When I was a young teacher, I had to “cover” modern atomic theory in my eighth grade science class. I wrote about this experience in my post “Magic in the Classroom”. Since I was hired as a science teacher, it’s clear that my mandate was to teach science. In recent years, as a result of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the focus of many elementary teachers is literacy, not content. The preponderance of the material that is being taught and read in this context is fiction and writing reports that are little more than a regurgitation of what a few sources may contain. I believe that the recent changes in the NCLB law and the emphasis on Core Curriculum Standards will have a profound and positive effect on education. It refocuses the emphasis not just in skills (literacy and math) but in content and it will allow teachers to lift their heads up from the focus on promoting reading and writing skills, which they perceive of as “easier” to teach and discover the joy of imparting knowledge through the many wonderful books in various disciplines by authors passionate about their subject matter.
The fact is that we nonfiction authors cannot be separated from our content. What we write about shapes the way we write. (See Susan E. Goodman’s insightful post) There are some old-fashioned authors who thinly disguise a message by creating characters to talk about a problem in a story setting. But trying to insert information artificially into a story format falls flat. There is no real character development and the ploy is obvious to the reader. Long ago an editor told me, “Kids do not like to have their facts sugar coated.” The function of a story is to create a structural framework for a narrative. However, a story is not the only way to create such a structural framework. Sometimes the fascination is revealed by a clever question, or a startling fact that reveals some new aspect of the familiar. I like to think that my books are about concepts, big ideas, which are decorated with carefully chosen facts that are exemplars of the ideas. Not all books are supposed to be page-turners. Some books are designed to be read closely and processed slowly. There is a subtext to my books: I want my readers to understand why I am passionate about my subject matter. I want them to come away from a science book thinking “Wow! I never thought about it that way! Cool!”
The NCLB focus on literacy has had, perhaps, the unintended consequence of emphasizing reading and writing fiction or autobiographical material. This process assumes that everyone has content based on his or her own lives. Writing personal stories gives children some ownership in what they write about. Often, teachers are uncomfortable teaching nonfiction because they feel they don’t know enough about the subject. I have always shaken my head over this. I write science for the uninitiated. I assume my reader knows nothing about the subject. I hope that reading my books raises questions that can be addressed by reading other books. Where is it written that a teacher can’t learn along with her students?
I have a sense of urgency about this. If we are to compete successfully in the world we must transition to a knowledge-based economy. And we’re in trouble in this department. While more students than ever before are applying to college, the bad news is that hundreds of thousands of high school students are not prepared to do college-level work. They are weak in literacy skills, math, and in knowledge of content—science and social studies. Almost half of entering freshmen need some form of remediation. In my opinion, that’s starting late. I think children are capable of reasoning, inquiry, and critical thinking from the time they are three. We just don’t do much to develop this talent and, in fact, we may even destroy it before it has a chance to bloom. An oft-cited study by Timothy and Cynthia Shanahan makes a distinction about literacy for different disciplines. They claim that reading in the content area is not the same as thinking like a scientist or historian or mathematician. They believe that children need to know how people in different disciplines think in order to be able to access the wealth of knowledge available in jargon-heavy books. That’s where we children’s nonfiction authors come in. We know our disciplines. We read the difficult books and distill them into works that make the disciplines we love accessible and fascinating for children. It’s time educators gave us a try.
After decades of not being in a classroom, I’m teaching again and I’m having the time of my life! It’s not your ordinary classroom. I’m teaching the staff of a new daycare center for mostly minority children. The director of the center, Raymond Thomas Jr., believes that upward mobility for disadvantaged minorities lies in education -- specifically education in finance and in science and technology. To this end, he’s been involved in founding the afterschool program Xposure, the New Hope Academy Charter School in Brooklyn and now he has added the Lanza Learning Center in Yonkers to his portfolio as a social entrepreneur. I met Ray several years ago when he was interested in using my book "We Dare You!" for his afterschool science curriculum. And now he’s pressed me into service to train his daycare staff, (who knows basically nothing about science) to enable them to shape scientific behavior and interest in science in their young charges from the ages zero up.
