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Sean McHugh

How Spelling Keeps Kids From Learning - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...385291

spelling

shared by Sean McHugh on 04 Aug 17 - No Cached
  • It’s like making children from around the world complete an obstacle course to fully participate in society but requiring the English-speaking participants to wear blindfolds
  • Unlike many other languages, English spelling was never reformed to eliminate the incongruities. In a sense, English speakers now talk in one language but write a different one
  • By contrast, languages such as Finnish and Korean have very regular spelling systems; rules govern the way words are written, with few exceptions. Finnish also has the added bonus of a nearly one-to-one correspondence between sounds and letters, meaning fewer rules to learn. So after Finnish children learn their alphabet, learning to read is pretty straightforward—they can read well within three months of starting formal learning, Bell says. And it’s not just Finnish- and Korean-speaking children who are at a significant advantage: A 2003 study found that English-speaking children typically needed about three years to master the basics of reading and writing, whereas their counterparts in most European countries needed a year or less.
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  • Schools have consequently endeavored to teach children how to read and write at younger and younger ages, but Bell says that’s problematic because children mature and learn at very different rates. It also steals time away from more developmentally appropriate activities for young children.
Keri-Lee Beasley

YouTube - Dot Dot Dot (Official Video HD) - 1 views

www.youtube.com/watch

youtube video technology literacy spelling

shared by Keri-Lee Beasley on 25 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Keri-Lee Beasley on 25 Mar 11
     
    Fantastically funny kinetic typography example showing why spelling matters. I love it.
Katie Day

Jonah Lehrer on Buildings, Health and Creativity | Head Case - WSJ.com - 0 views

online.wsj.com/...3778104576287121392285518.html

space design psychology architecture learning thinking article

shared by Katie Day on 01 May 11 - No Cached
  • Katie Day on 01 May 11
     
    Article re how the color and shape of rooms affects the thinking that goes on inside the rooms... "They tested 600 subjects when surrounded by red, blue or neutral colors-in both real and virtual environments. The differences were striking. Test-takers in the red environments, were much better at skills that required accuracy and attention to detail, such as catching spelling mistakes or keeping random numbers in short-term memory. Though people in the blue group performed worse on short-term memory tasks, they did far better on tasks requiring some imagination, such as coming up with creative uses for a brick or designing a children's toy. In fact, subjects in the blue environment generated twice as many "creative outputs" as subjects in the red one. Why? According to the scientists, the color blue automatically triggers associations with openness and sky, while red makes us think of danger and stop signs. (Such associations are culturally mediated, of course; Chinese, for instance, tend to associate red with prosperity and good luck.) It's not just color. A similar effect seems to hold for any light, airy space."
Sean McHugh

Learning Through Reflection - 1 views

www.ascd.org/...arning-Through-Reflection.aspx

reflection learning self-assessment

shared by Sean McHugh on 31 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • A defining condition of being human is that we have to understand the meaning of our experience
  • we want students to get into the habit of linking and constructing meaning from their experiences. Such work requires reflection
  • Reflection has many facets. For example, reflecting on work enhances its meaning. Reflecting on experiences encourages insight and complex learning. We foster our own growth when we control our learning, so some reflection is best done alone. Reflection is also enhanced, however, when we ponder our learning with others.
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  • Reflective teachers help students understand that the students will now look back rather than move forward. They will take a break from what they have been doing, step away from their work, and ask themselves, "What have I (or we) learned from doing this activity?"
  • The teacher helps each student monitor individual progress, construct meaning from the content learned and from the process of learning it,
  • Teachers who promote reflective classrooms ensure that students are fully engaged in the process of making meaning.
  • in written and oral form
  • To be reflective means to mentally wander through where we have been and to try to make some sense out of it.
  • and journals
  • Habits of Mind
  • ask students to reread their journals, comparing what they knew at the beginning of a learning sequence with what they know now. Ask them to select significant learnings, envision how they could apply these learnings to future situations
  • the quality of students' reflections changes as children develop their reading and writing skills. When kindergartners were asked to reflect orally, they gave rich descriptions of their work. But as they developed their writing ability and were encouraged to write their own reflections, the reflections became less descriptive. This change puzzled the teachers until they realized that students are more concerned about spelling, punctuation, and other aspects of editing when they first learn to write. Because students do not have a great deal of fluency with their writing, they are more limited in what they describe. In contrast, when meeting with the teacher, the kindergartners elaborated on what they wrote about their work. And once students became more fluent with their writing skills, they were able to represent their reflective thoughts more easily.
  • stereotypical comments such as "This was fun!" or "I chose this piece of work because it is my best." Teachers realized that they needed to spend time teaching students how to reflect. They asked students, "What does a reflection look like when it really tells you something about the experience?"
  • Reflection was not a time for testimonials about how good or bad the experience was. Instead, reflection was the time to consider what was learned from the experience.
  • Students might collect work throughout the year as part of a portfolio process. Every quarter they can review the work in their collection folders and choose one or two pieces to enter into their portfolio. When they make those choices, they can take the opportunity to reflect on the reasons for their choices and to set goals for their next quarter's work.
  • superficial to in-depth reflections. Indicators of in-depth reflections include making specific reference to the learning event, providing examples and elaboration, making connections to other learning, and discussing modifications based on insights from this experience.
  • Sentence Stems Sentence stems can stimulate reflections. Use them in conferences (where reflection can be modeled), or put them on a sheet for students who choose writing to jump-start their reflections. Here are examples of possible sentence stems: I selected this piece of writing because … What really surprised me about this piece of writing was … When I look at my other pieces of writing, this piece is different because … What makes this piece of writing strong is my use of … Here is one example from my writing to show you what I mean. What I want to really work on to make my writing better for a reader is …
Sean McHugh

How Stephen King Teaches Writing - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...379870

grammar spelling literacy writing

shared by Sean McHugh on 16 Sep 17 - No Cached
  • One either absorbs the grammatical principles of one’s native language in conversation and in reading or one does not
  • Reading is the key, though. A kid who grows up hearing “It don’t matter to me” can only learn doesn’t if he/she reads it over and over again
  • You need to take out the stuff that’s just sitting there and doing nothing
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  • Ask yourself what they need to get on in life, the bare minimum (like filling in a job application), and concentrate on that.
    • Sean McHugh
      Sean McHugh on 16 Sep 17
       
      Surely this is true of reading as well? Maybe some students need to just focus on being 'functional' readers, like reading the instructions on a job application.
  • telling the truth is the most important thing, much more important than the grammar
  • I would often ask them to describe operations that they take for granted. Ask a girl to write a paragraph on how she braids her sister’s hair. Ask a boy to explain a sports rule. These are just basic starting points, where students learn to write on paper what they might tell a friend. It keeps it concrete. If you ask a kid to write on “My Favorite Movie,” you’re opening the door to subjectivity, and hence to a flood of clichés
  • See, then say
  • A good reader digging into a good book is wonderful. Musical
  • Reading good fiction is like making the jump from masturbation to sex
  • Good teachers can be trained, if they really want to learn (some are pretty lazy). Great teachers, like Socrates, are born
  • What about teaching? Craft, or art?King: It’s both. The best teachers are artists
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