I would like this blog to include many points of view and be open to real debate, and in that spirit I present some comments defending the Whole Brain system, which I criticized in previous posts (Soul Murder and Soul Murder: 4th Grade Edition).
I recently had a webversation with a Whole Brain teacher, NCWBTeacher. I excerpt some of the teacher's comments below.
I teach in a public middle school. My kids cover a wide range of abilities from LD, ADD, high functioning autistic, regular ed, up to gifted. Every year the Exceptional Children department send the mainstreamed kids through my class.
This illustrates a basic problem with the public schools. It is extremely difficult to teach a large class that includes such a wide range of abilities. Someone won't get what they need, and it's often the gifted kids, who, in my opinion, will not be well served by the Whole Brain approach. Among other problems, the number of repetitions in a typical WB lesson would be stupefying to a bright student.
The parents of my students are fully aware of the teaching methods I use. I send home a newsletter, and demonstrate the methods on parent nights. They are very happy with it. The typical comments from parents and kids is that mine is the only class that is not boring.
Well, that doesn't say much for the other classes. I'm guessing that the other classes are mostly catatonic teachers flapping their jaw at comatose students, and I can see why the Whole Brain approach, with a chance for students to talk and move around, looks like an improvement.
To my surprise, NCWBTeacher defends the teacher who makes his students beg for their reading lesson:
To anyone who actually has a sense of humor this is not offensive. The intent, joking with his students, is patently obvious.
I don't see the joke here. To me, the teacher is degrading and humiliating his students, and there's just no excuse.
Actually, I think the idea that many people are horrified by the videos is a misconception. In fact, a majority of viewers see the utility of the method.
The Whole Brain videos function as a kind of Rorschach test. Some people, myself included, have an immediate, visceral, negative reaction ("Oh my God NO!"). Others see engaged students and a dynamic teacher.
From: NCWBTeacher
ReplyDeleteIn continuing the conversation I would like to comment as well:
FedUpMom
This illustrates a basic problem with the public schools. It is extremely difficult to teach a large class that includes such a wide range of abilities. Someone won't get what they need, and it's often the gifted kids, who, in my opinion, will not be well served by the Whole Brain approach. Among other problems, the number of repetitions in a typical WB lesson would be stupefying to a bright student.
NCWBT
And yet that is what happens in many public schools, and quite successfully. You are assuming that everyone is getting precisely the same rigor and challenge and that is not true. My kids are given an “objective sheet” at the beginning of each unit that outlines the learning goals they need to accomplish, and then lets them design their own demonstrations of learning. My gifted kids are encouraged to go above and beyond and typically held to a higher standard based on ability. However, I would be remiss in not pointing out that, on average, gifted kids are often the laziest students in my classroom! An unfortunately small number are motivated and go-getters who will rise to any challenge. One of my own daughters falls into this category. Most gifted students I have had over the last eighteen years have never struggled to achieve academically and are not intrinsically motivated to do so. Some are, most are not. Before you begin knocking public schools for under accommodating the gifted student, look to the gifted students as a group and see if they are reaching for the education they should be, most are not.
Continued
ReplyDeleteFedUpMom
Well, that doesn't say much for the other classes. I'm guessing that the other classes are mostly catatonic teachers flapping their jaw at comatose students, and I can see why the Whole Brain approach, with a chance for students to talk and move around, looks like an improvement.
NCWBT
And you would be guessing wrong. The other classes are taught by teachers who are competent caring professionals. They do use traditional teaching methods which, unlike Whole Brain Teaching are not design to bring learning to students in a way best suited to what their brains are designed to do.
FedUpMom
To my surprise, NCWBTeacher defends the teacher who makes his students beg for their reading lesson:
To anyone who actually has a sense of humor this is not offensive. The intent, joking with his students, is patently obvious.
I don't see the joke here. To me, the teacher is degrading and humiliating his students, and there's just no excuse.
NCWBT
Some people have a sense of humor, others take themselves far too seriously. In this case the teacher in questions made clear to his students that it was a joke. This bunch of fourth graders, very used to his sense of fun and tomfoolery got the joke. Some people don’t. In the same way that some people think that one joke is funny, others do not get it, or do not understand why you would think it was funny.