Sort of sounds like a pipe dream, doesn’t it? But Ray doesn’t take no for an answer. And I don’t have to come from a dead start. I’ve written four critically acclaimed picture books for children called “Science Play,” plus a series of books on hands-on investigations into all five senses that can be adapted for young children. If I teach one book per session: ta da! I’ve got a course! So I’m meeting with 20 very warm and caring women every other week to teach them how to use each book and how to watch the children and spot and reinforce scientific behavior when they see it. Children are natural scientists; they have an empirical approach to their world, constantly exhibiting intrepid and innovative manipulation of their environment, and absorbed contemplation of each discovery. Unfortunately, these behaviors are bred out of most children by the time they are 17, so, yes, daycare is a good place to begin.
I meet with my class every other week at 6 p.m. after a long workday for them. My students have varied educational backgrounds. Most have some college but those who have degrees don’t have them in education or in science. These students are not certified to teach in schools. But Ray has a knack for hiring only committed and dedicated people (including me) so my overwhelming impression is that this group is hungry to learn. And for the teacher in me, that’s all it takes.
This week we discussed my book "I Fall Down," which is about gravity for 3-year-olds. When we got into doing the hands-on experiments from the book, I got the ultimate reward as a teacher. The light went on in their eyes and they started playing and exclaiming. In effect, I tapped into the children they once were by showing them the magic they could bring to their own students. One activity from the book is to see the effect of gravity on a drop of honey or molasses as it slowly drips back into the jar. If you’ve never really looked at this you’re in for a surprise. It’s fascinating! My students were all under the impression that heavier things fall faster than lighter things (a common misconception for most people who have had no exposure to physics). Dropping races with an assortment of small objects proved to them that all objects fall at the same speed regardless of weight. We discussed the distinction between mass and weight and they learned how to measure weight with rubber bands and shoes.
I showed (not told) my students what it is like to look at something familiar and see it with fresh eyes, behavior common to both scientists and children. They got the message! What an aphrodisiac for this teacher!
Photo: Lizanne Jamison weighs two sneakers with rubber bands while Ghada Almalouf looks on.
What happens to the learning environment of a school when teachers and a team of award-winning children’s nonfiction authors collaborate in a large-scale, school-wide project where everyone is involved in sharing knowledge and skills?
Is this a way to create inspiration, motivation and the love of learning?
These are two of the questions that the interactive videoconferencing (IVC) division, Authors on Call, of my company, Ink Think Tank, is attempting to answer in a pilot study with Bogert Elementary School in Upper Saddle River, NJ. Our first results are in and they are very encouraging. Bogert is a grades 3, 4, and 5 school and our pilot project will unfold over this school year.
The Bogert teachers have selected books as they fit into their scope and sequence from each of eight nonfiction authors. The plan is to have teachers meet with the author of the book they’ve selected via IVC to brainstorm and plan how to teach that book. At some point, the author meets with the classes of the teachers. Since the devil is in the details, I’m going to quote some excerpts from the first participants in the project as entered on our wiki, that is the record of the pilot as it unfolds. Chis Kostenko and Jason Parkhurst, two fifth-grade teachers, selected Dorothy Hinshaw Patent’s book, "Shaping the Earth."
Jason and Chris first met with Dorothy via Skype (which is the only technology we have available at this school). Dorothy later said, “As we talked, we quickly agreed that a major problem is getting students engaged with learning. Jason and Chris both said that even when they ask their students what in their own lives interests them the most, what inspires their curiosity, many of them can’t come up with an answer. It seems they are detached even from their own lives. I had come into the session with that same question in a general sense -- when we introduce a subject in the curriculum that the children need to learn about, how do we get them to relate to it personally?”
Dorothy then wrote about their plan, “Jason and Chris suggested that by listening to me talk about my own life, how my passion for the natural world drove me then as it does now, might help inspire their students to think about their own lives and spark their own interests. We decided that I would do two half-hour Skype sessions with the students, one soon after Thanksgiving. I would talk about what drove me when I was a child, how I found my own writing voice that allows me to communicate clearly with my readers, how I write so that people want to read what I’ve written, and the more practical matter of how I find reliable information and how I choose which information to pass on to readers. Then, after the students have developed their own projects using my book, we would have a second Skype session together. We left the focus of that one somewhat up in the air for now, as we want to see how the project evolves.”
