The Best Way to Learn
The best way to learn is to be engaged as an active participant in the process. This might seem obvious, that active learning naturally happens in classrooms. Three recent experiences have helped me reflect on why this might not always be the case.
I recently got a haircut at a technical college. The students are enrolled in an 18-month program. Part of their learning experience is cutting and styling people's hair. Makes sense. After my appointment was over, the student's teacher came over and offered her feedback on how to improve as well as praise for what she did well. (I am somewhat follicly challenged, so my head is a good one to practice on.)
After my son's first cross-country race today, we celebrated by going to Culver's, a local franchised restaurant. The young person taking our order had one of the managers at her side. He provided help only when needed.
Tonight was also our city's monthly Lions Club meeting. As 3rd vice-president, I had to fill in to run the meeting as the other officers were all unavailable. Now, I've been a Lion since 2006. I've sat through many meetings over the years but I had never led one. Once we started, I had the club secretary at my side to guide me through the agenda and prompting me when to call for a motion. Like I said, I've attended these meetings for over a decade but still needed help leading one.
These three recent events were good reminders for me that instruction is most effective when students are actively involved. Of course, there's time to teach. But whatever time we use to model and demonstrate is time students are not engaged in trying out the skills and strategies themselves.
Dr. Richard Allington studied exemplary reading teachers in six different states, spending at least ten days each in 1st- and 4th-grade classrooms. (Click here to read his classic PDK article on this topic.) One trend he noticed in his observations was how much time these teachers provided for students to practice reading and writing with authentic texts.
These teachers routinely had children actually reading and writing for as much as half of the school day - around a 50/50 ratio of reading and writing to stuff (stuff is all the other things teachers have children do instead of reading and writing).
Less effective teachers did not have this same ratio.
In typical classrooms, it is not unusual to find that kids read and write for as little as ten percent of the day (30 minutes of reading and writing activity in a 300 minute, or five hour, school day). In many classrooms, a 90 minute "reading block" produces only 10–15 minutes of actual reading, or less than 20 percent of the allocated reading time is spent reading.
As we settle into our classroom routines, it might be wise to examine how we use our own time. Video record a lesson or have a colleague observe us. Analyze the results. Where and when can we shift the work?
Let us know how it goes!
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