In reflecting on Dean Shareski's presentation - which was on the surface just inspiring in its message, and engaging in its delivery - the greatest idea that I took home was his thoughts on Viewing and Representing. The idea that we focus so intensely on reading and writing in the ELA curriculum, but if that is all we are teaching today's students: then we are actually failing them.
I just took the first middle years ELA methods class last session, and while all of those GLO's quickly became rhetoric, I distinctly remember during lesson planning that I failed to hit on these two basic forms. Programs like Boushey & Moser's the Daily 5 easily hit the first four, but in retrospect really failed to address viewing and representing.
Clearly these are important and the smart people that created our ELA curriculum got that, so why is it so under-represented in the documents that I've seen so far? Has anyone else noticed this missing, and importantly: is this a part of the curriculum that is covered more extensively in our second methods course? Your thoughts on this - please comment below ↴
While we figure that out, much thanks to Dean for taking the time to speak and to Mike for sharing his contacts with us.
Best,
Nick
Having done two ELA methods courses, Nick, I can say the viewing and representing are under-represented across the board. The ELA curriculum never tells us where and when to use each Art, just that all Arts should be used to reach the outcome. I think the problem lies in familiarity. Reading, writing and oral presentations are what we were taught and what we know well. We tend to teach toward what we know best.
ReplyDeleteReading, Writing, Speaking and Listening skills used to be enough to be literate, but not any more. Viewing and Representing have exploded in our lives and are fast becoming essential components in literacy. Hopefully we can learn to make them essential parts of our classrooms.
I think you're right that we are not paying as much attention to viewing and representing as we should be. I agree with Mr. L that familiarity is most likely one of the issues at hand. Reading and writing doesn't really require too much work either (it can, it just doesn't necessarily HAVE to!) so I think the other issue is that working with viewing and representing takes more effort and creativity. I definitely agree with Dean and with you that we need to keep these ideas in mind, especially in today's classroom!
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