The first IVC with the students took place last Wednesday. Dave Kaplan, the principal observed:
“From the general learning perspective, it was awesome, truly awesome. Students were excited, taking notes, responding, etc. The two classes sat on the floor facing the smartboard and there was a chair on which one student speaker could sit front and center. The camera faced the class and seemingly captured everyone. There was a real hum coming from the students as they related to Dorothy’s experiences and laughed at some of her stories. It was interesting to hear. There was energy in the room. For this first meeting, it was a get-to-know you. I loved that; relationship building equals credibility for the kids. Next step is to dig into the learning-content area, writing, reading, etc. I am already talking to the teachers about possibilities and directions. The goal is to get the students more involved. In this introductory meeting, the kids generally listened, though they did come prepared with great questions for Dorothy.”
Chris Kostenko polled his class the next day, “The class spoke about Dorothy as someone they knew." Here are some of their comments:
“It wasn’t just about books, science, or being an author. We got to learn a lot about you.”
“I enjoyed that story about when you and your friend set off the firecracker and set the grass on fire. I would feel embarrassed just like you did. Who wouldn’t?”
“I realized that nature is a very important and fun thing to explore. You’ve also inspired me to do my best and to work hard.”
“I can’t wait to talk to you again.”
"Now when we read your book, we can hear your voice say every little word, no matter who is reading.”
“It seemed like you were right in the room with us.”
“It’s exciting to know an author who can give us tips … I can’t wait to get tips from a real pro.”
Chris’s conclusion: “What we’re doing isn’t ordinary. We’re playing with something that has extraordinary potential. Wow.”
How can you tell when people are being entertained? As a scientist, I’m always looking for a relatively objective way of measuring things. So rather than read reviews or listen to opinions, I’d look at the behavior of the audience. When an audience is engaged their eyes are open and focused. They lean forward with an intent look on their face. They respond by nodding, smiling, laughing, even weeping. By my definition, engagement = entertainment.
A bored audience, on the other hand, has a very different appearance. If you peered into a theater and saw people looking vacantly about, or resting their heads on their hands, or sleeping, and you had to guess, you could say that they were a captive audience for a presentation that was supposed to be educational. These behaviors are a common occurrence in lectures. Chances are good that members of a bored audience are required to be present. Their job or their school grade depends on it. If they had a choice, they would not buy a ticket to the event.
Interestingly, whether or not an audience is entertained or bored has very little to do with the content of the presentation. It has everything to do with the preparation of the audience. People are engaged when a presentation is about something they already know, but has a slightly different point of view. That’s why well-crafted humor or satire or even riveting theater can deliver a message. It is also explains why a group of neurosurgeons could be transfixed by a demonstration of a new technique in brain surgery -- a performance that would be of little or no interest to anyone else. People are bored when the content is difficult to grasp, is far removed from their own knowledge base, or is so old hat and repetitive that it has no value as confirmation of what they already know.
The best professional entertainers know how to bridge the communication gap to their audience. We all share knowledge of what it means to be a human being. Empathy with characters and what they must be feeling drives the best writing and performing. Shakespeare knew what he was talking about when he said “all’s the world a stage.” He took on epic themes and made us think about the motivation of the characters who bring these themes to life on the stage. Some might say that great theater can be the ultimate learning experience.
The word “education” means “to lead out.” Make no mistake: Teachers are supposed to be leaders. The best leaders speak the language of the people they want to lead. This serves to establish a connection with their followers. They are as clear with the message as where they are taking their followers while building in motivation for them to follow. They are also clear about what is required by followers to reach their goals. This requires some effort on the part of the followers, perhaps going to vote, or showing up on Sunday morning, or doing homework.
Professional entertainers connect immediately with their audience. One hundred fifty years ago, people had to leave their homes to find professional entertainment. For the past 50 or so years, with television, professional entertainment has been available in most homes with the push of a button. Today’s children know all too well how to sit back and listen without exerting much effort. Do they bring that “entertain me” mentality to the classroom? Perhaps. I think the bar is set higher today than in the past when it comes to a teacher’s performance in the classroom. But the teacher has a few more arrows in his/her quiver than television to captivate and engage children.
•A personal relationship with each student so that the student cares about the teacher’s approval.
•Interactivity -- the students can do something besides listen to the teacher during a class.
