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It sounds like common sense, teach the kids to think and the rest will follow. Is it as easy as that?
My kids went to this school, where it is being implemented. It's is a very small school, at about 400 kids in k-8. And, it appears some of the teachers are resistant to change, although I would think they would be thrilled to stop "teaching to the test".
When I went to school a zillion years ago, I had to write researched persuasive opinion papers. Example: Should we have bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki? The ones on past Presidential decisions I especially liked. This helped me enormously at work when I had to do research and write a persuasive argument on how a new program should be executed or if an old one should be changed or ended. It taught me how to do research, use data effectively, weigh pros and cons, how to organize my thoughts, how to draw conclusions and make recommendations.
These days I read about parents complaining that teachers (and professors) ask students to write papers about the teacher's opinion on a subject. UGH! This doesn't translate to the real world unless your job is propaganda-related.
When I went to school a zillion years ago, I had to write researched persuasive opinion papers. Example: Should we have bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki? The ones on past Presidential decisions I especially liked. This helped me enormously at work when I had to do research and write a persuasive argument on how a new program should be executed or if an old one should be changed or ended. It taught me how to do research, use data effectively, weigh pros and cons, how to organize my thoughts, how to draw conclusions and make recommendations.
These days I read about parents complaining that teachers (and professors) ask students to write papers about the teacher's opinion on a subject. UGH! This doesn't translate to the real world unless your job is propaganda-related.
In many schools, the emphasis on test prep has nearly eliminated the practice of writing of any sort at all. In my school, the vast majority of writing focuses only on the response to literature questions on the state exam.
Or reading for the fun of it. I, as a county bookmobile driver and librarian, have had teachers tell me "My kids do not have time to use the bookmobile this year, they have too many other things to do." Too many things to do that does not leave time for reading for pleasure? What are they doing to these kids? One of the first priorties should be learning for the pleasure of learning.
I think reading at a young age has a huge impact on how well an individual will comprehend written language for the rest of their life. I had an awesome first grade teacher who got me into reading and made it fun for me. After moving to a slightly less urban area a few years ago, it's also been harder to find a real library of sorts around here. It's a lot harder to spontaneously pick something to read when you can't go to a library and just skim books and read one that sounds fun.
I remember doing this with some Star Trek autobiography books. I read one by Nimoy, I am not Spock, and one by Shatner that I can't remember the title of. I have a kindle, but find myself not making time to read like I would prefer, since I've been busy with schoolwork. Personally, I find persuasive and problem-solution type to come the most naturally to me. Analyzing poetry and 10 lines of an essay for a few years like some grad students do seems like one of those things that would be considered a mental problem out of academia.
It sounds like common sense, teach the kids to think and the rest will follow. Is it as easy as that?
My kids went to this school, where it is being implemented. It's is a very small school, at about 400 kids in k-8. And, it appears some of the teachers are resistant to change, although I would think they would be thrilled to stop "teaching to the test".
Or reading for the fun of it. I, as a county bookmobile driver and librarian, have had teachers tell me "My kids do not have time to use the bookmobile this year, they have too many other things to do." Too many things to do that does not leave time for reading for pleasure? What are they doing to these kids? One of the first priorties should be learning for the pleasure of learning.
Reading for fun is crucial. Reading for enjoyment requires imagination. Imagination leads to thinking.
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Thinking at Every Desk
