When the Titanic crashed into an iceberg back in 1912, it was probably not the damage to the part of the ship above water that caused it to sink, but rather, the parts damaged below the surface that caused the ship to take on water and led to the death of many and the sinking of this unsinkable ship. Just as in that tragic case, it is often the unseen things in life that really do the most damage. The same is true in education. It is often that which we do not see or remember to think about that can lead to students not reaching their potential and hinder their learning. Knowing the nature of icebergs, how could the Titanic's history be different if they'd seen the iceberg sooner? How can we apply the lesson learned from the Titanic to education? We need to be looking for icebergs above the surface to prevent the educational ship from hitting them, but even more, we need to look at what is below the surface.
What and where are the hidden parts of the iceberg in education, the elements that prevent our students from successfully comprehending and truly learning? Peter Smagorinsky's article "What Does Vygotsky Provide for the 21st Century Language Arts Teacher" brings some to light, things that if we are aware of them, we can help us steer our classrooms and educational system in the right direction so we can sink and not swim!! While all of the materials this week were excellent, this article spoke to me the most and I think it brings up and addresses the underlying issue that prevents a lot of students from reaching their highest potential - specifically what Smagorisky draws from Vygotsky when he talks about the importance of emotions in relationship to cognition and how they cannot be separated. While I found the entire article to be golden, that is what really stood out to me - Vygotsky's theory that we need to look at how emotion is an important part of learning, and how when we use things like art in learning, when we appeal to the emotional aspect of the student, it 'enable's a person to consider more profoundly the depths of human experience....how we think and how we feel cannot be separated" (p 195). I think this is an often overlooked and underlying aspect of education, the part of the iceberg under the suface - the emotional learning, and when the learning emotions of a student are injured, it affects their their engagement and comprehension, not just in language arts, but in all aspects. We are emotional beings. When we detach from that, things begin to lack meaning. Meaning often comes from emotional connections and is what provides the connection students need to make a context for learning that is so important. Emotions are really what make the difference in treating our students as machines or as individuals. Both of the other readings seem to support this in that they both show how meaning seems to make the difference between students just going through the motions and students comprehending. The Simon reading regarding guided role-playing and the Kucer reading both show students succeed most when they can connect to a material. The Kucer article highlights that the most comprehended part of the material in a study was the part of the material that was composed of a story structure where students could make text to self connections. Both of those articles provide evidence of the importance of students connecting to materials in order to learn.
Even more importantly is addressing the 'secondary disability' - the emotions that develop that prevent students from participating in class and thus affect their thinking - which is what I see as truly being the part of the iceberg below the surface in education. As I read this article, it really spoke to me, how when a student has a bad experience - for instance as it spoke at the beginning of the article, how students are often corrected in their rough draft of thinking and speaking - it changes how they act, as in they may then not speak, which leads others to characterize students as unintelligent, which then turns into the cycle of emotions affecting thinking - and creates 'dysphoria' or feelings of inferiority based on how one is treated by others (p 195). This is crippling!
I was such a shy student. I didn't even like to be seen by others - I was painfully shy. I wanted to be a wallflower. I think there was about 23 kids in my 8th grade class, so when I went to high school, and I was put in a World History class with sophmores, I was so scared to speak up and get something wrong. That became my focus instead of my work. I love history, I just was so afraid in that class that I remember not even realizing what I was learning. I know how to read and I can do it well enough. I never had a problem getting all A's with only a few B's, but when my parents went to my conference that fall, the teacher told them that he thought I had a reading comprehension problem. The problem actually was that I felt like if I said anything, I would be made fun of. The sophmores in that class all knew each other and were often loud. It was debilitating, just as the article says. That is just one example - that happened a lot to me, just because I felt like I was not as smart. Just today, one of my former students Mom talked to me about how the teacher made some remark to her son in art class telling him sarcastically that 'some people do this for a living you know.' I know that student is so very sweet and such a hard worker. His Mom was upset because she knows this about her son, and said he told her he just didn't know what he was doing. I thought how that lined perfectly up with the reading - just looking at how now this sweet child probably is going to be scared to try for fear of doing something wrong in the future. This student is smart, but now he may not be able to demonstrate that because the emotion is connected to his thinking, and will show in his work. I think about the teacher who didn't even know how to read (link to article is in previous post). He developed behavior issues to divert from the fact that he had feelings that affected his thinking!