•Collaboration with other classmates in projects.
•Arranging circumstances so that students perform before others.
•The ability to select engaging instructional material as a substitute for flat and uninteresting material.
•Giving feedback to students on their performances so that they go up the learning curves.
Our goal as educators is to produce that engaged audience so that the casual observer doesn’t see bored vacant faces and conclude that “it must be educational.”
The idea of adding video to a telephone call is not new. It has an obvious downside. Most people would not want to be seen dripping wet out of the shower, or still in pajamas, or in the midst of a compromising social situation while talking on the phone. Yet video conferencing is slowly gaining traction. For almost twenty years, businesses have used it to foster collaboration between far-flung divisions and clients. And, as the technology becomes more robust, cheaper and ubiquitous, it is starting to catch on. Skype on mobile devices and home computers is free and people are downloading it and playing with it. If you’ve ever “Skyped” a friend you should know that it is qualitatively different from a phone call. You don’t feel obligated to talk all the time. You can even get up, walk out of the room, and return with a glass of wine. You can show stuff—what you’re currently knitting, photos of your kids, a new blouse. You read body language and facial expressions. It feels like a real visit and it has had an immeasurable impact on family relationships for the military stationed in war zones and their loved ones at home.
The pioneer organization on the use of interactive videoconferencing for education is the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (www.CILC.org). This not-for-profit was founded in 1994 for the purpose of distributing funds to schools in Indiana for project planning, equipment, implementation and the development of programs that involved interactive videoconferencing. Participants used a high-speed digital fiber optic network designed and built by Ameritech. Since that time CILC has been reorganized and has grown into a global hub for interactive videoconferencing programming delivered face-to-face in both real time and recorded for archives. Its website features hundreds of content providers for students, professional development for teachers, and collaborative opportunities between schools servicing all 50 states and 166 countries. Some of the most prestigious institutions in the country, The Museum of Science and Industry, the Bronx Zoo, the Smithsonian, the Manhattan School of Music, to name a few, have outreach programs through CILC.
The most obvious benefit is that students get to interact with experts from these top institutions for a fraction of the cost of importing them in person to your school. The tyranny of distance has lost its grip and personal relationships between learners and knowledgeable people across the globe are now happening. Ruth Blankenbaker, the CEO and visionary behind CILC says, “Written communication through the computer alone has a kind of anonymity that can allow meanness and cruelty to surface. An interactive video conference, where you make eye contact and can read body language fosters civility. People relate to each other’s humanity. In fact, we don’t really know how much added value there is when communication involves contact with the entire person but it seems to me to be quite significant.”
In the interest of full-disclosure, my company, Ink Think Tank, is listed as both a content provider, doing school visits for kids, and as a source of professional development programs for teachers. CILC is turning its “Spotlight” on us in a series of FREE webinars. The first one will be on November 30, 2011 from 4-5 pm, EST. Titled: Science Writing that Makes You Question What You Know , it features Dr. Myra Zarnowski, of Queens College, interviewing Alexandra Siy (Cars on Mars, Sneeze!) and yours truly about how to use our books in the classroom. Here’s the link with more information: http://www.cilc.org/search/calendar-event.aspx?id=350&categoryid=2&startdate=11%2f30%2f2011
The best way to learn was discovered by Socrates more than two thousand years ago in Ancient Greece: there’s nothing better than a private tutor. Among his many creative acts, Steve Jobs reinvented the private tutorial, giving people the ability to use his products as tools for the things they wished to do, which inspired me to start my own education company. Let me explain how that happened.
Back in 2008, I had a new book coming out, We Dare You! Hundreds of Fun Science Bets, Challenges, and Experiments You Can Do at Home (Skyhorse Publishing). It is a bind-up edition of previously published books of irresistible challenges to kids, stuff that looks impossible but is doable, and stuff that looks easy but is impossible. The truth behind the challenges is based on science. I’ve long believed that watching kids trying these tricks would make great videos but I was never successful at selling the rights to these activities to a TV or film producer. In anticipation of the book’s publication and with the advances in technology making the whole process a lot easier, I decided I’d learn how to make videos myself. So I bought my first point and shoot (i.e. no-brainer) camcorder and pressed my grandchildren into service, directing videos of them doing the activities.