NCWBT
Actually, I think the idea that many people are horrified by the videos is a misconception. In fact, a majority of viewers see the utility of the method.
FedUpMom
The Whole Brain videos function as a kind of Rorschach test. Some people, myself included, have an immediate, visceral, negative reaction ("Oh my God NO!"). Others see engaged students and a dynamic teacher.
NCWBT
Actually, that is close I suppose, but an imperfect analogy. Most people realize that these videos are intended to demonstrate a single technique, or a small set of techniques very quickly, giving a teacher interested in using the techniques a visual guide, but not proposing to demonstrate all there is in the classroom.
In comments on the YouTube video you said you would not want your child to be in a WBT classroom because it was too authoritarian and repetitive. Again, you are making a mistaken assumption based on very limited information. I commend you on being willing to ask questions, but I think you would be more satisfied and better informed if you asked more questions.
For instance, what is your WBT classroom really like if it is not repetitive and authoritarian?
We can go from there if you like.
NCWBTeacher says:
ReplyDelete***
I would be remiss in not pointing out that, on average, gifted kids are often the laziest students in my classroom! ... Most gifted students I have had over the last eighteen years have never struggled to achieve academically and are not intrinsically motivated to do so.
***
No, they're not lazy, they're bored, alienated, and depressed.
By your own account, you have not been successful with the gifted students. They should go to a different teacher using different methods.
a message from HomeworkBlues:
ReplyDeleteHomeworkBlues says:
All I can do is thank my lucky stars my daughter was never subjected to this. Teacher, your gifted students appear "lazy" because they are not challenged and their needs are not appropriately met. Unerachievement is a well documented problem in this population, I'm wondering why you are not familiar with it. In a classroom of repetition and boring uniformity, I'm not surprised your gifted students have checked out.
You may think this approach is fun and I guess it beats droning frontal teaching that lulls kids into a coma. But to me it's just more newfangled edu-crap. And to a truly gifted kid, as Fedup says, mind bogglingly stupefying.
NCWBTeacher:
ReplyDeleteFedUpMom
No, they're not lazy, they're bored, alienated, and depressed.
By your own account, you have not been successful with the gifted students. They should go to a different teacher using different methods.
NCWBTeacher
No, they are lazy. I speak from experience, not only as an educator, but also as a former gifted student. Gifted students are more able to handle academic challenges than many others, but that does not mean they are motivated. I never implied I was unsuccessful with gifted students, quite the contrary, I have been very successful with them based on my familiarity and my flexibility in designing and delivering instruction.
Some gifted students, by virtue of their work ethic either inspired by their parents’ support and expectations, or driven by an internal desire to succeed and challenge themselves, take on any challenge and strive for excellence. I was like that as a students, though many of my gifted classmates were not. My eldest daughter is like that as well. Regardless of my expectations for her, her own drive to succeed pushed her to strive for excellence.
I have had the pleasure of working with quite a few gifted students of this sort. Other gifted students, however, are of a different bent. They are not driven to go any farther than they have to. Gifted students in my class find the challenges far from boring. They are given the chance to design their own learning based on their personal strengths, to choose what and how deeply they will investigate topics of interest to them. Many gifted students relish the challenge and rise to it. Many others do not.
For these gifted students academic achievement has never been something they have had to work for and they are happy with the status quo. They have never had to work very hard to get good grades and do not see any reason that should change. Given the opportunity to create a project of their own devising they turn in C level work. When informed of the grade they typically put in enough work to achieve a B if they know their parents will not accept a C, or they tell me they are fine with the C, that is good enough. This attitude is not from lack of challenge, or alienation, but a lack of personal drive to achieve more.
I know this well. I went to school with kids who felt this way. For these students I continue to push them to excel to show what they can do and never to settle for what they can get by with.
Gifted equates with facility in accomplishing an academic task, not with motivation.
