed situationally and often refined socially.  

This is the knowledge we form and reform with each other through our conversations and stories as we teach and learn together.  In the words of Richard Elmore, "we learn the work by doing the work."

This is part of the "why" behind the social organizations that make up the larger organization we call Northbrook High School (whether formalized relationships based on teaching assignment or informal relationships based on whatever, Raider Circles, the Teachers New to Campus Cohort, coaching, book studies and any other staff development opportunities where we connect with someone else).

We often need to pause in order to reflect on this knowledge however.   

Absent of reflection, our thinking can become very narrow and both self-evidential (what I am doing is good because I am doing it and I say it is good) and self-referential (Besides, there are people doing the same things I am or even less than I am).

Explicit knowledge can be gained many ways:  reading, writing, watching, listening, reflecting, questioning, discussing.

Let's consider reading:

 
Regardless of the accuracy of the "seven years to expertise" factoid, gains in expertise (which is in part connected to the depth and breadth of a person's explicit knowledge) are made when a commitment is made to increasing this type of knowledge.  

Please don't read this as a suggestion for how you should spend one hour of your already full day.

Again, the question to us all is:  "What should we be doing?"  

A question only we can answer for ourselves.