Got the Picture???????
Ok.....so my logical, philosophical mind figured out WHY I need to slow down. What was really the most powerful realization for me is WHY I DON'T.
And it is so incredibly simple. I don't know why I couldn't see it.
When I speak with my students, I've already got the picture. I already have, clearly in my mind, a visualization of what it all means, what's going on. I have so much more fluency in the language that the picture of what is going on between me and the students in conversation (or on the page in a reading) that the picture is very very clear. I not only forget that they need to go through Steps 1,2 and 3 with the language, but that it takes them much longer to get a picture (Step 4) and connect it to the one in their minds(Step 5).
In reading it is even EASIER for me because I have read the story many many times, or I wrote it. I don't need time to create a picture in my mind. I already have one. They don't. They must have the time.
Because if they don't have the picture....they don't have anything.
Every time that we circle, we don't do it just for the repetitions. We do it to etch the picture just a little bit deeper. Every time we add details, we don't do it just for interest. We do it to color the picture just a little bit deeper. Every time we retell the story, we don't just to remind students of the picture, we do it to bring the story to life just one more time. When we personalize the story, we don't just keep students' interest from drifting during class, we put them into the story so that they are a part of the picture.
This is why Personalization is so incredibly important. If I just 'tell" a story, I will go too fast for my students. The picture is already in my head.
If I "ask' a story, I am forced to slow down because the story isn't in my head yet.
If we just read a story I will go too fast for my students. The picture is already in my head.
If we create a parallel story, add a character, add details, create a back story I am forced to slow down because the new and improved story is not in my head yet.
This will totally change my teaching. Wow.
with love,
Laurie
And it is so incredibly simple. I don't know why I couldn't see it.
When I speak with my students, I've already got the picture. I already have, clearly in my mind, a visualization of what it all means, what's going on. I have so much more fluency in the language that the picture of what is going on between me and the students in conversation (or on the page in a reading) that the picture is very very clear. I not only forget that they need to go through Steps 1,2 and 3 with the language, but that it takes them much longer to get a picture (Step 4) and connect it to the one in their minds(Step 5).
In reading it is even EASIER for me because I have read the story many many times, or I wrote it. I don't need time to create a picture in my mind. I already have one. They don't. They must have the time.
Because if they don't have the picture....they don't have anything.
Every time that we circle, we don't do it just for the repetitions. We do it to etch the picture just a little bit deeper. Every time we add details, we don't do it just for interest. We do it to color the picture just a little bit deeper. Every time we retell the story, we don't just to remind students of the picture, we do it to bring the story to life just one more time. When we personalize the story, we don't just keep students' interest from drifting during class, we put them into the story so that they are a part of the picture.
This is why Personalization is so incredibly important. If I just 'tell" a story, I will go too fast for my students. The picture is already in my head.
If I "ask' a story, I am forced to slow down because the story isn't in my head yet.
If we just read a story I will go too fast for my students. The picture is already in my head.
If we create a parallel story, add a character, add details, create a back story I am forced to slow down because the new and improved story is not in my head yet.
This will totally change my teaching. Wow.
with love,
Laurie
thanks, this is great and useful. I was gonna feedback on Ben's blog but why not here?
So starting with a known shared "picture" gets everyone, um, on the same page. Are there other "things" beside pictures that could work? So new words and phrases and language can connect with known things? Like pictures?
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Thank you Duke! I am just starting to explore this "connectedness" idea. (Honestly...if I were retired maybe I would have time to be better read. I'm sure that there is great stuff already explored and expressed on this topic and I would love to know more)
For example...
It may not just be a shared "visualization" ...it may be a shared "feeling". Certain phrases in the language elicit feelings that we can relate to..."I'm fed up with X". That verbalizes not so much a "picture" as an emotion or physical/emotional reaction that we have all experienced. I'd like to start incorporating more of these in my interactions in the room. They are almost a combination of TPR and TPRS...they CAN be acted out, but they connect to a feeling.
I think that they will make great "glue" for the class: they will attract and keep interest.
Hmmm..this gives me an idea for tomorrow...teachers " hartos de" students using cell phones" and a student dying of "ganas" to use one...
with love,
Laurie
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Perhaps this is not quite what you are referring to, but the words "picture" and "visualization" seemed to echo something I read recently in a Willingham paper (PDF): "thinking is SLOW. Your visual system instantly takes in a complex scene. When you enter a friend's backyard, you don't think to yourself, "Hmm... there's some green stuff. Probably grass, but ti could be some other ground cover... and what's that rough brown object sticking up there? A fence, perhaps?" You take in the whole scene - lawn, fence, flower beds, gazebo - at a glance. Your thinking system does not instantly calculate the answer to a problem the way that your visual system immediately takes in a visual scene."
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I think that this is definitely true. The other piece to this puzzle is that when we hear a description, we visualize based on our own experiences...drawing not only on available language for comprehension, but also prior experiences in order to visualize the scene. Each brain works at its own pace. Some brains process aurally acquired information at a different pace than print-based information. If you add pictures, gestures and actors to the equation it is even more complex!!!
with love,
Laurie
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