NCWBTeacher:
ReplyDeleteHomeworkBlues says:
All I can do is thank my lucky stars my daughter was never subjected to this. Teacher, your gifted students appear "lazy" because they are not challenged and their needs are not appropriately met. Unerachievement is a well documented problem in this population, I'm wondering why you are not familiar with it. In a classroom of repetition and boring uniformity, I'm not surprised your gifted students have checked out.
NCWBTeacher:
I am thoroughly conversant with the research in this field. While it is true that some gifted students are underachievers because their needs are not being met, it is no less true that even when the opportunity for appropriate accommodations, and rich, in depth rigorous learning experiences are offered, being adolescents, the opportunity to get by with doing less work is just as seductive to the gifted student as any other student in the peer group, unless they possess the intrinsic motivation to move beyond doing only what they must to achieve an acceptable grade.
My gifted students have far from checked out. Indeed, they report my requirements for their attention and application of their academic skills exceeds that of most of the other teachers they have had before reaching me.
One of the greatest compliments I ever received from a gifted student was that they hated my class. When I asked why the student replied that they were used to sleeping through social studies (I also teach a section of 8th grade history), but that I was so crazy and fun that she was no longer able to nap in class because of the way the class went.
You are making unsupported assumptions as the nature of my classroom. It is neither repetitive nor boringly uniform in nature or execution. Several times each year I ask my students if they want to return to traditional classroom methods. By a wide majority the kids reject that in favor of continuing WBT. Without fail the most vehement defenders of retaining the WBT methods in class are my gifted students. They tell me when they have done it this way, and had this much fun, they do not want to go back to the other way.
I am surprised each year at the number of jaded 8th graders who will stop as I see them out the door of the classroom and ask if they have to go to the next class, or if they could just stay in class with me. We laugh, and I tell them that I will have to see them the next day, and usually hint at something fun we are going to do the next day to peak their interest.
It is a misapprehension on your part to judge my classes without knowledge. What you see in an 8 minute video segment in no way represents what happens in my class in the course of a day.
This approach is not “edu-crap” but is based on twenty years of research on the nature of learning, and on ten years of vetting in classrooms at every level.
You don't "peak" their interest, you "pique" their interest. It's from a French word meaning "to prick".
ReplyDeleteNCWBTeacher, our conversation is coming to an end. Frankly, it's making ME bored, alienated, and depressed.
The fact is, you're defensive and you can't hear criticism.
PsychMom says:
ReplyDeleteI tried this time...I really tried to watch the 8 minute video of a college class. I made it past 4 minutes but the poor English grammar, the whiney voices and the condescension was just too much for me. I don't know how a grown man can talk to other adults this way.
I can see this useful as "morning exercises" in a room full of 1st graders in order to ground them to start their day. But to be involved in that kind of didactic environment for more than 4 minutes gives me a headache. And all that "teaching your buddy" stuff....with all the noise, how do you hear? And sometimes they aren't finished their explanations before headmaster demands Eyes Front. How is that useful?
I would really like to know, NCWBT, the reasoning behind all the noise. What's the point of the teach it to your neighbour exercise? What's the research on how children learn with this method? And I'm not interested in data about test scores. I want to know the mechanism, the theory behind why this method works as a teaching method.
NCWBT
ReplyDeleteFedUpMom said...
You don't "peak" their interest, you "pique" their interest. It's from a French word meaning "to prick".
NCWBTeacher, our conversation is coming to an end. Frankly, it's making ME bored, alienated, and depressed.
The fact is, you're defensive and you can't hear criticism.
NCWBTeacher
I apologize for the malaprop. I am not the only one who has committed a typo or a spur of the moment word mischoice in our series of conversations. I felt no need to point out unimportant mistakes in this particular medium.
I am truly sorry to hear that, though it is not unexpected. In the past I have tries to answer questions on how WBT works to the benefit of the students, and most of the time it is very successful. The exception is typically the "mom's-who-hate-public-education" blogs. Once their minds are made up usually no amount of fact or explanation can change it. I still hope this one is an exception to that. You seem intelligent, and passionate, and I am hoping, more open to facts and education on the subject than most.