As the footage mounted up, it became time to bite the bullet and face the problem of editing the videos. I had read that I-Movie, a program for Macs, was the easiest way to go. This meant that, as a PC user for all these years, I not only had to learn a new program and skill but I had to go into a whole different computer system. Undaunted, I walked into the Apple Store in the Westchester Mall where they are well-staffed to handle the neophyte buyer. I told the personable and well-informed salesman, Mike, what I wanted to do. He quickly put together exactly what I needed. I bought a MacBook Pro, with the Leopard OS X, 2 GB of memory, and a processing speed of 2.4 GHz. (I’ve upgraded since then and now have their latest OS) Best of all, for an additional $100 I could receive 52 hours of private instruction over the next year from their platoon of mavens called “One-to-One.”
At the beginning, I never missed a week. Always one to plunge intrepidly into a learning situation, I began to teach myself how to use my Mac. When I got stuck, I went online and scheduled a session with a personal tutor. The Westchester Mall is only minutes from my home and I quickly learned where to park and which elevator to take to the store for my tutorial session. At first, as I was learning to use the new computer, the tutors were all interchangeable young people, patient and knowledgeable. As I became more proficient in my editing skills, I was assigned tutors who knew about film editing. I went right up that learning curve: See for yourself: Here’s a video to my first one-minute video (with three of my grandchildren.)
And, if you like it, there are at least sixty more on my website. The brilliance of the concept—making private tutoring from experts available and affordable and allowing the learner to control the timing of the lessons for when they were needed—struck me as an extraordinary innovation. The proof of its success is its filled appointment schedule. Why not apply it to the world at large?
The model of Apple’s One-to-One is behind my Outside-the-Box proposal for Authors on Call. We are currently embarking on a pilot program to test its merits. I predict we are a harbinger of the future. We are reinventing the guild: Masters of art, literature, science, business, whatever, will band together to offer other groups of interested and motivated learners, timely and personal instruction via technology. Online learning is already happening, but much of it is without the personal interaction of a live tutorial. The effectiveness of a tutorial lies in the social contact between the teacher and the student. My company, INK Think Tank, is pioneering this concept—working with teachers, who are using our books about the real world in their classrooms, through their personal interaction with the authors themselves.
I hope Steve Jobs’ brainchild works as well for us as it did for him. Thank you, Steve.
Years ago, when publishing was in its heyday, established authors could sell from concept. Here’s how it worked. An author and an editor had lunch. They discussed possibilities for future projects. When the editor liked an idea s/he said, “Write me a proposal.” That was it. There was trust that the author would deliver a book that they would be happy to publish. The author walked out of the lunch confident of an assignment with money to follow. That was then. Now even established writers have to do proposals complete with a marketing analysis, detailed outlines, maybe a few well-written chapters, and loads of background material. Then they wait for the proposal to be reviewed before a full committee, which seems to be more dedicated to why they shouldn’t do a book than why they should. In these hard times, the beleaguered publishers must constantly consider their bottom line when investing in a project.
The best editors, however, still know how to imagine along with authors. We all know that every book starts with a vision—a fleshed-out idea of how to create a work. Other parts of society are not quite so visionary. As much as we would like to think otherwise, most people don’t “get” innovative ideas. The popular show, Mad Men, about the advertising industry back in the sixties understood this. Fully articulated and illustrated presentations were required to in order to leave nothing up to the imagination of their clients. They knew that even when a concept has merit and is worth a try, every innovative venture, every work of creativity, requires a leap of faith in order to turn a concept into a reality.
What, then, is innovation? I have defined it as: Creating something new from disparate existing elements used in novel ways to solve a contemporary problem while forecasting its own future growth and development. In my outside-the-box proposal, published this summer I proposed using nonfiction literature in the classroom (nothing new here), combined with professional development from the authors themselves (nothing new here) to help teachers use their books effectively, and ending up with an author visit with the students after they’ve studied the books (this doesn’t happen often but there’s nothing new here, either.) What makes this program innovative? Its scale (school-wide, many authors and many books) and the timing of the professional development—just before the books are to be used by the teachers, so they can immediately apply what they’ve learned and the timing of the author-visits with kids (just when they’ve completed studying a book). The technologies that makes such an ambitious program possible and even more importantly, affordable, are interactive videoconferencing—face-to-face conversations between the authors and the school participants and a wiki, a collective online document that chronicles contributions from all the participants and serves as a written record of the project. The authors don’t need to travel and schools don’t need to pick up the travel expenses and the in-person personal appearance fees. All of us authors know the excitement of a school visit. It is often the highpoint of a school year. I’ve always wondered how the teachers took advantage, back in their classrooms, of the energy and enthusiasm generated by these visits. I believe that my program for Authors on Call does just that. What we’re really offering, beyond expertise and excellent writing is inspiration and excitement. My problem: I needed to find a school willing to test this idea.
