Like Johnston,
Gail Tompkins advocates for the creation of a community of learners
in the classroom. In Literacy for the 21st Century: A Balanced
Approach Tompkins (2009, p. 17)
describes the characteristics of a community of learners environment:
Responsibility - Teachers set guidelines and expect students
to be responsible. They also model responsible behavior. Students
assume responsibility for their learning and behavior in the
classroom.
Opportunities -Teachers provide opportunities for students to
read and write in genuine and meaningful activities. Students
actively participate in activities, for example, reading
independently and sharing their writing with classmates.
Engagement - Teachers nurture students’ engagement through
authentic activities and opportunities to work with classmates.
Students become more engaged in literacy activities and spend more
time reading and writing.
Demonstration - Teachers model what good readers and writers
do using think-alouds to explain their thinking. Students carefully
observe teachers’ demonstrations and then practice by modeling
their thinking for classmates.
Risk Taking - Teachers encourage students to take risks while
exploring a new idea and de-emphasize the need to always get things
“right.” Students understand that learning is a process of taking
risks and exploring ideas.
Instruction -Teachers provide explicit instruction through
mini-lessons and provide opportunities for guided practice. Students
participate in mini-lessons and apply what they’re learning in
literacy activities.
Response - Teachers provide opportunities for students to
respond to books they’re reading and to classmates’ writing.
Students respond to books in reading logs and grand conversations and
listen attentively to classmates share their writing.
Choice - Teachers offer choices because they understand that
students are more motivated when they can make choices. Students make
choices about some books they read, projects they create, and
compositions they write.
Time - Teachers organize the schedule with large chunks of
time for reading and writing. Students understand the classroom
schedule and complete assignments when they’re due.
Assessment
-Teachers monitor students’ learning and set guidelines about how
students will be graded. Students understand how they will be
assessed and often participate in self-assessment.
For the past year,
I've had the honor of visiting two third-grade classrooms with two
teachers who worked hard to create a community of learners with their
students and I want to share a story of the students' view of this
type of classroom.
To help students
practice listening to each other and speak to and build off of each
other's ideas, the teachers provided sentence starters to help the
students develop the language of connecting ideas. The rules of
engagement for this particular discussion was that everyone had to
speak once before anyone could speak a second time and that the
comment had to connect to another student's comment (agree, disagree,
add to etc). After this especially intense discussion that included
both third grade classes, the teachers asked the students to think
about the process and reasons for having discussions. As scribes,
the teachers captured the thinking of the students on a chart. The
students said:
Growing Our Thinking Together
- Our thinking grows like a balloon with each comment from a friend
- It gives us confidence
- We capture other people's thinking
- We build on what others say, like knots in a rope (they had studied Quipus (talking knots) of Peru)
We cooperate, listen and ask for
clarification- We restate our ideas
- Everyone contributes
- We yield to each other
- Let less talkative people go first
- Person with relevant information goes first (valuable)
- Let the person who is responding to another go first
This metaphor, of
growing our thinking together like a balloon, carried over for the
rest of the year. If a student derailed a conversation, it was
called “popping the balloon.” It was so powerful to hear the
students recognize the power their own language had on others.
Like many others
have said, I will need to re-read Opening Minds to really let the
ideas simmer. It is my goal this school year to create a community
of learners in my classroom where I learn along with my students and
honor the contributions they provide.
If you would like
to join the conversation about Peter Johnston's book Opening Minds:Using Language to Change Lives, check out #CyberPD on Twitter, or
this week's host, Carol, at Carol's Corner.