I can accept criticism, and have not been defensive. In the face of attacks on the method and my professionalism as a teacher I have only offered explanations and information, and have not resorted to any sort of personal attacks, nor been unwilling to hear and address any criticism you care to offer. However, accepting criticism and replying to it does not make me defensive, merely responsive, and versed in my knowledge of why the method works.
NCWBTeacher
ReplyDeletePsychMom says:
...And all that "teaching your buddy" stuff....with all the noise, how do you hear?
I would really like to know, NCWBT, the reasoning behind all the noise. What's the point of the teach it to your neighbour exercise? What's the research on how children learn with this method? ... I want to know the mechanism, the theory behind why this method works as a teaching method.
NCWBTeacher
Cooperative learning has been shown to produce greater gains in understanding between students. When you have to teach a subject to another person you arrive at a greater understanding of the topic. Additionally, research shows that teaching in this cooperative fashion produces long term memories much faster than traditional method.
When you have a conversation with someone else the actions of the other speakers are very determinative on how easy the meat of this conversation will be to you, whether you are in an educational setting or simply an informal conversational one. When the person speaking uses gestures it makes the conversation more memorable for the listener. The mechanics behind this are found in basic neuroscience. If a person speaks only, the listener is creating a memory of the information using only one sense, auditory, and only associating this memory in the auditory cortex of the brain. When the speaker adds gestures the gesture becomes a visual cue for the information being presented. Now you have a memory using two cortices, auditory and visual.
If you add timbre, inflexion, and variation to the voice, the speaker sounding passionate, or intense about the subject you have added an emotional content and a third cortex, the limbic system.
A memory created in this fashion is demonstrably more complete, and easily useable to a learner than one made with only one or two senses. When the students are teaching each other they are accomplishing this. At the same time, as a student teaches his or her partner the gestures they are making serve as a kinesthetic anchor for the memory for themselves.
The research behind this is easy to find. Look into Kagan Structures, Direct Instruction, the works of Dr. Martha Tate, who is a fan of the WBT approach, think-pair-share, and dozens of other approaches.
On the average if I introduce ten vocabulary words to a group of eighth graders and ask them to write the definitions, use them in a sentence, and touch on them in some way over the next couple of days, and then give a vocabulary quiz about ten percent of the students score in the A or B range, about twenty percent score in the C range, and the other seventy percent fall below the C range.
The same vocabulary introduced with Teach-OK, and far less need for repetitions, and the same quiz will produce seventy percent of the students scoring C level and above. This has been consistent. Remember that learning this vocabulary in this fashion is only the beginning. However, this is only a small portion of the class period. In my class we quickly move beyond the basics to much more higher order thinking.
The noise level is completely controllable buy establishing how loud is loud and how soft is soft. We have a process for doing that and the kids love it. Most teachers do not have classes as loud as these in the videos. The noise level in the videos is a bit exaggerated. Due to the differences in video players, if the kids were not really loud you could not hear them at all in the videos.
NCWBT teaches at a very nice middle class school. The school's test scores are a bit better than or the same as the state's average and the district's average in all rated subjects except for one. Guess which one? Go ahead, guess!
ReplyDelete"
Science
On the 2009 EOG, 67% of Canton Middle School Grade 8 students met or exceeded standards in Science. This is lower than the Haywood County Schools School District average of 72%, and lower than the North Carolina state average of 68%."
Here's another amusing bit of fiction-
ReplyDeleteFrom Whole Brain Teachers website
Within Biffle's brief autobio-
"Chris Biffle is the author of seven books (McGraw-Hill, HarperCollins) on critical thinking, reading and writing. He has received grants from the U.S. Department of Education and served on the Harvard based Perseus Project...."
Sounds great! But Perseus Project is NOT Harvard based. Seems like an easily avoidable mistake to me. You know, get up in the morning, have a cup o' coffee, maybe as you're driving to work at Crafton Hills Community College and ask yourself, "Did I work for/at Harvard University?"
Anonymous, that's very interesting. I tried to confirm what you say by checking the WBT page, but it's suddenly down.