Dave Kaplan, principal of the Edith A. Bogert Elementary School in Upper Saddle River, NJ is willing to take that leap of faith. I met him last spring when I did the traditional author’s visit at his school. Right away, I noticed something unusual about Dave. He was truly interested in me. He attended all my presentations, including my lunch with some of the children. (You should know that this is very rare. Most principals say, “Hello,” and disappear.) I mentioned that I had this idea of a huge collaboration between authors and teachers. Was he interested? He said, “Yes.” But he didn’t get back to me until July when we could make an appointment for him to hear me out.
After our conversation, Dave emailed me: “I just typed up my notes from this morning and as I was typing, I felt my excitement really mushrooming! I'm so thrilled about this venture.... Again, I'm so pumped about this innovative journey on which we're about to embark, and look forward to working with you!” When he introduced the concept to his faculty, he asked for nine volunteers (one to work with each author). He got 28! The entire school! So far, so good. We are currently in the book selection process, where the teachers are doing the choosing. This has only fueled the excitement. The teachers had no problem “getting” the idea and realize that they are part of an experiment; that no one has done what we’re doing. Ultimately, the measures of our success will be from the students and the books themselves.
I do a lot of public speaking—author visits with children, professional development with teachers, keynotes, family nights, etc. It seems to me that the kiss of death at the end of a program is my asking “Are there any questions?” Occasionally, one brave soul has one and is willing to speak out in front of the group. I know that they want to talk to me because after a presentation; people come up and hang around. This is a very different atmosphere from, say, a meeting of my condo association where you can’t shut some people up.
Lately I’ve been doing a substantial amount of videoconferencing. If you have never done it, know that it is a different animal from being in the room and making a presentation. It is also very different from a phone call. The key to a successful videoconference is its interactivity. It needs to be some kind of conversation. A straight presentation, doing the same program as you do in person, is not as effective as actually being in the room. A live audience adds a dimension of energy and involvement that cannot be duplicated when people watch you projected on a wall or as individuals watching on their computers. If you’re going to do the same presentation on a screen as you do in person, you might as well put it on a DVD where you can use higher production values. So my problem became: what can I do to get people to talk?
Why not ask them a question? It has to be one that they want to answer, that they’ve thought about, is not leading (where the question suggests the “right” answer), and requires more than a “yes” or “no.” Does the right question invite a conversation? You bet! Here’s the question I asked a small group of teachers in a videoconference: What would it take for you to be the teacher you always dreamed of being? A torrent of words followed. They wanted more autonomy in the classroom, they wanted to be asked to voice their opinions and taken seriously by their administration, they wanted a say in the educational policy of the school, they wanted more parents to be involved in their children’s education, and on an on. Dreaming and speaking are a prelude to action. If action was ever to follow our conversation, at least they had spoken of areas that needed work.
For me, this videoconference was an eye-opener. I began thinking that perhaps I do too much talking and not enough listening. I learned how much more restricted today’s teachers are than when I was in the classroom. These teachers aren’t having any fun. So I decided to have a conversation with my thirteen-year-old grandson, Jonathan who has just finished seventh grade. You should know that he is every teacher’s dream student, bright, hard-working, thoughtful and kind.
“Jonny,” I asked, “how many of your teachers do you think are having fun teaching you? By fun, I mean that they are engaged and interested in what they’re doing.”
Jonny thought for a long time and finally said, “My sixth grade language arts teacher.”
“How do you know that a teacher isn’t having any fun?” I then asked.
Instantly, Jonny replied, “Because I’m not learning very much.”
I am now thinking about asking questions, really good questions, wherever I go. It’s a challenge.
