In response to DawnMarie's message, I would say "Don't blame the kids!"
If teachers are setting assignments for which the responses can be completed by a
copy-and-paste,
then, in my opinion, the assignment is meaningless, time-wasting and they deserve
what they get. To
my mind, they are even lazier than the students for not taking the time to define
the purpose of the
assignment in terms of the students' learning and creating something that demands
some personal
input and higher order thinking. They need to read David Loertscher's Ban the Bird
Projects
http://www.davidvl.org/Achieve/achieve.html and Jamie McKenzie's Questioning Toolkit
http://www.questioning.org/Q7/toolkit.html then rethink the reason that
assignments are set.
The "kids as empty jugs waiting to be filled with my wisdom" theory is long
out-of-date and it is
distressing to see that so many still adhere to it. Before we set any assignment we
need to
articulate what it is we want the students to know, do, understand, appreciate and
value as a result
of doing the work. We need to respect that their time is as precious as our own
and not waste it
for them. It is my experience and observation that the most successful students
(and I don't
determine success by a string of straight As) are those most engaged. (Last year I
was thrilled to
see three students who had started school in the special needs learning centre
graduate from a
regular classroom - that's success!)
We all get out what we put in, but if we are asked for minimum, it's a rare bird
who offers maximum.
If today's global situation is a result of the education system of 20 years ago,
then we need to
change things pretty smartly so this doesn't happen 20 years from now.
Barbara
(who appreciated all the positive comments she got about yesterday's message but
may have to go into
hiding after this one :>})
Barbara Braxton
Teacher Librarian
COOMA NSW 2630
AUSTRALIA
E. barbara.288@bigpond.com
Together we learn from each other
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