ReplyDeleteThe Perseus Project is run by Tufts University.
Anonymous, good call. Here's the link.
ReplyDeleteHey, I could pick apart these scoundrels all day. They've posted so much utter bullshit on the web.
ReplyDeleteNCWBT's ideas on what he calls "basic neuroscience" are so laughably wrong. Anyone who ever took a pych100 course should understand how bass ackwards their claims about the brain and human behavior are.
From their website again:
"Some students talk easily, often too easily! Other students fall into the role of passive listeners. In terms of brain structure, classes are often divided between those who are Brocaians (speakers) and Wernikites (listeners)."
That is crap in more than one way. It's like crap to the third power. Crap cubed.
And since when are teaching methods "vetted?" Idiot!
And when I see a teacher using this method (and I have) I instantly lose some respect for him/her. I'm in southern California.
You go, latest anonymous! I like your style.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, keep it coming! I'll start working your comments into my posts. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteFrom PsychMom:
ReplyDeleteThanks for trying to answer my questions NCWBT teacher...but the references you've pointed out are not references at all. I want the science..I want a peer-reviewed journal article that tells me a bit about why this method is more effective than another method to help kids to learn. Just because a person decides that they like a particular idea doesn't mean that it has any validity. And my beef with this doesn't just pertain to your particular brand...it's my beef with education in general. Much of whatever happen this fall in school is just based on the latest trend, on the latest idea in education. Flavour of the year, kind of idea.
All the supposed brain links that you suggest support the Whole Brain Learning method are not at all proven. In fact, we use all of our brain, all the time. And yes, teaching something to someone else is often helpful in solidifying our own learning, but this chanting and repeating assumes that the person doing the teaching has learned something themselves. I'm not convinced they have.
The example you gave of learning vocabulary words would lend itself to rote learning, which is basically what this method is. Repetition is useful in learning to spell. And as for 70 percent of students scoring C or higher...that doesn't tell me much. All those A's (from the old method) could have slipped to C's.
I'm sorry, but you haven't convinced me.
Take a look at this homework thread from the Whole Brain Teaching site:
ReplyDelete"If students have done all their homework, they get to pull a wibbit (for WBT ... get it?) out of a jar. The wibbits give them free, no cost privileges ... like sitting at the teacher's desk for 15 minutes,"
Gee. A thrill a minute. Depending on the kid, sitting at the teacher's desk for fifteen minutes may not be all that it's cracked up to be.
http://www.wholebrainteaching.com/component/option,com_fireboard/Itemid,98/catid,14/func,view/id,3431/#3450
Seriously?!? I am a public school teacher. I spend all summer, doing everything I can to be a more effective teacher. I spend approx. 70 hours a week teaching, tutoring, grading..,etc. I am trying to teach these kids, that have been tested, tested, tested. The teachers have been forced to pass on important skills, before mastery to make sure students are exposed to all the skills needed to pass the test. These same students are playing video games, watching tv, using Facebook/Myspace, iphones, and ipods, yet do not have time to do homework.
ReplyDeleteThese kids live a much different life than we did. They are not going to learn the way we did! We must find a new way to teach these kids because what we've always done isn't working! Ironincally, I have testing to prove it.
I research everything I do. I look at the positive and negative side, then make my own choice. I am astonished that your critisisms were personal, nitpicking, and whiney. Critiques should be used to make something better.
I have decided to try this method. My average class will have thirty-one students and I will have a total of six classes. Do the math. I will try any method until I have success.
***
ReplyDeleteMy average class will have thirty-one students
***
That's a lot of kids. Is this mixed ability? How old are the kids?
***
These same students are playing video games, watching tv, using Facebook/Myspace, iphones, and ipods, yet do not have time to do homework.
***
What kind of homework do you give?
"I research everything I do. I look at the positive and negative side, then make my own choice. I am astonished that your critisisms were personal, nitpicking, and whiney. Critiques should be used to make something better."
ReplyDeleteHey, watching a few videos of children acting like buffoons for their teacher and then following up with reading weak anecdotes from the Biff dude's cult and claims from "directors" of is not research.
