Here's the latest I have been working through (in the case of one of them, very sloowly working through--I had to renew it three times before I finally had time to finish):
Look Me in the Eye is a book I learned about from Heidi. It's a fascinating life history of John Elder Robison. John has Asperger's Syndrome. He wrote the book, and it's the first time I have ever learned anything about Asperger's from the perspective of someone with that condition. I've had students over the years with autism in different forms, including a student this year with Asperger's. I've learned a lot from their parents and attending inservice training about autism. All of that has been helpful to a point, but it wasn't until I read this book that I really felt like I understand my students with Asperger's. The other great thing about the book, is that it's a super wild story in and of itself. John spent some time working for KISS and designed their flame and smoke guitars. He's a captivating storyteller, and his story is amazing.
The second book,
The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing, has taken me a while to read. Not because it isn't good, but because it's made me think...a lot. About my teaching, the assignments I have given, the effective/ineffectiveness of various homework items I've required over the years. I'd be interested on your take on homework. My experience has been that for the most part, I get lukewarm results at best on homework assignments. It's probably because the kids have been so burned by worthless busywork for the last 10 years that by the time they get to high school, they are done. They also have jobs and a bunch of other responsibilities that take their time after school as well. I used to assign my Sign Language students to meet once a week to practice on their own time. I found that it made the kids who didn't care lie (and not care about it), and made kids who do care lie, and feel bad about it. I try to make the things I assign as relevant and useful as possible. On some things I've gotten pretty close, and on other things I'm still revising. Anyway, an interesting read--especially if you have ever questioned the worth of the stuff your child brings home to plow through every night. According to this author, homework does more harm than good, and it hogs time in the evening that your child could be using to do things that kids do: play, read for fun, talk, make messes, etc.
Look Me in the Eye is a book I learned about from Heidi. It's a fascinating life history of John Elder Robison. John has Asperger's Syndrome. He wrote the book, and it's the first time I have ever learned anything about Asperger's from the perspective of someone with that condition. I've had students over the years with autism in different forms, including a student this year with Asperger's. I've learned a lot from their parents and attending inservice training about autism. All of that has been helpful to a point, but it wasn't until I read this book that I really felt like I understand my students with Asperger's. The other great thing about the book, is that it's a super wild story in and of itself. John spent some time working for KISS and designed their flame and smoke guitars. He's a captivating storyteller, and his story is amazing.
The second book, The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing, has taken me a while to read. Not because it isn't good, but because it's made me think...a lot. About my teaching, the assignments I have given, the effective/ineffectiveness of various homework items I've required over the years. I'd be interested on your take on homework. My experience has been that for the most part, I get lukewarm results at best on homework assignments. It's probably because the kids have been so burned by worthless busywork for the last 10 years that by the time they get to high school, they are done. They also have jobs and a bunch of other responsibilities that take their time after school as well. I used to assign my Sign Language students to meet once a week to practice on their own time. I found that it made the kids who didn't care lie (and not care about it), and made kids who do care lie, and feel bad about it. I try to make the things I assign as relevant and useful as possible. On some things I've gotten pretty close, and on other things I'm still revising. Anyway, an interesting read--especially if you have ever questioned the worth of the stuff your child brings home to plow through every night. According to this author, homework does more harm than good, and it hogs time in the evening that your child could be using to do things that kids do: play, read for fun, talk, make messes, etc.
4 comments:
You always seem to find interesting books to read; I read part of The Omnivore's Dilemma at your suggestion (I didn't get through it and forgot to renew it at the library so I had to return it).
As far as homework goes, I'm sort of against it for younger kids (definitely against it for grade school, a little against it for middle school). My math teacher in seventh grade would always get annoyed with me because I was getting a 'B' in his class when I could have an 'A' if only I did the assignments (I still got 'A's on the tests, which proved to me his homework was unnecessary). Now that I'm in college, though, I find homework helpful. My Chem prof. gives us homework disguised as quizzes which makes it more likely that students will do it, I think. My Stats prof. makes the homework optional, but I'd be completely lost if I didn't do it.
I have all kinds of opinions about homework--not as an educator, but as a learner and as a parent of elementary-school kids. It boils down to two words: Be judicious. Our 8-yr.-old has too much time-wasting homework. Some has been a helpful learning aid (maybe 30%), but most has not. Certain things need to be learned/worked on individually, but I think teachers should be cautious and really question whether they are doing just so much valuable stuff during class that even more stuff needs to be done outside of class. If the teacher honestly thinks the homework is necessary and valuable, the first question asked should be "Is this more valuable than the activities I'm doing during class time?" Followed by "If this is more valuable, can I then substitute this work for some of the less-valuable class time work?" Then you turn the activity into _school_ work rather than _home_ work.
The issue is obviously much more complex than that, but I really question whether some homework is really a valuable learning tool. My favorite example is the diorama. What is the excuse for this time-waster? Some professor got in their head that educators need to reach out to kinisthetic learners probably. In this case I don't care what your preferred learning modality is. Making a teepee out of toothpicks and gluing it in a shoebox has never helped anyone learn anything more about Native American culture. This is just ridiculous.
I think my ultimate vision of what good education should be is teaching people how to access knowledge. By the time I was through college I had learned how to learn. I feel confident that if I wanted to learn about music theory, statistics, language, or any number of other subjects, I could identify appropriate texts, read them, work problem sets, and effectively add to my own knowledge base. Some areas benefit greatly by having a tutor/mentor/teacher. For example, I might learn english grammar from a textbook, but I will have a difficult time learning to write well without feedback from a teacher. For many subjects though, you can learn a lot yourself if only someone has taught you to learn. To me, that is the most noble aspiration of teaching.
Amen to what Alan said. Ethan's homework is random and unpredictable. His teacher told us that she wants to challenge him more than the other kids at the last PT conferences, so that consists of occasionally throwing a worksheet into his homework stack that is WAY beyond his level of ability. He had one a couple weeks ago that too both of us together more than 30 minutes. But the next sheet in the packet was so simple that it took him about 90 seconds...in my opinion, most of his homework is purely worthless busywork, drudgery that we have to slog through that I don't think teaches him much of anything. Word search, anyone?
Glad you liked the book about Aspies - I thought it was totally fascinating. Just have to get past his colorful way of expressing himself.
Interesting--you bring up some of the same points that the author does in the homework book. The big thing he pushes at the end of his book, is to (respectfully) complain and organize an effort if needed to confront the issue. We are used to doing what we are told, and sometimes that isn't the best response.
I think you are exactly right, Alan, about the goal of education. Right after I graduated from college, I had a moment when I thought, "Hey, wait a second. What DID I learn from all of this?" I had learned a lot of stuff, but I didn't know if I could name every last teaching method or author I had read. It was then that I realized that I had learned the skills to know where to look for answers, and that I didn't need to be able to regurgitate every last fact that had flickered through my neurons during my studies.
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