I have a photograph of my son, when he was six months old, sitting in a bath in the kitchen sink and looking with amazement at a bottle of shampoo firmly clutched in his right hand. No, it was not the shampoo bottle that fascinated him. It was his own hand. He had just discovered that his hand could pick something up. I imagined him thinking, “Oh, so that’s what my hand can do. Cool!” Babies are built to learn. Everyday has new discoveries. The one made days before, perhaps the discovery of mobility by rolling over, is quickly replaced by crawling, then standing, then walking while holding on, then walking independently, then running….. Babies are at the bottom of a steep learning curve, fraught with frustrations, and mistakes and failures and exhilarating triumphant moments that make it all worth while. They are truly engaged all the time. It’s the only way to live.
In the right environments, that sense of curiosity and discovery stays with the child. I once sat next to a four-year-old boy in an airplane. His was the middle seat. By the end of the flight there wasn’t one thing about that seat he hadn’t interacted with and discovered. He had pushed all the buttons on the transom above. He had emptied the pocket of its reading material, removed the seat and discovered the flotation straps, found the button that adjusted the seatback, found that he could fit under the seat. He was thoroughly engaged. I couldn’t help thinking, “How much of this behavior, this intrepid exploration of the environment, innovative manipulation of existing stuff, absorbed contemplation of each discovery, will remain in this boy when he is 17 finishing high school?” There are so many young people who are turned off and dropping out of society. Is it possible that the way we educate our kids is preventing them from truly learning? What is the difference between a rich learning environment and what is happening in our schools? Here are some ideas on the subject:
•Freedom to play: Play is the suspension of rules; trying stuff out just for fun. It is self-generated and creative experimentation. The learning is built into the activity. Today’s kids have very little time for play and rules are constantly imposed on them. Even commercial toys come with a script from popular culture. Most scientists love science because it gives them license to play as adults. Love of play is a childlike trait that remains with creative people.
•Dancing with mystery: Children ask a lot of questions. Sometimes they ask to get the answer because they are curious; sometimes they ask to verify the answer in their heads; sometimes they ask to get adult attention. Adults give answers to make sure the child knows it because it might be on a test; to satisfy the child so that they stop pestering them; it’s quicker and easier than challenging the child to research the answer; they don’t know how to transform a child’s question into a true teachable moment. Many people find not-knowing answers to questions unsettling. But patience can be taught by making a child research and work and wait for answers. That doesn’t happen often enough. Answers can all too often shut down the inquiry and limit curiosity.
•Motivation: The desire to be able to do something—motivation—is the key to learning. An example is in the movie The Karate Kid, where Daniel, a child who had been bullied, wants to learn karate. Mr. Miyagi, a karate master, will teach him only if Daniel promises to do exactly as he says. So Daniel spends hours polishing Mr. Miyagi’s car and unknowingly practicing the rapid clockwise and counter-clockwise hand motions key to mastering the sport. Don Shula, the fabled coach of the Dallas Cowboys defines a coach as, “Someone who makes you do what you don’t want to do so you can be who you want to be.”
•Empowerment: In a very deep way children know how dependent they are on adults. The job of parenting and teaching is to empower children to become independent, in other words, to make their job obsolete. Children revel in being able to do things “all by myself.” They are empowered when they know something that adults don’t know, like the names of dinosaurs. For the child who has been read to and understands that books contain something valuable, reading is a coveted skill that will empower independent access to books. I vividly recall being four years old and wanting nothing more than to be able to read everything I saw. My parents had read to me a great deal, but never as much as I wanted. I couldn’t wait to be able to read everything I saw so that I would not need them to access the world of books.
•Acknowledgement: Children depend on the recognition of adults for their accomplishments. This is especially true early in the learning curve. But I wonder if we praise too much and keep children from experiencing the intrinsic rewards of perseverance, hard work, and the production of excellence. According to Daniel Pink, in his best--selling book Drive, the Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, typical external rewards such as recognition, grades and avoidance of failure are not as strong as the intrinsic rewards of the behavior that produces excellent work. Top scholars, athletes, writers and artists ultimately reach a level where acknowledgment by others is icing on the cake—it is not what drives them to achieve. In fact, over-praising can have the opposite effect. Depending on constant acknowledgement of others for every step on the learning curve ultimately sets the bar too low.
