What works

Yahoo Briefcase is closing -- and so I had to clean out some files from a while back. Found this -- and thought it might be worth sharing.
What works – there are education journals and websites and pundits all in pursuit of this, and anyone in education for longer than 15 minutes can attest to the dizzying array of fads and “one size fits all” approaches to teaching everything from the square root of pi to basic literacy skills. And what does it all come down to? Getting kids excited about the world around them. How we do it is pretty immaterial – and certainly what works for one leaves the next one cold.

Picture the perfect school library. Students work on projects and papers at tables, some use computers to complete assignments or check for work on the school’s online system. Several browse the stacks, and use the computer catalog to locate books. Another group makes decisions about a research project, and still others craft a multi-media product blending print, audio and video resources to explain the significance of past events for present people.

Where? Here. While I can hardly claim that this is the case every day, at times it really gels. Kids do care about learning. One young woman teased a friend, “This is the first school project in your life you’ve ever cared about!” He agreed, and I could tell you from my experiences working with him that it’s probably the first one that’s convinced him that he was competent and in control of the product. The highlight of my day was when he asked, “Do you think I could get this whole book at the public library? Library cards are free, aren’t they?” He had been working with excerpts from a personal narrative. After I explained that a parent or guardian would have to sign for it if he was under 18, he became notably less enthusiastic, and I was forced to consider again a world in which a student might not be able to count on any adult for something as simple as a signature on a library card.

I found the book on my shelf at home, so he’ll have it tomorrow – but what care we have to take with these fledgling scholars – to work around those factors that could clip their wings and limit their worlds.