Re: Lauren Resnick and higher-order thinking skills

[Brian LeCloux <neaguy@hotmail.com>]

This is passive learning, anyway.   The teacher should promote research based learning on geography.   Students develop their own questions, research them and present their findings to the class taking questions from their peers.    Active minds.
 
Brian LeCloux
 



> From: ElsaHaas@si.rr.com> To: arn-l@interversity.org> Subject: Re: [arn-l] Lauren Resnick and higher-order thinking skills> Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2007 23:45:20 -0500> > Peter, > > I want to give some specific examples. > > A boy named Tyler, looking at a toy catalog, saw a picture of a diner with a> sign that said "KRUSTY KRAB" (from the Spongebob Squarepants cartoon). He> looked at it for a moment, then exclaimed, "That says 'T-Y' like in 'Tyler',> but you say it like 'tee'!" > > Wouldn't you agree that this represents higher-order thinking? > > What if I told you that the boy is almost eight; he can barely read at all> (he's at the "cat-sat-mat" stage); and he only recognizes the phrase "Krusty> Krab" because it's on a familiar sign from the cartoon (his very few sight> words include "the" and "PIZZA")? Would his observation still demonstrate> "higher-order thinking? I think so. > > The child is my son. We homeschool (actually, we unschool). > > Recently a fellow homeschool mom was expressing to me her anxiety about one> of her (fraternal) five-year-old twins, who didn't read at all and seemed> not even to recognize all the letters of the alphabet. > > I told her about my son's "T-Y" observation and said that when I cite this> as an example of the kind of thinking that I trust will eventually lead to> my son's reading well (though I don't know when), people are impressed by> the example - until they hear how old he is. > > She thought about this and a week later came back with a story of her own:> her non-reading daughter, looking at a sign on the subway, had slowly> "sounded out" the word "it", and then exclaimed enthusiastically, "That says> 'it'!"> > Again, many people, upon hearing this, might be impressed if they didn't> know that she's five - an age at which children in school are already being> relentlessly quizzed and judged. If she were two or three, they might marvel> at her intelligence. > > There is a book titled Educating Children At Home, by the British academic> Alan Thomas. I haven't read it yet, but it seems he set out to study> homeschooled children and found that a significant number of them don't> learn to read until they are ten or so - but that they then leap into> reading, catching up to and then often far surpassing their schooled peers.> (This observation about "late readers" in homeschooling has been made many> times in the past - I only cite this particular book because Thomas was an> outsider to homeschooling who set out to learn more, and who came to the> same conclusion.) > > I think this is because homeschoolers (at least those whose parents are> relatively relaxed) haven't had their innate intelligence damaged by having> to use it in self-defense against that relentless quizzing and judging. Read> John Holt's How Children Fail for a blow-by-blow description of the games> kids learn to play in school to avoid being seen as "stupid". > > One example from How Children Fail: the class is playing Twenty Questions,> and the category is countries. Some of the kids, fifth-graders, know that> it's best to narrow down the field by asking something like, "Is it in the> Western Hemisphere?" or at least "Is it in Europe?", rather than guessing> from the start. If a student does make a guess right at the beginning of the> round, they call out, "Don't guess!" But one girl doesn't understand why she> shouldn't. She wants to guess "Italy", but she's afraid to look stupid. So> her question becomes: "Is it a boot?" A disguised guess - she has focused> all her intelligence on not looking stupid, rather than on solving the> intellectual puzzle before her. Sound familiar? > > I try to avoid quizzing my son or otherwise putting him on the spot. He does> his best thinking when he is thinking for himself. > > This post is not meant as an attack on teachers, but as a criticism of the> usual order of things for most kids in most schools. Also, I know not> everyone can homeschool, but I think that those who don't might benefit from> the occasional message from a parallel universe. And if my son did have to> go to school, I know we would first have to put him through his paces to get> him up to speed in reading, but I think it would be at great cost to his> "higher-order thinking skills", and to his love of books. > > Elsa Haas > > -----Original Message-----> From: arn-l-owner@interversity.org [mailto:arn-l-owner@interversity.org] On> Behalf Of Peter Campbell> > I came across this excerpt from some piece by Lauren Resnick of the > University of Pittsburgh. Not sure where it's from. But it really > speaks powerfully to the notion that children, esp. low-income > children, have to start with and focus on "the basics."> > Peter C. [...]> > >