Why would an educated professional ever embrace Whole Brain Teaching?
The truth is- where I can find unbiased data, I over and over again find Whole Brain Teaching does not increase learning. There hardly any data about Whole Brain Teaching from Whole Brain Teachers, unless you count hits on YouTube or number of attendees as something of value. I do not.
Their claims about brain anatomy and function are wrong at the most basic level. I would be embarrassed to be associated with such idiocy. As for behavior management- There is no unbiased data. Its fair to say, most students at least try to comply with anything a teacher asks of them no matter how inane the requests may be.
Why do you spend so much time/effort doing "gestures" for instance? How might this compare to what we know about multi-tasking impairing thinking ability?
If you've really researched and believe in gesturing - Please, defend it! Please Teach me something I don't know! If you don't show a rational basis, I will know it is because there isn't one.
You're right about my criticisms being personal- How can they not be personal?
You've got a middle school science teacher Director of Whole Brain Teachers, North Carolina advertising his method based on his success with the method, and wrong claims about the human brain- and the facts do not match his claim. That is personal. I'm sorry.
And which is it? You'll try any method or only the ones you've "researched?"
Why did your research lead you to decide to use this method?
Why does the total number of students germane as far as choosing this method?
31X6=186
Why do you believe technology/different lives have changed the way people/students learn?
My critique is to let anyone who reads this explicitly know I believe Whole Brain Teaching is absolute trash. I have no interest in improving it. I want it to go away. I want every "Whole Brain Teacher" who reads this to know, we are on to you.
"The teachers have been forced to pass on important skills, before mastery to make sure students are exposed to all the skills needed to pass the test."
ReplyDeleteRespectfully, what are you trying to communicate here?
Are teachers forced to ignore or impart to students important skills before mastery? As written, the sentence is undecipherable.
Just curious, which subjects do you teach? ;)
To Teacher who researched and decided to use Whole Brain Teaching-
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think about this video, produced by a founder Chris Recksted, of teacher Jason Mills having his special ed. children get on knees on the floor and beg him?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9VoPedc2MQ
I am appalled and disgusted to know that the public pays this man's salary to teach and he spent class time exploiting learning disabled students to promote Whole Brain Teaching. Was this Jason Mills paid the five hundred bucks Whole Brain Teachers offer on their website, on top of his salary from school?
Teacher: Is criticizing maltreatment of disadvantaged kids just more "nitpicking?"
Okay, On the Whole Brain Teachers forum a teacher posts "my admin says we must do Direct Instruction.. how can I justify WBT as DI?"
ReplyDeleteSo another director(Biffle gives everyone a title asap, then they scurry around doing the footwork for him. It's very sad how easily manipulated these educators of the next generation are.)
So, back to the main idea- Director of WBT makes a blog claiming WBT is DI! Outrageous. Urging a teacher to defy her admin with this crap! Does she want to help this teacher get fired?
BTW- this director is at yet another below average school.
Here's her blog addy
http://wholebrainteaching.blogspot.com/2010/07/wbt-and-direct-instruction.html
The WBT method at the little charter school my children attended last year showed up in the Third Grade STAR test results- 0 boys out of twelve scored even proficient in Language Arts. In both tested categories Math and English- Every group, every subgroup went down substantially in scores from the year prior.
God I hope teachers wiil get hip and will become vocal soon about how bad "WBT" is!
Correction, in my previous post I wrote "BTW- this director is at yet another below average school."
ReplyDeleteThis may no longer be true- the director no longer works for the district I was referring to.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI have read all the posts. I am a professional and a teacher. I am currently working on my Ed.D. in Educational Leadership with a major in Educational Technology.
ReplyDeleteWhole Brain Teaching can be validated by Brain-Based Learning and Cognitive Information Processing for the 21st Century student.
Although, not proven scientifically, when used in the classroom, it works.
Hopefully in the future I will have time to prove it with valid research.
To Will:
ReplyDeleteI guess it all depends on what you will be trying to prove. Please don't pick test scores as an indicator of learning, as your dependent variable in future when you get the time to do your research, ....test scores are not indictors of a valid teaching and learning method.