Amateurs are people who love what they do for its intrinsic joy. Professionals are paid for excellence (sometimes exorbitantly well) but they would probably do it anyhow. It is up to us educators to revel in children’s amateur status and nurture and foster their intrinsic joy of learning.
For the past two years, I’ve been working on a very innovative project, and it has taken me a while to find a way to get others to share my vision. I’ve been on a very steep learning curve, but learn I have! What stops many people from truly listening to innovators is what they already know is true. They tend to confront a new idea with all kinds of arguments about why it won’t work. They cannot see beyond their own experiences and beliefs to entertain possibilities that challenge the imagination. I think I’ve finally figured out how to present my idea so others get it. This is an experiment; I’m going to share my outside-the-box thinking with you.
Here are the questions I’m asking:
• What would happen to the learning environment of your school if your teachers and award-winning children’s nonfiction authors collaborated in a large-scale project where everyone was involved in sharing knowledge and skills?
• Is the love of learning—the passion that drives us children’s nonfiction authors--contagious? Can you catch it from us? Because lifelong learning is who we are and what we do.
• What happens to student literacy when the core reading material is children’s nonfiction literature? Our books are normally considered “enrichment” and relegated to a secondary role in student learning, if not completely ignored in most classrooms, although they more than meet national educational standards. Suppose that they become the intellectual meal rather than a sometime dessert? Can you imagine it?
• How could personal contact with the award-winning authors of the books enhance the professional development of your teachers in both literacy skills (writing) and knowledge of content?
• How can these questions be addressed in a way that is affordable for a school and yet compensates authors (who have no salary or benefits) for their time and expertise?
Ink Think Tank has a group, Authors on Call of nine award-winning nonfiction authors and two consultants, one in literacy and one in children’s nonfiction literature. We are pioneering a way to work with schools via interactive videoconferencing (ivc). Let me describe how a partnership with an elementary K-5 school with about 500 students would work. Please note that this is just an example that can be modified to fit your school:
• Your school would select one title from each author that fits into your scope and sequence in science, social studies and math. The authors can help with the selection. They can also show how the selected books fit into the scope and sequence of your language arts program.
Alexandra Siy (natural science, animals, technology)
Andrea Warren (history—major world events from the point of view of the children who lived through them)
• Your school would order 100 books of each title one for each author, about 3 classroom sets.
• Your school would assign the books to the appropriate teachers who would read the book (s).
• Just prior to teaching a book, the teachers would meet for an hour via interactive videoconferencing (ivc) with its author for a brain-storming session on classroom strategies for teaching that particular book including tips on researching and writing.
• INK would establish a wiki for the project with your school. Each author would have a page on a wiki to answer teacher questions on an on-going basis for the duration of the use of the book. Teachers could also use the wiki to blog about their experiences.
• After the students finish studying the book, they would meet face-to-face with the author via ivc for questions and answers. In order to keep the groups small, this would be three 20 minute periods or four 15 minute periods.
• In addition, the teachers would attend an ivc with Dr Myra Zarnowski, a professor of children’s literature at Queens College, CUNY author of Making Sense of History and one with literacy advocate Angela Maiers, author of The Passion-Driven Classroom.
To sum up, the package would include about three classroom sets for each title (9); 11 hours of just-in-time professional development, and nine hours of interaction with children. The wiki created by the authors and teachers would be a permanent record of the insights developed during the course of the program. The total investment is $45-50 per child, no more than $25,000 for a school of 500 students, with the books and the knowldege available for years to come.
I believe that this program will generate unprecedented excitement and a culture of learning in your school. Teachers and students will love the writing projects that come out of interacting with real authors. I also believe that reading terrific nonfiction will have a
significant effect on test scores. Don’t forget, it is our booksthat are excerpted on the assessment tests. There is grant money available in technology (interactive videoconferences), in professional development, and in literacy.
Think about it. And contact me if you’re interested in knowing more. My email address is: Vicki@inkthinktank.com. I’d love to hear from you.
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Ever since 1972, when HarperCollins first published "Science Experiments
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has become her trademark for getting kids involved in experiences that
create real learning. Now, almost 90 books later, you can see kids...Read More
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