These are just a few examples of this secondary disability that lies silently under the surface in the vast ocean of learning. We cannot separate the two. I think the article spells it out so clearly when it speaks to the theory that its important for students to use their own experiences in learning, and that what school does is strengthen the lessons we learn by our own experiences. It is emotion that creates personal experiences in our lives - it meaning to our experiences, which then in turn gives us something to use to learn from. Without using what we know - our identities and experiences, academics are hollow (p 199). Again, the other two articles help demonstrate this!
As I read this week, it just seemed to make so much sense! To get our students to learn and to really comprehend and be engaged, we must acknowledge that emotions play a part in cognition. If we don't acknowledge and address that, it will remain a big issue under the surface and many ships will sink!
A question I am thinking of as I read relates to this. Does the current education system take student emotion into account? If so how and if not, how can we start addressing this silent destroyer as teachers? What are some ways to build a culture of honor in our classrooms where students feel safe to learn and to address dysphoria?
Wow! What a great analogy! The hidden iceberg! I agree with you that emotion is VERY connected to learning. Working with special education students, this social/emotional piece is an area that we have to address and support constantly with each student and their unique needs as priority. We do a lot of specific lessons, curriculums, themes, supports, modifications, etc in our special education classrooms to accomodate for emotional needs for students. I too have worked with some students who are very hesitant to talk in class for various reasons and have at times struggled to find ways to create a learning atmosphere that is comfortable for them to actively participate. But this is a good challenge, because once those students are comfortable and begin to express their thoughts, it is wonderful to see how they grow! I think that this is definately an aspect of learning the social and emotional side of learning that teachers have to take into account when planning lessons to create and build a classroom where all learners feel comfortable to participate.
ReplyDeleteTrisha,
ReplyDeleteEvery time I read your posts I think about how wonderful your analogies are, it is truly a talent of yours! Anyways, the same thing stuck out to me in the Smagorinski article.I think it is easy to forget how much students look up to us and look to us for guidance. They try so hard to impress us in the classroom and flourish when they do! Mindful teaching is extremely important and humanizing ourselves is necessary. Young students often see teachers as heroes and and all knowing; when we look at the structure of the stereotypical classroom it often suggests that the teacher is at the top of the classroom hierarchy. Which makes sense why those students become turned off to learning, they simply fall victim to this power.
As far as my education goes, in classroom management, we do learn about how to humanize ourselves and how important it is to the functioning of the classroom. However, in the schools I don't know if this education continues. I hope so! Humanizing yourself can be as simple as showing a slide show about yourself a the beginning of the year. We have talked about how admitting you do not know the answer to something can reduce that hierarchy I talked about earlier. There are a lot of ways you could go about doing this, but it will take some trial and error.
I loved the way you described these "hidden disabilities". The way you described this with the iceberg example made it really easy to understand, and was a great way to think about it! I totally agree, I think that there are so many other things going on with students that we are not even aware of, that it is important to keep an open mind when working with your diverse group of students. Every student is going to have their own individual and unique set of personal experiences that make up who they are as a learner. Like you talked about with your example of how shy you were in school, there are going to be many students who may seem to be falling behind, but there is a reason behind that lack of success. I think that it is our job as educators, to be helping to work towards solutions to those problems with our students.
ReplyDeleteI was the same way as you were in school. I would rather sit quietly and let others talk as I worry that I will say something wrong. (it might does not seem that way in class but I do not want be obnoxious – I can be if I am not careful). I also wonder how we can facilitate a secure and comfortable learning environment. This has been on my mind as I am working to create a learning environment for kindergarteners without changing the personalities of others in my class. I have such a diverse group of kids with differing abilities and personalities. I am working on the best ways to do this but Smagorinsky really brought this home for me. I am glad I have read this article again so that I can renew my promise to my class to provide a great environment to learn in and grow too.
ReplyDeleteI really like the connection you made to the Titanic. Sometimes as teachers, it's the things we say and don't even realize that can make a big difference. I'm sorry to hear about that student. To help with this problem of emotions, I feel that we need to make good connections with our students to get to know them well. This can help with our emotional students.
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