Posted by jhart on Apr 01, 2017; 2:21pm
URL: https://nabble.aealearningonline.org/Topic-4-Narrative-Voice-tp3794p7715.html

What should students be learning?

Well, some may disagree on this.  Shouldn’t students be learning the same things parents and grandparents learned “back in the day?”  It was good enough for them, why isn’t it now?

To illustrate this point, let’s look at a day in the life of a local substitute teacher.  Ms. Sub comes in bright and ready for day in 5th grade.  She discovers that the class is “one-to-one,” meaning all of the students have their own laptops.  Ms. Sub retired a few years ago, and having technology at the students’ fingertips is not something she is used to or enjoys.  In her mind, a lot of trouble can come from the world-wide web, and she doesn’t want it to happen on her watch.

She is happy to see that reading is first in the day, and a vocabulary story assignment is something she is familiar with.  As she begins the reading block, she realizes that the plans say the students are to use their laptops to watch videos and see examples of the vocabulary words before recording their definitions in their online dictionaries.  “What is wrong with paper??” she wonders.  She then assigns the story for the day, realizing that there IS an actual book for this, but the students also have the option of reading it/listening to it in an online form.  “This is ridiculous,” she thinks.  She believes students should be using the book, and wonders how they are learning to read if they can listen and follow along as an option.  

The story is about the plight of honeybees.  It is a short story highlighting different scenarios around the country involving diminishing honeybees. She is tempted to change the plans to not involve the laptops.  She could just assign the story, and have them record their vocabulary words on paper using the few classroom dictionaries she sees on the back shelf.  This would eliminate her worry of the evil lurking in the online world and the students’ fingertips, and they’d still be learning what they are “supposed” to be learning.  

She decides she’ll stick with the plans considering she’d like to continue subbing here and following the plans is the best way to accomplish this.  As reading progresses, she notices as she walks around that students do not just have definitions in their online dictionaries.  Students are dragging pictures and examples from online to illustrate the words.  As they read the story, they have a “Guess what” page that students are adding to.  After reading the story, some have researched bees further and posted videos and interesting facts about honeybees and colony collapse.  Others have posted ideas to do at home to help save the bees.  

The discussion at the end of the reading block not only involves what they have found their vocabulary words to mean, but what they have discovered on their own about honeybees.

Should Ms. Sub have limited the class on what she believed the children “ought to be” learning and how they should be learning it?  It is something to think about.  How do we limit our students based on what we think they should be learning or what we should be teaching?