And I have to laugh at "Brain-Based Learning"...what in heaven's name would it be if not brain-based.
Learning theories based on so called left brain right brain, whole brain...whatever brain....have no basis in fact. Those who do the real science do not talk in those terms at all.
And your statement "Although not proven scientifically, when used in the classroom, it works" is just a little scary to me as a parent. Would you accept this from your family doctor treating you or your family? " This magical lotion hasn't been proven scientifically to work, but I know it does. Trust me." This is why it's sometimes hard to treat teachers as professionals....many of the things they believe to be true are simply habit or convention, but they affect our children's lives in profound ways. It's not good enough to say...it works...
It's not good enough.
Wow some of these negative comments are so unfounded!. Everyone is entitled to there opinion but do the research.
ReplyDeleteA teacher teaching the old lecture way is not working. Look at our stats. Some of the management style may seem juvenile but all of this can be adapted. Insanity ---doing things the same way and expecting different results. I say try something new!!!!
I think too many of the videos focus on the management of the class. But when you are trained to use THE WHOLE system the videos do not do it justice. The spaced review is HUGE.
ReplyDeleteThe oral organization of your ideas sent a lightbulb ,the size of Miami, off in my head.
The kids teaching is so important. Being able to teach and explain is so high on the comprehension chart.
I agree, Anonymous, some of the negative comments towards this blog are unfounded. If I were involved in a organization and I discovered a blog which not only espoused a different viewpoint but repeatedly provided outside links to facts which disproved many of the organization's central claims, I would follow those links and read them before commenting. I can't figure this out here,
ReplyDelete"The oral organization of your ideas sent a lightbulb ,the size of Miami, off in my head."
Are you writing that you read aloud to yourself FedUp's comments and got a great idea or should you be heading to the closest E.R.?
Anonymous said:
ReplyDelete***
The kids teaching is so important. Being able to teach and explain is so high on the comprehension chart.
***
When I watch the videos, I don't see kids teaching each other. I see kids parroting what the teacher just said, usually in the exact same words, and with barely enough time before the teacher commands "switch!" and the other kid has to do the parroting.
Hello All-
ReplyDeleteI have read all of this as an Aunt concerned over this implemented in her nephew's classroom. My first "OH, NO!" came when my sister shared rule no. 5 "Make the teacher happy" or some crap akin to that insane premise. Young students---no, all students---are not at a school to "make" the teacher anything! That is out of their locus of control and not only reeks of mindless rote memorization lacking in accountability for student self-control and internalizing student's feelings, it truly borders on brain-washing. As one poster pointed out, students teaching each other does not take the form of true teaching if all they are asked to do is repeat what the teacher just stated, and not in their own words by the way, but verbatim. THIS IS NOT Direct INSTRUCTION!!! And Zig would be horrified to know some quack who cites his credentials with boldfaced lies is trying to connect WBT to DI! Teachers, you are now legally mandated to use the tools and strategies for both academics and behavior/clasroom management that ARE RESEARCH BASED! Simply becasue WBT cites brain-based research (and if your using your noggin' you know that is oxymoronic!) and connects it to their programming does not make for this "management" to be touted as research-based. For it to be reserach-based it needs to have independent data gathered and analyzed and presented to a journal that is peer reviewed ( more complex, but this is a simple explanation for those who keep stating it is research-based)! Until that happens, it is just quackery. -Aunt, former speech-pathologist and special education teacher, & current school psychologist
Anonymous Aunt, I feel your pain. How is your nephew doing?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I don't know of any way to get rid of these fads once they've taken root. It might take a while for (years?) for the school to notice all the problems they've caused. Then they'll be ready for the next fad.
대체 사이트로는 뉴토끼, 블랙툰, 툰코 등이 있지만, 아지툰이 가장 핵심적인 플랫폼으로 자리잡고 있습니다. 이러한 대체 사이트들도 유용하지만, 아지툰이 제공하는 방대한 콘텐츠와 기능은 비교할 수 없습니다.아지툰
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