Feeling Wonderful About Venture Classrooms:
We have all been working diligently to increase academic conversation in classrooms. The shift in learning is pretty remarkable as students converse about one another's thinking. This makes sense, because learning is a cognitive process. The word "cognitive" connotes mental processing, which by it's nature, happens more efficiently in a social setting. In conversation, we process, problem-solve, reason, compare/contrast, and form opinions that later change as new ideas are brought into the realm of our intellectual processing.
In the absence of an opportunity to process, no learning takes place. This statement bears repeating over and over until we, unlike most of the teachers who taught us, are firmly convinced that talking at kids (even if that talking is lively, informative, and entertaining) does little to increase their learning. Most of us did not benefit from classrooms that used strategies for processing information, so we are continually forging new paths.
Venture teachers... You are trailblazers courageously implementing protocols and new strategies. I know this is true, because I see it in classrooms everyday -Thank you! It is so hard to find protocols and strategies that really work, but you keep looking -Thank you! It is risky - kids don't want to participate, so you hear crickets and have to wait out their discomfort while hiding your own - Thank you! When they start talking, you find out how wide the learning gaps are and it feels disheartening, but you forge ahead and fill those gaps as well as you can - Thank you! Nothing we do is perfect and sometimes the first steps of a new practice can feel awful, but it's worth it. As a group, we are changing our approach to instruction. One kid at a time. One lesson at a time. One interaction at a time. Making a difference. Thank you.
Chat Stations for Class Discussion: A strategy to increase academic conversation.
Because chipmunks are awesome:
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