In their recently published book, DIY Literacy , Kate Roberts and Maggie Beattie Roberts guide teachers in the development and practice of four literacy tools that they claim will help students recall and apply the lessons we've taught in the classroom - repertoire and process charts, demonstration notebooks, micro-progressions and bookmarks . In particular, they pose the following questions: "How can I help students remember and use what I have already taught?" (chapter 3), and “How can I support rigor [read: “vigor”] in my classroom?” (chapter 4). Maggie and Kate offer the four previously mentioned tools as potential responses to this question. We’ve all had teaching moments when we felt confident that we'd done a good job, yet students were not able to demonstrate what they’d learned, at least not without extensive support and coaching from us. Sometimes students don't even remember the lesson! Although we hope these in...
This blog is a place to ruminate on the problems of teaching. If I am thinking thoughtfully, my posts will hopefully raise more questions than answers. By problematizing teaching we reflect on those questions that are constantly behind, in front, and at center of everything we do in the classroom. Feel free to comment. I'd love to hear what other teachers are thinking about on these and other issues. Cheers! Elisa